System and method for layering using tile-based renderers

• US 9,342,322 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pelton, Blake D., Patel, Amar, Pronovost, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): AMIN, JWALANT B
• Application Number:
  US13/230,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063473A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,709 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/122 Tiling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/36 characterised by the display of a graphic pattern, e.g. using an all-points-addressable [APA] memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers

Abstract

A method for tile-based rendering of content. Content may be rendered in a memory region organized as multiple tiles. In scenarios in which content is generated in layers, for operations that involve compositing image layers, an order in which portions of the image are processed may be selected to reduce the aggregate number of memory accesses times, which in turn may improve the performance of a computer that uses tile-based rendering. An image may be processed such that operations relating to rendering portions of different layers corresponding to the same tile are performed sequentially. Such processing may be used in a computer with a graphics processing unit that supports tile-based rendering, and may be particularly well suited for computers with a slate form factor. An interface to a graphics processing utility within the computer may provide a flag to allow an application to specify whether operations may be reordered.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable storage medium storing an application comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform operations, the operations comprising:

configuring a graphics processing unit (GPU) of a computing device, including;

determining whether the GPU is to render graphics using a tile-then-layer approach or a layer-then-tile approach based at least in part on whether graphics for a tile depends on content from any other tile, wherein;

the graphics is organized as a plurality of tiles each having a plurality of layers of content;

the tile-then-layer approach includes rendering the graphics tile-by-tile; and

the layer-then-tile approach includes rendering the graphics layer-by-layer; and

if it is determined that the the GPU is to render the graphics using the tile-then-layer approach;

notifying the GPU that the GPU is to render the graphics tile-by-tile.

2. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein if it is determined that the GPU is to render the graphics using the layer-then-tile approach, the operations further comprises:

notifying the GPU that the GPU is to render the graphics layer-by-layer.

3. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the notifying comprises:

setting a parameter and/or calling a function to indicate whether the GPU is to render the graphics tile-by-tile or layer-by-layer.

4. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the application further comprises processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to render content of a webpage and/or content of a video game.

5. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein rendering the graphics layer-by-layer includes applying a transparency and/or a clipping effect to the at least a portion of the graphics.

6. A system for rendering content comprising a plurality of content layers, wherein the content is organized as a plurality of tiles including a first tile and a second tile, the system comprising a graphics processing unit (GPU) having rendering hardware and a GPU memory, wherein the GPU that is configured to:

render at least a first portion of the content corresponding to the first tile to produce one or more pixel values;

receive an indication of whether the content is to be rendered tile-then-layer or layer-then-tile by the GPU based at least in part on potential dependency of output for one tile on content for another tile, wherein;

tile-then-layer rendering includes at least one operation for compositing values for portions for at least two layers associated with a first tile before rendering a second portion of the content corresponding to the second tile; and

if the indication indicates that the content is to be rendered tile-then-layer;

compositing values for the portions of the at least two layers associated with the first tile before rendering the second portion of the content corresponding to the second tile.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein at least the first portion of the content comprises a first content layer and a second content layer, the one or more pixel values comprise a first set of pixel values and a second set of pixel values, and the GPU is further configured to render the at least the first portion of the content corresponding to the first tile by:

rendering at least a portion of the first content layer corresponding to the first tile to calculate the first set pixel values;

in response to rendering at least the portion of the first content layer, copying the first set of pixel values to a region of a memory; and

in response to the copying, rendering at least a portion of the second content layer corresponding to the first tile to calculate the second set of pixel values.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a memory that is communicatively coupled to the GPU, wherein the memory is not onboard the GPU.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein performing the at least one operation on the one or more pixel values comprises:

using at least one of the first set of pixel values or the second set of pixel values to obtain one or more new pixel values.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein receiving the indication comprises:

receiving an indication through an interface to a graphics processing routine.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the indication comprises a parameter whose value indicates to first perform at least one operation on the one or more pixel values.

12. A computing device for configuring a graphics processing unit (GPU), the computing device comprising:

a memory and a processor that respectively store and execute instructions, including instructions that;

determine a sequence in which the GPU is to render tiles and layers of a graphical image with respect to each other based at least in part on whether content for individual tiles is renderable independent of content for other tiles, wherein the graphical image is to be presented on a display associated with the computing device; and

configure the GPU according to the determined sequence.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the instructions also perform at least one operation that applies a transparency and/or a clipping effect to at least a portion of the graphical image corresponding to a first tile.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the GPU is configured to complete the at least one operation for one or more pixel values corresponding to the first tile before performing any rendering of the second tile.

15. The computing device of claim 12, further comprising:

the GPU, wherein the GPU;

is to be configured by the processor; and

renders the graphical image.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein:

a first tile comprises a first portion of a first content layer and a first portion of a second content layer;

a second tile comprises a second portion of the first content layer and a second portion of the second content layer; and

the GPU also;

calculates a first set of pixel values associated with at least the first portion of the first content layer;

produces the second set of pixel values for the at least the first portion of the second content layer; and

renders the first tile based on the first set of pixel values and the second set of pixel values.

17. A method of rendering graphics for display on a display device associated with a computing device, comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, content that is to be rendered for display on the display device associated with the computing device;

selecting, by the computing device, whether the received content is to be rendered by a graphics processing unit (GPU) of the computing device through a tile-then-layer process or through a layer-then-tile process based at least in part on whether output for a tile is independent of data for another tile; and

rendering, by the GPU of the computing device, the received content for display on the display device associated with the computing device according to the selected process.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

displaying the rendered content on the display device that is associated with the computing device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the received content includes a plurality of content layers and is organized as a plurality of tiles.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein selecting whether the received content is to be rendered through the tile-then-layer process or through the layer-then-tile process is also based, at least in part, on whether a midscene flush would be conducted if the content were rendered via the layer-then-tile process.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein selecting whether the received content is to be rendered through the tile-then-layer process or through the layer-then-tile process is also based, at least in part, on a size of a memory coupled to the GPU of the computing device.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein rendering the received content according to the selected process includes:

applying a transparency effect and/or a clipping effect to a portion of the received content.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein rendering the received content according to the selected process includes:

compositing pixel values for at least two layers of a tile before rendering content corresponding to any other tile.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein rendering the received content according to the selected process includes:

performing at least one implicit copy operation.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein:

selecting whether the received content is to be rendered through the tile-then-layer process or through the layer-then-tile process results in a selection that the received content is to be rendered through the tile-then-layer process; and

the tile-then-layer process includes at least one implicit copy operation.