Method, medium, and system rendering 3D graphic objects with selective object extraction or culling

• US 8,817,023 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2007
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Woo, Sang-oak
• Primary Examiner(s): HAJNIK, DANIEL F
• Application Number:
  US11/889,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20080079719A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,574 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/421
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/30 Clipping

Abstract

A method, medium, and system rendering 3-dimensional (3D) graphic objects. According to the 3D rendering method, medium, and system, a minimum number of objects for expressing a current state of a user interface are extracted, and the extracted objects are rendered, thereby enabling the rendering performance of a user interface engine to be improved. Here, according to a method, medium, and system minimizing the number of rendering objects, a minimum number of objects for expressing each state of a user interface are culled, and a list of the culled objects is generated, thereby enabling the minimum number of objects for expressing a current state of a user interface to be extracted using the list of the culled objects.

Claims

1. A method of rendering 3-dimensional (3D) graphic objects, comprising:

extracting, by a processor, at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a determined current state of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user, with the determined current state being determined from a plurality of viewpoint based states of the user interface; and

three-dimensionally rendering only the extracted at least one object among the plurality of 3D graphic objects, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which the three-dimensional rendering of the at least one object is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one object,

wherein the extracting of the at least one object comprises selecting an object listing, among plural object listings respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined current state of the user interface such that the at least one object is included in the object listing,

wherein each of the object listings includes a list of objects that are actually seen from the viewpoint of a respective state and represents a minimum number of objects for expressing the respective state of the user interface respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one object corresponds to the current state of the user interface is an object that is farther, from a viewpoint of the current state, from another object, of the at least one object, meant to actually be seen on a screen displaying the 3D graphic objects from the viewpoint of the current state.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transiting to the current state of the user interface according to an input of a state transition signal for transiting to the current state of the user interface, corresponding to a current viewpoint, from another state of the user interface, corresponding to another viewpoint, and performing the extracting of the at least one object,

wherein, in the extracting of the at least one object, the extracted at least one object corresponds to the transited to current state of the user interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, in the transiting to the current state of the user interface according to the input of the state transition signal and performing of the extracting of the at least one object, the current state of the user interface is transited to by referring to a state transition table corresponding to each next state to which the other state of the user interface is transited from.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting of the at least one object comprises:

retrieving, based on the selected object listing, the object listing corresponding to the current state, among object listings with respect to the plurality of objects respectively corresponding to the plurality of states of the user interface; and

selectively extracting objects included in the retrieved object list from the 3D graphic objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the object listings are generated and stored prior to the three-dimensional rendering of only the extracted at least one object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein only the objects listed in the object listing are three-dimensionally rendered.

8. At least one non-transitory medium comprising computer readable code to control at least one processing element to implement the method of claim 1.

9. A system rendering 3D graphic objects, comprising:

an object extraction unit, comprising at least one processing device, to extract at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a determined current state of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user, with the determined current state being determined from a plurality of viewpoint based states each of the user interface; and

a rendering unit to three-dimensionally render only the extracted at least one object among the plurality of 3D graphic objects, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which the three-dimensional rendering of the at least one object is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one object,

wherein the extracting of the at least one object comprises selecting an object listing, among plural object listings respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined current state of the user interface such that the at least one object is included in the object listing,

wherein each of the object listings includes a list of objects that are actually seen from the viewpoint of a respective state and represents a minimum number of objects for expressing the respective state of the user interface respectively.

10. A method of minimizing a number of rendering objects for rending 3D graphic objects, comprising:

culling at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a plurality of viewpoint based states of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user corresponding to any determined one state of the user interface, the determined one state being determined from the plurality of states of the user interface; and

generating, using at least one processing device, an object list including only the at least one culled object with reference to the one state of the user interface, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which a three-dimensional rendering of the at least one of the 3D graphic objects is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one 3D graphic object,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises selecting the object list, among plural object lists respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined one state of the user interface such that the at least one object is included in the object list,

wherein each of the object lists includes a list of objects that are actually seen from the viewpoint of a respective state and represents a minimum number of objects for expressing the respective state of the user interface respectively.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one object is an object that is farther, from a viewpoint of the one state, from another object, of the one state of the user interface, meant to actually be seen on a screen displaying the 3D graphic objects from the viewpoint of the one state.

12. The method of claim 11,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises:

culling the at least one object based upon the object being included inside a view volume, according to a viewpoint of the one state or intersecting with the view volume, from the plurality of 3D graphics objects.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the culling of the at least one object further comprises:

projecting each primitive forming culled objects onto the screen; and

culling the objects based on depth information of each projected primitive and any transparency information of corresponding culled objects.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the projecting of each primitive forming the culled objects onto the screen further comprises clipping a portion of a projected primitive extending outside the screen if the projected primitive intersects with the screen,

and in the culling of the at least one object, the at least one object is culled based on depth information of each primitive that does not intersect with the screen, depth information of each primitive whose portion intersects with the screen and is clipped, and transparency information of respective culled objects.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the culling of the at least one object based on the depth information of each projected primitive that does not intersect the screen and the transparency information of the respective culled objects comprises:

updating an identification (ID) buffer storing an ID value of an object expressed by pixels forming a depth buffer and the screen, for each pixel forming each projected primitive if a depth value of the pixel is a value that indicates that the pixel is closer to the screen than a depth value stored at a location corresponding to the pixel of the depth buffer storing depth values of pixels forming the screen; and

culling the at least one object by using an ID value finally stored in the ID buffer.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the culling of the at least one object further comprises:

modifying 3D graphic objects, of the plurality of 3D objects, by referring to a rendering result of the 3D objects; and

culling the at least one object from the modified 3D graphic objects.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating the plurality of 3D graphic objects before the culling of the at least one object.

18. At least one non-transitory medium comprising computer readable code to control at least one processing element to implement the method of claim 10.

19. A method of minimizing a number of rendering objects for rending 3D graphic objects, comprising:

culling at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a plurality of viewpoint based states of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user corresponding to any determined one state of the user interface, the determined one state being determined from the plurality of states of the user interface; and

generating, using at least one processing device, an object list including only the at least one culled object with reference to the one state of the user interface, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which a three-dimensional rendering of the at least one of the 3D graphic objects is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one 3D graphic object,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises selecting the object list, among plural object lists respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined one state of the user interface,

wherein each of the object lists includes a minimum number of objects for expressing each state of the user interface respectively,

wherein the at least one object is an object that is farther, from a viewpoint of the one state, from another object, of the one state of the user interface, meant to actually be seen on a screen displaying the 3D graphic objects from the viewpoint of the one state,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises;

culling the at least one object based upon the object being included inside a view volume, according to a viewpoint of the one state or intersecting with the view volume, from the plurality of 3D graphics objects,

wherein the culling of the at least one object further comprises;

projecting each primitive forming culled objects onto the screen; and

culling the objects based on depth information of each projected primitive and any transparency information of corresponding culled objects,

wherein the projecting of each primitive forming the culled objects onto the screen further comprises clipping a portion of a projected primitive extending outside the screen if the projected primitive intersects with the screen,

and in the culling of the at least one object, the at least one object is culled based on depth information of each primitive that does not intersect with the screen, depth information of each primitive whose portion intersects with the screen and is clipped, and transparency information of respective culled objects,

wherein the culling of the at least one object based on the depth information of each projected primitive that does not intersect the screen and the transparency information of the respective culled objects comprises;

updating an identification (ID) buffer storing an ID value of an object expressed by pixels forming a depth buffer and the screen, for each pixel forming each projected primitive if a depth value of the pixel is a value that indicates that the pixel is closer to the screen than a depth value stored at a location corresponding to the pixel of the depth buffer storing depth values of pixels forming the screen; and

culling the at least one object by using an ID value finally stored in the ID buffer,

wherein the updating of the ID buffer comprises;

replacing the depth value stored at the location corresponding to the pixel of the depth buffer with the depth value of the pixel if the object including primitives is an opaque object, and replacing the ID value stored at the location corresponding to the pixel of the ID buffer with the ID value of the object including the primitives; and

storing the ID value of the object including the primitives at the location corresponding to the pixel of the ID buffer if the object including the primitives is a transparent object.

20. A method of minimizing a number of rendering objects for rending 3D graphic objects, comprising:

culling at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a plurality of viewpoint based states of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user corresponding to any determined one state of the user interface, the determined one state being determined from the plurality of states of the user interface;

generating an object list including only the at least one culled object with reference to the one state of the user interface;

extracting the at least one object from the object list, corresponding to a current state of the user interface; and

three-dimensionally rendering, by at least one processing device, only the extracted at least one object among the plurality of 3D graphics objects, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which the three-dimensional rendering of the at least one object is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one object,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises selecting the generated object list, among plural object lists respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined one state of the user interface such that the at least one object is included in the object list,

wherein each of the object lists includes a list of objects that are actually seen from the viewpoint of a respective state and represents a minimum number of objects for expressing the respective state of the user interface respectively.

21. At least one non-transitory medium comprising computer readable code to control at least one processing element to implement the method of claim 20.

22. A system, including at least one processing device, minimizing a number of rendering objects, comprising:

an object culling unit to cull at least one object, from a plurality of 3D graphic objects corresponding to a plurality of viewpoint based states of a user interface, which is determined to be viewed by a user corresponding to any determined one state of the user interface, the determined one state being determined from the plurality of states of the user interface; and

an object list generation unit using the at least one processing device to generate an object list including the at least one culled object with reference to the one state of the user interface, wherein a viewpoint of the viewpoint based states is a respective point or direction from which a three-dimensional rendering of at least one of the 3D graphic objects is rendered to be seen from, with the respective point or direction being exterior to the three-dimensionally rendered at least one 3D graphic object,

wherein the culling of the at least one object comprises selecting the generated object list, among plural object lists respectively corresponding to each state of the user interface, based on the determined one state of the user interface such that the at least one object is included in the object list,

wherein each of the object lists includes a list of objects that are actually seen from the viewpoint of a respective state and represents a minimum number of objects for expressing the respective state of the user interface respectively.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising an object generation unit to generate the plurality of 3D graphic objects.