Patent ID: 8081181

Claim:
A rendering system, comprising: memory for storing fragments of pixels in a fragment buffer; a counts component for counting all fragments that visibly affect each pixel of a plurality of pixels of a scene which are rendered during a count pass of the scene and storing fragment count data for each pixel of the plurality of pixels of the scene; a summing component for computing prefix sums for the plurality of pixels of the scene based on the fragment count data to define locations in the memory for linear storage of all of the fragments that visibly affect the plurality of pixels of the scene within contiguous pixels bins of the fragment buffer, wherein: each prefix sum for a given pixel defines an index to the fragment buffer for storing all of the fragments that visibly affect the given pixel within a pixel bin for the given pixel, and the fragments that visibly affect the given pixel are rendered during a rendering pass of the scene that generates the fragments that visibly affect the plurality of pixels of the scene in an arbitrary order; and a resolver component for resolving all of the fragments that visibly affect the plurality of pixels of the scene by: accessing each pixel bin for each pixel based on the fragment count data and the prefix sum for each pixel, individually sorting each pixel bin, and resolving the fragments that visibly affect each pixel during a resolve pass of the fragment buffer.