SOFTWARE INCORPORATING EFFICIENT 3-D RENDERING

• US 20140022243A1
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Armstrong Word Industries Incorporated, Armstrong World Industries Incorporated, Dirtt Environmental Solutions
• Original Assignee: Dirtt Environmental Solutions
• Inventors: Loberg, Barrie
• Granted Patent: US 9,536,340 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/04 Architectural design, interior design
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/61 Scene description
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling

Abstract

Design software in accordance with an implementation of the present invention is configured to provide believable three-dimensional representations of user selections in real-time. Design elements that would otherwise be difficult to efficiently render three-dimensionally in real-time are prerendered for realistic visual effects, such as realistic shading, which correspond to various positions of the elements in a design space. Blanks of the visual effects for each position are then stored in a data store for visual effects. At run time, data associated with user design choices, as well as the blanks for any corresponding design elements are fed in one implementation to peripheral processing hardware, such as a GPU, which sends the processed data to a display device. The user is therefore able to view complex visual data of certain design choices efficiently with added realism.

Claims

1. In a computerized architectural design environment in which a design program is loaded into memory and processed at a central processing unit, a computer-implemented method of efficiently rendering realistic three-dimensional views of a user'"'"'s design choices in real-time, wherein the rendering allows a user to navigate a real-world depiction of the design essentially instantaneously in a three-dimensional space, comprising:

displaying a design space on a computerized display;

receiving from a user one or more user inputs regarding a layout of the design space on the display;

generating, based upon the one or more user inputs, object data relating to a three-dimensional layout of the design space;

processing the object data with a graphical processing engine, the graphical processing engine comprising one or more sets of computer executable code that are configured to prepare the three-dimensional layout of the design space for rendering by a hardware graphics processing unit;

preparing, with the graphical processing engine, a combined data stream including the processed object data and a template of a visual effect for a design element;

sending the combined data stream from the graphical processing engine to the hardware graphics processing unit;

generating pixel information from the combined data stream with the hardware graphics processing unit; and

sending the pixel information to the computerized display for display.

2. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

storing within a scene graph information relating to the processed object data,

wherein the stored information relates to locations and other attributes of one or more design elements within the architectural design environment.

3. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical processing engine comprises a game engine.

4. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the template of the visual effect comprises a pre-rendered shadow for a three-dimensional piece of furniture.

5. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the template of the visual effect is associated with a particular position with respect to a light source.

6. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 5, wherein the template of the visual effect is pre-rendered from a plurality of different positions with respect to a light source.

7. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 6, wherein the graphical processing engine provides the hardware graphics processing unit with an appropriate template of a visual effect based upon a location of a piece of three-dimensional furniture and a location of at least one light source within the design space.

8. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphics processing engine takes graphics data from a first program components and passes the graphics data to a second program component.

9. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 8, wherein the first program component comprises a design program and the second program component comprises the scene graph.

10. In a computerized architectural design environment in which a design program is loaded into memory and processed at a central processing unit, a computer-implemented method of efficiently rendering realistic three-dimensional views of a user'"'"'s design choices during run-time, wherein the rendering allows a user to navigate a real-world depiction of the design in a three-dimensional space, comprising:

displaying a design space on a computerized display;

receiving from a user one or more user inputs regarding a layout of a design space on the display;

generating, based upon the one or more user inputs, object data relating to a three-dimensional layout of the design space;

processing the object data with a game engine, wherein the game engine takes data from the design program and passes the data to a second program component to identify appropriate pixel information;

storing information within the game engine in a scene graph, wherein the scene graph stores and coordinates locations and other attributes of one or more design elements within the design space;

preparing, with the game engine, a combined data stream including at least a portion of the stored information in the scene graph and information associated with a user perspective within the design space;

sending the combined data stream from the game engine to a hardware graphics processing unit;

generating pixel information from the data stream with the hardware graphics processing unit; and

sending the pixel information to the computerized display for display.

11. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 10, wherein the combined data stream comprises a template of a visual effect for a design element.

12. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 11, wherein the template of the visual effect comprises a three-dimensional effect associated with a piece of furniture.

13. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 11, wherein the template of the visual effect is associated with a particular position of the design element within the three-dimensional space with respect to a light source.

14. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 13, wherein multiple templates of visual effects are pre-rendered for a variety of different light configurations.

15. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 14, wherein game engine sends to the hardware graphics processing unit a particular template of the visual effect based upon the light configuration of the three-dimensional space.

16. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 11, wherein the user can change the color of an element associated with the template of the visual effect.

17. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 11, wherein the user can change the material of an element associated with the template of the visual effect.

18. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 10, wherein the game engine is executed central processing unit.

19. The computerized architectural design environment as recited in claim 18, wherein hardware graphics processing unit comprises a second processing unit that is district from the central processing unit.

20. At a computerized system in a computerized architectural design environment in which a design program is loaded in memory and processed at a central processing unit, a computer program storage product having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, caused one or more processors of the computerized system to perform a computer-implemented method of rendering three-dimensional views of a user'"'"'s design choices during run-time at least in part using a graphics processing engine, the method comprising:

displaying a design space on a computerized display;

receiving from a user one or more user inputs regarding a layout of a design space on the display;

generating, based upon the one or more user inputs, object data relating to a three-dimensional layout of the design space;

processing the object data with a graphical processing engine, the graphical processing engine comprising one or more sets of computer executable code that are configured to prepare the layout of the design space for rendering by a hardware graphics processing unit;

preparing, with the graphical processing engine, a combined data stream including the processed object data and a template of the visual effect for a design element;

sending the combined data stream from the graphical processing engine to the hardware graphics processing unit;

generating pixel information from the data stream with the hardware graphics processing unit; and

sending the pixel information to the computerized display for display.