Patent ID: 7301537

Claim:
A graphics processing method, comprising: defining a plurality of rows of tiles in a graphics display field comprising a plurality of rows of pixels, each tile including pixels from at least two rows of pixels; setting occlusion flags for respective tiles of a row of tiles for a graphics primitive based on whether respective representative depth values for the tiles of the row of tiles meet an occlusion criterion; processing pixels in rows of pixels corresponding to the row of tiles for the graphics primitive in a row-by-row manner responsive to the occlusion flags, wherein the step of processing pixels includes: processing a portion of the pixels in a first tile of the row of tiles responsive to the occlusion flags; and depending on the geometry of the primitive, processing pixels in a second tile of the row of tiles responsive to the occlusion flags and then returning to the first tile to process additional pixels in the first tile responsive to the occlusion flags; wherein the occlusion flags are stored in a tile occlusion information cache that is configured to store respective occlusion flags for respective tiles of a row of tiles and respective occlusion threshold depth values for the respective tiles of the row of tiles, and wherein the step of setting occlusion flags includes: determining a maximum depth value for the graphics primitive within a tile; comparing the maximum depth value to the cached occlusion threshold depth value for the tile in the tile occlusion information cache; and setting the occlusion flag for the tile responsive to the comparison; and utilizing results of the graphics processing to display enhanced graphics on an electronic display.