Abstract: Motion adaptive shading increases rendering performance for real-time animation in graphics systems while maintaining dynamic image quality. Each frame of an animation is statically displayed within a refresh interval, while a viewer's eyes move continuously relative to the image when actively tracking a moving object being displayed. As a result, a statically displayed frame is essentially smeared across the viewer's continuously moving retina over the lifetime of the frame, causing a perception of blur referred to as an eye-tracking motion blur effect. A region of an image depicting a moving object may be rendered at a lower shading rate because eye-tracking motion blur will substantially mask any blur introduced by reducing the shading rate. Reducing an average shading rate for rendering frames reduces computational effort per frame and may advantageously allow a rendering system to operate at a higher frame rate to provide a smoother, clearer visual experience.

Abstract: Motion adaptive shading increases rendering performance for real-time animation in graphics systems while maintaining dynamic image quality. Each frame of an animation is statically displayed within a refresh interval, while a viewer's eyes move continuously relative to the image when actively tracking a moving object being displayed. As a result, a statically displayed frame is essentially smeared across the viewer's continuously moving retina over the lifetime of the frame, causing a perception of blur referred to as an eye-tracking motion blur effect. A region of an image depicting a moving object may be rendered at a lower shading rate because eye-tracking motion blur will substantially mask any blur introduced by reducing the shading rate. Reducing an average shading rate for rendering frames reduces computational effort per frame and may advantageously allow a rendering system to operate at a higher frame rate to provide a smoother, clearer visual experience.

Abstract: Motion adaptive shading increases rendering performance for real-time animation in graphics systems while maintaining dynamic image quality. Each frame of an animation is statically displayed within a refresh interval, while a viewer's eyes move continuously relative to the image when actively tracking a moving object being displayed. As a result, a statically displayed frame is essentially smeared across the viewer's continuously moving retina over the lifetime of the frame, causing a perception of blur referred to as an eye-tracking motion blur effect. A region of an image depicting a moving object may be rendered at a lower shading rate because eye-tracking motion blur will substantially mask any blur introduced by reducing the shading rate. Reducing an average shading rate for rendering frames reduces computational effort per frame and may advantageously allow a rendering system to operate at a higher frame rate to provide a smoother, clearer visual experience.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for reporting texture footprint information. A texture footprint identifies the portion of a texture that will be utilized in rendering a pixel in a scene. The disclosed methods and apparatuses advantageously improve system efficiency in decoupled shading systems by first identifying which texels in a given texture map are needed for subsequently rendering a scene. Therefore, the number of texels that are generated and stored may be reduced to include the identified texels. Texels that are not identified need not be rendered and/or stored.

Abstract: Motion adaptive shading increases rendering performance for real-time animation in graphics systems while maintaining dynamic image quality. Each frame of an animation is statically displayed within a refresh interval, while a viewer's eyes move continuously relative to the image when actively tracking a moving object being displayed. As a result, a statically displayed frame is essentially smeared across the viewer's continuously moving retina over the lifetime of the frame, causing a perception of blur referred to as an eye-tracking motion blur effect. A region of an image depicting a moving object may be rendered at a lower shading rate because eye-tracking motion blur will substantially mask any blur introduced by reducing the shading rate. Reducing an average shading rate for rendering frames reduces computational effort per frame and may advantageously allow a rendering system to operate at a higher frame rate to provide a smoother, clearer visual experience.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for reporting texture footprint information. A texture footprint identifies the portion of a texture that will be utilized in rendering a pixel in a scene. The disclosed methods and apparatuses advantageously improve system efficiency in decoupled shading systems by first identifying which texels in a given texture map are needed for subsequently rendering a scene. Therefore, the number of texels that are generated and stored may be reduced to include the identified texels. Texels that are not identified need not be rendered and/or stored.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for reporting texture footprint information. A texture footprint identifies the portion of a texture that will be utilized in rendering a pixel in a scene. The disclosed methods and apparatuses advantageously improve system efficiency in decoupled shading systems by first identifying which texels in a given texture map are needed for subsequently rendering a scene. Therefore, the number of texels that are generated and stored may be reduced to include the identified texels. Texels that are not identified need not be rendered and/or stored.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for executing processes involving at least one primitive in a graphics processor, utilizing a data structure. In operation, a data structure is associated with at least one primitive. Additionally, a plurality of processes involving the at least one primitive are executed in a graphics processor, utilizing the data structure. Moreover, the plurality of processes include at least one of selecting at least one surface or portion thereof to which to render, or selecting at least one of a plurality of viewports.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for adjusting vertex positions. One or more viewport dimensions are received and a snap spacing is determined based on the one or more viewport dimensions. The vertex positions are adjusted to a grid according to the snap spacing. The precision of the vertex adjustment may increase as at least one dimension of the viewport decreases. The precision of the vertex adjustment may decrease as at least one dimension of the viewport increases.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conservative rasterization of primitives using an error term. In use, an edge equation is determined for each edge of a primitive, the edge equation having coefficients defining the edge of the primitive. Each edge of the primitive is shifted to enlarge the primitive by modifying coefficients of the edge equation defining the edge by an error term that is a predetermined amount. Pixels that intersect the primitive are then determined using the enlarged primitive.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for adjusting vertex positions. One or more viewport dimensions are received and a snap spacing is determined based on the one or more viewport dimensions. The vertex positions are adjusted to a grid according to the snap spacing. The precision of the vertex adjustment may increase as at least one dimension of the viewport decreases. The precision of the vertex adjustment may decrease as at least one dimension of the viewport increases.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for adjusting vertex positions. One or more viewport dimensions are received and a snap spacing is determined based on the one or more viewport dimensions. The vertex positions are adjusted to a grid according to the snap spacing. The precision of the vertex adjustment may increase as at least one dimension of the viewport decreases. The precision of the vertex adjustment may decrease as at least one dimension of the viewport increases.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for anti-aliasing. During a first processing pass of a plurality of graphics primitives, z data is computed for multiple samples of each pixel in an image to generate a multi-sample z buffer. During a second processing pass of the graphics primitives, computed color values corresponding to each pixel in a color buffer that stores one color value for each pixel are accumulated.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for multi-sample processing. The multi-sample pixel data is received and is analyzed to identify subsets of samples of a multi-sample pixel that have equal data, such that data for one sample in a subset represents multi-sample pixel data for all samples in the subset. An encoding state is generated that indicates which samples of the multi-sample pixel are included in each one of the subsets.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for multi-sample processing. The multi-sample pixel data is received and an encoding state associated with the multi-sample pixel data is determined. Data for one sample of a multi-sample pixel and the encoding state are provided to a processing unit. The one sample of the multi-sample pixel is processed by the processing unit to generate processed data for the one sample that represents processed multi-sample pixel data for all samples of the multi-sample pixel or two or more samples of the multi-sample pixel.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for adjusting vertex positions. One or more viewport dimensions are received and a snap spacing is determined based on the one or more viewport dimensions. The vertex positions are adjusted to a grid according to the snap spacing. The precision of the vertex adjustment may increase as at least one dimension of the viewport decreases. The precision of the vertex adjustment may decrease as at least one dimension of the viewport increases.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for multi-sample processing. The multi-sample pixel data is received and is analyzed to identify subsets of samples of a multi-sample pixel that have equal data, such that data for one sample in a subset represents multi-sample pixel data for all samples in the subset. An encoding state is generated that indicates which samples of the multi-sample pixel are included in each one of the subsets.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conservative rasterization of primitives using an error term. In use, an edge equation is determined for each edge of a primitive, the edge equation having coefficients defining the edge of the primitive. Each edge of the primitive is shifted to enlarge the primitive by modifying coefficients of the edge equation defining the edge by an error term that is a predetermined amount. Pixels that intersect the primitive are then determined using the enlarged primitive.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for executing processes involving at least one primitive in a graphics processor, utilizing a data structure. In operation, a data structure is associated with at least one primitive. Additionally, a plurality of processes involving the at least one primitive are executed in a graphics processor, utilizing the data structure. Moreover, the plurality of processes include at least one of selecting at least one surface or portion thereof to which to render, or selecting at least one of a plurality of viewports.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for multi-sample processing. The multi-sample pixel data is received and an encoding state associated with the multi-sample pixel data is determined. Data for one sample of a multi-sample pixel and the encoding state are provided to a processing unit. The one sample of the multi-sample pixel is processed by the processing unit to generate processed data for the one sample that represents processed multi-sample pixel data for all samples of the multi-sample pixel or two or more samples of the multi-sample pixel.