Patent ID: 8319786

Claim:
An image processing device for displaying an image showing a picture obtained by looking at a virtual three dimensional space in which an object is placed from a given viewpoint, the image processing device comprising: a central processing unit; a pseudo-normal vector obtaining unit that obtains a pseudo-normal vector for each pixel of a texture image to be mapped onto a surface of the object; a shading process execution unit that executes a shading process for the surface of the object, based on the pseudo-normal vector; a distance obtaining unit that obtains a distance from the viewpoint to the object; and a shading process execution restraining unit that restrains execution of the shading process, based on the distance from the viewpoint, wherein the pseudo-normal vector obtaining unit obtains, from a storage that stores information correlating the distance from the viewpoint with pseudo-normal vector information for obtaining the pseudo-normal vector for each pixel of the texture image, the pseudo-normal vector information correlated to the obtained distance and obtains the pseudo-normal vector for each pixel of the texture image, based on the pseudo-normal vector information correlated to the distance, and wherein the shading process execution restraining unit determines whether or not the distance is equal to or longer than a reference distance, and in the case where the distance is equal to or longer than the reference distance, restrains execution of the shading process, and the pseudo-normal vector information is set such that, as the distance obtained becomes closer to the reference distance, an inclination angle of the pseudo-normal vector for each pixel of the texture image relative to a normal vector of the surface of the object becomes smaller.