System and method for computing a desktop picture

摘要

Disclosed are a system and method for computing a desktop picture. Instead of loading a file that contains the desktop image from memory, the present invention provides for a system and method for opening and retaining a procedural recipe and a small set of instructions that can be executed to compute a desktop picture. The desktop picture can be computed very quickly using a GPU (graphics processing unit), and can be made to move on demand. When a part of the desktop image is needed to composite, that part is computed using a fragment program on the GPU using the procedural recipe and a specially written fragment program into a temporary VRAM buffer. After it is computed and composited, the buffer containing the result of the fragment program may be discarded.

主权项

1. A method of computing a multicolor desktop background for display on a display device, the method comprising:
loading a set of instructions and a first procedural description for computing a first image, wherein the first image comprises a plurality of pixels, wherein the first procedural description comprises instructions to compute color values of at least some of the plurality of pixels based on a time of day, wherein the first procedural description simulates a color gradient, and wherein the set of instructions and first procedural description comprise a fragment program; and executing, using one or more graphical processing units (GPUs), the fragment program on one or more of the plurality of pixels simultaneously to generate the first image, wherein the first image is used as at least part of a desktop background.