Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Cull streams for fine-grained rendering predication
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Application No.: US11956309Application Date: 2007-12-13
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Publication No.: US08179394B1Publication Date: 2012-05-15
- Inventor: Cass W. Everitt , Franck R. Diard
- Applicant: Cass W. Everitt , Franck R. Diard
- Applicant Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
- Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Agency: Patterson & Sheridan, LLP.
- Main IPC: G06T15/40
- IPC: G06T15/40 ; G06T15/50 ; G06T15/10 ; G06T1/00 ; G06F15/80

Abstract:
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique to perform fine-grained rendering predication using an IGPU and a DGPU. A graphics driver divides a 3D object into batches of triangles. The IGPU processes each batch of triangles through a modified rendering pipeline to determine if the batch is culled. The IGPU writes bits into a bitstream corresponding to the visibility of the batches. The DGPU reads bits from the bitstream and performs full-blown rendering, including shading, but only on the batches of triangles whose bit indicates that the batch is visible. Advantageously, this approach to rendering predication provides fine-grained culling without adding unnecessary overhead, thereby optimizing both hardware resources and performance.
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