Patent ID: 8692844

Claim:
A method for rendering a plurality of pixels, the method comprising: providing a respective storage area in a computer memory for each of the plurality of pixels, wherein each respective storage area comprises a substantially equal allocation of memory, and wherein further each respective storage area comprises a color buffer, a primary buffer, and a secondary buffer, wherein each primary buffer has smaller capacity than a corresponding secondary buffer; providing a plurality of format levels for a respective pixel of the plurality of pixels, the plurality of format levels comprising: a first format level to store one fragment in a corresponding primary buffer; a second format level to store two fragments in the corresponding primary buffer and a corresponding secondary buffer; and a third format level to store a plurality of discrete sample points of the respective pixel in the corresponding primary buffer and the secondary buffer, wherein fragments or discrete sample points in different format levels are stored in different formats, wherein each color buffer stores a comprehensive color value of a surface visible at a corresponding pixel, and wherein each primary buffer comprises a format flag indicating a format level currently used for a corresponding pixel.