TECHNIQUES FOR SETTING UP AND EXECUTING DRAW CALLS

• US 20140168242A1
• Filed: 12/18/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: KUBISCH, Christoph, TAVENRATH, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 9,489,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/522
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3887 controlled by a single instruction for multiple data lanes [SIMD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

One embodiment sets forth a method for processing draw calls that includes setting up a plurality of shader input buffers in memory, receiving shader input data related to a graphics scene from a software application, storing the shader input data in the plurality of shader input buffers, computing a pointer to each shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers, and passing the pointers to the plurality of shader input buffers to the software application. By implementing the disclosed techniques, a shader program advantageously can access the shader input data associated with a graphics scene and stored in various shader input buffers without having to go through the central processing unit to have the shader input buffers binded to the shader program.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing draw calls, the method comprising:

setting up a plurality of shader input buffers in memory;

receiving shader input data related to a graphics scene from a software application;

storing the shader input data in the plurality of shader input buffers;

computing a pointer to each shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers; and

passing the pointers to the plurality of shader input buffers to the software application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting up a command buffer in memory.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of shader input buffers and the command buffer are set up in memory accessible by a graphics processing unit.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving a plurality of draw commands from the software application, wherein each draw command includes one or more draw calls and at least one pointer to at least one shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands further includes an indication of the number of draw calls included in the draw command.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands further includes an offset into the command buffer, and, for each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands, further comprising storing the draw command in the command buffer at an address determined from the offset included in the draw command and a base address associated with the command buffer.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising passing to a command engine an offset associated with one of the draw commands included in the plurality of draw commands and the base address associated with the command buffer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising pulling a first draw command from the command buffer based on the offset associated with one of the draw commands and the base address associated with the command buffer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising parsing the first draw command to access the one or more draw calls included in the first draw command and the at least one pointer included in the first draw command.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising, based on the at least one pointer included in the first draw command, accessing shader input data stored in at least one shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising executing one of the draw calls included in the first draw command on the shader input data stored in the at least one shader input buffer.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising executing a transform feedback shader program to analyze the one or more draw calls included in the first draw command and determine that a first draw call included in the one or more draw calls should be processed.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising converting the first draw call into a draw command and storing the draw command in a control buffer for processing by the command engine.

14. A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing unit, cause the processing unit to process draw calls by performing the steps of:

setting up a plurality of shader input buffers in memory;

receiving shader input data related to a graphics scene from a software application;

storing the shader input data in the plurality of shader input buffers;

computing a pointer to each shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers; and

passing the pointers to the plurality of shader input buffers to the software application.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising setting up a command buffer in memory.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising receiving a plurality of draw commands from the software application, wherein each draw command includes one or more draw calls and at least one pointer to at least one shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands further includes an offset into the command buffer, and, for each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands, further comprising storing the draw command in the command buffer at an address determined from the offset included in the draw command and a base address associated with the command buffer.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising passing an offset associated with one of the draw commands included in the plurality of draw commands and the base address associated with the command buffer to a command engine.

19. A system configured to process draw calls, the system comprising:

a driver program configured to;

set up a plurality of shader input buffers in memory,

receive shader input data related to a graphics scene from a software application,

store the shader input data in the plurality of shader input buffers,

compute a pointer to each shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers,

pass the pointers to the plurality of shader input buffers to the software application,

set up a command buffer in memory,

receive a plurality of draw commands from the software application, wherein each draw command includes one or more draw calls, at least one pointer to at least one shader input buffer included in the plurality of shader input buffers, and an offset into the command buffer, and

for each draw command included in the plurality of draw commands, store the draw command in the command buffer at an address determined from the offset included in the draw command and a base address associated with the command buffer.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a command engine configured to pull a first draw command from the command buffer based on an offset associated with one of the draw commands received by the driver program and a base address associated with the command buffer, and to parse the first draw command to access the one or more draw calls included in the first draw command and the at least one pointer included in the first draw command.