Aspects comprise a ray tracing shadowing method based on the data structure of a uniform grid of cells, and on local stencils in cells. The high traversal and construction costs of accelerating structures are cut down. The object's visibility from the viewpoint and from light sources, as well as the primary workload and its distribution among cells, are gained in the preprocessing stage and cached in stencils for runtime use. In runtime, the use of stencils allows a complete locality at each cell, for load balanced parallel processing.

A system is provided for creating a preview embossed mesh for graphical display to a user. The system includes a graphical user interface device and a computer, which includes a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Central Processing Unit (CPU). A memory for use with the computer is configured to (a) determine a 3D volumetric mask, (b) determine a distance map corresponding to the 3D volumetric mask, and (c) render offset geometry. The GPU is used to compute the distance map within the 3D volumetric mask. The distance map and the 3D volumetric mask are accessible by a shader to provide a preview embossed mesh for graphical display. The system also includes a video display to graphically display the preview embossed mesh to the user.

An image rendering method for a virtual scene includes, for a plurality of IDs, generating a respective mask identifying elements of the scene that are associated with a respective ID; for the resulting plurality of masks, dividing a respective mask into a plurality of tiles; and discarding tiles that do not identify any image elements; for the resulting plurality of remaining tiles, selecting a respective trained machine learning model from among a plurality of machine learning models, the respective machine learning model having been trained to generate data contributing to a render of at least a part of an image, based upon elements of the scene associated with the same respective ID as the elements identified in the mask from which the respective tile was divided; and using the respective trained machine learning model to generate data contributing to a render of at least a part of the image based upon input data at least for the identified elements in the respective tile.

Techniques are described herein that are capable of generating a virtual rig for animation of a virtual 3D representation (e.g., an avatar) of an object. Semantic identifiers are associated with vertices of the virtual 3D representation. Each of the semantic identifiers specifies a respective feature of the object. The virtual rig is generated based on association of the semantic identifiers with the respective vertices. The virtual rig is capable of maneuvering the mesh to multiple configurations to animate the virtual 3D representation. In an example, the semantic identifiers may be used to generate and/or place virtual items in combination with the mesh. In another example, the semantic identifiers may be used to define reference elements. The reference elements serve as references for maneuvering respective portions of the mesh and/or virtual items that are associated with those portions.

Disclosed techniques relate to ray intersection processing for ray tracing. In some embodiments, ray intersection circuitry traverses a spatially organized acceleration data structure and includes bounding region circuitry configured to test, in parallel, whether a ray intersects multiple different bounding regions indicated by a node of the data structure. Shader circuitry may execute a ray intersect instruction to invoke traversal by the ray intersect circuitry and the traversal may generate intersection results. The shader circuitry may shade intersected primitives based on the intersection results. Disclosed techniques that share processing between intersection circuitry and shader processors may improve performance, reduce power consumption, or both, relative to traditional techniques.

An apparatus to facilitate tessellation redistribution for reducing latencies in processors is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor to provide parallel interconnected geometry fixed-function units with separate front end and back ends, the front ends to perform patch culling and transmission and the back ends to perform patch reception from the front end and patch tessellation; provide a tessellation redistribution central engine to redistribute patches among the back ends using a redistribution bus; receive, by the tessellation redistribution central engine from the front ends in parallel, patch transmissions marked for distribution, the tessellation redistribution engine to process the patch transmissions in order; and in response to receiving a synchronization barrier packet from one of the front ends, broadcast, by the tessellation redistribution central engine, the synchronization barrier packet to the back ends to cause one of the back ends to process tessellation work locally.

The invention provides, in some aspects, a system for rendering images, the system having one or more client digital data processors and a server digital data processor in communications coupling with the one or more client digital data processors, the server digital data processor having one or more graphics processing units. The system additionally comprises a render server module executing on the server digital data processor and in communications coupling with the graphics processing units, where the render server module issues a command in response to a request from a first client digital data processor. The graphics processing units on the server digital data processor simultaneously process image data in response to interleaved commands from (i) the render server module on behalf of the first client digital data processor, and (ii) one or more requests from (a) the render server module on behalf of any of the other client digital data processors, and (b) other functionality on the server digital data processor.

Tomographic data representing an imaged three-dimensional object is divided into macro blocks and filtered by visibility and presence in a projected frame of a rendered three-dimensional object to speed rendering of the object. The data are loaded and rendered in parallel for improved speed and capacity.

In an image data transmission system, even when encoded serial digital data transmitted from an endoscope to a video processor cannot be decoded due to a shift in a delimiter position as a result of a lack of the serial digital data or the like, a communication transmission section transmits error announcement information to a communication reception section in the endoscope based on a decoding error signal from a decoding error detection section, and a control code insertion section that has received the information instructs an encoding section to insert a control code for synchronization at a timing of occurrence of an error.

An aggregation approach allows for a dynamic, interactive, adaptive level-of-detail for 2D, 2.5D, and 3D treemaps for visualization of complex information. For example, the 2.5D treemap visualization concept is extended by providing adaptive identification of aggregates by means of an interactive node scoring approach based on contextual relevance and various other task, interaction, visibility, and/or performance specific criteria. For the resulting mapping and rendering, a per-frame aggregation of blocks and accumulation of those attributes mapped to visual variables (context) is described. Since every embodiment is also targeted for dynamic, interactive visual display of 2.5D treemaps, the rendering is designed to be capable for execution in real-time. Visual preservation of important information is conveyed by hierarchy elements and their mapped attributes (nodes-of-interest) as well as compliance to known aggregation guidelines including visualization of aggregated color and height information, visualization of aggregates that are discernible from non-aggregates, and visualization of outliers within aggregates. Applications include visualization of software maps, business intelligence data, file hierarchies for storage devices, and the like.