Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100013854 | GPU BEZIER PATH RASTERIZATION - Hybrid architecture of supersampling and computing distance from a feature edge or Bezier evaluation to address thin feature support in graphics systems. To avoid missing some features the technique creates a supersampling of a small number of supersamples to pick up the thin features. By supersampling, samples can be produced on both sides of a thin feature, which causes thin features to be detectable by some pixel. Now that the thin features hit some pixel, the quality is achieved by a distance-from-edge approach. For example, the technique can supersample four times in combination with the distance-from-edge approach, produce another four samples there resulting in a 16-sample result. | 01-21-2010 |
20100026700 | GPU SCENE COMPOSITION AND ANIMATION - Architecture that expresses scene composition and animation in a form that can run entirely on the graphics processing unit (GPU). The architecture stores retained graph information (e.g., scene graph and animation information) as texture information, and uses shaders (e.g., vertex and pixel) to evaluate time information, evaluate animation, evaluate transforms, and rasterize paths. Additionally, the architecture provides the ability to compute animation positions and redraw entirely on the GPU without per primitive CPU intervention. | 02-04-2010 |
20120139918 | LAYER COMBINATION IN A SURFACE COMPOSITION SYSTEM - A system and method for processing and rendering multiple layers of a two-dimensional scene. A system provides a mechanism to determine a number of scene surfaces and a mapping between scene layers and scene surfaces. The mechanisms may include combining and aggregating areas of layers to create one opaque surface, aggregating non-overlapping semi-transparent opaque areas of layers, or creating surfaces from overlapping semi-transparent surfaces. Moving objects are accommodated, so that layers below a moving object may be rendered properly in frames where the moving object is above the layer and frames where the moving object is not above the layer, for each pixel. | 06-07-2012 |
20130063459 | PRIMITIVE COMPOSITION - Performing primitive composition within a user interface thread, enhancing the ability to scale a user interface framework to computing devices having limited resources. In one or more embodiments, a user interface thread walks a user interface hierarchy that describes elements of a program's user interface and directly generates static Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) data structures representing at least a portion of the user interface hierarchy. The user interface thread passes the static GPU data structures to a composition thread, which uses these static GPU data structures during generation of a plurality of video frames. This includes the composition thread, based on the static GPU data structures, sending GPU data and GPU commands for the plurality of video frames to a GPU for rendering. | 03-14-2013 |
20130063463 | REAL-TIME ATLASING OF GRAPHICS DATA - Performing real-time atlasing of graphics data and creation and maintenance of texture atlases for applications having dynamic graphics content. Embodiments include allocating a texture atlas configured to store textural elements for use in rendering graphical elements, and providing a graphics processing unit (GPU) access to the texture atlas. During subsequent execution of an application, when a graphical element of the application is to be rendered by the GPU, a block of space can be allocated within the texture atlas and a textural element corresponding to the graphical element can be stored within the allocated block. The GPU therefore has access to the textural element when rendering the graphical element. | 03-14-2013 |
20130063464 | PRIMITIVE RENDERING USING A SINGLE PRIMITIVE TYPE - Rendering different types of graphical content using a single primitive type. Embodiments enable graphical elements of different content types representing a scene to be rendered as a batch based on the single primitive type, thereby reducing data transfer and improving processing performance. For example, each graphical element in a batch of graphical elements can rendered based modifications to instances of a template shape, which represents a single primitive type usable for rendering different types of graphical content. The modifications to each instance can include modifying the instance according transformation data, clip data, and/or width and height data to position the instance in a scene, and filling the modified instance according to one or more of shape or brush data corresponding to the graphical element. | 03-14-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080270482 | MANAGING OBJECT LIFETIME FOR NATIVE/MANAGED PEERS - A system that manages lifetime of an object is provided. The system analyzes references on multiple objects to determine reachability of a native peer and dynamically transitions between native and managed object lifetime management systems based on the analysis. When a native peer is not reachable by a native application reference, the system weakens references to a managed peer avoiding memory leaks and clones the native references to the managed side to avoid premature collection. The system performs an optimized cleanup during object system shutdown wherein the references between managed and native peers are released and SafeHandles are suppressed from finalization. The system employs a pending remove list that stores a reference to a weak reference of a managed peer to eliminate race conditions that occur during finalization. | 10-30-2008 |
20090123089 | ADAPTIVE FILTERING FOR IMAGE TRANSFORM PROCESSES - Adaptive filtering techniques are set forth that improve video playback performance. A color similarity metric is computed for source pixels undergoing an image transform operation to determine color values of a target pixel location. The value of the color similarity metric defines what algorithm is used to determine the color values of the target pixel location from the source pixels. While the computation of the color similarity metric introduces additional instructions for each pixel, going against conventional wisdom, enormous performance savings by avoiding unnecessarily complex sets of interpolation instructions where a simpler instruction set suffices, outweighs any such cost from additional instructions. | 05-14-2009 |
20090315902 | INTELLIGENT CACHING DATA STRUCTURE FOR IMMEDIATE MODE GRAPHICS - An intelligent caching data structure and mechanisms for storing visual information via objects and data representing graphics information. The data structure is generally associated with mechanisms that intelligently control how the visual information therein is populated and used. The cache data structure can be traversed for direct rendering, or traversed for pre-processing the visual information into an instruction stream for another entity. Much of the data typically has no external reference to it, thereby enabling more of the information stored in the data structure to be processed to conserve resources. A transaction/batching-like model for updating the data structure enables external modifications to the data structure without interrupting reading from the data structure, and such that changes received are atomically implemented. A method and mechanism are provided to call back to an application program in order to create or re-create portions of the data structure as needed, to conserve resources. | 12-24-2009 |
20090328066 | UNTRUSTED COMPONENT HOSTING - In a computing environment, one may wish to have interoperability between trusted and untrusted controls/plug-ins allowing for richer expression of content and control within a platform. This can be accomplished by allowing an untrusted plug-in to communicate with a trusted plug-in, while having the trusted plug-in exercise control over the platform. This allows for the creation of a layered secure approach of communication with a platform, thus allowing for increased application richness in untrusted third party applications. | 12-31-2009 |
20120075310 | ARC SPLINE GPU RASTERIZATION FOR CUBIC BEZIER DRAWING - A curve drawing system is described herein that rasterizes arc splines in the GPU of a computer for cubic Bezier drawing of strokes and thin features. The curve drawing system first converts a cubic Bezier representation into an arc spline representation. Then the curve drawing system uses a similar approach to Loop/Blinn modified to cause the pixel shader to perform a point-in-circular-arc test instead of a point-in-Bezier test. Calculating arc radius is a much simpler operation than the alternatives and can be easily and efficiently performed by the pixel shader. Since the stroke of an arc spline is also an arc spline, the drawing system provides a resolution-independent representation of strokes. Thus, the curve drawing system allows several previously difficult graphical features to be efficiently drawn by readily available legacy hardware and used in software programs that are designed to run on a wide variety of hardware. | 03-29-2012 |
20120144333 | RENDER TRANSFORM BASED SCROLLING AND PANNING FOR SMOOTH EFFECTS - An information display system is described herein that separates rendering of information from receiving that information so that the rendering portion can be quickly displayed to the user and the data can arrive as it is available to provide further detail. The rendering portion creates a hardware surface measured to fill the area to be consumed by the list box or other control. Independently, the information retrieval portion queries information from a server or other source and processes the information as it is received. The system can then perform a transformation on the previously created hardware surface to insert the information in the rendered control without re-laying out the entire control or recreating user interface elements. Moving a surface is a cheaper operation for a CPU and can easily be accelerated using a GPU. | 06-07-2012 |
20140043351 | ADAPTIVE FILTERING FOR IMAGE TRANSFORM PROCESSES - Adaptive filtering techniques are set forth that improve video playback performance. A color similarity metric is computed for source pixels undergoing an image transform operation to determine color values of a target pixel location. The value of the color similarity metric defines what algorithm is used to determine the color values of the target pixel location from the source pixels. While the computation of the color similarity metric introduces additional instructions for each pixel, going against conventional wisdom, enormous performance savings by avoiding unnecessarily complex sets of interpolation instructions where a simpler instruction set suffices, outweighs any such cost from additional instructions. | 02-13-2014 |
20140143700 | RENDER TRANSFORM BASED SCROLLING AND PANNING FOR SMOOTH EFFECTS - An information display system is described herein that separates rendering of information from receiving that information so that the rendering portion can be quickly displayed to the user and the data can arrive as it is available to provide further detail. The rendering portion creates a hardware surface measured to fill the area to be consumed by the list box or other control. Independently, the information retrieval portion queries information from a server or other source and processes the information as it is received. The system can then perform a transformation on the previously created hardware surface to insert the information in the rendered control without re-laying out the entire control or recreating user interface elements. Moving a surface is a cheaper operation for a CPU and can easily be accelerated using a GPU. | 05-22-2014 |