Hidden Area Stencil Mesh for HMD Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
In head-mounted display (HMD) applications, not all pixels rendered on display panels can be seen due to radial symmetric distortion, leading to inefficiencies in rendering processes and performance issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a hidden area stencil mesh technique to mask and eliminate pixels that cannot be seen by the user, utilizing a stencil buffer to reduce the number of pixels that need to be rendered, and leveraging the capabilities of graphical processing units (GPUs) for early stencil rejection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If all pixels on display panels are rendered, then complete image coverage is achieved, but rendering performance deteriorates due to processing invisible pixels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes invisible pixels from the rendering process by implementing a stencil mesh that defines visible regions. The stencil buffer identifies and excludes pixels outside the visible circular area caused by lens distortion, so only visible pixels are rendered to the frame buffer, eliminating wasted processing on invisible pixels while maintaining complete image coverage in visible areas
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining the visible region mask using a stencil mesh before the actual rendering process. The stencil buffer is configured with triangle meshes that represent the circular visible area, allowing the GPU to perform early stencil rejection and cull invisible pixels before they consume rendering resources, thus improving performance in advance
2Productivity
If rendering is optimized to process only visible pixels, then rendering efficiency improves, but image completeness may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a stencil buffer as an intermediary between the rendering process and the final image output. This intermediary layer uses pre-defined stencil meshes to selectively enable or disable pixel rendering based on visibility, ensuring that only visible pixels are processed while maintaining the integrity and completeness of the visible image area without compromising reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for implementing hidden mesh (or stencil mesh) graphics rendering techniques for use in applications such as head mounted displays (“HMDs”) are described. Exemplary systems and algorithms are disclosed for masking or eliminating pixels in an image from the list of pixels to be rendered, based on the observation that a significant number of pixels in the periphery of HMD images cannot be seen, due to the specific details of the optical and display/electronics performance of each particular implementation.