Abstract: An object description language and a system in which the language is utilized is provided. The language describes the elements and structure of another programming language. It allows more information to be expressed by a developer than can be expressed in other programming languages. In addition to describing how objects interface with each other, the object description language of the present invention captures thc structure of objects. The object description language can also contain information pertaining to memory management and scheduling. A system in which the language is utilized is also provided. The system assists the developer with code development. The system includes a compiler for the object description language, a compiler for the programming language being described, a separator, and a combiner. The components of the system work together to produce object code that is then executed on an applications platform.

Abstract: The invention described herein is a system, method, and computer program product for optimization of a scene graph. The system includes an optimization base that contains a set of specific atomic optimizations. The system also includes an optimization registry that lists each atomic optimization, parameters associated with each optimization, and priority information relating to the necessary order in which optimizations must be performed. The system also includes an optimization manager which creates, configures, and applies an optimization process to an input scene graph. The system further includes an optimization configuration module for accepting user input to the optimization process. The method includes the steps of receiving an input scene graph, creating the optimization process, applying the optimization process to the input scene graph, and post-optimization processing.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product are provided for visibility culling of terrain. A height field is perspective modulated. An occlusion height field is generated based on an orthographic height propagation of the perspective modulated height field. Graphics data is culled based on the generated occlusion height field. Texturing and blending operations can be used to accelerate the perspective modulation. A perspective modulation disk is used to modulate the first height field along radial slices from a viewpoint. Texture from a one-dimensional texture with distance values is mapped to the radial slices to obtain the perspective modulated height field. Generating an occlusion height field can also be carried out using texturing and blending and can be hardware-accelerated. According to a further feature, a shift disk or shift texture is used.

Abstract: A memory management system provides microcode instructions that are divided into multiple tuned phases and stored as separate modules inside a phase code depository. A microcode manager, containing a mode detector, sequence identifier, code loader, drawing data processor and phase executor, interacts with a microcode processor and the phase code depository. The mode detector evaluates a user request for a desired mode. In response to a command from the mode detector, the sequence identifier selects a correct phase sequence that is needed to implement the desired mode. The code loader transfers the phase sequence from the phase code depository to the microcode processor where it is stored in a microcode instruction memory. The memory address for each module within the phase sequence is written to a microcode data memory.