Filtering Multi-Sample Surfaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016379403-A1
Application number	US-201514751513-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In accordance with some embodiments, multi-sampling may be used together with texture filtering and particularly texture filtering that generally uses rectangular grids of samples. This is accomplished by performing the texture filtering before doing the resolve, while conventionally the resolve is done and then the texture filtering is done. In addition, each sample is filtered as if it were the only sample.

First claim

1 . A method comprising:
treating a multi-sample image as a set of single-sample images, one single sample image for each sample in the multi-sample image; for a first of N samples, where N is a positive integer, subtracting a sample position relative to a pixel center from a texture filter position; performing single sample texture filtering at the texture filter position to generate a result; combining the result into an accumulator; repeating the steps above for N−1 samples; and resolving the N texture filtering results to convert a multi-sample image to a single-sample image in a graphics processor.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein texture filtering includes bilinear filtering.

3 . The method of claim 1 including implementing per sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

4 . The method of claim 1 including implementing per pixel multi-sampling anti-aliasing.

5 . The method of claim 1 including processing both per-pixel and per-sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

6 . The method of claim 1 including receiving samples with a linear function and providing a texture filtering result that preserves said linear function.

7 . The method of claim 1 including receiving samples with a non-linear function and providing a texture filtering result that preserves said non-linear function.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein resolving includes summing the N-per sample results and dividing by N.

9 . One or more non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions executed by a processor to perform a sequence comprising:
treating a multi-sample image as a set of single-sample images, one single sample image for each sample in the multi-sample image; for a first of N samples, where N is a positive integer, subtracting a sample position from a texture filter position; performing single sample texture filtering at the texture filter position to generate a result; combining the results into an accumulator; repeating the steps above for N−1 samples; and resolving the N texture filtering results to convert a multi-sample image to a single-sample image in a graphics processor.

10 . The media of claim 9 wherein texture filtering includes bilinear filtering.

11 . The media of claim 9 , said sequence including implementing per sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

12 . The media of claim 9 , said sequence including implementing per pixel multi-sampling anti-aliasing.

13 . The media of claim 9 , said sequence including processing both per-pixel and per-sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

14 . The media of claim 9 , said sequence including receiving samples with a linear function and providing a texture filtering result that preserves said linear function.

15 . The media of claim 9 , said sequence including receiving samples with a non-linear function and providing a texture filtering result that preserves said non-linear function.

16 . The media of claim 9 wherein resolving includes summing the N-per sample results and dividing by N.

17 . An apparatus comprising:
a subtractor to subtract a sample position from a texture filter position for a first of N samples, where N is a positive integer; a texture filter to perform single sample texture filtering at the texture filter position; an accumulator to add the result of the filter; and a resolve unit to resolve N texture filtering results and to convert a multi-sample image to a single sample image.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said texture filter is a bilinear filtering.

19 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said apparatus to implement per sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

20 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said apparatus to implement per pixel multi-sampling anti-aliasing.

21 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said apparatus to process both per-pixel and per-sample multi-sample anti-aliasing.

22 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said apparatus to receive samples with a linear function and provide a texture filtering result that preserves said linear function.

23 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said apparatus to receive samples with a non-linear function and provide a texture filtering result that preserves said non-linear function.

24 . The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the resolve unit to sum the N-sample results and divide by N.

25 . The apparatus of claim 24 wherein said resolve unit uses a bit shift to divide by N.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Seiler Larry

Classifications

• G06T7/0085

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T15/04 Primary

  Texture mapping · CPC title

• G06T3/60

  Rotation of whole images or parts thereof · CPC title

• G06T7/408

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T7/0053

  Physics · mapped topic