Untransformed Display Lists Reduce Tile-Based Rendering Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tile-based rendering systems require significant storage and memory bandwidth for transformed screen space geometry, which can be inefficient for static geometry data.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an untransformed display list within the tile-based rendering system allows for reduced storage requirements by referencing static geometry in both geometry processing and rasterization phases without the need for a transformed parameter buffer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If transformed screen space geometry is stored in a parameter buffer, then geometry can be efficiently processed in screen space, but storage requirements and memory bandwidth consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential position information needed for culling from the full transformed geometry data, storing only these minimal coordinates in the tiled position list rather than complete geometry records. This extraction approach reduces storage requirements while maintaining the ability to perform visibility culling operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary culling operations using only position data from the untransformed display list before full geometry transformation and rendering. By pre-identifying and eliminating invisible tiles using minimal position information, the system avoids processing and storing complete transformed geometry for invisible regions, thereby reducing overall storage requirements.
2Productivity
If static geometry data is transformed into screen space and stored, then rendering can proceed efficiently, but additional memory bandwidth is required to access the transformed data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different data representations to different spatial regions: for visible tiles, full transformed geometry data is used, while for invisible tiles, only minimal position information from the untransformed display list is processed. This local differentiation reduces overall memory bandwidth consumption by avoiding transformation and storage of geometry for invisible regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary visibility culling using position data from the untransformed display list before initiating full geometry transformation and rendering pipelines. This preliminary action identifies invisible tiles early, preventing unnecessary memory accesses and transformations, thereby reducing memory bandwidth consumption.
3Productivity
If a transformed parameter buffer is used to store screen space geometry, then the tiling unit can efficiently generate object lists, but the system requires more storage capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the minimal position coordinates necessary for tiling and culling operations from the full geometry data, storing these extracted position references in a compact tiled position list rather than complete transformed geometry records. This extraction enables efficient tiling while dramatically reducing buffer storage capacity requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a compact copy of only the essential position information from the untransformed display list for use in tiling and culling operations, rather than creating and storing full transformed geometry copies. This selective copying maintains tiling efficiency while minimizing storage requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
3-D rendering systems include a rasterization section that can fetch untransformed geometry, transform geometry and cache data for transformed geometry in a memory. As an example, the rasterization section can transform the geometry into screen space. The geometry can include one or more of static geometry and dynamic geometry. The rasterization section can query the cache for presence of data pertaining to a specific element or elements of geometry, and use that data from the cache, if present, and otherwise perform the transformation again, for actions such as hidden surface removal. The rasterization section can receive, from a geometry processing section, tiled geometry lists and perform the hidden surface removal for pixels within respective tiles to which those lists pertain.