IMPROVEMENTS IN MEMORY MANAGEMENT FOR SYSTEMS GENERATING 3D COMPUTER IMAGES

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a memory management system and method which reduces the area occupied by a memory and improves performance.

SOLUTION: The system includes: means for subdividing an image into a plurality of rectangular areas; means for preparing a memory having a first portion for storing object data for each rectangular area and a second portion for storing depth data; means for storing the object data in the first memory portion; means for deriving the depth data from the object data; means for storing the depth data in the second memory portion; means for loading object data into the first memory portion for replacement; means for retrieving the stored depth data; means for deriving updated depth data from stored depth data, and storing the updated depth data for replacement; means for repeating the above four steps until there is no further object data to load to the memory; and means for deriving image data and shading data from the depth data for display.

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