Übersetzung für "Graphic primitive" in Deutsch

From here, the algorithm jumps to a further graphic primitive to be processed.

The processor 102 converts this description to individual data sets for each graphic primitive or polygon.

The graphics system, in its entirety, is denoted by reference numeral 14 and includes a scan converter 16 receiving, at its input, data which write onto the graphic primitive, e.g., a polygon, to be processed.

For triangles, this can be achieved, for example, in that the three edges forming the graphic primitive are written onto by means of linear edge functions.

For example, a simple method might consist in traversing all pixels which are contained within the enclosure triangle of the graphic primitive and in verifying the same with regard to their visibility.

Specification of the blocks is followed by a two-step scan, and it is established which of the blocks comprise a portion of the graphic primitive to be processed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the object of the present invention to provide a method for rasterizing a graphic primitive which exhibits increased performance compared with the methods known in the prior art.

Initially, a plurality of adjacent pixels are simultaneously scanned, with the adjacent pixels forming a cluster, at least one of the plurality of adjacent pixels being associated with the graphic primitive, and with the number of the pixels being simultaneously scanned depending on the number of graphics processing pipelines in the graphics system.

The advantage of the above-described method is that the number of memory page defaults per graphic primitive may be reduced to the absolute minimum due to the fact that, initially, individual blocks are passed through completely since, during passing through the individual blocks, only one corresponding memory page is accessed.

At the start of the scanning of a graphic primitive, working register 162 is loaded with the edge function value at the starting point, and the incremental value registers 156 to 160 are loaded with the corrected delta values.

Subsequently, this step is repeated until all pixels associated with the graphic primitive have been scanned, and, finally, all the pixel data are output.

In addition to the interpolation, it must, of course, also be established whether adjacent pixels which are still to be scanned have exceeded an edge of the graphic primitive and are, therefore, not visible.

As has already been explained above, visibility tests must be carried out for the individual pixels being scanned, so as to determine whether or not these pixels are associated with the scanned graphic primitive.

With an exemplary chip comprising a plurality of image-rendering pipelines, it is desirable that a given graphic primitive is passed through in clusters rather than in pixels.

Finally, for each pixel contained in the cluster, visibility bits are calculated in block 140, which indicate whether or not the pixel concerned is associated with the triangle or graphic primitive.

It shall be assumed that processor 102 (FIG. 1) generates the following homogeneous data set for each graphic primitive or triangle, irrespective of whether cluster scanning or interleave scanning is carried out.

26A shows the sign distribution for the three edges 30 a, 30 b, 30 c of a triangle-shaped graphic primitive 32 .

A triangle or a graphic primitive 120 extends into one or several of the strips and therefore subdivides the scan lines into fragments.

A further advantage is that accesses to all pixels for the graphic primitive in a memory block are successively effected, so that the necessary time during which a page must be held open is reduced.