Hybrid procedural/pixel based textures

• US 6,765,582 B1
• Filed: 11/12/1999
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Cohen, Aaron M., Gorman, Christopher L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): WALLACE, SCOTT A
• Application Number:
  US09/439,642
• Time in Patent Office: 1,712 Days
• Field of Search: 345/552, 345/582
• US Class Current: 345/582
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/04 Texture mapping

Abstract

Apparatus and method of providing textured surfaces for computer-generated images comprises embedding a procedural description corresponding to a bit-map representation of a texture in a hybrid file module that also includes the bit-map representation. The hybrid file module may be transmitted to a player over a data communications medium. Once received, the player extracts the procedural description from the hybrid file module, with the procedural description then being used to render the texture.

Claims

1. A method of providing textured surfaces for computer-generated images, comprising:

embedding a procedural description corresponding to a bitmap representation of a texture in a hybrid file module that also includes the bitmap representation, the procedural description being hidden in a field of the hybrid file;

transmitting the hybrid file module to a player over a data communications medium;

extracting the procedural description from the hybrid file module; and

rendering the texture using the procedural description.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the procedural description comprises a set of procedural instructions for generating the texture at any level of resolution.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hybrid file module comprises a standard file structure.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the standard file structure is a JPEG file structure.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating the procedural description corresponding to the bit-map representation.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data communications medium comprises the Internet.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data communications medium comprises a cellular telephone link.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data communications medium comprises a low bandwidth data link.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

scaling the texture following extraction.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the field is a comment field.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the field is a header field.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having a configuration that represents data and instructions that cause a processor to:

extract procedural instructions embedded in a hybrid file transmitted to the processor over a data communications medium, the procedural instructions corresponding to a bitmap representation of a texture and being hidden in a field of the hybrid file, the hybrid file also including the bitmap representation; and

execute the procedural instructions to render the texture.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is further configured to cause the processor receive the hybrid file from a server over the data communications medium.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the data communications medium comprises the Internet.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the hybrid file comprises a standard JPEG file structure.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is further configured to cause the processor to scale the texture to a specified level of resolution.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the field is a comment field.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the field is a header field.

19. A system for transmission of textured images comprising:

a data communications medium;

an encoding device to extract a procedural texture from a hybrid file that also contains a bitmap representation of a texture, the encoder being coupled to the data communications medium to transmit the procedural texture thereon, the procedural texture being hidden in a field of the hybrid file; and

a decoding device coupled to the data communications medium to receive the procedural texture and render the bitmap representation of the texture at a specified resolution.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the data communications medium comprises the Internet.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the encoding device comprises a server.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the decoding device comprises a player having a texture rendering engine.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the field is a comment field.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the field is a header field.

25. An apparatus for rendering a texture comprising:

a texture manager that includes a hybrid file and a texture-rendering engine, the hybrid file containing both a procedural texture and a corresponding bitmap of the texture, the procedural texture being hidden in a field of the hybrid file;

a three-dimensional rendering engine to graphically produce a scene; and

a scene manager to request the texture for the scene at a specified resolution from the texture manager;

the texture manager extracting the procedural texture from the hybrid file and employing the texture-rendering engine to service the request by generating the texture at the specified resolution for use by the three-dimensional rendering engine.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the field is a comment field.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the field is a header field.