System and methods for real-time rendering of deformable geometry with global illumination
First Claim
1. A method, implemented within a computer system including a graphics rendering subsystem, providing for the sequential production of frames of image data representative of a scene containing deformable geometry for display on a display device, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) computing frame animation data for a series of frames representative, in animated sequence, of a scene containing deformable geometry, said frame animation data including vertex attributes of a control mesh descriptive of a three-dimensional surface of graphical elements occurring within said scene, said control mesh containing a plurality of polygons; and
b) computing, based on said frame animation data, respective illumination values for said plurality of polygons to determine the global illumination of said scene, wherein said step of computing is performed iteratively with respect to each said frame corresponding frame animation data until a qualified convergence of global illumination is achieved, wherein within each iteration said respective illumination values are determined based on the frame-to-frame coherent polygon illumination values computed in a prior iteration, and wherein said qualified convergence is achieved within the frame-to-frame interval defined by a real-time frame rate.
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Abstract
Frames of image data representative of a scene containing deformable geometry subject to global illumination are computed in real-time. Frame animation data is computed for a series of frames representative, in animated sequence, of a scene containing deformable geometry. The frame animation data includes vertex attributes of a control mesh descriptive of the three dimensional surface of graphical elements occurring within the scene. Based on the frame animation data, respective illumination values are computed for the individual polygons of the control mesh to determine the global illumination of the scene. The computation is performed iteratively with respect to each frame set of frame animation data until a qualified convergence of global illumination is achieved. Within each iteration, the respective illumination values are determined based on the frame-to-frame coherent polygon illumination values determined in a prior iteration. Qualified convergence is achieved within the frame-to-frame interval defined by a real-time frame rate.
58 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method, implemented within a computer system including a graphics rendering subsystem, providing for the sequential production of frames of image data representative of a scene containing deformable geometry for display on a display device, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) computing frame animation data for a series of frames representative, in animated sequence, of a scene containing deformable geometry, said frame animation data including vertex attributes of a control mesh descriptive of a three-dimensional surface of graphical elements occurring within said scene, said control mesh containing a plurality of polygons; and b) computing, based on said frame animation data, respective illumination values for said plurality of polygons to determine the global illumination of said scene, wherein said step of computing is performed iteratively with respect to each said frame corresponding frame animation data until a qualified convergence of global illumination is achieved, wherein within each iteration said respective illumination values are determined based on the frame-to-frame coherent polygon illumination values computed in a prior iteration, and wherein said qualified convergence is achieved within the frame-to-frame interval defined by a real-time frame rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer system providing for the real-time production of an animated scene containing deformable geometry, said computer system comprising:
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a) a primary processing unit, coupled to a main memory, operative to iteratively process a control mesh, representing a deformable geometry, as sequential image frames at a real-time frame rate for display on a display device, wherein each said iteration establishes a polygon data set representative of said control mesh accessible from said main memory; and b) a graphics rendering subsystem, coupled to said primary processing unit and said main memory, operative to access and process said polygon data set to determine global illumination values for each polygon of said polygon data set within the frame period of said real-time frame rate, said graphics rendering subsystem computing, with respect to a predetermined frame polygon data set, initial global illumination values for each polygon of said predetermined frame polygon data set based upon final global illumination values computed for each polygon in a prior frame polygon data set, wherein polygons of said predetermined and prior frame polygon data sets are related by frame-to-frame coherence of said control mesh. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method, implemented within a computer system including a graphics rendering subsystem, of determining in real-time the global illumination of a deformable geometry, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) animating a deformable geometry as a sequence of frames; b) determining, for a predetermined frame, global illumination values for each of a plurality of polygons defining a control mesh representative of said deformable geometry, wherein, for a predetermined frame of said sequence of frames, said global illumination values are computed from the frame-to-frame coherent global illumination values of said plurality of polygons determined for a prior frame of said sequence of frames; and c) displaying, in real-time, said sequence of frames. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification