Claims
- 1. A method for rendering, comprising:
defining a rendering request, the rendering request describing an object to be rendered; querying a progressive cache to determine a cached element most representing a display image satisfying the rendering request; sending the cached element to a starting stage of a rendering pipeline for the object, the starting stage associated with the cached element; and sending an output of the starting stage to an input of a next stage of the rendering pipeline, a final stage of the rendering pipeline determining the display image satisfying the rendering request.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein an output of a stage of the rendering pipeline is sent to the progressive cache.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the progressive cache comprises a set of caches.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein a particular cache in the set of caches is a preprocessed shape descriptor cache.
- 5. The method of claim 3 wherein a particular cache in the set of caches is a distance field cache.
- 6. The method of claim 3 wherein a particular cache in the set of caches is a distance values cache.
- 7. The method of claim 3 wherein a particular cache in the set of caches is an antialiased intensities cache.
- 8. The method of claim 3 wherein a particular cache in the set of caches is a colorized image cache.
- 9. The method of claim 6 wherein distance values for a component of a pixel of the display image are stored in the distance values cache.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the distance values for the component of the pixel of the display image are combined prior to determining an antialiased intensity for the component of the pixel.
- 11. The method of claim 3 wherein data stored in a particular cache in the set of caches is compressed.
- 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the progressive cache finds a cache element using hashing.
- 13. The method of claim 3 wherein the progressive cache eliminates least recently used cached elements from a particular cache in the set of caches when the particular cache is full.
- 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the rendering pipeline comprises a sequence of stages.
- 15. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages processes the rendering request.
- 16. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages determines a preprocessed shape descriptor.
- 17. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages determines a distance field.
- 18. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages determines distance values.
- 19. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages determines antialiased intensities.
- 20. The method of claim 14 wherein a particular stage in the sequence of stages determines a colorized image.
- 21. The method of claim 1 wherein the starting stage associated with the cached element is a next stage of a corresponding stage of a cache of the progressive cache containing the cached element.
- 22. An apparatus for rendering, comprising:
means for querying a progressive cache to determine a cached element most representing a display image satisfying a rendering request for an object; means for sending the cached element to a starting stage of a rendering pipeline for the object, the starting stage associated with the cached element; and means for sending an output of the starting stage to an input of a next stage of the rendering pipeline, a final stage of the rendering pipeline determining the display image satisfying the rendering request.
- 23. A system for rendering, comprising:
a rendering pipeline including a plurality of stages connected serially to each other so that output of a previous stage provides input to a next stage, and a first stage is configured to receive a rendering request for an object, and a last stage is configured to produce a display image corresponding to the object; a progressive cache including a plurality of caches arranged to store cached elements in a least finished to a most finished order; and a cache controller configured to route a most finished cached element from the progressive cache to a next stage of a corresponding stage of the rendering pipeline and the output of a stage of the rendering pipeline to a corresponding cache of the progressive cache.
RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a Continuation in Part of a U.S. patent application titled “Method for Antialiasing an Object Represented as a Two-Dimensional Distance Field in Image-Order,” Ser. No. 10/396,673, filed on Mar. 25, 2003 by Perry, et al.
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10396673 |
Mar 2003 |
US |
Child |
10802481 |
Mar 2004 |
US |