Claims
- 1. A method of operating a computer graphics system having a host processor for running application programs and a graphics subsystem separate from the host processor, comprising the steps of:
- a) building a graphics data structure with one of said application programs and storing the graphics data structure in the graphics subsystem, said graphics data structure including a plurality of nodes, at least one of said plurality of nodes referencing at least one operand defining a plurality of different sequences of nodes in said graphics data structure, the operand being contained in a memory in the graphics subsystem;
- b) operating said computer graphics system to manipulate data contained in said memory in the graphics subsystem to determine a value of said operand;
- c) operating a structure walker in said graphics subsystem to access said operand from said memory;
- d) operating the structure walker in said graphics subsystem to perform a test on the value of said operand;
- e) traversing by said structure walker one of said plurality of different sequences of nodes in the graphics data structure as a function of the result of said test, the traversal being asynchronous to the running of said application programs by the host processor.
- 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of operating a structure walker to access the operand in the memory is carried out by accessing the operand located in an address obtained by adding a value stored in a command parameter to the contents of a register.
- 3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of operating a structure walker to access the operand in the memory is carried out by accessing the operand located in a register in said memory.
- 4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of operating a structure walker to access the operand in the memory is carried out by accessing the operand located at an address specified in the node.
- 5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of operating a structure walker to access the operand in the memory is carried out by accessing the operand located in the node.
- 6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of traversing is carried out by traversal control functions embodied in a node control structure built in the memory.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 084,406, filed Apr. 20, 1988, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 085,081 filed Aug. 13, 1987 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,822.
US Referenced Citations (27)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (4)
Entry |
Computer Chess by David E. Welsh, Brown Pub., Iowa, 1984, pp. 67-87. |
Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer by Tim Hartnell, Ballantine Books pub., 1984, pp. 24-29. |
Games Programming, by Eric Solomon, Cambridge University Press Pub., 1984, pp. 223-249. |
Digital Logic and Computer Design; M. Morris Mano 1979 Prentice Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632 (pp. 519-522). |
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
184406 |
Apr 1988 |
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Parent |
85081 |
Aug 1987 |
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