US 6,982,718 B2 | ||
System, method and computer program product for programmable fragment processing in a graphics pipeline | ||
Mark J. Kilgard, Austin, Tex. (US); Patrick R. Brown, Raleigh, N.C. (US); and Eric S. Werness, New Haven, Conn. (US) | ||
Assigned to NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. (US) | ||
Filed on Nov. 30, 2001, as Appl. No. 10/996. | ||
Application 10/000996 is a continuation in part of application No. 09/877348, filed on Jun. 08, 2001, granted, now 6,697,064. | ||
Prior Publication US 2004/0066385 A1, Apr. 08, 2004 | ||
Int. Cl. G06T 1/20 (2006.01) |
U.S. Cl. 345—506 | 31 Claims |
1. A method for programable processing of fragment data in a computer hardware graphics pipeline, comprising:
(a) receiving fragment data in a hardware graphics pipeline;
(b) determining whether the hardware graphics pipeline is operating in a fragment program mode or in a standard mode;
(c) in the hardware graphics pipeline, performing programmable fragment operations of a fragment program on the fragment data
in a sequence specified in a graphics application program interface in order to generate output if it is determined that the
hardware graphics pipeline is operating in the fragment program mode; and
(d) in the hardware graphics pipeline, performing standard graphics application program interface operations on the fragment
data in order to generate output if it is determined that the hardware graphics pipeline is operating in the standard mode,
the standard graphics application program interface operations having a set of per-fragment operations.
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