METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING COMPUTER GRAPHICS
First Claim
1. A method of carrying out a higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing in a graphics processing pipeline having a plurality of processing stages, at least some of which are configured to natively support a lower level of multisampled anti-aliasing, the method comprising:
- when performing the higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing;
the rasteriser of the graphics processing pipeline generating graphics fragments each representing a set of sampling points for the higher level of anti-aliasing, and passing those fragments to later stages of the graphics processing pipeline for processing;
one or more of the later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel; and
one or more other later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in one or more processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points of the set of sampling points that the fragment represents.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
When carrying out a second, higher level of anti-aliasing such as 8× MSAA, in a graphics processing pipeline 1 configured to “natively” support a first level of anti-aliasing, such as 4× MSAA, the rasterisation stage 3, early Z (depth) and stencil test stage 4, late Z (depth) and stencil test stage 7, blending stage 9, and downsampling and writeback (multisample resolve) stage 11 of the graphics processing pipeline 1 process each graphics fragment or pixel that they receive for processing in plural processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points that the fragment represents, but the fragment shader 6 is configured to process each graphics fragment in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel, so as to ensure compliance with the desired higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method of carrying out a higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing in a graphics processing pipeline having a plurality of processing stages, at least some of which are configured to natively support a lower level of multisampled anti-aliasing, the method comprising:
-
when performing the higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing; the rasteriser of the graphics processing pipeline generating graphics fragments each representing a set of sampling points for the higher level of anti-aliasing, and passing those fragments to later stages of the graphics processing pipeline for processing; one or more of the later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel; and one or more other later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in one or more processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points of the set of sampling points that the fragment represents. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A graphics processing pipeline comprising:
-
a rasteriser that generates graphics fragments each representing a set of sampling points for a given level of anti-aliasing, and passes those fragments to later stages of the graphics processing pipeline for processing; one or more processing stages after the rasteriser that process each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel; and one or more other processing stages after the rasteriser that are configured to natively support a level of multisampled anti-aliasing that is lower than the given level of anti-aliasing and that are configured to process each graphics fragment representing a set of sampling points for the given level of anti-aliasing that they receive for processing in one or more processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points of the set of sampling points that the fragment represents.
-
-
11. A graphics processing pipeline comprising:
-
a rasteriser that generates graphics fragments each representing a set of sampling points to be processed, and that passes those fragments to later stages of the graphics processing pipeline for processing; one or more processing stages after the rasteriser that when performing a first level of multisampled anti-aliasing process each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel, and that when performing a higher level of anti-aliasing process each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel; and one or more other processing stages after the rasteriser that when performing the first level of multisampled anti-aliasing process each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel, but that when performing the higher level of anti-aliasing process each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in one or more processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points of the set of sampling points that the fragment represents. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A computer readable storage medium storing computer software code which when executing on a processor performs a method of carrying out a higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing in a graphics processing pipeline having a plurality of processing stages, at least some of which are configured to natively support a lower level of multisampled anti-aliasing, the method comprising:
-
when performing the higher level of multisampled anti-aliasing; the rasteriser of the graphics processing pipeline generating graphics fragments each representing a set of sampling points for the higher level of anti-aliasing, and passing those fragments to later stages of the graphics processing pipeline for processing; one or more of the later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in a processing pass that processes all the sampling points that the fragment represents in parallel; and one or more other later processing stages of the graphics processing pipeline processing each graphics fragment that they receive for processing in one or more processing passes, each such processing pass processing a sub-set of the sampling points of the set of sampling points that the fragment represents.
-
Specification