JP4740476B2 - Method and apparatus for providing a logical combination of N alpha operations in a graphics system - Google Patents

Description

【００５４】
上記のアルファＩＤ符号化例によって、ルーチン１３５０は、図２１の濃い色の線で示す境界線を描くことになるが、反対部分が交わる他の（点線の）部分では境界線を描かない。
【００５５】
上記符号化は、同一のオブジェクト１３００の接続部が交わる部分に境界線を付けるために用いることもできる。従来のぬり絵本や、手書きの動画漫画などは、関節部分をよりはっきりとさせるためや、筋肉が発達しているような感じを出すために、このような自己交差部分に漫画のアウトライニングを付ける場合もある。たとえば、図２２〜２４は、キャラクタ１３００の関節部１３０８（すなわち、肘）の拡大図であって、関節部は、キャラクタの上腕１３１０を前腕１３１２と連結している。上述の符号化を用いて、図２３および２４に示すように、外肢１３１０，１３１２とが互いに（たとえば接触して）隣接して方向付けされるように、関節部１３０８が曲げられて、ルーチン１３５０は、（下腕１３１０のアルファＩＤと上腕１３１２のアルファＩＤとの差が１より大きいということに基づいて）境界線分１３１６を体部位１３１０と１３１２とが交わる交差部分に付ける。
【００５６】
＜システム５０上で実施される漫画のアウトライニング処理の例＞
図２５は、漫画のアウトライニングを提供するためにはシステム５０をどのように用いればよいかを示す高次のフローチャート例であり、図２６は、漫画のアウトライニングパイプラインを実施するためにはシステム５０をどのように構成することができるかを示す例である。
【００５７】
図２５を参照して、漫画の輪郭線画像化または同様の効果を行なうためには、アプリケーションは、フレームバッファ７０２を、アルファチャンネルを含むように設定する（ブロック１４００）。米国特許出願番号０９／７２６，２２７、名称「再構成可能なピクセルフォーマットを有する組み込みフレームバッファを有するグラフィックスシステム」（代理人整理番号７２３−９５７）および２０００年８月２３日出願の対応仮出願番号６０／２２６，９１０を参照のこと。両出願は、本願に引用によって合体される。そして、システム５０は、シーンをフレームバッファ７０２に入れて描画するように制御される（ブロック１４０２）。しかしながら、この処理中に、各頂点情報の一部としてメインプロセッサ１１０から与えられるであろうオブジェクト識別子は、たとえば、システム５０のアルファチャンネルに書き込まれ、フレームバッファ７０２内のアルファ位置に記憶される。
【００５８】
面にＩＤを割り当てる場合には、細かい注意が要求される。本実施例のアルファチャンネルは、８ビットに限定されているので、１シーン内に２５６個以上もの異なるオブジェクトがある場合には、ＩＤを再利用する必要があるということもあり得る。本実施例では、アルファは７ビットしか利用可能ではない。というのは、８ビット目は、閾値計算のサインビットとして利用されるからである。このことは、同一のＩＤを有する異なるオブジェクトが重ならなければ、問題ない。へこんだオブジェクト同士が重なる部分にシルエットが欲しい場合は、より複雑なＩＤおよび閾値システムを利用すればよい。これを実施する１つの方法として、１だけ異なるＩＤを同一のオブジェクトの異なる部分に割り当て、重なるであろう部分については、少なくとも２つの合計差分を有するようにするという方法がある。そして、閾値関数は、少なくとも２つの差分に対して、シルエットを作成する必要があるだけである。上述の図１９を参照のこと。もちろん、異なる実施例であれば、異なる限定があり、これら特定の仕組みは、一例にすぎない。
【００５９】
画像の所望する部分がフレームバッファ７０２に入れてレンダリングされると、ピクセルエンジン７００は、フレームバッファのアルファ画像を外部フレームバッファまたは他のバッファ内のテクスチャにコピーするように制御される（ブロック１４０４、図１４参照）。このようなコピーアウトは、たとえば、ＩＡ８テクスチャフォーマットに入れることもできる。同期やメモリのコヒーレンスを確保するために、適切な対策が行なわれる。米国特許出願番号０９／７２６，２２７、名称「レンダリングモードに基づいた隠面処理の動的な再構成」および２０００年８月２３日出願の対応仮出願番号６０／２２６，８９０に記載された同期トークン技術を参照のこと。両出願は、本願に引用によって合体される。
【００６０】
アルファテクスチャを内部のフレームバッファからうまくコピーアウトして、テクスチャメモリ５０２に読み込んだ場合（図１４参照）、システム５０は、グラフィックスプロセッサ１１４を再構成して、隣接ピクセルアルファ間の差分に基づいて、輪郭線カラーをフレームバッファ７０２内のピクセルに書き込む（ブロック１４０６）。上述の図１９を参照のこと。このような漫画の輪郭線を描く処理は、たとえば、ピクセルアルファ値を読み出し、これらのアルファ値を修正し、ブレンドパラメータとして再びアルファを書き戻すことを含んでもよい。テクスチャ座標の１対と２つの異なるテクスチャマトリックスとを用いて、隣接アルファ値をアルファテクスチャからルックアップすることができる。一方のマトリックスを単位行列として設定し、他方を単位行列に変換を加えたものとして設定することができる。ブレンドテスト／比較は、２つの一般的なアルファ比較関数にＯＲまたはＡＮＤのような第３の論理計算を組み合わせて用いて、実施することができる。これによって、単に大小ではなく、範囲内外のテストが可能となる。
【００６１】
より詳細には、差分計算（たとえば、［ａ₀ −ａ₁ ］の絶対値であって、ａ₀ はあるピクセルのアルファ値、ａ₁ は隣接ピクセルのアルファ値である）を行うためには、一方のアルファ値を他方のアルファ値から減算し、未クランプの結果をテクスチャ環境部の出力レジスタに書き込むようにテクスチャ環境部６００を設定することができる。閾値を超えるアルファ値を検出するように、テクスチャ環境部６００内のアルファ比較や他の値比較器を設定することができる。
ａｌｐｈａ＝ｔｅｘｔｕｒｅ１−ｔｅｘｔｕｒｅ２
ａｃｏｍｐ１＝ａｌｐｈａ＜−Ｘ
ａｃｏｍｐ２＝ａｌｐｈａ＞Ｘ
ｋｉｌｌｐｉｘｅｌ＝ａｃｏｍｐ１ ＯＲ ａｃｏｍｐ２
【００６２】
本一実施例において、テクスチャ環境部６００からの未クランプの負の結果は、最上位ビットのセットにより、アルファ値に変換されてもよい。したがって、アルファ差分閾値が２の場合、アプリケーションは、アルファ差分が１より大きく（最大−２）より小さいピクセルに対して輪郭線カラーを書き込むことができる。ここで、最大値は２５５に等しい。比較結果に基づいて、レジスタからのカラー値にブレンドするようにテクスチャ環境部６００を設定することができる。メインプロセッサ１１０は、このカラー値レジスタを所望の値に設定することもできる（たとえば、黒のアウトライニング効果用に黒を、青のアウトライニング効果用に青を、など）。
【００６３】
本一実施例において、輪郭線の書き込みは、テクスチャ環境部６００内の再循環シェーダの２つの再循環パスにおいて行なうことができる。第１のパスにおいて（ブロック１４０８）、水平アウトライニングがフレームバッファ７０２に入れて描かれる。これは、アルファテクスチャ画像を１ピクセル（テクセル）垂直に移動させるように設定されている変換部３００によって実行される、テクスチャ座標変換マトリックス乗算に基づく。垂直アウトライニングを書き込むために用いられる第２のパスにおいて（ブロック１４１０）、アルファ画像を１ピクセル（テクセル）水平に移動させるように、テクスチャマトリックスを修正することができる。１ピクセルよりも大きく移動させれば、より太い輪郭線を描くこともできるが、輪郭線が太すぎると、見た感じが異常となる場合もある。
【００６４】
水平および垂直輪郭線が両方ともフレームバッファ７０２に書き込まれると、フレームバッファはコピーアウトされて、表示することができるようになる（ブロック１４１２）。
【００６５】
＜例＞
以下は、システム５０を制御して漫画のアウトライニングを行なうのに用いることができるプログラミングインターフェースコールのセット例である。
【表２】

【００６６】
＜ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｘＣｏｐｙＳｒｃ＞
＜説明＞
この関数は、組み込みフレームバッファ（ＥＦＢ）のソースパラメータをテクスチャ画像コピーに設定する。この機能は、グラフィックスプロセッサ（ＧＰ）を用いてテクスチャを生成する際に有用である。
【００６７】
ＧＰは、ＧＸＣｏｐｙＴｅｘで指定されたタイル型テクスチャにテクスチャをコピーする。ＧＰは、タイル幅の倍数でない画像幅や高さが、コピーされた画像の未定義データでパディングされるように、タイル（３２バイト）を常にコピーする。また、メインメモリ内の割り当てられた画像サイズは、３２バイトの倍数でなければならない。ＧＸＧｅｔＴｅｘＢｕｆｆｅｒＳｉｚｅを参照のこと。
【００６８】
＜引数＞
ｌｅｆｔ 最も左にある、コピーソースピクセルであって、２ピクセルの倍数
ｔｏｐ 最も上にある、コピーソース行であって、２行の倍数
ｗｄ コピー幅であって、２ピクセルの倍数
ｈｔ コピー高さであって、２行の倍数
【００６９】
＜ＧＸＣｏｐｙＴｅｘ＞
＜説明＞
この関数は、組み込みフレームバッファ（ＥＦＢ）の内容を、メインメモリ内のテクスチャ画像バッファｄｅｓｔにコピーする。この機能は、グラフィックスプロセッサ（ＧＰ）を用いてテクスチャを生成する際に有用である。クリアフラグがＧＸ＿ＴＲＵＥの場合には、ＥＦＢは、コピー処理中に、現在のクリアカラーにクリアされる（ＧＸＳｅｔＣｏｐｙＣｌｅａｒ参照）。ソース画像は、ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｘＣｏｐｙＳｒｃによって記述される。コピー処理中に、ＥＦＢの内容はテクスチャフォーマットに変換される。テクスチャフォーマットおよびフィルタをイネーブルするオプションボックスは、ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｘＣｏｐｙＤｓｔを用いて設定される。
【００７０】
割り当てられたバッファは、パディングされて、ＸとＹとのテクスチャタイル（１タイル当たり３２バイト）となる。パディング後のサイズを決定するためには、関数ＧＸＧｅｔＴｅｘＢｕｆｆｅｒＳｉｚｅが用意されている。
【００７１】
クリアフラグは、フレームバッファがコピー処理中にクリアされるべきことを示す。フレームバッファは、ＧＸＳｅｔＣｏｐｙＣｌｅａｒによって指定された定数値にクリアされる。
【００７２】
＜引数＞
ｄｅｓｔ ：メインメモリ内のテクスチャ画像バッファへのポインタ。このポインタは、３２バイトに調節される。
ｃｌｅａｒ ：このフラグがＧＸ＿ＴＲＵＥの場合、フレームバッファはコピー中にクリアされなければならない。
【００７３】
＜ＧＸＬｏａｄＴｅｘＯｂｊＰｒｅＬｏａｄｅｄ＞
＜説明＞
この関数は、予めロードされたテクスチャを記述する状態を８つのハードウェアレジスタセットのうちの１つにロードする。これが生じる前に、テクスチャオブジェクトであるｏｂｊは、ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊまたはＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＣＩを用いて初期化されなければならない。ｉｄパラメータは、テクスチャ状態レジスタセットを参照する。テクスチャは、ＧＸＰｒｅＬｏａｄＥｎｔｉｒｅＴｅｘｔｕｒｅを用いて、事前にロードされなければならない。
【００７４】
ロードされると、テクスチャは、どのテクスチャ環境（Ｔｅｖ）ステージにおいても、ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｖＯｒｄｅｒ関数を用いて利用することができる。ＧＸＩｎｉｔは、初めに、ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｖＯｒｄｅｒを呼び出して、ＧＸ＿ＴＥＸＭＡＰ０をＧＸ＿ＴＥＶＳＴＡＧＥ０に、ＧＸ＿ＴＥＸＭＡＰ１をＧＸ＿ＴＥＶＳＴＡＧＥ１に関連付けるといった、単一のテクスチャパイプラインを作成する。
【００７５】
ここで、ＧＸＬｏａｄＴｅｘＯｂｊＰｒｅＬｏａｄｅｄは、ＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｘＲｅｇｉｏｎＣａｌｌＢａｃｋによって設定された関数を呼び出さない（また、テクスチャがカラーインデックスフォーマットの場合にはＧＸＳｅｔＴｌｕｔＲｅｇｉｏｎＣａｌｌＢａｃｋによって設定された関数を呼び出さない）ことに注意されたい。なぜなら、領域は明示的に設定されるからである。しかしながら、これらのコールバック関数は、予めロードするすべての領域を知っていなければならない。ＧＸＩｎｉｔによって設定されるデフォルトのコールバックは、予めロードされた領域はないと推定する。
【００７６】
＜引数＞
ｏｂｊ ：テクスチャおよびその属性を記述するテクスチャオブジェクトをポイントする。
ｒｅｇｉｏｎ ：テクスチャメモリの領域を記述する領域オブジェクトをポイントする。
ｉｄ ：テクスチャ環境（Ｔｅｖ）ステージにおいて参照されるテクスチャを指名する。
【００７７】
＜ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊ＞
＜説明＞
この関数は、非カラーインデックステクスチャのテクスチャオブジェクトを初期化または変更するために用いられる。テクスチャオブジェクトは、テクスチャに関連するすべてのパラメータを記述するために用いられ、このパラメータには、サイズ、フォーマット、ラップモード、フィルタモードなどが含まれる。テクスチャオブジェクトにメモリを提供するのはアプリケーションの任務である。初期化されると、テクスチャオブジェクトは、ＧＸＬｏａｄＴｅｘＯｂｊを用いて８つのアクティブテクスチャＩＤのうちの１つと関連付けられる。
【００７８】
カラーインデックステクスチャのテクスチャオブジェクトを初期化するには、ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＣＩを用いる。
【００７９】
ミップマップフラグがＧＸ＿ＴＲＵＥの場合には、テクスチャはミップマップであり、テクスチャは３重線形補間される。ミップマップフラグがＧＸ＿ＦＡＬＳＥの場合には、テクスチャはミップマップではなく、テクスチャは２重線形補間される。フィルタモードや他のミップマップコントロールを無視するには、ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＬＯＤを参照のこと。
【００８０】
＜引数＞
【表３】

【００８１】
＜ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＬＯＤ＞
＜Ｃ言語仕様＞
【挿入１】

【００８２】
＜説明＞
この関数は、テクスチャの詳細レベル（ＬＯＤ）コントロールを、テクスチャオブジェクトに対して明示的に設定する。テクスチャオブジェクトにメモリを提供するのは、アプリケーションの任務である。ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊまたはＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＣＩを用いてテクスチャオブジェクトを初期化する際に、ミットマップフラグに基づいて、この情報をデフォルト値に設定する。この関数により、プログラマは、これらデフォルトをオーバーライドすることができる。なお、この関数の呼び出しは、特定のテクスチャオブジェクトに対するＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊまたはＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＯｂｊＣＩの後でなければならないことに注意されたい。
【００８３】
グラフィックスハードウェアによって計算されたＬＯＤは、ｌｏｄ＿ｂｉａｓパラメータを用いてバイアスをかけることができる。このｌｏｄ＿ｂｉａｓは、計算されたｌｏｄに加算され、その結果はｍｉｎ＿ｌｏｄとｍａｘ＿ｌｏｄの間でクランプされる。ｂｉａｓ＿ｃｌａｍｐがイネーブルされると、ｌｏｄ＿ｂｉａｓの効果は、ポリゴンがビュー方向に対してより垂直になるにつれて小さくなる。これにより、このような状態のテクスチャが鮮明になり過ぎることを防止するが、斜めのポリゴンに対してはＬＯＤバイアスを許容する。
【００８４】
＜引数＞
【表４】

【００８５】
＜ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＰｒｅＬｏａｄＲｅｇｉｏｎ＞
＜説明＞
【００８６】
この関数は、予めロードできるように、テクスチャメモリ（ＴＭＥＭ）領域オブジェクトを初期化する。この領域は、アプリケーションによって、ＴＭＥＭ内に割り当てられ、予めロードされたバッファとしてのみ用いることができる。キャッシュ領域は、ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＣａｃｈｅＲｅｇｉｏｎを用いて割り当てられなければならない。予め割り当てられたテクスチャに関して、当該領域のサイズは、テクスチャのサイズと一致しなければならない。アプリケーションにより、多くの領域オブジェクトを作成することができ、領域オブジェクトのうちの幾つかは重なり合う可能性がある。しかしながら、２つの重なり合う領域が同時にアクティブにはなり得ない。
【００８７】
領域の最大サイズは、５１２Ｋである。
【００８８】
ＧＸＩｎｉｔは、予めロードするための領域を作成しない。したがって、予めのロードが必要な場合は、アプリケーションが適切な領域を割り当てなければならない。また、ＧＸＩｎｉｔＴｅｘＣａｃｈｅＲｅｇｉｏｎおよびＧＸＳｅｔＴｅｘＲｅｇｉｏｎＣａｌｌＢａｃｋを用いて、キャッシュ領域やそのアロケータを作成する必要がある。なぜなら、新たな領域は、デフォルトのテクスチャメモリ構成を破壊する場合があるからである。
【００８９】
＜引数＞
【表５】

【００９０】
＜漫画のアウトライニングを実施するソフトウェア制御された処理の例＞
以下のプログラム部分は、グラフィックスパイプラインを制御して漫画のアウトライニング効果を行なうために用いることができる。
【挿入２】

【００９１】
＜互換可能な他の実施例＞
上述のシステム構成要素５０のうちのあるものは、上述の家庭用ビデオゲームコンソール以外であっても実施できる。たとえば、システム５０のために書き込まれているグラフィックスアプリケーションなどのソフトウェアを、システム５０をエミュレートするかまたはそれと互換性のある他の構成を用いたプラットフォーム上で実行することができる。他のプラットフォームが、システム５０のハードウェアおよびソフトウェア資源の一部または全部をうまくエミュレート、模倣、および／または提供できるのであれば、当該他のプラットフォームは、ソフトウェアをうまく実行することができるであろう。
【００９２】
一例として、エミュレータは、システム５０のハードウェアおよび／またはソフトウェア構成（プラットフォーム）とは異なるハードウェアおよび／またはソフトウェア構成（プラットフォーム）を提供してもよい。エミュレータシステムは、アプリケーションソフトウェアを書き込む対象であるシステムのハードウェアおよび／またはソフトウェア構成要素の一部またはすべてをエミュレートするハードウェアおよび／またはソフトウェア構成要素を含んでいてもよい。たとえば、エミュレータシステムは、パーソナルコンピュータなどの汎用デジタルコンピュータを備えることができ、これによって、システム５０のハードウェアおよび／またはファームウェアを模倣するソフトウェアエミュレータプログラムが実行される。
【００９３】
汎用デジタルコンピュータの中には（たとえば、ＩＢＭまたはマッキントッシュ製パーソナルコンピュータおよびその互換機）、現在、ＤｉｒｅｃｔＸ３Ｄやその他の標準グラフィックスコマンドＡＰＩに対応したグラフィックスパイプラインを提供する３Ｄグラフィックスカードが搭載されているものもある。これらには、また、標準的なサウンドコマンドに基づいて高品質の立体音響を提供する立体音響サウンドカードも搭載されている場合もある。エミュレータソフトウェアを実行させるこのようなマルチメディアハードウェアを搭載したコンピュータは、システム５０のグラフィックス性能およびサウンド性能を近似するに充分な性能を有している場合がある。エミュレータソフトウェアは、パーソナルコンピュータプラットフォーム上のハードウェア資源を制御して、ゲームプログラマがゲームソフトウェアを書き込む対象である家庭用ビデオゲームゲームコンソールプラットフォームの処理性能、３Ｄグラフィックス性能、サウンド性能、周辺性能などを模倣する。
【００９４】
図２７は、エミュレーション処理全体の例を示しており、この処理は、ホストプラットフォーム１２０１と、エミュレータ構成要素１３０３と、記憶媒体６２上に与えられているバイナリ画像を実行可能なゲームソフトウェアとを用いる。ホスト１２０１は、汎用または専用デジタルコンピューティング装置であってもよく、たとえばパーソナルコンピュータやビデオゲームコンソールなど、充分な計算能力を備えたプラットフォームが挙げられる。エミュレータ１３０３は、ホストプラットフォーム１２０１上で実行されるソフトウェアおよび／またはハードウェアであってもよく、コマンドやデータなどの記憶媒体６２からの情報をリアルタイムで変換して、ホスト１２０１が処理可能な形式にすることができる。たとえば、エミュレータ１３０３は、システム５０が実行しようとする「ソース」バイナリ画像プログラム命令を記憶媒体６２から取り出して、実行可能な形式またはホスト１２０１によって処理可能な形式に当該プログラム命令を変換する。
【００９５】
一例として、ＩＢＭのＰｏｗｅｒＰＣなどの特定のプロセッサを用いたプラットフォーム上で実行するためにソフトウェアが書き込まれており、ホスト１２０１は、異なる（たとえば、インテルの）プロセッサを用いたパーソナルコンピュータである場合、エミュレータ１３０３は、バイナリ画像プログラム命令の１つまたはシーケンスを記憶媒体１３０５から取り出して、これらのプログラム命令を、インテルのバイナリ画像プログラム命令に相当するものに変換する。また、エミュレータ１３０３は、グラフィックス音声プロセッサ１１４によって処理されるグラフィックスコマンドや音声コマンドを取り出しおよび／または生成し、ハードウェアおよび／またはソフトウェアグラフィックスおよびホスト１２０１で利用可能な音声処理資源によって処理可能な形式に、これらコマンドを変換する。一例として、エミュレータ１３０３は、これらのコマンドを、ホスト１２０１の特定のグラフィックスおよび／またはサウンドハードウェアによって処理可能なコマンドに変換する（たとえば、ＤｉｒｅｃｔＸ、ＯｐｅｎＧＬおよび／またはサウンドＡＰＩを用いる）。
【００９６】
エミュレータ１３０３または図２５のアウトライニング処理をを実施する他のプラットフォームは、再循環シェーダを有していなくてもよく、その代わりに、個別のシェーディング／ブレンディングステージのパイプラインを用いてアルファ比較演算を実施してもよい。同様に、他の実施例においては、アルファやカラー情報を同一のバッファに記憶させなくてもよく、その代わりに、この情報を異なるフレームバッファに記憶させてもよい。たとえば、オブジェクトＩＤを与えるアルファ「画像」は、メインメモリのマップとして記憶させてもよい。事後処理は、テクスチャリングを用いることによって行われる必要はないが、その代わりに、汎用プロセッサによって行ってもよい。輪郭線のレンダリングは２つのパスで行わなくてもよい。他の実施例においては、水平および垂直輪郭線は、同一のパスでレンダリングされてもよい。
【００９７】
上述のビデオゲームシステムの機能の一部または全部を提供するために用いられるエミュレータ１３０３には、エミュレータを用いて実行される様々なオプションや画面モードの選択を簡略化または自動化するグラフィックユーザインターフェース（ＧＵＩ）が与えられてもよい。一例として、そのようなエミュレータ１３０３は、ソフトウェアが本来対象としていたホストプラットフォームに比較して、拡張された機能をさらに含んでいてもよい。
【００９８】
図２８は、エミュレータ１３０３と共に用いられるのに適したエミュレーションホストシステム１２０１を示す。システム１２０１は、処理部１２０３と、システムメモリ１２０５とを含む。システムバス１２０７は、システムメモリ１２０５から処理部１２０３までを含む様々なシステム構成要素を結合する。システム１２０７は、メモリバスまたはメモリコントローラ、周辺機器バス、ローカルバスなど、様々なバスアーキテクチャのいずれかを用いたものを含む、数種のバス構成のいずれであってもよい。システムメモリ１２０７は、読み出し専用メモリ（ＲＯＭ）１２５２と、ランダムアクセスメモリ（ＲＡＭ）１２５４とを含む。ベーシック入出力システム（ＢＩＯＳ）１２５６は、パーソナルコンピュータシステム１２０１内の要素間において情報を転送するのを助ける基本ルーチンを含んでおり、ＲＯＭ１２５２に記憶される。システム１２０１は、様々なドライブや、関連したコンピュータが読み取り可能な媒体をさらに含む。ハードディスクドライブ１２０９は、（典型的には固定された）磁気ハードディスク１２１１からの読み出しやそれに対する書き込みを行う。付加的な（選択可能な）磁気ディスクドライブ１２１３は、着脱可能な「フロッピー」などの磁気ディスク１２１５からの読み出しやそれに対する書き込みを行う。随意のディスクドライブ１２１７は、ＣＤＲＯＭなどの随意の媒体のような着脱可能な光ディスク１２１９からの読み出しや、構成によってはそれに対する書き込みも行う。ハードディスクドライブ１２０９および光ディスクドライブ１２１７は、それぞれ、ハードディスクドライブインターフェース１２２１および光ドライブインターフェース１２２５によって、システムバス１２０７に接続している。ドライブやそれに関連するコンピュータが読み出し可能な媒体によって、コンピュータが読み出し可能な命令、データ構造、プログラムモジュール、ゲームプログラムなどのパーソナルコンピュータシステム１２０１のためのデータが不揮発的に記憶される。他の構成においては、コンピュータが読み出し可能な他の種類の媒体が用いられていてもよく、コンピュータによってアクセス可能なデータを記憶できる媒体（たとえば、磁気カセット、フラッシュメモリカード、デジタルビデオディスク、ベルヌーイカートリッジ、ランダムアクセスメモリ（ＲＡＭ）、読み出し専用メモリ（ＲＯＭ）など）であってもよい。
【００９９】
エミュレータ１３０３を含む多くのプログラムモジュールは、ハードディスク１２１１、着脱可能な磁気ディスク１２１５、光学ディスク１２１９、および／またはシステムメモリ１２０５のＲＯＭ１２５２および／またはＲＡＭ１２５４に記憶されてもよい。そのようなプログラムモジュールは、グラフィックスやサウンドＡＰＩを提供するオペレーティングシステム、１つ以上のアプリケーションプログラム、他のプログラムモジュール、プログラムデータ、ゲームデータを含んでもよい。ユーザは、コマンドや情報を、キーボード１２２７、ポインティングデバイス１２２９、マイク、ジョイスティック、ゲームコントローラ、衛星アンテナ、スキャナなどの入力装置を通じて、パーソナルコンピュータシステム１２０１に対して入力する。このような入力装置は、システムバス１２０７に結合されたシリアルポートインターフェース１２３１を介して処理部１２０３に接続されることが可能であるが、パラレルポートや、ゲームポートファイアワイヤーバス、またはユニバーサルシリアルバス（ＵＳＢ）などの他のインターフェースによって接続されてもよい。モニタ１２３３などの表示装置も、ビデオアダプタ１２３５などのインターフェースを介して、システムバス１２０７に接続される。
【０１００】
また、システム１２０１は、インターネットのようなネットワーク１１５２上での通信を確立するための、モデム１１５４などのネットワークインターフェース手段を含んでもよい。モデム１１５４は、内蔵であっても外付けであってもよく、シリアルポートインターフェース１２３１を介してシステムバス１２３に接続される。また、ローカルエリアネットワーク１１５８を介して（または、ワイドエリアネットワーク１１５２、ダイアルアップなどの他の通信路、または他の通信手段を介してもよい）、システム１２０１が遠隔コンピューティング装置１１５０（たとえば、他のシステム１２０１）と通信できるように、ネットワークインターフェース１１５６が与えられてもよい。システム１２０１は、典型的には、プリンタなどの標準周辺機器のような、他の周辺出力装置を含む。
【０１０１】
一例において、ビデオアダプタ１２３５は、Ｍｉｃｒｏｓｏｆｔ製ＤｉｒｅｘｔＸ７．０などのバージョンのような標準３Ｄグラフィックスアプリケーションプログラマインターフェースに基づいて出される３Ｄグラフィックスコマンドに応答して、高速３Ｄグラフィックスレンダリングを提供するグラフィックスパイプラインチップセットを含んでいてもよい。立体音響スピーカセット１２３７も、システムバス１２０７に対して、従来の「サウンドカード」のような音声生成インターフェースを介して接続されている。そのようなインターフェースは、バス１２０７から与えられたサウンドコマンドに基づいて高品質な立体音響を生成するための支援をハードウェアや組み込みソフトウェアに対して行う。このようなハードウェアの機能によって、システム１２０１は、記憶媒体６２に記憶されたソフトウェアを実行するのに充分なグラフィックスおよび音響の速度性能を提供することができる。
【０１０２】
上記の特許、特許出願およびその他の上述の書類のすべての内容は、本明細書に明示的に引用されている。
【０１０３】
本発明は、現時点において最も現実的で最適な実施例と思われるものに関連して説明してきたが、本発明は、開示された実施例に限定されるべきと解釈されるべきではない。たとえば、図示の実施例の目的は、漫画のアウトライニングと共に画像を提供することであるとしたが、上述の柔軟なアルファ比較演算を多くの異なる画像アプリケーション用に用いることが可能である。さらに、二重のアルファ比較を上では説明したが、本願は、単なる２回のアルファ比較のみに限定されない。さらに、好ましい実施例においては、再循環シェーダを使用したが、複数のアルファ比較器を有するパラレルな仕組みを用いることも可能である。したがって、本発明は、添付の請求項の範囲に含まれる様々な変形例や相当する仕組みを含むことを意図している。
【図面の簡単な説明】
【図１】対話式コンピュータグラフィックスシステムの一例の概略図である。
【図２】図１のコンピュータグラフィックスシステムの例のブロック図である。
【図３】図２に示すグラフィックス＆音声プロセッサの例のブロック図である。
【図４】図３に示す３Ｄグラフィックスプロセッサの例のブロック図である。
【図５】図４のグラフィックス＆音声プロセッサの論理フロー図の例である。
【図６】再利用可能な再循環シェーダの例を示す。
【図７】再循環シェーダを用いて実施されるシェーディングパイプラインの例を示す。
【図８】再循環シェーダのブロック図の例を示す。
【図９】再循環シェーダ入力乗算器の例を示す。
【図１０】再循環シェーダの動作ブロック図の例を示す。
【図１１】再循環シェーダの実施例を示す。
【図１２】カラースワップ機能の例を示す。
【図１３】カラースワップ機能の例を示す。
【図１４】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図１５】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図１６】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図１７】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図１８】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図１９】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２０】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２１】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２２】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２３】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２４】アルファ情報を用いてオブジェクトＩＤを符号化する、漫画のアウトライニング技術の例を示す。
【図２５】システム５０によって実行される漫画のアウトライニング処理の例を示す。
【図２６】システム５０によって実施される漫画のアウトライニングパイプラインの例を示す。
【図２７】他の代替可能な実施例を示す。
【図２８】他の代替可能な実施例を示す。[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer graphics, and more particularly to interactive graphics systems such as home video game platforms. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to the use of a logical combination of N alpha channel operations to produce interesting graphics effects including non-photorealistic images such as cartoon outlining.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Many of us have seen images of imaginary creatures such as dinosaurs, aliens, and animated toys that are very realistic. Such animation is made possible by computer graphics. Using such techniques, computer graphics producers can specify how each object looks and what appearance changes over time. Then, the computer models the object and displays it on a display such as a television or a computer screen. The coloring and shape of each part of the displayed image is performed properly based on the position and orientation of each object in the scene, the illumination direction for each object, the texture of the surface of each object, and various other factors. The computer takes care of many of the tasks that are necessary.
[0003]
Due to the complexity of computer graphics generation, until just a few years ago, the use of computer-generated 3D graphics was almost limited to expensive and specialized flight simulators, high-end graphics workstations, and supercomputers. It was. People could see the images generated by the computer system in movies and high-cost television advertising, but could not actually touch the computer that generated the graphics. This situation has changed due to the emergence of relatively inexpensive 3D graphics platforms such as Nintendo 64 (registered trademark) and various 3D graphics cards that can be used in personal computers. Now, at home and at work, it is possible to interact with powerful 3D animations and simulations on a relatively inexpensive computer graphics system.
[0004]
Most computer graphics research so far has centered on generating realistic images. This research has been very successful. Computers can now produce images that are so realistic that they are indistinguishable from photographs. For example, many of us have seen photorealistic special effects generated by real dinosaurs, aliens, and computers in movies and television. New pilots train on a highly realistic computer-based flight simulator that almost reproduces the actual flight. Now, low-cost home video game systems can provide a very high sense of reality, allowing game players to drive real racing cars on the stadium or ski covered with snow or ice. You can give illusions such as skiing down the slope or walking in a medieval castle. Many games greatly extend the gameplay experience with such a phantom of reality.
[0005]
One way to extend the realism is to model the opacity (transparency) of a surface using a technique called “alpha blending”. Using this prior art, each image element is assigned an “alpha value” representing the degree of opacity. The color of the image element can be blended based on the alpha value to make one object show through through the other object. Yet another prior art is called an “alpha function” or “alpha test”, which is used to compare an object fragment's alpha value with a reference function or reference value to determine that object fragment. Can be discarded. The alpha test can also decide not to blend (i.e. discard) the part that will become part of the image because it will be invisible because it is transparent.
[0006]
Alpha blending and alpha testing are particularly useful for modeling transparent objects such as water and glass. This same function can be used with texture mapping to achieve various effects. For example, alpha tests are frequently used to draw complex shapes using texture maps on polygons, with alpha elements acting as matte. As an example, a tree can be drawn on a polygon as a picture (texture) of the tree. The tree portion of the texture image can have an alpha value of 1 (opaque), and the non-tree portion can have an alpha value of 0 (transparent). Thus, the “non-tree” portion of the polygon is mapped to the invisible (transparent) portion of the texture map, and the “tree” portion of the polygon is mapped to the visible (opaque) portion of the texture map.
[0007]
Other uses for texture alpha elements include drilling holes and trimming faces. As an example, an image of a cut-out or trim area can be stored in a texture map. When mapping a texture to a polygonal surface, alpha testing or alpha blending can be used to cut the area cut out or trimmed from the polygonal surface. In addition, the alpha channel of computer graphics systems can be used to provide non-photorealistic image effects such as cartoon outlining. In the mechanism disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 468,109 filed Dec. 21, 1999, the alpha channel of the real-time rendering system is used to encode identifiers corresponding to different objects and different object parts. In this system, an object is rendered in a color frame buffer and rendered, and the corresponding object ID is written into the alpha frame buffer. Alpha test processing is performed on the alpha frame buffer and is defined between silhouettes and image regions encoded with different alpha / IDs using the alpha comparison result (ie the absolute value of the difference between the two alpha values). The color scheme of the contour line surrounding the contour is selectively blended.
[0008]
Typical commonly available 3D graphics application programmer interfaces, such as DirectX and OpenGL, support alpha comparison. This alpha comparison is for transparency, or to “kill” pixels that fail the comparison, eg, by comparing a repeated alpha or texture alpha with a constant. As an example, Direct3D has a command “D3DRENDERSTATE ALPHATEST-ENABLE” used to enable the alpha test. The enumerated type, such as the command D3DCOMFUNC, allows the programmer to specify tests that will be used in alpha comparison operations (eg, never to, always <,>, hereafter, inequality, etc.). For example, if the alpha comparison function is set to “above” and the rasterized pixel is more opaque than the color already present in the pixel, Direct3D will skip this completely and blend the two colors Saves the time it will take to prevent the color buffer and z-buffer from being updated. The D3DRENDERSATE_ALPHAREF command can also be used to compare the new alpha to a reference alpha value specified by the programmer (eg, “If alpha <128/255, kill the pixel”). See, for example, Kobak et al., “Inside Direct 3D (Microsoft 2000)”, pages 289-291. Similar alpha test / comparison functions are also provided in OpenGL by GL_ALPHA_TEST, GL_ALPHA_TEST_FUNC, and GL_ALPHA_TEST_REF commands. See pages 301-302 of Nider et al., "OpenGL Programming Guide" (Addison-Wesley, 1993).
[0009]
A problem that arises when performing various complex alpha comparisons, including the cartoon outlining algorithm described above, is how to perform more complex alpha comparisons in hardware using a single rendering pass. There is. For example, alpha testing with arbitrary complexity can typically be done directly by software executed by the processor, but hardware based alpha (eg, to do faster) It may be desirable to use a test. The alpha test function having such arbitrary complexity has not been normally used in low-priced graphics systems such as home video games and personal computer graphics cards.
[0010]
The present invention solves this problem and achieves a wide range of alpha test functions by providing a hardware based pixel shader capable of performing multiple logically connectable alpha comparisons. Is. According to one aspect of the invention, the pixel shader can be used to provide a transparent tree similar to a shade tree. In particular, using the alpha function, N logical alpha operations can be performed on the M alpha input. Here, N and M may be any integer.
[0011]
One aspect of the present invention provides a method for generating a graphics image, which generates information representing a surface to be imaged (the information includes alpha), and in the same rendering pass, a plurality of Performing an alpha comparison of the alpha information to provide a corresponding plurality of alpha comparison results, logically combining the plurality of alpha comparison results, based at least in part on the logical combination, A method for rendering a graphics image. The rendering step may include selecting whether to kill a pixel based on the logical combination. The execution step may be performed in hardware and / or using a recirculating shader.
[0012]
According to another aspect of the invention, a graphics system includes a texture portion that includes a texture coordinate matrix multiplier, a shader that includes an alpha channel, a built-in frame buffer that can store an alpha image, and an alpha image. the above Copy from the frame buffer and the texture part texture The graphics system makes multiple alpha comparisons in a single rendering pass.
[0013]
By combining and using alpha comparison and alpha logic operations, a wide range of additional effects based on alpha can be achieved. For example, double alpha comparison can be used to provide non-photorealistic effects such as comic outlining (e.g., comic outline based on the logical combination by performing an absolute value function). Efficiently determine whether or not to blend colors).
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows an example of an interactive 3D computer graphics system 50. The system 50 can be used to play interactive 3D video games with intriguing stereophony. It can also be applied to various other uses.
[0015]
In this example, the system 50 can interactively process digital representations and 3D world models in real time. The system 50 can display all or part of the world from any viewpoint. For example, the system 50 can interactively change the viewpoint in response to real-time input from input devices such as handheld controllers 52a and 52b. Thereby, the game player can see the world viewed from inside or outside the world. The system 50 can be used for applications that do not require real-time 3D interactive display (eg, 2D display generation and / or non-interactive display), but the ability to display high quality 3D images very quickly is It can be used to generate visual dialogues such as high realistic gameplay.
[0016]
In order to play an application such as a video game using the system 50, the user first connects the main unit 54 to a display device such as the user's color television 56 using the cable 58. The main unit 54 generates a video signal and an audio signal for controlling the color television 56. The video signal controls an image displayed on the television screen 59, and the audio signal is reproduced as sound through the stereo speakers 61L and 61R of the television.
[0017]
Further, the user needs to connect the main unit 54 to a power source. This power source may be a conventional AC adapter (not shown) that plugs into an electrical outlet on the wall of the home, and a lower DC voltage signal suitable for powering the home current to the main unit 54. Convert to As another embodiment, a battery can be used.
[0018]
The user may control the main unit 54 using the hand controllers 52a and 52b. For example, the operation unit 60 can be used to specify the direction (up or down, left or right, near or far) in which the character displayed on the television 56 should move within the three-dimensional world. The operation unit 60 also provides input for other uses (for example, menu selection, pointer / cursor control, etc.). The controller 52 can take a variety of forms. In the present example, each illustrated controller 52 includes an operation unit 60 such as a joystick, a push button, and / or a direction switch. The connection of the controller 52 to the main unit 54 may be a cable or may be wireless via electromagnetic waves (for example, radio waves or infrared waves).
[0019]
In order to play an application such as a game, the user selects an appropriate storage medium 62 storing the application such as the video game that he / she wants to play, and inserts the storage medium into the slot 64 in the main unit 54. To do. The storage medium 62 may be, for example, a specifically encoded and / or encrypted optical and / or magnetic disk. The user may operate the power switch 66 to turn on the main unit 54 and start execution of an application such as a video game based on software stored in the storage medium 62. The user may operate the controller 52 to give input to the main unit 54. For example, when the operation unit 60 is operated, an application such as a game may be started. When the other operation unit 60 is moved, the moving character can be moved in a different direction, or the viewpoint of the user in the 3D world can be changed. Based on the specific software stored in the storage medium 62, the various controllers 60 on the controller 52 can perform different functions at different times.
[0020]
<Example of electronic circuit of the entire system>
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of example components of system 50. The main components include:
A main processor (CPU) 110,
Main memory 112, and
・ Graphics & Audio Processor 114
[0021]
In this example, main processor 110 (eg, enhanced IBM Power PC 750) receives input from handheld controller 108 (and / or other input devices) via graphics & audio processor 114. The main processor 110 interactively responds to user input and executes programs such as video games supplied from the external storage medium 62 via a mass storage access device 106 such as an optical disk drive. As an example, in the case of video game play, the main processor 110 can perform collision detection and moving image processing in addition to various interactive control functions.
[0022]
In this example, the main processor 110 generates 3D graphics commands and audio commands and sends them to the graphics and audio processor 114. The graphics & audio processor 114 processes these commands to generate an intriguing visual image on the display 59, or intriguing stereophonic sound to an appropriate sound generator such as stereo speakers 61R and 61L. Or generate.
[0023]
The video encoder 120 included in the system 50 of the present example receives an image signal from the graphics and audio processor 114 and displays the image signal on a standard display device such as a computer monitor or a home color television 56. To analog and / or digital video signals suitable for An audio codec (compressor / decompressor) 122 included in the system 50 compresses and expands a digitized audio signal, and converts it into a digital or analog audio signal format as necessary. Also good. Audio codec 122 can receive audio input via buffer 124 and provide it to graphics & audio processor 114 for processing (eg, mixing with other audio signals generated by the processor and / or). Received via streaming audio output of mass storage access device 106). The graphics and audio processor 114 of this example can store audio related information in the audio memory 126 that is available for audio tasks. The graphics & audio processor 114 provides the processed audio output signal to the audio codec 112 for decompression or analog signal (eg, via buffer amplifiers 128L and 128R) so that it can be played back by the speakers 61L and 61R. Conversion is performed.
[0024]
Graphics and audio processor 114 can communicate with various additional devices within system 50. For example, the parallel digital bus 130 may be used for communication with the mass storage access device 106 and / or other components. The serial peripheral device bus 132 may be used for communication with devices such as various peripheral devices. Examples of such devices include the following.
A programmable read-only memory and / or real-time clock 134,
A network interface such as modem 136 (such as connecting system 50 to a telecommunications network 138 capable of downloading and uploading program instructions and / or data, such as a digital network such as the Internet; May be)
A flash memory 140;
[0025]
Another external serial bus 142 may be used for communication with devices such as additional expansion memory 144 (eg, a memory card). Connectors may be used to connect buses 130, 132, and 142 to various devices.
[0026]
<Example of graphics and audio processor>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of the graphics and audio processor 114. As an example, the graphics and audio processor 114 may be a single chip ASIC (application specific IC). In this example, the graphics and audio processor 114 includes:
Processor interface 150,
Memory interface / controller 152,
3D graphics processor 154,
An audio digital signal processor (DSP) 156,
-Voice memory interface 158
・ Audio interface & mixer 160
The peripheral device controller 162, and
A display controller 164;
[0027]
The 3D graphics processor 154 performs graphics processing tasks. The audio digital signal processor 156 performs audio processing tasks. The display controller 164 accesses the image information from the main memory 112, gives it to the video encoder 120, and displays it on the display device 56. Audio interface & mixer 160 interfaces with audio codec 122 and also receives audio from another source (eg, streaming audio from mass storage access device 106, output of audio DSP 156, and audio codec 122. It is also possible to mix (external audio input). The processor interface 150 provides a data and control interface between the main processor 110 and the graphics and audio processor 114.
[0028]
Memory interface 152 provides an interface for data and control between graphics and audio processor 114 and memory 112. In this example, the main processor 110 accesses the main memory 112 via a processor interface 150 and a memory interface 152 that are part of the graphics and audio processor 114. Peripheral controller 162 provides an interface for data and control between graphics and audio processor 114 and the various peripherals described above. The audio memory interface 158 provides an interface with the audio memory 126.
[0029]
<Example of graphics pipeline>
FIG. 4 is a more detailed diagram of an example 3D graphics processor 154. The 3D graphics processor 154 includes a command processor 200 and a 3D graphics pipeline 180, among others. The main processor 110 transmits a data stream (for example, a graphics command stream or a data list) to the command processor 200. The main processor 110 has a two-level cache 115 to minimize memory latency, and also has a write gathering buffer 111 for an uncached data stream for the graphics and audio processor 114. The write gathering buffer 111 collects partial cache lines to form a complete cache line, and sends this data to the graphics & audio processor 114 one cache line at a time so that the bus can be used to the maximum.
[0030]
The command processor 200 receives a display command from the main processor 110, analyzes it, and acquires additional data necessary for processing from the common memory 112. Command processor 200 provides a stream of vertex commands to graphics pipeline 180 for 2D and / or 3D processing and rendering. The graphics pipeline 180 generates an image based on these commands. The generated image information may be transferred to the main memory 112 and made accessible by the display controller / video interface unit 164, thereby displaying the frame buffer output of the pipeline 180 on the display 56.
[0031]
FIG. 5 is a logic flow diagram of the graphics processor 154. The main processor 110 may store the graphics command stream 210, the display list 212, and the vertex array 214 in the main memory 112, and passes a pointer to the command processor 200 via the bus interface 150. The main processor 110 stores graphics commands in one or more graphics first in first out (FIFO) buffers 210 allocated in the main memory 110. The command processor 200 retrieves:
A command stream from the main memory 112 via an on-chip FIFO memory buffer 216 that receives and buffers graphics commands for synchronization / flow control and load balancing;
The display list 212 from the main memory 112 via the on-chip call FIFO memory buffer 218, and
Vertex attributes from the command stream and / or from the vertex array 214 in the main memory 112 via the vertex cache 220.
[0032]
The command processor 200 performs a command processing operation 200a to convert the attribute type to a floating-point format, and passes the resulting complete vertex polygon data to the graphics pipeline 180 for rendering / rasterization. Programmable memory arbitration circuit 130 (see FIG. 4) arbitrates access to main memory 112 that is common among graphics pipeline 180, command processor 200, and display controller / video interface unit 164.
[0033]
As shown in FIG. 4, graphics pipeline 180 may include:
-Conversion unit 1300,
-Setup / rasterizer 400,
-Texture part 500,
-Texture environment unit 600, and
Pixel engine unit 700.
[0034]
The conversion unit 1300 performs various processes 300a such as 2D and 3D conversion (see FIG. 5). The conversion unit 300 may include one or more matrix memories 300b that store a matrix used for the conversion process 300a. The conversion unit 1300 converts the shape input for each vertex from the object space to the screen space, converts the input texture coordinates, and calculates the projected texture coordinates (300c). The conversion unit 1300 may perform polygon clipping / culling (300d). Further, in one embodiment, the lighting calculation for the eight independent lights is performed for each vertex by the lighting processing 300e performed by the conversion unit 300b. The conversion unit 1300 can also perform texture coordinate generation (300c) for producing an embossed bump mapping effect and polygon clipping / culling processing (300d).
[0035]
The setup / rasterizer 400 includes a setup unit. The setup unit receives vertex data from the conversion unit 300 and transmits triangle setup information to one or more rasterizers (400b) to perform edge rasterization, texture coordinate rasterization, and color rasterization.
[0036]
A texture unit 500 (which may include an on-chip texture memory (TMEM) 502), performs various tasks related to texturing. The tasks include, for example, the following.
Extract texture 504 from main memory 112,
Texture processing (500a), including, for example, multi-texture processing, post-cache texture extension, texture filtering, embossing, shadows and lighting with projected textures, and BLIT with alpha transparency and depth,
Bump map processing (500b) for calculating a texture coordinate conversion amount for bump mapping, pseudo texture, texture tiling effect, and
Indirect texture processing (500c).
[0037]
The texture unit 500 outputs the transmitted texture value to the texture environment unit 600 to perform texture environment processing (600a).
[0038]
The texture unit 500 can be recirculated and both direct and indirect texturing can be performed, providing a texture mapping output sequence to the texture environment unit 600 for blending during a single rendering pass. US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 722,382, entitled “Method and apparatus for processing direct and indirect textures in graphics systems” (Attorney Docket No. 723-961) and corresponding provisional application number filed on August 23, 2000. See 60 / 226,891. Both applications are incorporated herein by reference.
[0039]
The texture environment unit 600 blends the polygon and the texture color / alpha / depth and also performs texture fog processing (600b) to achieve a fog effect based on the inverse range. Texture environment 600 provides multiple stages to provide a variety of other intriguing environment-related, for example, based on color / alpha modulation, embossing, detail texturing, texture swapping, clamping, and depth blending. The function can be performed.
[0040]
The pixel engine 700 performs depth (z) comparison (700a) and pixel blending (700b). In this example, the pixel engine 700 stores data in an embedded (on-chip) frame buffer memory 702. Graphics pipeline 180 may include one or more embedded DRAM memories 702 and stores the contents of the frame buffer and / or texture information locally. Depending on the currently available rendering mode, the Z comparison 700a ′ can be done early in the graphics pipeline (eg, if no alpha blending is needed, the z comparison can be done early). The pixel engine 700 includes a copy process 700c. This is to periodically write the contents of the on-chip frame buffer to the main memory and allow the display / video interface unit 164 to access. Using this copy process 700c, the contents from the embedded frame buffer 702 to the texture can be copied to the main memory 112, and a dynamic texture synthesis effect can be obtained. Anti-aliasing and other filtering can be done during the copy-out process. The frame buffer output of the graphics pipeline 180 (which is finally stored in the main memory 112) is read by the display / video interface unit 164 for each frame. The display controller / video interface 164 gives digital RGB pixel values and displays them on the display 102. The copy-out pipeline may be part of the pixel engine 700, and this copy-out pipeline allows some or all of the contents of the embedded frame buffer 702 as a texture in a single rendering pass. It can be copied out to the memory 112. Then, the texture unit 500 may read the copied texture into the texture memory 502 and use this as the contents of the frame buffer when performing additional visualization of the texture mapping. The system 50 can, for example, copy out the rendered alpha information in the embedded frame buffer 702 and apply this alpha information as a texture during texture mapping to add to the embedded frame buffer contents. is there. All of this is done in the same rendering pass. US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 722,663, entitled “Graphics System with Copy-Out Conversion between Internal Frame Buffer and Main Memory” (Attorney Docket No. 723-963) and its corresponding provisional application of August 23, 2000 See application number 60 / 227,030. Both applications are incorporated herein by reference.
[0041]
<Logical combination of N alpha comparisons>
As described in co-pending application No. 09 / 722,367, Drebin et al., “Recirculation Shade Tree Blender for Graphics Systems” (Attorney Ref. 723-968), all disclosures including drawings according to this application are , Incorporated herein by reference), a recirculating shader embodiment 602 (see FIGS. 6-12b) supports various alpha functions, including logical combination of alpha test results within a single rendering pass. Yes. In this embodiment, the alpha function compares the source alpha to the reference alpha using any one of the following operations:
·always
·never
・ Inequality
·equal
·Less than
·more than
·Less than
・ Exceed
In this example, the two functions are combined using:
・ AND
・ OR
・ XOR
・ XNOR
If all valid pixels in the pixel quad fail the alpha test, the quad is discarded and therefore the frame buffer 702 is not updated. Note that in this example, the alpha comparison operation is not part of the recirculation stage, although alpha channel comparison is performed using the comparator 674 (which is part of the recirculation logic). Note that this is done after recirculation is complete. The following are examples that can be implemented.
Example 1
Asrc> Aref0 AND Asrc <Aref1
Example 2
Asrc> Aref0 OR Asrc <Aref1
Example 3
Asrc> Aref OR Asrc <-Aref
[0042]
In this way, the alpha function of recirculating shader 602 (eg, in combination with a non-recirculating alpha comparison) can be used to provide a transparent tree similar to a shade tree. In particular, using the alpha function of the recirculating shader 602, N logical alpha processes can be performed on the M alpha inputs. Here, N and M may be any integer. Alpha comparison and alpha logic operations can be used to provide non-photorealistic effects such as, for example, comic outlining.
[0043]
<Examples of cartoon outlining technology>
FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate that it is desirable to have a border or outline on the cartoon character. The cartoon character example 1300 in FIG. 14 has a boundary line attached to the outline 1302 of the silhouette. The silhouette outline 1302 produces a “cartoon outlining” effect that improves the clarity of the image and reproduces a handwritten comic or comic book format image.
[0044]
FIG. 14 shows that this cartoon character 1300 has a right hand, a wrist, and an upper arm, and is bending the upper arm in front of itself. The manga artist attaches a border to the contour around the right hand, wrist, and upper arm even though the character's posture shown here is an internal contour rather than a silhouette contour. FIG. 14 shows that if the cartoon outline is applied only to the silhouette outline 1302 of the character, the portion of the cartoon character 1300 may disappear or become unclear. . Viewers expect (from the experience of coloring books, hand-drawn animated characters and / or comic books) that they are also bordered to clearly distinguish the hands, wrists, and upper arms.
[0045]
In order for the cartoon character 1300 to appear as if it were handwritten, it would be useful to attach a boundary line not only to the silhouette outline but also to a certain internal outline 304. The constant internal contour corresponds to the internal contour that defines the hand, wrist, and upper arm of the character that is bent in front of itself. FIG. 15 shows a character 1300 in which a boundary line is attached to the internal contour 304. These inner contours 304 are silhouette contours when the character 1300 is extended with arms up, but in the direction of the arms in FIG. 15, they are inner contours.
[0046]
To solve this problem, which pixels represent different objects or parts of an object by assigning different ID values to different objects or parts of an object and associating the ID values with the pixels during the rendering process. There is a method of tracking. Such an identification value can be assigned, for example, by applying a bit in frame buffer 702 that is typically used to encode alpha information. The assigned identification value may be used to determine whether to draw a border at the pixel location. For example, the system may compare the identification value of a pixel with the identification values of neighboring (eg, adjacent) pixels. If the identification values of two adjacent pixels are in a predetermined relationship, no boundary line is drawn. If the identification values are the same, the two pixels are on the same plane and no border is drawn. A boundary line is drawn when the identification values of two adjacent pixels are in other predetermined relationships, such as indicating that different objects or different parts of an object overlap.
[0047]
16-18 show an example. FIG. 16 shows an object 1319 comprising three object portions 1320, 1322, 1324. FIG. 17 shows a plan view of the same object 1319. The object portion 1320 is a square, the object portion 1322 is a circle, and the object portion 1324 is a cone. The graphic designer wants to draw a boundary 330 (see FIG. 16) where the cone 1324 visually intersects the square 1320, but not where the cone intersects the circle 1322 or where the circle intersects the square. Assume.
[0048]
In this example, the pixels within square 1320, circle 1322, and cone 1324 are encoded with different identification values. For example, pixels in square 1320 are encoded with identification value “1”, pixels in circle 1322 are encoded with identification value “2”, and pixels in cone 1324 are encoded with identification value “3”. It becomes. FIG. 18 shows an example of the alpha portion of the frame buffer 702 that stores the encoded information. A shaded cell indicates a cell to which the border color will be applied based on 2 (or more) being the difference between adjacent alpha / ID values.
[0049]
In the pixel post-processing phase after the alpha and color images are rendered in frame buffer 702, the various identification values in the frame buffer are tested. No border is drawn for pixels that have the same identification value as neighboring pixels (all such pixels are on the same plane). In addition, when a pixel has an identification value different from the identification value of the adjacent pixel by a certain reference or reference set, a boundary line is not drawn (for example, the pixel k + 1 has an identification value of less than 2) If it is different from the identification value of, no border is drawn.) However, if a pixel has an identification value that differs from the identification value of an adjacent pixel by some other criterion or set of criteria, a boundary line is drawn (for example, a pixel k having an identification value of 2 or more If it is different from the identification value of k + 1, a boundary line may be drawn on the pixel k).
[0050]
FIG. 19 is a flowchart of an example pixel post-processing routine 1350 for drawing boundaries. The routine 1350 includes a loop (blocks 1352-1362) that is performed for each pixel [i] [j] in the image stored in the frame buffer 702. As described above, the image generation process is performed for each distinct part of the object in the frame buffer bits normally assigned to store the alpha value as part of rendering the image into the frame buffer. May be set. The routine 1350 test tests these alpha (currently ID) values to determine whether to draw a border. In this example, routine 1350 retrieves the alpha (ID) value of pixel [i] [j] and the neighboring pixels (ie, pixel [i−1] [j] and pixel [i] [j−1]). The alpha (ID) value of is also retrieved (block 1352). Thereafter, routine 1352 performs the following calculation (at block 1354) to determine the difference between the alpha (ID) value of pixel [i] [j] and the alpha (ID) value of the adjacent pixel.
diffX = ABS (Alpha [i] [j] -Alpha [i-1] [j]
diffX = ABS (Alpha [i] [j] −Alpha [i] [j−1]
[0051]
Thereafter, the routine 1350 tests the difference values diffX and diffY obtained as a result of the calculation to determine whether any exceeds a predetermined difference (eg, any constant threshold or a programmable threshold such as 1). Is determined (block 1356). If at least one of the difference values exceeds a predetermined difference, the routine 1350 sets the color of pixel [i] [j] to the border color (block 1358). Therefore, when the slope of alpha is −1 to +1, in the present embodiment, the pixels are considered to be on the same plane. Steps 1352-1358 are repeated for each pixel in the image (blocks 1360, 1362).
[0052]
As a variation of routine 1350, specify that an object is encoded with a special alpha identification value (eg, 0x00) and that pixels within that object are ignored when drawing a border. (See FIG. 20). This is useful, for example, when rendering an object without a border as a bitmap (for example, an animation representing an explosion).
[0053]
FIG. 21 shows how the above routine 1350 can be applied to efficiently draw a boundary on the object 1300 shown in FIGS. In this example, different portions of object 1300 are encoded with different alpha (ID) values. For example, the object 1300 may include two arms 1311a and 1311b and a trunk 1309. Each arm may include a hand 1313, a wrist portion 1310, a lower arm portion 1312, an elbow portion 1308, an upper arm portion 1310, and a shoulder portion 1317. Each of these various parts can be encoded using different alpha IDs as follows.
[Table 1]

[0054]
According to the above alpha ID encoding example, the routine 1350 draws a boundary line indicated by a dark line in FIG. 21, but does not draw a boundary line at the other (dotted line) portion where the opposite portions intersect.
[0055]
The above encoding can also be used to add a boundary line to a portion where the connection portions of the same object 1300 intersect. Traditional coloring book books and hand-drawn animated cartoons add a cartoon outlining to these self-intersections in order to make the joints clearer and to make the muscles feel more developed. In some cases. For example, FIGS. 22-24 are enlarged views of the joint 1308 (ie, the elbow) of the character 1300, and the joint connects the upper arm 1310 of the character with the forearm 1312. Using the above encoding, the joint 1308 is bent so that the outer limbs 1310, 1312 are oriented adjacent to each other (eg, in contact) as shown in FIGS. 1350 attaches a border line segment 1316 to the intersection of body parts 1310 and 1312 (based on the difference between the alpha ID of the lower arm 1310 and the alpha ID of the upper arm 1312 being greater than 1).
[0056]
<Example of comic outlining process executed on the system 50>
FIG. 25 is an example high-level flowchart showing how the system 50 may be used to provide cartoon outlining, and FIG. 26 illustrates how to implement a cartoon outlining pipeline. It is an example showing how the system 50 can be configured.
[0057]
Referring to FIG. 25, to perform cartoon outline imaging or a similar effect, the application sets the frame buffer 702 to include an alpha channel (block 1400). US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 726,227, entitled “Graphics System with Embedded Frame Buffer with Reconfigurable Pixel Format” (Attorney Docket No. 723-957) and corresponding provisional application filed August 23, 2000 See number 60 / 226,910. Both applications are incorporated herein by reference. The system 50 is then controlled to draw the scene in the frame buffer 702 (block 1402). However, during this process, the object identifier that would be provided from the main processor 110 as part of each vertex information is written to, for example, the alpha channel of the system 50 and stored at the alpha position in the frame buffer 702.
[0058]
Careful attention is required when assigning IDs to faces. Since the alpha channel of this embodiment is limited to 8 bits, it may be necessary to reuse the ID when there are 256 or more different objects in one scene. In this embodiment, only 7 bits of alpha can be used. This is because the eighth bit is used as a sign bit for threshold calculation. This is not a problem if different objects with the same ID do not overlap. If a silhouette is desired at a portion where the recessed objects overlap, a more complicated ID and threshold system may be used. One way to do this is to assign IDs that differ by one to different parts of the same object, so that overlapping parts have at least two total differences. And the threshold function only needs to create silhouettes for at least two differences. See FIG. 19 above. Of course, different embodiments have different limitations, and these specific mechanisms are only examples.
[0059]
Once the desired portion of the image is rendered in frame buffer 702, pixel engine 700 is controlled to copy the frame buffer alpha image to an external frame buffer or texture in another buffer (block 1404, (See FIG. 14). Such a copy-out can be put into, for example, an IA8 texture format. Appropriate measures are taken to ensure synchronization and memory coherence. Synchronization described in US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 726,227, entitled “Dynamic Reconfiguration of Hidden Surface Processing Based on Rendering Mode” and corresponding Provisional Application No. 60 / 226,890 filed on August 23, 2000. See token technology. Both applications are incorporated herein by reference.
[0060]
If the alpha texture is successfully copied out from the internal frame buffer and loaded into the texture memory 502 (see FIG. 14), the system 50 reconfigures the graphics processor 114 based on the difference between adjacent pixel alphas. The outline color is written to the pixels in the frame buffer 702 (block 1406). See FIG. 19 above. Such a process of drawing a cartoon outline may include, for example, reading pixel alpha values, modifying these alpha values, and writing alpha back again as a blend parameter. A pair of texture coordinates and two different texture matrices can be used to look up adjacent alpha values from the alpha texture. One matrix can be set as a unit matrix, and the other can be set as a unit matrix converted. The blend test / comparison can be performed using two common alpha comparison functions in combination with a third logic calculation such as OR or AND. This allows testing within and outside the range, not just magnitude.
[0061]
More specifically, the difference calculation (eg, [a ₀ -A ₁ ] Absolute value of a ₀ Is the alpha value of a pixel, a ₁ Is the alpha value of the adjacent pixel), the texture environment unit 600 is set to subtract one alpha value from the other alpha value and write the unclamped result to the output register of the texture environment unit be able to. Alpha comparison and other value comparators in the texture environment unit 600 can be set to detect alpha values that exceed the threshold.
alpha = texture1-texture2
acomp1 = alpha <−X
acomp2 = alpha> X
killpixel = acomp1 OR acomp2
[0062]
In this embodiment, the unclamped negative result from the texture environment unit 600 may be converted to an alpha value by the most significant bit set. Thus, if the alpha difference threshold is 2, the application can write the outline color for pixels where the alpha difference is greater than 1 (max -2). Here, the maximum value is equal to 255. Based on the comparison result, the texture environment unit 600 can be set to blend with the color value from the register. Main processor 110 may also set this color value register to a desired value (eg, black for black outlining effect, blue for blue outlining effect, etc.).
[0063]
In this embodiment, the contour line can be written in two recirculation passes of the recirculation shader in the texture environment unit 600. In the first pass (block 1408), horizontal outlining is drawn into the frame buffer 702. This is based on the texture coordinate transformation matrix multiplication performed by the transformation unit 300 set to move the alpha texture image vertically by one pixel (texel). In the second pass used to write the vertical outlining (block 1410), the texture matrix can be modified to move the alpha image one pixel (texel) horizontally. If it is moved larger than one pixel, a thicker outline can be drawn, but if the outline is too thick, the look may be abnormal.
[0064]
Once both the horizontal and vertical contours are written to the frame buffer 702, the frame buffer is copied out and can be displayed (block 1412).
[0065]
<Example>
The following is an example set of programming interface calls that can be used to control the system 50 to perform cartoon outlining.
[Table 2]

[0066]
<GXSetTexCopySrc>
<Description>
This function sets the source parameter of the embedded frame buffer (EFB) to the texture image copy. This function is useful when generating a texture using a graphics processor (GP).
[0067]
The GP copies the texture to the tiled texture specified by GXCopyTex. GP always copies tiles (32 bytes) so that image widths and heights that are not multiples of the tile width are padded with the undefined data of the copied image. Also, the allocated image size in the main memory must be a multiple of 32 bytes. See GXGetTexBufferSize.
[0068]
<Argument>
left The leftmost copy source pixel, a multiple of 2 pixels
top The top copy source line, a multiple of 2 lines
wd Copy width, multiple of 2 pixels
ht Copy height, multiple of 2 lines
[0069]
<GXCopyTex>
<Description>
This function copies the contents of the embedded frame buffer (EFB) to the texture image buffer dest in the main memory. This function is useful when generating a texture using a graphics processor (GP). If the clear flag is GX_TRUE, the EFB is cleared to the current clear color during the copy process (see GXSetCopyClear). The source image is described by GXSetTexCopySrc. During the copy process, the contents of the EFB are converted to a texture format. The option box to enable the texture format and filter is set using GXSetTexCopyDst.
[0070]
The allocated buffer is padded into X and Y texture tiles (32 bytes per tile). In order to determine the size after padding, a function GXGetTexBufferSize is prepared.
[0071]
The clear flag indicates that the frame buffer should be cleared during the copy process. The frame buffer is cleared to a constant value specified by GXSetCopyClear.
[0072]
<Argument>
dest: pointer to the texture image buffer in main memory. This pointer is adjusted to 32 bytes.
clear: If this flag is GX_TRUE, the frame buffer must be cleared during copying.
[0073]
<GXLoadTexObjPreLoaded>
<Description>
This function loads a state describing a preloaded texture into one of eight hardware register sets. Before this happens, the texture object obj must be initialized with GXInitTexObj or GXInitTexObjCI. The id parameter refers to the texture state register set. Textures must be pre-loaded using GXPreLoadEntireTexture.
[0074]
Once loaded, the texture can be used in any texture environment (Tev) stage using the GXSetTevOrder function. GXInit first calls GXSetTevOrder to create a single texture pipeline that associates GX_TEXMAP0 with GX_TEVSTAGE0 and GX_TEXMAP1 with GX_TEVSTAGE1.
[0075]
Note that GXLoadTexObjPreLoaded does not call the function set by GXSetTexRegionCallBack (and does not call the function set by GXSetTlutRegionCallBack if the texture is in color index format). This is because the area is explicitly set. However, these callback functions must know all the regions to be loaded beforehand. The default callback set by GXInit assumes that there is no preloaded region.
[0076]
<Argument>
obj: points to a texture object that describes the texture and its attributes.
region: points to a region object that describes the region of the texture memory.
id: Designates a texture to be referenced in the texture environment (Tev) stage.
[0077]
<GXInitTexObj>
<Description>
This function is used to initialize or modify a texture object with a non-color index texture. A texture object is used to describe all parameters related to the texture, including parameters such as size, format, wrap mode, filter mode, and the like. It is the application's responsibility to provide memory for the texture object. Once initialized, the texture object is associated with one of the eight active texture IDs using GXLoadTexObj.
[0078]
GXInitTexObjCI is used to initialize the texture object of the color index texture.
[0079]
When the mipmap flag is GX_TRUE, the texture is a mipmap and the texture is subjected to triple linear interpolation. When the mipmap flag is GX_FALSE, the texture is not a mipmap and the texture is subjected to double linear interpolation. To ignore filter mode and other mipmap controls, see GXInitTexObjLOD.
[0080]
<Argument>
[Table 3]

[0081]
<GXInitTexObjLOD>
<C language specification>
[Insert 1]

[0082]
<Description>
This function explicitly sets the texture detail level (LOD) control for the texture object. It is the application's responsibility to provide memory for the texture object. When a texture object is initialized using GXInitTexObj or GXInitTexObjCI, this information is set to a default value based on the mitt map flag. This function allows the programmer to override these defaults. Note that this function call must be after GXInitTexObj or GXInitTexObjCI for a particular texture object.
[0083]
The LOD calculated by the graphics hardware can be biased using the lod_bias parameter. This lod_bias is added to the calculated lod and the result is clamped between min_lod and max_lod. When bias_clamp is enabled, the effect of lod_bias decreases as the polygon becomes more perpendicular to the view direction. This prevents the texture in this state from becoming too clear, but allows LOD bias for diagonal polygons.
[0084]
<Argument>
[Table 4]

[0085]
<GXInitTexPreLoadRegion>
<Description>
[0086]
This function initializes a texture memory (TMEM) region object so that it can be loaded in advance. This area can only be used by the application as a pre-loaded buffer allocated in TMEM. The cache area must be allocated using GXInitTexCacheRegion. For pre-assigned textures, the size of the region must match the size of the texture. Many area objects can be created by the application, and some of the area objects may overlap. However, two overlapping regions cannot be active at the same time.
[0087]
The maximum size of the area is 512K.
[0088]
GXInit does not create an area for preloading. Therefore, if pre-loading is required, the application must allocate an appropriate area. Moreover, it is necessary to create a cache area and its allocator using GXInitTexCacheRegion and GXSetTexRegionCallBack. This is because the new area may destroy the default texture memory configuration.
[0089]
<Argument>
[Table 5]

[0090]
<Example of software-controlled processing to perform cartoon outlining>
The following program part can be used to control the graphics pipeline to produce a cartoon outlining effect.
[Insert 2]

[0091]
<Other compatible examples>
Some of the system components 50 described above may be implemented other than the home video game console described above. For example, software such as a graphics application written for the system 50 may be run on a platform using other configurations that emulate or are compatible with the system 50. If other platforms can successfully emulate, mimic and / or provide some or all of the hardware and software resources of system 50, the other platforms will be able to successfully execute the software. Let's go.
[0092]
As an example, the emulator may provide a hardware and / or software configuration (platform) that is different from the hardware and / or software configuration (platform) of the system 50. The emulator system may include hardware and / or software components that emulate some or all of the system hardware and / or software components to which application software is written. For example, the emulator system can comprise a general purpose digital computer such as a personal computer, which executes a software emulator program that mimics the hardware and / or firmware of the system 50.
[0093]
Some general-purpose digital computers (eg, IBM or Macintosh personal computers and compatibles) currently have 3D graphics cards that provide a graphics pipeline that supports DirectX3D and other standard graphics command APIs. There are also things. They may also have a stereo sound card that provides high quality stereo sound based on standard sound commands. A computer equipped with such multimedia hardware that runs emulator software may have sufficient performance to approximate the graphics and sound performance of the system 50. The emulator software controls the hardware resources on the personal computer platform and controls the processing performance, 3D graphics performance, sound performance, peripheral performance, etc. of the home video game game console platform to which game programmers write game software. To imitate.
[0094]
FIG. 27 shows an example of the entire emulation process, which uses the host platform 1201, the emulator component 1303, and game software that can execute the binary image provided on the storage medium 62. The host 1201 may be a general purpose or dedicated digital computing device, such as a platform with sufficient computing power, such as a personal computer or a video game console. The emulator 1303 may be software and / or hardware executed on the host platform 1201 and converts information from the storage medium 62 such as commands and data in real time into a format that can be processed by the host 1201. can do. For example, the emulator 1303 takes the “source” binary image program instructions that the system 50 is to execute from the storage medium 62 and converts the program instructions into an executable format or a format that can be processed by the host 1201.
[0095]
As an example, if the software is written to run on a platform using a specific processor such as IBM PowerPC and the host 1201 is a personal computer using a different (eg, Intel) processor, an emulator 1303 retrieves one or a sequence of binary image program instructions from the storage medium 1305 and converts these program instructions into those corresponding to Intel's binary image program instructions. In addition, the emulator 1303 can extract and / or generate graphics commands and voice commands to be processed by the graphics audio processor 114 and process them using hardware and / or software graphics and audio processing resources available on the host 1201. Convert these commands to the correct format. As an example, emulator 1303 translates these commands into commands that can be processed by specific graphics and / or sound hardware of host 1201 (eg, using DirectX, OpenGL, and / or sound APIs).
[0096]
The emulator 1303 or other platform that performs the outlining process of FIG. 25 may not have a recirculating shader, but instead uses a separate shading / blending stage pipeline to perform alpha comparison operations. You may implement. Similarly, in other embodiments, alpha and color information need not be stored in the same buffer, but instead this information may be stored in different frame buffers. For example, an alpha “image” giving an object ID may be stored as a map in the main memory. Post processing need not be performed by using texturing, but instead may be performed by a general purpose processor. The rendering of the contour line does not have to be performed in two passes. In other embodiments, the horizontal and vertical contours may be rendered in the same pass.
[0097]
An emulator 1303 used to provide some or all of the functions of the video game system described above includes a graphical user interface (GUI) that simplifies or automates the selection of various options and screen modes performed using the emulator. ) May be given. As an example, such an emulator 1303 may further include extended functions compared to the host platform that the software was originally intended for.
[0098]
FIG. 28 shows an emulation host system 1201 suitable for use with emulator 1303. The system 1201 includes a processing unit 1203 and a system memory 1205. A system bus 1207 couples various system components including the system memory 1205 to the processing unit 1203. The system 1207 may be any of several bus configurations, including those using any of a variety of bus architectures, such as a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a local bus, and the like. The system memory 1207 includes a read only memory (ROM) 1252 and a random access memory (RAM) 1254. A basic input / output system (BIOS) 1256 includes basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the personal computer system 1201 and is stored in ROM 1252. System 1201 further includes various drives and associated computer readable media. The hard disk drive 1209 performs reading from and writing to a magnetic hard disk 1211 (typically fixed). An additional (selectable) magnetic disk drive 1213 reads from and writes to a magnetic disk 1215 such as a removable “floppy”. The optional disk drive 1217 reads from or writes to a removable optical disk 1219 such as an optional medium such as a CDROM. The hard disk drive 1209 and the optical disk drive 1217 are connected to the system bus 1207 by a hard disk drive interface 1221 and an optical drive interface 1225, respectively. Data for the personal computer system 1201 such as instructions, data structures, program modules, and game programs that can be read by the computer is stored in a nonvolatile manner by a drive and a computer-readable medium associated therewith. In other configurations, other types of computer readable media may be used, such as media that can store data accessible by the computer (eg, magnetic cassette, flash memory card, digital video disk, Bernoulli cartridge). Random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), etc.).
[0099]
Many program modules including emulator 1303 may be stored in hard disk 1211, removable magnetic disk 1215, optical disk 1219, and / or ROM 1252 and / or RAM 1254 in system memory 1205. Such program modules may include an operating system that provides graphics and sound APIs, one or more application programs, other program modules, program data, and game data. A user inputs commands and information to the personal computer system 1201 through input devices such as a keyboard 1227, a pointing device 1229, a microphone, a joystick, a game controller, a satellite antenna, and a scanner. Such an input device can be connected to the processing unit 1203 via a serial port interface 1231 coupled to the system bus 1207, but can be connected to a parallel port, a game port fire wire bus, or a universal serial bus ( USB) may be used for connection. A display device such as a monitor 1233 is also connected to the system bus 1207 via an interface such as a video adapter 1235.
[0100]
The system 1201 may also include network interface means, such as a modem 1154, for establishing communications over a network 1152, such as the Internet. The modem 1154 may be internal or external and is connected to the system bus 123 via the serial port interface 1231. Also, the local computing device 1150 (e.g., another network device 1150 (e.g., other communication path such as a wide area network 1152, dial-up, or other communication means) via the local area network 1158 may be used by the system 1201. A network interface 1156 may be provided so that it can communicate with the system 1201). System 1201 typically includes other peripheral output devices such as standard peripherals such as printers.
[0101]
In one example, the video adapter 1235 is a graphics spy that provides high-speed 3D graphics rendering in response to 3D graphics commands issued based on a standard 3D graphics application programmer interface, such as a version such as Microsoft's DirectxX 7.0. It may include a pipeline chipset. The stereo sound speaker set 1237 is also connected to the system bus 1207 via a sound generation interface such as a conventional “sound card”. Such an interface provides support for hardware or embedded software to generate high-quality stereophonic sounds based on sound commands provided from the bus 1207. Such hardware capabilities allow system 1201 to provide sufficient graphics and acoustic speed performance to execute software stored on storage medium 62.
[0102]
The entire contents of the above-mentioned patents, patent applications and other above-mentioned documents are expressly cited herein.
[0103]
Although the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most realistic and optimal embodiments, the present invention should not be construed as limited to the disclosed embodiments. For example, although the purpose of the illustrated embodiment was to provide an image with a cartoon outlining, the flexible alpha comparison operation described above can be used for many different image applications. Furthermore, although a double alpha comparison has been described above, the present application is not limited to just two alpha comparisons. Furthermore, in the preferred embodiment, a recirculating shader was used, but it is also possible to use a parallel scheme with multiple alpha comparators. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the scope of the appended claims.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of an interactive computer graphics system.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of the computer graphics system of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of the graphics and audio processor shown in FIG.
4 is a block diagram of an example of the 3D graphics processor shown in FIG.
FIG. 5 is an example of a logic flow diagram for the graphics and audio processor of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 shows an example of a reusable recirculating shader.
FIG. 7 shows an example of a shading pipeline implemented using a recirculating shader.
FIG. 8 shows an example block diagram of a recirculating shader.
FIG. 9 shows an example of a recirculating shader input multiplier.
FIG. 10 shows an example of an operation block diagram of a recirculating shader.
FIG. 11 shows an example of a recirculating shader.
FIG. 12 shows an example of a color swap function.
FIG. 13 shows an example of a color swap function.
FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 15 shows an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 16 shows an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 17 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 18 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 20 shows an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 21 shows an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 22 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 23 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 24 illustrates an example of a cartoon outlining technique that encodes an object ID using alpha information.
FIG. 25 shows an example of a cartoon outlining process executed by the system 50;
FIG. 26 shows an example of a cartoon outlining pipeline implemented by the system 50.
FIG. 27 illustrates another alternative embodiment.
FIG. 28 illustrates another alternative embodiment.

Claims (14)

A method of generating a graphics image in a graphics system including a hardware-based recirculating shader , the method comprising:
(A) the recirculating shader acquiring information representing a surface to be imaged, the information including alpha information relating to transparency and opacity ;
(B) the recirculating shader, the step of providing said plurality of alpha comparison based on alpha information, running at least partially, a corresponding plurality of alpha comparison results;
(C) the recirculating shader, the plurality of result step performing logical combination of the alpha comparison; and (d) said graphics system, at least part component to said graphics image-out based on the logical combination Including the step of rendering ,
The hardware-based recirculating shader is a shader that receives a plurality of different inputs and produces an output that can be fed back to that input and provides N logical alpha operations on M alpha inputs. A shader that can perform operations on programmable alpha information, where N and M are integers greater than one . Before Kiss step (d) includes selecting whether excluded from the processing target pixel based on the logical combination method of claim 1. Before Kiss step (d) comprises said on the basis of the logical combination, selectively determining whether colors blend silhouette contour or inner contour of the objects included in the graphic image, The method of claim 1. The method according to claim 1, wherein the steps (b) and (c) include determining an absolute value of a difference between two alpha values included in the processing target .   A method for performing outlining of one or more objects or substructures of objects to be imaged in a real-time rendering system including a hardware-based recirculating shader comprising:
  (A) the recirculating shader obtains information representing an object to be imaged, the information including an object identifier for identifying the object or a partial structure of the object in an alpha channel; Step;
  (B) the recirculating shader at least partially performing a plurality of alpha comparisons based on information representative of the imaged object to provide a corresponding plurality of alpha comparison results;
  (C) the recirculating shader performs a logical combination of the results of the plurality of alpha comparisons; and
  (D) the real-time rendering system selectively writing a contour or an internal contour of the object or a substructure of the object to a frame buffer based at least in part on the logical combination;
  The hardware-based recirculating shader is a shader that receives a plurality of different inputs and produces an output that can be fed back to that input and provides N logical alpha operations on M alpha inputs. A shader that can perform operations on programmable alpha information, where N and M are integers greater than one. The alpha value of a given pixel being compared with a0, if the alpha value of its adjacent pixels are a1, the recirculating shader computes the absolute value of [a0-a1], according to claim 5 the method of. The recirculating shader subtracts the other alpha value from one of the alpha values being compared, and outputs the result of its non-clamped The method of claim 5. The recirculating shader operates to detect alpha difference value exceeds a predetermined threshold The method of claim 5. 6. The method of claim 5 , wherein when the recirculating shader produces an unclamped negative result , the result is transformed to an alpha value with the most significant bit set. 6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the recirculating shader blends to a predetermined color value based on a plurality of alpha computation results. 6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the recirculating shader writes a first direction contour in a first pass and writes a second direction contour in a second pass. The method of claim 5 , further comprising mapping a texture obtained from an alpha channel and using the texture to provide an alpha difference for evaluation by the recirculating shader . A graphics system,
A texture portion including a texture coordinate matrix multiplier;
A hardware-based recirculating shader that includes an alpha channel;
A built-in frame buffer that can store alpha images;
A copy-out pipeline that copies an alpha image from the frame buffer and allows the texture portion to be used as a texture ;
here,
(A) the recirculating shader obtains information representing the surface to be imaged;
(B) the recirculating shader performs at least partially a plurality of alpha comparisons based on the value of the alpha channel to provide a corresponding plurality of alpha comparison results;
(C) the recirculating shader performs a logical combination of the results of the plurality of alpha comparisons; and
(D) the graphics system renders a graphics image in the embedded frame buffer based at least in part on the logical combination;
Here, the recirculating shader is a shader that receives a plurality of different inputs and produces an output that can be fed back to that input and provides N logical alpha operations on M alpha inputs. A graphics system in which N and M are integers greater than one. The graphics system of claim 13 , wherein the recirculating shader logically combines the plurality of logical alpha comparisons and blends a predetermined color based on the combined result.

Images