Abstract: In general, this disclosure relates to techniques for providing a visual representation of a graphical scene that includes a number of different graphical partitions, which may allow a user to identify portions of the graphics scene that exhibit reduced performance due to costs associated with screen partitioning. One example device includes a display device and one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to display one or more graphics images in a graphical scene on the display device, display a graphical representation of partitions that overlay the one or more graphics images and that graphically divide the scene on the display device, and analyze graphics data for the one or more graphics images to determine which portions of the graphics data are associated with multiple ones of the partitions.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for rendering gaseous volumetric objects scenes using an alpha channel. In one described implementation, the method determines a distance between a user to boundaries of a gaseous volume and then stores the distance in an alpha channel to arrive at an alpha value. Then the alpha value can be used as a factor assist in blending scene colors with gaseous colors to render virtually realistic pixels for the gaseous object from the perspective of a user's view of the object. The resulting scenes can then be used to simulate patchy fog, clouds, or other gases of more or less constant density and color.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for early occlusion culling are provided. For the method of the present invention, a host processor establishes a coarse Z-buffer. The coarse Z-buffer is divided into a series of tiles. Each tile has an associated depth value. The depth values are updated using information fed back from the Z-buffer. The host processor uses the depth values to selectively discard occluded objects before they are rendered.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product are provided for texture tiling with adjacent information. Adjacency information is supplied for one or more potential tiling directions. In one example, adjacency information is supplied for eight potential tiling directions radiating in eight different directions relative to an original texture image. In another example, adjacency information is supplied for three potential tiling directions. The present invention provides a solution that allows the specification of a texture image as a border to another for texture tiling purposes. This means that when texture addressing extends beyond the region within a texture map another texture image is addressed. During texture processing, in mapping a graphics primitive to adjacent border textures, two steps are carried out. The first step evaluates texture coordinate values to determine when texture coordinates are outside a range of a base texture image being texture mapped.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving the quality of images that include aliased pixels is provided. For the method of the present invention, one or more portions of an image are selected for antialiasing. Each selected portion is rendered at a higher than normal resolution into a frame buffer and then read back into as a texture in to a cache or other memory. The texture is then filtered back to its original size. The filtering operation supersamples the texture. The resulting texture is antialiased and anisotropic to a degree that matches the resize. The antialiased texture is then applied to a quadrilateral in the frame buffer.

Abstract: A method for implementing edge blending between a first and second video frame to create a seamless multichannel display system. The method is implemented in a graphics computer system including a processor coupled to a memory via a bus. Within the computer system, a first video frame is rendered for display on a first video channel. A second video frame is rendered for display on a second channel. A first overlap region is rendered onto the first frame to obtain a first blended video frame. A second overlap region is blended onto the second frame to obtain a second blended video frame. The first blended video frame from the first channel and the second blended video frame from the second channel are then combined such that the first overlap region and the second overlap region correspond, thereby forming a seamless junction between the first blended frame and the second blended frame and implementing a high fidelity multichannel display.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for efficiently managing texture memory in computer graphics systems is provided. Texture images are stored in discrete memory-aligned tiles to avoid fragmentation in the texture memory. Larger texture images are divided up into smaller tiles so that they will fit in any available tile region in texture memory. Small texture images usually fit into a single tile and therefore do not usually have to be divided up. Texture images that are larger than a tile region are split up into tile-sized images that are stored individually in any available tile region of texture memory. By dividing up the larger texture images this way, the texture memory is used more efficiently because any gaps that appear in the texture memory due to fragmentation may be filled by the tile-sized images.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for efficiently managing texture memory in computer graphics systems is provided. Texture images are stored in discrete memory-aligned tiles to avoid fragmentation in the texture memory. Larger texture images are divided up into smaller tiles so that they will fit in any available tile region in texture memory. Small texture images usually fit into a single tile and therefore do not usually have to be divided up. Texture images that are larger than a tile region are split up into tile-sized images that are stored individually in any available tile region of texture memory. By dividing up the larger texture images this way, the texture memory is used more efficiently because any gaps that appear in the texture memory due to fragmentation may be filled by the tile-sized images.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product are provided for texture tiling with adjacent information. Adjacency information is supplied for one or more potential tiling directions. In one example, adjacency information is supplied for eight potential tiling directions radiating in eight different directions relative to an original texture image. In another example, adjacency information is supplied for three potential tiling directions. The present invention provides a solution that allows the specification of a texture image as a border to another for texture tiling purposes. This means that when texture addressing extends beyond the region within a texture map another texture image is addressed. During texture processing, in mapping a graphics primitive to adjacent border textures, two steps are carried out. The first step evaluates texture coordinate values to determine when texture coordinates are outside a range of a base texture image being texture mapped.