A method of improving texture fetching by a texturing/shading unit in a GPU pipeline by performing efficient convolution operations, includes receiving a shader and determining whether the shader is a kernel shader. In response to determining that the shader is a kernel shader, the shader is modified to perform a collective fetch of all texels used in convolution operations for a group of output pixels instead of performing independent fetches of texels for each output pixel in the group of output pixels.

A method of improving texture fetching by a texturing/shading unit in a GPU pipeline by performing efficient convolution operations, includes receiving a shader and determining whether the shader is a kernel shader. In response to determining that the shader is a kernel shader, the shader is modified to perform a collective fetch of all texels used in convolution operations for a group of output pixels instead of performing independent fetches of texels for each output pixel in the group of output pixels.

A method of operating a graphics processor when rendering a frame representing a view of a scene using a ray tracing process in which part of the processing for a ray tracing operation is offloaded to a texture mapper unit of the graphics processor. Thus, when the graphics processor's execution unit is executing a program to perform a ray tracing operation the execution unit is able to message the texture mapper unit to perform one or more processing operations for the ray tracing operation. This operation can be triggered by including an appropriate instruction to message the texture mapper unit within the ray tracing program.

A method of operating a graphics processor when rendering a frame representing a view of a scene using a ray tracing process in which part of the processing for a ray tracing operation is offloaded to a texture mapper unit of the graphics processor. Thus, when the graphics processor's execution unit is executing a program to perform a ray tracing operation the execution unit is able to message the texture mapper unit to perform one or more processing operations for the ray tracing operation. This operation can be triggered by including an appropriate instruction to message the texture mapper unit within the ray tracing program.

A texture filtering unit applies anisotropic filtering using a filter kernel which can be adapted to apply different amounts of anisotropy up to a maximum amount of anisotropy. If it is determined that a received input amount of anisotropy is not above the maximum amount of anisotropy, the filter kernel applies the input amount of anisotropy, and texels of a texture are sampled using the filter kernel to determine a filtered texture value. If it is determined that the input amount of anisotropy is above the maximum amount of anisotropy, the filter kernel applies an amount of anisotropy that is not above the maximum amount of anisotropy, a plurality of sampling operations are performed to sample texels of the texture using the filter kernel to determine a respective plurality of intermediate filtered texture values, and the plurality of intermediate filtered texture values are combined to determine a filtered texture value which has been filtered in accordance with the input amount of anisotropy and the input direction of anisotropy.

Three-dimensional (3D) modeling systems and methods are described for automatically generating photorealistic, virtual 3D package and product models from two-dimensional (2D) imaging assets and dimensional data. The 3D modeling systems and methods include storing, by a memory with one or more processors, 2D imaging assets and dimensional datasets, obtaining, with an imaging asset manipulation script, a shape classification defining a real-world product or product package to be virtually modeled in 3D space, generating, with the imaging asset manipulation script, a spline based on an alpha channel extracted from a 2D imaging asset depicting the real-world product or package, and generating, with the imaging asset manipulation script, a parametric model based on the spline, the dimensional dataset, and the shape classification. A virtual 3D model is generated based on the parametric model and rendered, via a graphical display or environment, as a photorealistic image representing the real-world product or product package.

Three-dimensional (3D) modeling systems and methods are described for automatically generating photorealistic, virtual 3D package and product models from two-dimensional (2D) imaging assets and dimensional data. The 3D modeling systems and methods include storing, by a memory with one or more processors, 2D imaging assets and dimensional datasets, obtaining, with an imaging asset manipulation script, a shape classification defining a real-world product or product package to be virtually modeled in 3D space, generating, with the imaging asset manipulation script, a spline based on an alpha channel extracted from a 2D imaging asset depicting the real-world product or package, and generating, with the imaging asset manipulation script, a parametric model based on the spline, the dimensional dataset, and the shape classification. A virtual 3D model is generated based on the parametric model and rendered, via a graphical display or environment, as a photorealistic image representing the real-world product or product package.

The present invention relates to a method for generating a hierarchical data structure of a three-dimensional object, such a hierarchical data structure, and a method for streaming three-dimensional objects. In the method according to the invention, a hierarchical data structure is generated from a three-dimensional object, which has and possibly consists of three-dimensional object data and a texture that is mapped onto the object data, by first converting the three-dimensional object data into multiple detail levels and then segmenting the detail levels, wherein the texture is respectively mapped onto the segments with a corresponding resolution.

The present invention relates to a method for generating a hierarchical data structure of a three-dimensional object, such a hierarchical data structure, and a method for streaming three-dimensional objects. In the method according to the invention, a hierarchical data structure is generated from a three-dimensional object, which has and possibly consists of three-dimensional object data and a texture that is mapped onto the object data, by first converting the three-dimensional object data into multiple detail levels and then segmenting the detail levels, wherein the texture is respectively mapped onto the segments with a corresponding resolution.

A method for visualizing two-dimensional data with three-dimensional volume enables the end user to easily view abnormalities in sequential data. The two-dimensional data can be in the form of a tiled texture with the images in a set row and column, a media file with the images displayed at certain images in time, or any other way to depict a set of two-dimensional images. The disclosed method takes in each pixel of the images and evaluates the density, usually represented by color, of the pixel. The disclosed method evaluates and renders the opacity and color of each of the pixels within the volume. The disclosed method also calculates and creates dynamic shadows within the volume in real time. This evaluation allows the user to set threshold values and return exact representations of the data presented.