METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING GRAPHICS

• US 20170309027A1
• Filed: 04/05/2017
• Published: 10/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arm Ltd. (United Kingdom) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Arm Ltd. (United Kingdom) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kleen, Amir, Harris, Peter William, Bermingham, David James
• Granted Patent: US 10,332,258 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/40 Hidden part removal
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/20 Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, tesselation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20021 Dividing image into blocks, subimages or windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/12 Bounding box

Abstract

A graphics processing system sorts graphics primitives for rendering into lists corresponding to different sub-regions of a render output to be generated, each list indicating primitives to be processed for the render output. A primitive list building unit divides a render target into various sub-regions, determines which sub-regions a primitive falls within and adds the primitive to the primitive lists corresponding to those sub-regions. The primitive list building unit also records the positions of the primitives in a pair of histograms which show the distribution of primitives across the render output. Once all primitives for the render output have been sorted into lists, the histograms are outputted to a predictor processor. The predictor processor then determines a set of sub-region sizes to be used when sorting primitives for the next render output to be generated into lists, based on the histograms.

Claims

1. A method of sorting graphics primitives for rendering into lists representing different sub-regions of a render output to be generated in a graphics processing system, each list indicating primitives to be processed for the respective sub-region of the render output, the method comprising:

determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output generated by the graphics processing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphics processing system is a tile-based graphics processing system and a render output to be generated by the graphics processing system is divided into plural rendering tiles for rendering purposes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the distribution of primitives across the another render output.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the another render output is the last render output to be generated by the graphics processing system prior to generating the first render output.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein primitive lists indicating primitives to be processed for a render output are prepared for each sub-region of a single set of sub-regions covering the entirety of the render output to be generated;

and

wherein the step of determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output generated by the graphics processing system comprises determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of the single set of sub-regions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein primitives lists indicating primitives to be processed for a render output being generated can be prepared for each sub-region of a plurality of sets of sub-regions, each set of sub-regions covering the entirety of the render output to be generated;

wherein the step of determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of the first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output further comprises;

selecting at least one set of the plurality of sets of sub-regions to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a distribution of primitives across the first render output while sorting the primitives to be processed for the first render output into primitive lists.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining a distribution of primitives across a render output comprises determining, for a plurality of different regions of the render output, the number of primitives contained within those regions of the render output.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining a distribution of primitives across a render output at a resolution which is determined based on the distribution of primitives across another render output.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output comprises:

predicting an area of higher density of primitives in the first render output based on the distribution of primitives across the another render output; and

determining a smaller size of sub-regions in the predicted area of higher density of primitives in the first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output comprises:

predicting an area of lower density of primitives in the first render output based on the distribution of primitives across the another render output; and

determining a larger size of sub-regions in the predicted area of higher density of primitives in the first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists.

12. A graphics processing system comprising:

primitive list processing circuitry configured to sort primitives for rendering into lists representing different sub-regions of a render output to be generated by the graphics processing system, each list indicating primitives to be processed for the respective sub-region of the render output; and

predictor processing circuitry configured to determine a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a render output for the primitive list processing circuitry to use when sorting primitives to be processed for a first render output into lists, based on a distribution of primitives across another render output generated by the graphics processing system.

13. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the primitive list processing circuitry is configured to prepare primitive lists indicating primitives to be processed for a render output to be generated for each sub-region of a single set of sub-regions covering the entirety of the render output to be generated;

and

wherein the predictor processing circuitry is configured to determine a size of at least one of the sub-regions of the single set of sub-regions.

14. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the primitive list processing circuitry is configured to be able to prepare primitives lists indicating primitives to be processed for a render output being generated for each sub-region of a plurality of sets of sub-regions, each set of sub-regions covering the entirety of the render output to be generated;

and

wherein the predictor processing circuitry is configured to determine a size of at least one of the sub-regions of the first render output for the primitive list processing circuitry to use when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output by selecting at least one set of the plurality of sets of sub-regions for the primitive list processing circuitry to use when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output.

15. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the primitive list processing circuitry is further configured to determine a distribution of primitives across the first render output while sorting the primitives to be processed for the first render output into primitive lists.

16. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the primitive list processing circuitry is configured to determine the distribution of primitives across a render output at a resolution which is determined based on the distribution of primitives across another render output.

17. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the predictor processing circuitry is configured to determine a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used by the primitive list processing circuitry when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another output by:

predicting an area of higher density of primitives in the first render output based on the distribution of primitives across the another render output; and

determining a smaller size of sub-regions in the predicted area of higher density of primitives in the first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists.

18. The graphics processing system of claim 12, wherein the predictor processing circuitry is configured to determine a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used by the primitive list processing circuitry when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another output by:

predicting an area of lower density of primitives in the first render output based on the distribution of primitives across the another render output; and

determining a larger size of sub-regions in the predicted area of higher density of primitives in the first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists.

19. A method of sorting graphics primitives for rendering into lists representing different sub-regions of a render output to be generated in a graphics processing system, each list indicating primitives to be processed for the respective sub-region of the render output, the method comprising:

determining a distribution of primitives for a render output being generated; and

determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of the render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the render output into sub-region lists for the render output based on the determined distribution of primitives across the render output.

20. A computer readable storage medium storing computer software code which when executing on a processor performs a method of sorting graphics primitives for rendering into lists representing different sub-regions of a render output to be generated in a graphics processing system, each list indicating primitives to be processed for the respective sub-region of the render output, the method comprising:

determining a size of at least one of the sub-regions of a first render output to be used when sorting primitives to be processed for the first render output into lists based on a distribution of primitives across another render output generated by the graphics processing system.