Abstract: Ray trees are evaluated to render an image in a computer graphic program with a shaded object by launching rays from an object to be shaded in a scene. The rays intersect other objects in the scene at hit points. The hit points that can be shaded by the same shader program are assigned to the same computational group referred to as a shading grid. The hit points in the same shading grid are evaluated by operators in the shader program as a group. The image may then be rendered using the evaluated hit points.

Abstract: Programmable or user-defined visibility functions can be defined to achieve rendering effects and eliminate rendering errors. A renderer traverses the set of geometry samples potentially visible to an image sample. Rather than accumulate opacity and color in strict depth order, the renderer can invoke visibility functions associated with some or all of the geometry samples. Each geometry sample's visibility function can access attributes of any other geometry sample associated with the image sample. Furthermore, each geometry sample's visibility function can identify the position of its associated geometry sample and any other geometry samples in the depth sequence of geometry samples associated with an image sample. A visibility function can return any arbitrary value based on attributes of its associated geometry sample, attributes of other geometry samples associated with the image sample, and/or the position of geometry samples in the depth sequence associated with the image sample.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering a plurality of objects. The method includes receiving ray differential information associated with a ray, determining a first ray differential based on at least information associated with the ray and a first surface patch, processing information associated with the first ray differential and the first surface patch, determining a first resolution based on at least information associated with the first ray differential and the first surface patch, and selecting a second resolution from the plurality of predetermined resolutions. Additionally, the method includes obtaining a first geometry representation associated with the second resolution.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering a plurality of objects. The method includes receiving ray differential information associated with a ray, determining a first ray differential based on at least information associated with the ray and a first surface patch, and determining a first resolution based on at least information associated with the first ray differential and the first surface patch. Additionally, the method includes obtaining a first geometry representation based on at least information associated with the first surface patch and the first resolution, and obtaining a second geometry representation associated with a second surface patch tessellated at a second resolution. Moreover, the method includes determining whether there is at least one patch crack between the first geometry representation and the second geometry representation, and if there is the at least one patch crack, performing a stitching process to the first geometry representation and the second geometry representation.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering a plurality of objects. The method includes receiving ray differential information associated with a ray, determining a first resolution associated with a first surface patch based on at least information associated with the ray and the first surface patch, processing information associated with the first resolution and a database, and determining whether a first geometry representation associated with the first surface patch tessellated at the first resolution is present in the database. The database is associated with a plurality of predetermined resolutions, and the first resolution is equal to one of the plurality of predetermined resolutions. At least one of the plurality of predetermined resolutions includes a first tessellation rate associated with a first dimension and a second tessellation rate associated with a second dimension. The first tessellation rate is different from the second tessellation rate.