COMPUTER GRAPHICS SYSTEM WITH ADAPTIVE PIXEL MULTISAMPLER

摘要

An adaptive pixel multisampler (24) generates pixel data for display using an interlocking sub-pixel sampling pattern P and a frame buffer (26) organized as a per-polygon, per-pixel heap (64). The interlocking sampling pattern P provides the advantages of a multi-pixel shaped filter without pixel-to-pixel cross communication and without additional sub-pixels. The per-polygon, perpixel heap (64) allocates frame buffer memory so that each pixel will have one set of data stored in the frame buffer (26) for every polygon that influences that pixel. This memory allocation scheme can significantly reduce frame buffer memory requirements. The polygon data is blended to properly handle processing of transparent polygons and polygon edges without the degradation of image quality found in conventional computer graphics systems.