51 results about "3D computer graphics" patented technology

An automated method of rapidly producing customized 3D graphics images in which various user images and video are merged into 3D computer graphics scenes, producing hybrid images that appear to have been created by a computationally intensive 3D rendering process, but which in fact have been created by a much less computationally intensive series of 2D image operations. To do this, a 3D graphics computer model is rendered into a 3D graphics image using a customized renderer designed to automatically report on some of the renderer's intermediate rendering operations, and store this intermediate data in the form of metafilm. User images and video may then be automatically combined with the metafilm, producing a 3D rendered quality final image with orders of magnitude fewer computing operations. The process can be used to inexpensively introduce user content into sophisticated images and videos suitable for many internet, advertising, cell phone, and other applications.

A display device including a camera is used by inserting it in the direction of a user's gaze. Alternatively, an image of the same area as that of a scene from a windshield of an automobile may be obtained and the image may be displayed by using an information providing apparatus installed in the automobile. A system provides information to the user by adding a two-dimensional or three-dimensional computer graphics object to an image taken by the camera. The information is directly added to a scene in the direction of the user's gaze and is displayed to the user. Thus the user can easily understand the relationship between the information and the position to which the information is added.

In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, a three-dimensional scene is reproduced on a specialized light display which offers full multiviewpoint capability and auto-stereoscopic views. The displayed image is produced using a set of M two-dimensional images of the scene collected at a set of distinct spatial locations. These M two-dimensional images are processed through a specialized mathematical encoding scheme to obtain a set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals, where K is the number of pixels in the display, and N<=M is the number of individual light-radiating elements within one pixel. The display is thus comprised of a total of NxK light-radiating elements. Each of the K pixels is adapted for control of their associated radiance patterns. The display is connected for response to the set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals. In this manner, the display provides a multiviewpoint and autostereoscopic three-dimensional image associated with the original three-dimensional scene. An alternative embodiment of the invention is utilized to provide efficient storage and display of 3D computer graphics images.

A three-dimensional scene is reproduced on a specialized light display which offers full multiviewpoint capability and autostereoscopic views. The displayed image is produced using a set of M two-dimensional images of the scene collected at a set of distinct spatial locations. These M two-dimensional images are processed through a specialized mathematical encoding scheme to obtain a set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals, where K is the number of pixels in the display, and N>=M is the number of individual light-radiating elements within one pixel. The display is thus comprised of a total of NxK light-radiating elements. Each of the K pixels is adapted for control of their associated radiance patterns. The display is connected for response to the set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals. The display provides a multiviewpoint and autostereoscopic three-dimensional image associated with the original three-dimensional scene. An alternative embodiment of the invention is utilized to provide efficient storage and display of 3D computer graphics images.

A 3-dimensional computer graphics rendering system receives object data for a scene to be rendered. This includes vertex data and index data. The scene is subdivided into priority of rectangular areas (202). Object 8 of each rectangular area in the scene is assembled (203) and subsequently compressed (207). This data can subsequently be retrieved and decompressed and used for producing a properly shaded and texted image for display.

Navigating a UAV including receiving in a remote control device a user's selection of a GUI map pixel that represents a waypoint for UAV navigation, mapping the pixel's location on the GUI to Earth coordinates of the waypoint, transmitting the coordinates of the waypoint to the UAV, reading a starting position from a GPS receiver on the UAV, and piloting the UAV, under control of a navigation computer on the UAV, from the starting position to the waypoint in accordance with a navigation algorithm. While piloting the UAV from the starting position to the waypoint, such embodiments include reading from the GPS receiver a sequence of GPS data representing a flight path of the UAV, and depicting the flight of the UAV with 3D computer graphics, including a computer graphic display of a satellite image of the Earth, in dependence upon the GPS data.

A method and apparatus are provided for rendering a 3 dimensional computer graphics image. The image is subdivided into a plurality of rectangular areas and primitives which may be visible in the image are assigned to respective ones of a plurality of primitive blocks. A determination is made as to which primitive blocks contain primitives which intersect each rectangular area. The rectangular areas are then grouped into a plurality of fixed size groups and control stream data for each of the fixed size groups is derived, this control stream data including data which determines which primitive blocks are required to render the rectangular areas in each respective first fixed size group. The control stream data is then used to render the image for display.

A compact image element encoding format selectively allocates a bit field within the format to alternately encode either multi-bit alpha resolution or increased color resolution. This encoding technique may be advantageously used to allocate encoding bits to model semi-transparency while using those same bits for other purposes (e.g., higher color resolution) in instances where semi-transparency is not required (e.g., for opaque image elements). In one advantageous embodiment, the same encoding format can provide either RGB5 or RGB4A3, on an image-element-by-image-element basis. Applications include but are not limited to texture mapping in a 3D computer graphics system such as a home video game system or a personal computer.

The present invention provides a method and system for presenting three-dimensional computer graphics images using multiple graphics processing units. The dimensions of the scene to be rendered are bounded by a rectangular volume decomposed into rectangular subvolumes. Vertices of graphics primitives are compared with subvolume boundaries to determine to which subvolume a graphics primitive should be assigned. A GPU is assigned to each subvolume to render the graphics data that lies within it. A viewing position point is determined and communicated to each GPU. Rendered graphics data from each GPU are ordered based upon the viewing position Outputs of the individual GPUs are combined by blending within an image combiners. Outputs of image combiners can be presented for viewing or further combined in a subsequent stage image combiner.

In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, a three-dimensional scene is reproduced on a specialized light display which offers full multiviewpoint capability and auto-stereoscopic views. The displayed image is produced using a set of M two-dimensional images of the scene collected at a set of distinct spatial locations. These M two-dimensional images are processed through a specialized mathematical encoding scheme to obtain a set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals, where K is the number of pixels in the display, and N<=Ed is the number of individual light-radiating elements within one pixel. The display is thus comprised of a total of NxK light-radiating elements. Each of the K pixels is adapted for control of their associated radiance patterns. The display is connected for response to the set of NxK display-excitation electrical-input signals. In this manner, the display provides a multiviewpoint and autostereoscopic three-dimensional image associated with the original three-dimensional scene. An alternative embodiment of the invention is utilized to provide efficient storage and display of 3D computer graphics images.

A method and apparatus are provided for compressing vertex parameter data in a 3D computer graphic system, where the vertex parameter data is a data block relating to a plurality of vertices used for rendering an image. The data relating to each vertex includes multiple byte data relating to at least one parameter. The parameters include X, Y and Z coordinates and further coordinates for texturing and shading. Decompression is also provided for decompressing vertex parameter data thus compressed. These are able to access randomly the compressed data, rather than having to read a stream of data.

A method and apparatus are provided for compressing depth buffer data in a three dimensional computer graphics system. The depth buffer data is divided into a plurality of rectangular tiles corresponding to rectangular areas in an associated image. The number of starting point locations in a tile are identified and a difference in depth value determined between each starting point and depth values of each of at least two further locations. Using this information depth values are predicted at a plurality of other locations in the tile and where these predicated values substantially match an actual depth value at location is assigned to a plane associated with respective starting point. Starting point location depth value difference data and plane assignment data for each tile and locations in the tile not assigned to a plane, then stored.

A method and an apparatus for shading three-dimensional computer graphic images is provided. A display on which the image is to be viewed is subdivided into a plurality of rectangular areas. For each rectangular area, a list of objects in the image which may be visible is determined, and this list is used to determine how the rectangular area should be shaded for display. In deriving the list of objects, a determination of maximum and minimum values for each object in x and y directions is used, and a set of sampling points is determined from these values. If a bounding box surrounding the object covers any of the sampling points, the object is added to the object list or otherwise rejected. Also provided is a method and an apparatus for testing an edge information for each object against the sample points to determine whether or not the object falls into the rectangular area in the bounding box surrounding the object. The step of testing the edge information includes shifting the edge information by a predetermined amount based on the orientation of each edge.

A method for processing texture mapping by biasing level of detail (LOD) according to image content includes: a texture request for fetching a target texel is received. The texture request includes a target texture coordinate at a target LOD of a target texture mipmap corresponding to the target texel. A target level of content (LOC) bias map corresponding to the target texture mipmap is looked up according to the target texture coordinate and the target LOD to fetch a target LOC bias value corresponding to the target texture coordinate at the target LOD. A replacement LOD is calculated according to the target LOD and the target LOC bias value. A replacement texel is fetched at a corresponding coordinate, which corresponds to the target texture coordinate, at the replacement LOD of the target texture mipmap. Texture filtering is processed according to the replacement texel.

Method for generating and displaying 3D graphic images on the display of a terminal device using 2D graphic environments, where every possible scene is modeled by one or more objects that can be represented by polygons using a suitable modeling method. The geometry of the polygons that correspond to each object is projected for any desired orientation of the objects, onto the plane of the display. For each object, curves connecting the projections of the vertices of its corresponding mesh of polygons in all different orientations of that object and consisting of a plurality of discrete points, is created, such that every point on each curve is stored according to its (x,y) position on the plane, and such that the resolution of each curve is determined according to the number of points. A visibility analysis is performed for every mesh that corresponds to a specific orientation, thereby determining the distance of the points from the viewer. Hidden polygons and/or edges or portions thereof are deleted and the geometry for all orientations is optimally encoded. Then 3D graphic images are displayed in the 2D environments by using the encoded geometry for reconstructing a portion of, or all, the remaining polygons and filling the remaining polygons according to predefined rules.

A system and method for providing shadow information for 3D computer graphics objects on a display for a graphic computer system are disclosed. The 3D objects are processed only once and the rendering and shadow generation information is stored in memory. In a subsequent two-dimensional pass, the shadow information is used to provide the color value at each rendered pixel. Thus, the latency and the need for storage capacity due to the multiple 3D pass processing are eliminated.

A three-dimensional computer graphics rendering system allows a tile-based rendering system to operate with a reduced amount of storage required for tiled screen space geometry by using an untransformed display list to represent the screen's geometry.