Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Alpha-to-coverage value determination using virtual samples
- Patent Title (中): 使用虚拟样本的Alpha到覆盖值确定
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Application No.: US12904935Application Date: 2010-10-14
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Publication No.: US08669999B2Publication Date: 2014-03-11
- Inventor: Walter E. Donovan , Emmett M. Kilgariff , Steven E. Molnar , Christian Amsinck , Robert Ohannessian
- Applicant: Walter E. Donovan , Emmett M. Kilgariff , Steven E. Molnar , Christian Amsinck , Robert Ohannessian
- Applicant Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
- Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Agency: Patterson & Sheridan, LLP
- Main IPC: G09G5/00
- IPC: G09G5/00

Abstract:
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for converting alpha values into pixel coverage masks. Geometric coverage is sampled at a number of “real” sample positions within each pixel. Color and depth values are computed for each of these real samples. Fragment alpha values are used to determine an alpha coverage mask for the real samples and additional “virtual” samples, in which the number of bits set in the mask bits is proportional to the alpha value. An alpha-to-coverage mode uses the virtual samples to increase the number of transparency levels for each pixel compared with using only real samples. The alpha-to-coverage mode may be used in conjunction with virtual coverage anti-aliasing to provide higher-quality transparency for rendering anti-aliased images.
Public/Granted literature
- US20110090251A1 ALPHA-TO-COVERAGE VALUE DETERMINATION USING VIRTUAL SAMPLES Public/Granted day:2011-04-21
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