Patent Grant
7034828
The present invention relates to computer graphics, and more particularly to interactive graphics systems such as home video game platforms. Still more particularly this invention relates to recirculating shader hardware for implementing shade trees for multitexturing and other effects.
Many of us have seen films containing remarkably realistic dinosaurs, aliens, animated toys and other fanciful creatures. Such animations are made possible by computer graphics. Using such techniques, a computer graphics artist can specify how each object should look and how it should change in appearance over time, and a computer then models the objects and displays them on a display such as your television or a computer screen. The computer takes care of performing the many tasks required to make sure that each part of the displayed image is colored and shaped just right based on the position and orientation of each object in a scene, the direction in which light seems to strike each object, the surface texture of each object, and other factors.
Because computer graphics generation is complex, computer-generated three-dimensional graphics just a few years ago were mostly limited to expensive specialized flight simulators, high-end graphics workstations and supercomputers. The public saw some of the images generated by these computer systems in movies and expensive television advertisements, but most of us couldn't actually interact with the computers doing the graphics generation. All this has changed with the availability of relatively inexpensive 3D graphics platforms such as, for example, the Nintendo 64® and various 3D graphics cards now available for personal computers. It is now possible to interact with exciting 3D animations and simulations on relatively inexpensive computer graphics systems in your home or office.
A problem graphics system designers confronted in the past was how to efficiently implement shaders in a graphics system. Generally, shading is the process performing lighting computations and determining pixel colors/opacities from them. Generally, there are three main types of shading in common use: flat, Gouraud, and Phong. These correspond to computing the light per polygon, per vertex and per pixel. A wide variety of shading models have been created. There is no one shading model that pleases all users and is suitable for all applications. Therefore, several design approaches have been suggested to provide flexibility in terms of programmer selection and specification of shading models.
In the paper by R. L. Cook called “Shade Trees” (SIGGRAPH 84, pages 223-231, the author described a special purpose language in which a shader is built as a tree expression called a shade tree. Generally speaking, a shade tree is a tree of nodes each of which takes parameters from its children and produces parameters for its parent. For example, the parameters may be the terms of the illumination equation (e.g., specular coefficient or surface Normal). Other parameters might comprise atmospheric effects (e.g., haze) or projections. The RenderMan Interface uses shade trees to provide user-defined and system-defined shaders for a variety of purposes.
While shade trees have been used extensively in non-real-time rendering graphics systems, problems arise when trying to accommodate the flexibility that shade trees provide within the context of real-time rendering. It would be highly desirable to be able to provide the flexibility of shade trees within low cost real-time rendering systems such as, for example, home video game platforms and personal computer graphics cards.
Another problem confronting graphics systems designers has been how to efficiently provide a feature called single-pass multitexturing. Basically, texturing is a technique for efficiently modeling the properties of a surface. For example, instead of modeling the geometry of each individual brick and mortar line within a brick wall, it is possible to electronically “glue” an image of a brick wall onto a surface. Such texturing capabilities can be used to significantly increase image complexity without a corresponding increase in modeling and processing costs.
The extension to texturing known as multitexturing allows two or more textures to be applied to the same surface. For example, suppose you want to create an image of the earth as it might be seen from outer space. You could model the earth as a sphere and apply two different textures to it. The first texture could be an image of the continents and oceans. The second texture could be an image of cloud cover. By moving the cloud cover texture image relative to the continent/ocean texture image, you could create a very realistic dynamic texture-mapped image.
Some graphics accelerators support multitexturing in which two or more textures are accessed during the same rendering pass. See, for example, Microsoft's Direct X 6.0 SBK (1998); Segal et al., “The Open GL Graphics System: A Specification” (Version 1.2.1) (March 1998) (www.OpenGL.org). Certain PC graphics accelerator cards also provide single pass multitexturing. However, further improvements are possible.
The present invention provides a generalized shade tree blender that can be used for multitexturing as well as a number of other flexible blending effects. In accordance with one aspect provided by this invention, recirculating shader hardware within a graphics pipeline can be controlled to provide a number of independently controllable blending stages. A shader hardware includes intermediate storage for results of previous blending operations. The shader hardware can select different inputs and perform different operations for each blending stage. Thus, relatively low cost and compact shader hardware can be used to implement arbitrarily complex shade trees.
In accordance with another aspect provided by this invention, the results of a first texture mapping operation is provided to a reconfigurable shader. The shader performs a blending operation in response to the first texture mapping operation. The shader is then reconfigured, and is connected to receive the results of a further texturing operation. The reconfigured shader combines its previous results with the results of the further texturing operation to provide a blended output.
In accordance with a further aspect provided by this invention, a shader can be recirculated any desired number of times to implement an arbitrarily complex shading model. Each recirculation or “stage” can be programmed to have any one of a number of desired blending operations and to blend from selected ones of a variety of color, opacity or depth sources. The number of recirculations may be limited in a particular implementation in view of real-time rendering timing constraints, but a reasonable number of recirculation stages (e.g., fifteen) can provide great flexibility in implementing a variety of complex shading models.
In accordance with another aspect provided by this invention, a recirculating shade tree pixel blender is implemented in hardware to minimize processing time per stage. In more detail, a preferred embodiment of this invention provides a relatively low chip-footprint, versatile texture-environment processing subsystem including a hardware accelerated programmable texture shader/pixel blender that circulates computed color, opacity and other data over multiple cycles/stages. The texture environment subsystem can combine per-vertex lighting, textures, rasterized colors, opacities, and depths to form pixel parameters for display. Blending operations for color (e.g., RGB) and alpha components may be independently processed within the texture environment subsystem by a blending unit comprising a set of color/alpha combiner (shader) hardware that is reused over multiple processing stages to implement multitexturing and other effects. Selectable current-color/opacity input/output registers may be shared among all stages to store intermediate results. The shader hardware can be reconfigured for each stage to provide a chain of specifiable blending/shading operations supporting single rendering pass multitexturing and other effects.
These and other features and advantages provided by the invention will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments in conjunction with the drawings, of which:
In this example, system 50 is capable of processing, interactively in real-time, a digital representation or model of a three-dimensional world. System 50 can display some or all of the world from any arbitrary viewpoint. For example, system 50 can interactively change the viewpoint in response to real-time inputs from handheld controllers 52a, 52b or other input devices. This allows the game player to see the world through the eyes of someone within or outside of the world. System 50 can be used for applications that do not require real-time 3D interactive display (e.g., 2D display generation and/or non-interactive display), but the capability of displaying quality 3D images very quickly can be used to create very realistic and exciting game play or other graphical interactions.
To play a video game or other application using system 50, the user first connects a main unit 54 to his or her color television set 56 or other display device by connecting a cable 58 between the two. Main unit 54 produces both video signals and audio signals for controlling color television set 56. The video signals are what controls the images displayed on the television screen 59, and the audio signals are played back as sound through television stereo loudspeakers 61L, 61R.
The user also needs to connect main unit 54 to a power source. This power source may be a conventional AC adapter (not shown) that plugs into a standard home electrical wall socket and converts the house current into a lower DC voltage signal suitable for powering the main unit 54. Batteries could be used in other implementations.
The user may use hand controllers 52a, 52b to control main unit 54. Controls 60 can be used, for example, to specify the direction (up or down, left or right, closer or further away) that a character displayed on television 56 should move within a 3D world. Controls 60 also provide input for other applications (e.g., menu selection, pointer/cursor control, etc.). Controllers 52 can take a variety of forms. In this example, controllers 52 shown each include controls 60 such as joysticks, push buttons and/or directional switches. Controllers 52 may be connected to main unit 54 by cables or wirelessly via electromagnetic (e.g., radio or infrared) waves.
To play an application such as a game, the user selects an appropriate storage medium 62 storing the video game or other application he or she wants to play, and inserts that storage medium into a slot 64 in main unit 54. Storage medium 62 may, for example, be a specially encoded and/or encrypted optical and/or magnetic disk. The user may operate a power switch 66 to turn on main unit 54 and cause the main unit to begin running the video game or other application based on the software stored in the storage medium 62. The user may operate controllers 52 to provide inputs to main unit 54. For example, operating a control 60 may cause the game or other application to start. Moving other controls 60 can cause animated characters to move in different directions or change the user's point of view in a 3D world. Depending upon the particular software stored within the storage medium 62, the various controls 60 on the controller 52 can perform different functions at different times.
Example Electronics of Overall System
In this example, main processor 110 (e.g., an enhanced IBM Power PC 750) receives inputs from handheld controllers 108 (and/or other input devices) via graphics and audio processor 114. Main processor 110 interactively responds to user inputs, and executes a video game or other program supplied, for example, by external storage media 62 via a mass storage access device 106 such as an optical disk drive. As one example, in the context of video game play, main processor 110 can perform collision detection and animation processing in addition to a variety of interactive and control functions.
In this example, main processor 110 generates 3D graphics and audio commands and sends them to graphics and audio processor 114. The graphics and audio processor 114 processes these commands to generate interesting visual images on display 59 and interesting stereo sound on stereo loudspeakers 61R, 61L or other suitable sound-generating devices.
Example system 50 includes a video encoder 120 that receives image signals from graphics and audio processor 114 and converts the image signals into analog and/or digital video signals suitable for display on a standard display device such as a computer monitor or home color television set 56. System 50 also includes an audio codec (compressor/decompressor) 122 that compresses and decompresses digitized audio signals and may also convert between digital and analog audio signaling formats as needed. Audio codec 122 can receive audio inputs via a buffer 124 and provide them to graphics and audio processor 114 for processing (e.g., mixing with other audio signals the processor generates and/or receives via a streaming audio output of mass storage access device 106). Graphics and audio processor 114 in this example can store audio related information in an audio memory 126 that is available for audio tasks. Graphics and audio processor 114 provides the resulting audio output signals to audio codec 122 for decompression and conversion to analog signals (e.g., via buffer amplifiers 128L, 128R) so they can be reproduced by loudspeakers 61L, 61R.
Graphics and audio processor 114 has the ability to communicate with various additional devices that may be present within system 50. For example, a parallel digital bus 130 may be used to communicate with mass storage access device 106 and/or other components. A serial peripheral bus 132 may communicate with a variety of peripheral or other devices including, for example:
3D graphics processor 154 performs graphics processing tasks. Audio digital signal processor 156 performs audio processing tasks. Display controller 164 accesses image information from main memory 112 and provides it to video encoder 120 for display on display device 56. Audio interface and mixer 160 interfaces with audio codec 122, and can also mix audio from different sources (e.g., streaming audio from mass storage access device 106, the output of audio DSP 156, and external audio input received via audio codec 122). Processor interface 150 provides a data and control interface between main processor 110 and graphics and audio processor 114.
Memory interface 152 provides a data and control interface between graphics and audio processor 114 and memory 112. In this example, main processor 110 accesses main memory 112 via processor interface 150 and memory interface 152 that are part of graphics and audio processor 114. Peripheral controller 162 provides a data and control interface between graphics and audio processor 114 and the various peripherals mentioned above. Audio memory interface 158 provides an interface with audio memory 126.
Example Graphics Pipeline
Command processor 200 receives display commands from main processor 110 and parses them—obtaining any additional data necessary to process them from shared memory 112. The command processor 200 provides a stream of vertex commands to graphics pipeline 180 for 2D and/or 3D processing and rendering. Graphics pipeline 180 generates images based on these commands. The resulting image information may be transferred to main memory 112 for access by display controller/video interface unit 164—which displays the frame buffer output of pipeline 180 on display 56.
Command processor 200 performs command processing operations 200a that convert attribute types to floating point format, and pass the resulting complete vertex polygon data to graphics pipeline 180 for rendering/rasterization. A programmable memory arbitration circuitry 130 (see
Transform unit 300 performs a variety of 2D and 3D transform and other operations 300a (see FIG. 5). Transform unit 300 may include one or more matrix memories 300b for storing matrices used in transformation processing 300a. Transform unit 300 transforms incoming geometry per vertex from object space to screen space; and transforms incoming texture coordinates and computes projective texture coordinates (300c). Transform unit 300 may also perform polygon clipping/culling 300d. Lighting processing 300e also performed by transform unit 300b provides per vertex lighting computations for up to eight independent lights in one example embodiment. Transform unit 300 can also perform texture coordinate generation (300c) for embossed type bump mapping effects, as well as polygon clipping/culling operations (300d).
Setup/rasterizer 400 includes a setup unit which receives vertex data from transform unit 300 and sends triangle setup information to one or more rasterizer units (400b) performing edge rasterization, texture coordinate rasterization and color rasterization.
Texture unit 500 (which may include an on-chip texture memory (TMEM) 502) performs various tasks related to texturing including for example:
For details concerning the operation of blocks 500a,500b and 500c, a more detailed description of the example graphics pipeline circuitry and procedures for performing regular and indirect texture look-up operations is disclosed in commonly assigned co-pending patent application, Ser. No. 09/722,382, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Direct And Indirect Texture Processing In A Graphics System” and its corresponding provisional application, Ser. No. 60/226,891, filed Aug. 23, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
Texture unit 500 outputs filtered texture values to the texture environment unit 600 for texture environment processing (600a). Texture environment unit 600 blends polygon and texture color/alpha/depth, and can also perform texture fog processing (600b) to achieve inverse range based fog effects. Texture environment unit 600 can provide multiple stages to perform a variety of other interesting environment-related functions based for example on color/alpha modulation, embossing, detail texturing, texture swapping, clamping, and depth blending.
As shown in
Once texture environment unit 600 generates a blended color/alpha/z output, pixel engine 700 performs depth (z) compare (700a) and frame buffer pixel blending (700b). In this example, pixel engine 700 stores data into an embedded (on-chip) frame buffer memory 702. Graphics pipeline 180 may include one or more embedded DRAM memories 702 to store frame buffer and/or texture information locally. Z compares 700a′ can also be performed at an earlier stage in the graphics pipeline 180 depending on the rendering mode currently in effect (e.g., z compares can be performed earlier if alpha blending is not required). The pixel engine 700 includes a copy operation 700c that periodically writes on-chip frame buffer 702 to main memory 112 for access by display/video interface unit 164. This copy operation 700c can also be used to copy embedded frame buffer 702 contents to textures in the main memory 112 for dynamic texture synthesis effects. Anti-aliasing and other filtering can be performed during the copy-out operation. The frame buffer output of graphics pipeline 180 (which is ultimately stored in main memory 112) is read each frame by display/video interface unit 164. Display controller/video interface 164 provides digital RGB pixel values for display on display 102.
Example Recirculating Shader
In more detail, recirculating shader 602 in the example embodiment can select between any of the following types of inputs:
Each independently controlled recirculation of recirculating shader 602 may be referred to as a “stage.” In the example embodiment, recirculating shader 602 is implemented by high-speed hardware logic in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Recirculation of a high-speed hardware logic functionality to provide a number of independently-controlled logical stages provides flexibility by allowing any desired number of shading/blending stages while reducing hardware complexity and required integrated circuit real estate. Each recirculating shader 602 stage in the example embodiment computes independent blending operations for color (RGB) and alpha (transparency). The blending computation in the example embodiment can be programmed by the application running on main processor 110 from a number of different operations including, for example:
Example Recirculating Shader Implementation
In the example embodiment, recirculating shader 8 provides a color component operation and a separate alpha component operation for each blending stage. For a given stage, the operation performed by block 658 can be different for the color component and the alpha component. The color and alpha component operations can be independently controlled by the application running on main microprocessor 110. This ability to provide independent color and alpha operation controls for each recirculating stage allows recirculating shader 602 to perform arbitrarily complex alpha (transparency) trees of operations at no additional cost in terms of processing speed. The alpha produced by the last stage of recirculating shader 602 is input to alpha compare block 662. The results of this alpha compare operation 662 can be used to, for example, conditionally mask color and/or z writes to embedded frame buffer 702.
In the example embodiment, the final blended output of the last blending stage is stored in register 660(4) for color output and/or alpha thresholding 662. A z-texturing path is also provided for z-texturing. See copending commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/722,378 of Leather et al. entitled “Z-Texturing” and its corresponding Provisional Application No. 60/226,913, filed Aug. 23, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Example Input Multiplexer Configuration
Input controls to multiplexers 656 can be specified independently for each r recirculating shader stage. Multiplexer 656 outputs in example embodiment are unsigned 8-bit values or signed 10-bit values but other implementations could provide different precisions.
Example Blending Calculations/Operations
R=(D+(−1)sub*((1−C)*A+C*B)+bias<<shift
The arguments A, B, C and D in calculation block 664 in the example embodiment are selected from:
Calculation block 664 operates on values A, B and C in the example embodiment. The output of calculation block 664 is passed through an optional negate block 666 and is added by adder 668 with the output of “D” multiplexer 656(D) and an optional bias value. The resulting sum can be scaled by a scaler block 670 and clamped by a clamp block 672 before being stored in any one of registers 660(1), 660(2), 660(3), 660(4) for output and/or subsequent further blending.
In the example embodiment, scale block 670 can scale by 0.5, 1, 2 or 4—but other implementations would provide other scaling factors. Clamping block 672 can support a number of different clamping modes. In one implementation, incoming values A, B, C may be unsigned 8-bit values in one implementation, incoming value D can be a signed 10-bit value, and the output of clamp block 672 can be a signed 10-bit value.
In the embodiment shown in
In the example embodiment shown in
In the example embodiment shown in
The example embodiment shown in
The
The following are some example blending operations:
SelectArg
R=(0, 0, 0, D, 0, 0, 0)=D
Modulate, Modulate2×, Modulate4×
R=(0, B, C, 0, 0, 0, 0)=B*C
The components of argument B and C are multiplied together. A scaling factor of 2 or 4 can be used for brightening:
R=(0, B, C, 0, 0, 0, 1)=B*C*2
R=(0, B, C, 0, 0, 0, 2)=B*C*4
Add
The components of the arguments are added together:
R=(A, 0, 0, D, 0, 0, 0)=A+D
AddSigned, AddSigned2×
The components of the arguments are added with a −0.5 bias, making the effective range of values from −0.5 to 0.5. The result can be multiplied by two for brightening:
R=(A, 0, 0, D, 0, −0.5, 0)=A+D−0.5
R=(A, 0, 0, D, 0, −0.5, 1)=(A+D−0.5)*2
Subtract
The components of the second argument is subtracted from the first argument:
R=(A, 0, 0, D, 1, −0, 0)=D−A
AddSmooth
The basic add operation is mathematically correct for glows, fog, etc. However, it can saturate abruptly causing a contouring artifact. A better looking but less mathematically correct approach is to subtract the product:
R=(A, 0, , C, C, 0, 0, 0)=C+A*(1−C)
BlendDiffuseAlpha, BlendTextureAlpha, BlendFactorAlpha, BlendCurrentAlpha
Linear blending is performed using the alpha from: interpolated alpha from vertices (C=rasterized alpha), alpha from current texture (C=texture alpha), a constant alpha (C=constant alpha), and/or alpha of current color (C=computed alpha):
R=(A, B, CA, 0, 0, 0, 0)=A*(1−CA)+B*CA
BlendTextureAlphaPM
Linear blending with a pre-multiplied alpha:
R=(A, 0, CA, D, 0, 0, 0)=D+A*(1−CA)
ModulateAlpha_AddColor
The second argument is modulated with the first's alpha and the result is added to the first argument.
RGBA=(0, BA, CRGB, BRGB, 0, 0, 0)=BRGB*CRGB
ModulateColor_AddAlpha
The arguments are modulated and the first argument's alpha is then added:
RGBA=(0, BRGB, CRGB, BA, 0, 0, 0)=BRGB*CRGB+BA
ModulateInvAlpha_AddColor
Similar to ModulateAlpha_AddColor, but it uses the inverse of the first argument's alpha:
RGBA=(ARGB, 0, CA, CRGB, 0, 0, 0)=(1−CA)*ARGB+CRGB
ModulateInvColor_AddAlpha
Similar to ModulateColor_AddAlpha, but it uses the inverse of the first color:
RRGB=(ARGB, 0, CA, CRGB, 0, 0, 0)=(1−CA)*ARGB+CRGB
ModulateInvColor_AddAlpha
Similar to ModulateColor_AddAlpha, but it uses the inverse of the first color:
RRGB=(ARGB, 0, CRGB, CA, 0, 0, 0)=(1−CRGB)*ARGB+CA
Specular Color and Texture
In addition to the above operation, more complicated blending can be achieved by using multiple stages. For example:
Final Color=Specular Texture*Specular Color+Diffuse Texture*Diffuse Color
It can be implemented using two stages as:
This example is for embossing:
Final Color=(Diffuse Color+Constant*(Normal1−Normal2))*Material Texture
It can be implemented using three stages as:
This example is for detail texturing. The difference textures have a bias of 0.5.
Final Color=Base Texture+(Difference Texture A−0.5)+(Difference Texture B=0.5)
It can be implemented as:
In the example embodiment, clamp block 672 may provide any of the following clamping modes:
Alpha Function Support
The example embodiment recirculating shader 602 supports different alpha functions. Note that in the example embodiment, the alpha compare operation is not part of the recirculation stage, but rather, is performed after recirculation is complete. See FIG. 11. In the example embodiment, the alpha function compares the source alpha with a reference alpha using any one of the following operations:
The alpha functionality of recirculating shader 602 (e.g., in combination with the non-recirculating alpha compare) can be used to provide a transparency tree analogous to a shade tree. In particular, recirculating shader 602's alpha functionality can be used to provide N logical alpha operations on M alpha inputs, where N and M can be any integers. The combination of alpha compares and alpha logical operations can be used, for example, to provide non-photorealistic effects such as cartoon outlining. See, for example, commonly assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/726,212 of Law et al. entitled “Method and Apparatus For Providing Non-Photorealistic Cartoon Outlining Within A Graphics System” and its corresponding provisional application, serial No. 60/226,915, filed Aug. 23, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
Example Z Texturing
Shader 602 supports sprites with depth by modifying the screen z value using texture mapping. Once enabled, shader 602 sends four z values to pixel engine 700 per quad instead of a reference z and two slopes. Each z value is obtained by adding a z texel to the quad reference z or replacing the reference z with the z texel. See the commonly-assigned z texturing patent application referenced above.
Example Use of Recirculating Shader for Multitexturing
In the example embodiment, recirculating shader 602 retains intermediate blending results for further blending with additional information provided by recirculating texture unit 500. Soon after recirculating texture unit 500 develops a final texture mapping output in a sequence of texture mapping outputs, recirculating shader 602 can perform a corresponding final blend operation and output the blending results via fog block 600b for depth buffering, final color blending with frame buffer 702 contents, and display.
Recirculating shader 602 temporarily stores the output of blend operation 1010 as an intermediate result (block 1012). The entire process may then be recirculated any number of times to retrieve and blend additional sets of texture data. In the example embodiment, recirculating shader 602 can perform blocks 1010, 1012 at the same time that texture unit 500 performs blocks 1004, 1008 to retrieve an additional texture mapping.
Because example preferred embodiment system 50 is a real-time rendering system, the number of times that recirculating texture unit 500 can recirculate is limited by the amount of time it takes for each recirculation relative to the time between image frames (e.g., 1/30 or 1/60 of a second). In one example embodiment, the total number of recirculations that recirculating texture unit 500 can perform in a single rendering pass might be eight, although different implementations might provide different numbers of recirculations. In the example embodiment, recirculating shader 602 can recirculate approximately twice as many times as texture unit 500 can recirculate. The additional recirculations provided by recirculating shader 602 can be used to perform a number of enhanced and interesting image effects including, for example, fog, z texturing, environment mapping, embossing, detailed texturing, and other imaging effects. The texture input to recirculating shader 602 are preferably set to null during stages where texture unit 500 cannot make a texture available.
Example Register Interface
The following are example application programming interface calls:
GXSetTevOp
Description: This is a convenience function designed to make initial programming of the Texture Environment unit easier. This macro calls GXSetTevColorIn, GXSetTevColorOp, GXSetTevAlphaIn, and GXSetTevAlphaOp with predefined arguments to implement familiar texture combining functions.
To enable a consecutive set of recirculating shader stages, the application should call the GXSetNumTevStages function.
In the table below, Cv is the output color for the stage, Cr is the output color of previous stage, and Ct is the texture color. Av is the output alpha for a stage, Ar is the output alpha of previous stage, and At is the texture alpha. As a special case, rasterized color (GX_CC_RASC) is used as Cr and rasterized alpha (GX_CA_RASA) is used as Ar at the first recirculating shader stage because there is no previous stage.
Arguments: id=stage id, mode=predefined color combining modes.
Enumerated Values
Texture Environment (Recirculating shader) stage name.
GXTevMode
Enumerated Values:
GX_DECAL
This function enables a consecutive number of Texture Environment (recirculating shader) stages. The output pixel color (before fogging and blending) is the result from the last stage. The last recirculating shader stage must write to register GX_TEVPREV, see GXSetTevColorOp and GXSetTevAlphaOp. At least one recirculating shader stage should be enabled. If a Z-texture is enabled, the Z texture is looked up on the last stage, see GXSetZTexture.
The association of lighting colors, texture coordinates, and texture maps with a recirculating shader stage is set using GXSetTevOrder. The number of texture coordinates available is set using GXSetNumTexGens. The number of color channels available is set using GXSetNumChans.
GXInit will set nStages to 1 as a default.
This function sets the input operands of the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) color combiner unit. The input operands a, b, and c are RGB colors where each component is unsigned 8-bit (0<=a,b,c<=255). The d input operand is an RGB color where each component is a signed 10-bit input (−1024<=d<=1023).
In the cases where the input operand is an alpha value (GX_CC_A0, GX_CC_A1, GX_CC_A2, GX_CC_APREV, GX_CC_TEXA, GX_CC_RASA), the alpha value is replicated across the three color channels (R=A, G=A, B=A).
The function implemented by this recirculating shader stage is set using the function GXSetTevColorOp.
The output of this stage is directed by default to register GX_TEVPREV (see GXInit), but may be set explicitly by GXSetTevColorOp.
The registers used to store the output of Recirculating shader stages can also be used as inputs, GX_CC_C0, GX_CC_C1, GX_CC_C2, GX_CC_CPREV. You can program these registers with constant color values using GXSetTevColor or GXSetTevColorS10.
Each register can store either an unsigned 8-bit number or a signed 10-bit number per component (RGB). If a signed 10-bit number is selected for inputs a, b, or c, the number is truncated to 8 bits. No attempt is made to convert the number, the most significant bits are simply discarded.
The input operands GX_CC_RASC and GX_CC_RASA are the result of the per-vertex lighting equations. The input operands GX_CC_TEXC and GX_CC_TEXA are the texture inputs for this stage. The texture color input GX_CC_TEXC, may have its color components swapped before input by setting operands GX_TC_TEXRRR, GX—TC_TEXGGG or GX_TC_TEXBBB. You can select one of the swap operands per Recirculating shader stage. In an example embodiment, it is illegal to use both GX_TC_TEXRRR and GX_TC_GGG in the same stage.
GXSetTevOrder associates a shader stage with particular colors and textures.
This function sets the input operands for one stage of the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) alpha combiner unit. The input operands a, b, and c are unsigned 8-bit inputs (0<=a,b,c<=255). The d input operand is a signed 10-bit input (−1024<=d<=1023).
Each shader stage implements the following function:
reg=(d(op)((1.0−c)*a+c*b)+bias)*scale;
The operations described by op, bias, and scale are programmable using the GXSetTevAlphaOp function.
The output of this stage is directed by default to register GX_TEVPASS (see GXInit), but may be set explicitly by GXSetTevAlphaOp. The result can be clamped to two ranges, 0 to 255 or −1024 to 1023, based on the clamp mode set by
GXSetTevClampMode. When the input a, b, or c is from a signed 10-bit number (either the results of a previous recirculating shader stage or an input constant) only the 8 least-significant bits are used. There is no attempt to convert the number, the upper bits are simply discarded.
The registers used to store the output of Recirculating shader stages can also be used as inputs, GX_CA_A0, GX_CA_A1, GX_CA_A2, GX_CA_APREV. You can program these registers with constant alpha values using GXSetTevColor or GXSetTevColorS10.
The input operand GX_CA_RASA is the result of the per-vertex lighting equations. The input operand GX_CA_TEXA is the texture alpha input for this stage. You can select the colors and textures to which these inputs correspond using GXSetTevOrder.
This function sets the op, scale, bias, and clamping operation for the color combiner function for this stage of the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) unit. This function also specifies the output register, out_reg, that will contain the result of the color combiner function. The color combiner function is:
out_reg=(d(op)((1.0−c)*a+c*b)+bias)*scale;
The input parameters a, b, c, and d are selected using the GXSetTevColorIn function. The a, b, and c inputs are unsigned 8b inputs (0<=a,b,c<=255). The d input is a signed 10b input (−1024<=d<=1023). The result, out_reg, can also be a signed 10b result, depending on the clamp enable and the current clamping mode, see GXSetTevClampMode.
The recirculating shader output registers are shared among all the recirculating shader stages. The recirculating shader output registers can also be used as constant color inputs, so the application should be careful to allocate input and output registers so no collision occurs when implementing a particular equation. The application must output to GX_TEVPREV in the last active recirculating shader stage.
The function GXSetTevOp provides a simpler way to set the parameters of GXSetTevColorIn and GXSetTevColorOp based on predefined equation names. You should not mix usage of GXSetTevOp and GXSetTevColorIn/GXSetTevColorOp.
GXSetTevOp makes some assumptions about the output register usage, namely that GX_TEVPREV is always the output register and is used to pass the result of the previous recirculating shader stage to the next recirculating shader stage.
This function sets the op, scale, bias, and clamping operation for the alpha combiner function for this stage of the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) unit. This function also specifies the register, out_reg, that will contain the result of the alpha combiner function. The alpha combiner function is:
out_reg=(d(op)((1.0−c)*a+c*b)+bias)*scale;
The input parameters a, b, c, and d are set using GXSetTevAlphaIn. The a, b, and c inputs are unsigned 8b inputs (0<=a,b,c<=255). The d input is a signed 10b input (−1024<=d<=1023). The result, out_reg, can also be a signed 10b result, depending on the clamp enable and the current clamping mode, see GXSetTevClampMode.
You must enable a consecutive number of recirculating shader stages using GXSetTevStages. The last active recirculating shader stage writes its output to register GX_TEVPREV.
This function is used to set one of the constant color registers in the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) unit. These registers are available to all recirculating shader stages. At least one of these registers is used to pass the output of one recirculating shader stage to the next in a multi-texture configuration. The application is responsible for allocating these registers so that no collisions in usage occur.
This function can set unsigned 8-bit colors. To set signed, 10-bit colors use GXSetTexColorS10.
Arguments
This function is used to set one of the constant color registers in the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) unit. These registers are available to all recirculating shader stages. At least one of these registers is used to pass the output of one recirculating shader stage to the next in a multi-texture configuration. The application is responsible for allocating these registers so that no collisions in usage occur.
This function enables the color components to be signed 10-bit numbers. To set 8-bit unsigned colors (the common case) use GXSetTevColor.
Arguments
This function sets the clamp mode for this stage in the Texture Environment (recirculating shader) unit. This mode is used for both alpha and color combiners. The mode effects how the clamp controls set by GXSetTevColorOp and GXSetTevAlphaOp are interpreted as shown in the table below. R is the TEV stage result color.
This function sets the parameters for the alpha compare function which uses the alpha output from the last active Texture Environment (recirculating shader) stage. The number of active recirculating shader stages are specified using GXSetTevStages.
The output alpha can be used in the blending equation (see GXSetBlendMode) to control how source and destination (frame buffer) pixels are combined.
The alpha compare operation is:
alpha_pass=(alpha_src (comp0) ref0)(op)(alpha_src (comp1) ref1)
where alpha_src is the alpha from the last active Recirculating shader stage. As an example, you can implement these equations:
alpha_pass=(alpha_src>ref0) AND (alpha_src<ref1)
or
alpha_pass=(alpha_src>ref0) OR (alpha_src<ref1)
The Z compare can occur either before or after texturing, see GXSetZCompLoc. in the case where Z compare occurs before texturing, the Z is written based only on the Z test. The color is written if both the Z test and alpha test pass.
When Z compare occurs after texturing, the color and Z are written if both the Z test and alpha test pass. When using texture to make cutout shapes (like billboard trees) that need to be correctly Z buffered, you should configure the pipeline to Z buffer after texturing.
Arguments
This function specifies the texture and rasterized color that will be available as inputs to this Texture Environment (recirculating shader) stage. The texture coordinate coord is generated from input attributes using the GXSetTexCoordGen function, and is used to look up the texture map, previously loaded by GXLoadTexObj. The color to rasterize for this stage is also specified. The color is the result of per-vertex lighting which is controlled by the GXSetChanCtrl function.
Note that this function does not enable the recirculating shader stage. To enable a consecutive number of Recirculating shader stages, starting at stage GX_TEVSTAGE0, use the GXSetNumTevStages function.
The operation of each recirculating shader stage is independent. The color operations are controlled by GXSetTevColorIn and GXSetTevColorOp. The alpha operations are controlled by GXSetTevAlphaIn and GXSetTevAlphaOp.
The number of texture coordinates available for all the active recirculating shader stages is set using GXSetNumTexGens. The number of color channels available for all the active recirculating shader stages is set using GXSetNumChans. Active recirculating shader stages should not reference more texture coordinates or colors than are being generated.
Using GXSetTevOrder, it is possible to broadcast a single texture coordinate to many textures as long as the textures are the same size:
You may also use any generated texture coordinate in any recirculating shader stage:
If no texture is used in a recirculating shader stage, set coord and map to NULL:
If no color is used in a recirculating shader stage, set color to NULL:
GXSetTevOrder will scale the normalized texture coordinates produced by GXSetTexCoordGen according to the size of the texture map in the function call. For this reason, texture coordinates can only be broadcast to multiple texture maps if and only if the maps are the same size. In some case, you may want to generate a texture coordinate having a certain scale, but disable the texture lookup (this comes up when generating texture coordinates for indirect bump mapping). To accomplish this, use the GX_TEXMAP_DISABLE flag:
This will scale GX_TEXCOOR0 using GX_TEXMAP3 but disable the lookup of GX_TEXMAP3.
GXInit describes the default recirculating shader order.
Arguments
This configuration is used for displaying the texture color directly. No rasterized color can be used.
This configuration uses the DECAL operation. The texture should contain alpha value which will be used for blending.
This configuration uses neither the output from lighting unit or any texture.
No texture is used. The first stage passes the first rasterized color by using PASSCLR operation. The second stage adds two colors where a detailed setting is required.
If the specular color is allowed to be white only, you may use alpha channel for specular lit color which will be broadcasted to each RGB component on a TEV stage. Since it requires only one stage, we can obtain better fill-rate than using two channels. This method can be used if the alpha is not reserved for another purpose.
Certain of the above-described system components 50 could be implemented as other than the home video game console configuration described above. For example, one could run graphics application or other software written for system 50 on a platform with a different configuration that emulates system 50 or is otherwise compatible with it. If the other platform can successfully emulate, simulate and/or provide some or all of the hardware and software resources of system 50, then the other platform will be able to successfully execute the software.
As one example, an emulator may provide a hardware and/or software configuration (platform) that is different from the hardware and/or software configuration (platform) of system 50. The emulator system might include software and/or hardware components that emulate or simulate some or all of hardware and/or software components of the system for which the application software was written. For example, the emulator system could comprise a general purpose digital computer such as a personal computer, which executes a software emulator program that simulates the hardware and/or firmware of system 50.
Some general purpose digital computers (e.g., IBM or Macintosh personal computers and compatibles) are now equipped with 3D graphics cards that provide 3D graphics pipelines compliant with DirectX or other standard 3D graphics command APIs. They may also be equipped with stereophonic sound cards that provide high quality stereophonic sound based on a standard set of sound commands. Such multimedia-hardware-equipped personal computers running emulator software may have sufficient performance to approximate the graphics and sound performance of system 50. Emulator software controls the hardware resources on the personal computer platform to simulate the processing, 3D graphics, sound, peripheral and other capabilities of the home video game console platform for which the game programmer wrote the game software.
As one example, in the case where the software is written for execution on a platform using an IBM PowerPC or other specific processor and the host 1201 is a personal computer using a different (e.g., Intel) processor, emulator 1303 fetches one or a sequence of binary-image program instructions from storage medium 62 and converts these program instructions to one or more equivalent Intel binary-image program instructions. The emulator 1303 also fetches and/or generates graphics commands and audio commands intended for processing by the graphics and audio processor 114, and converts these commands into a format or formats that can be processed by hardware and/or software graphics and audio processing resources available on host 1201. As one example, emulator 1303 may convert these commands into commands that can be processed by specific graphics and/or or sound hardware of the host 1201 (e.g., using standard DirectX, OpenGL and/or sound APIs).
An emulator 1303 used to provide some or all of the features of the video game system described above may also be provided with a graphic user interface (GUI) that simplifies or automates the selection of various options and screen modes for games run using the emulator. In one example, such an emulator 1303 may further include enhanced functionality as compared with the host platform for which the software was originally intended.
A number of program modules including emulator 1303 may be stored on the hard disk 1211, removable magnetic disk 1215, optical disk 1219 and/or the ROM 1252 and/or the RAM 1254 of system memory 1205. Such program modules may include an operating system providing graphics and sound APIs, one or more application programs, other program modules, program data and game data. A user may enter commands and information into personal computer system 1201 through input devices such as a keyboard 1227, pointing device 1229, microphones, joysticks, game controllers, satellite dishes, scanners, or the like. These and other input devices can be connected to processing unit 1203 through a serial port interface 1231 that is coupled to system bus 1207, but may be connected r by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port Fire wire bus or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 1233 or other type of display device is also connected to system bus 1207 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1235.
System 1201 may also include a modem 1154 or other network interface means for establishing communications over a network 1152 such as the Internet. Modem 1154, which may be internal or external, is connected to system bus 123 via serial port interface 1231. A network interface 1156 may also be provided for allowing system 1201 to communicate with a remote computing device 1150 (e.g., another system 1201) via a local area network 1158 (or such communication may be via wide area network 1152 or other communications path such as dial-up or other communications means). System 1201 will typically include other peripheral output devices, such as printers and other standard peripheral devices.
In one example, video adapter 1235 may include a 3D graphics pipeline chip set providing fast 3D graphics rendering in response to 3D graphics commands issued based on a standard 3D graphics application programmer interface such as Microsoft's DirectX 7.0 or other version. A set of stereo loudspeakers 1237 is also connected to system bus 1207 via a sound generating interface such as a conventional “sound card” providing hardware and embedded software support for generating high quality stereophonic sound based on sound commands provided by bus 1207. These hardware capabilities allow system 1201 to provide sufficient graphics and sound speed performance to play software stored in storage medium 62.
All documents referenced above are hereby incorporated by reference.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application serial No. 60/226,888, filed Aug. 23, 2000, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in this application. This application is related to concurrently-filed application Ser. No. 09/726,212 of Law et al entitled “Method And Apparatus For Providing Logical Combination Of N Alpha Operations Within A Graphics System”.
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| Number | Date | Country |
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| 2294233 | Jan 1999 | CA |
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| WO 0011613 | Mar 2000 | WO |
| WO 0011614 | Mar 2000 | WO |
| WO 0019377 | Apr 2000 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60226888 | Aug 2000 | US |
