A method including receiving a spatial query on spatial data. The spatial query has a spatial query extent including a sub-portion of the spatial data. A projection type is selected for the spatial query. A framebuffer is created for the selected projection type. Vertex buffers are established to hold a geometry of the selected projection type. The vertex buffers are passed from a CPU to a GPU. A spatial geometry of the spatial query extent is rendered into the framebuffer by projecting feature vertex data for features that fall at least partly within the spatial query extent into the vertex buffers. Rendering generates rendered framebuffer pixel values. Pixel values of the rendered framebuffer are retrieved as bytes on the CPU. A spatial query result is processed that includes or uses the pixel values.

A method to culling parts of a 3D reconstruction volume is provided. The method makes available to a wide variety of mobile XR applications fresh, accurate and comprehensive 3D reconstruction data with low usage of computational resources and storage spaces. The method includes culling parts of the 3D reconstruction volume against a depth image. The depth image has a plurality of pixels, each of which represents a distance to a surface in a scene. In some embodiments, the method includes culling parts of the 3D reconstruction volume against a frustum. The frustum is derived from a field of view of an image sensor, from which image data to create the 3D reconstruction is obtained.

The present disclosure relates to methods and devices for graphics processing including an apparatus, e.g., a GPU. The apparatus may configure a portion of a GPU to include at least one depth processing block, the at least one depth processing block being associated with at least one depth buffer. The apparatus may also identify one or more depth passes of each of a plurality of graphics workloads, the plurality of graphics workloads being associated with a plurality of frames. Further, the apparatus may process each of the one or more depth passes in the portion of the GPU including the at least one depth processing block, each of the one or more depth passes being processed by the at least one depth processing block, the one or more depth passes being associated with the at least one depth buffer.

The present disclosure describes a system for fast generation of ray traced reflections of virtually augmented objects into a real-world image, specifically on reflective surfaces. The system utilizes a standard raster graphics pipeline.

A virtual reality apparatus and method are described for tile-based rendering. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a set of on-chip geometry buffers including a first buffer to store geometry data, and a set of pointer buffers to store pointers to the geometry data; a tile-based immediate mode rendering (TBIMR) module to perform tile-based immediate mode rendering using geometry data and pointers stored within the set of on-chip geometry buffers; spill circuitry to determine when the on-chip geometry buffers are over-subscribed and responsively spill additional geometry data and/or pointers to an off-chip memory; and a prefetcher to start prefetching the geometry data from the off-chip memory as space becomes available within the on-chip geometry buffers, the TBIMR module to perform tile-based immediate mode rendering using the geometry data prefetched from the off-chip memory.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing light volume rendering techniques are disclosed. A processor is coupled to a memory. A processor renders the geometry of a scene into a geometry buffer. For a given light source in the scene, the processor initiates two shader pipeline passes to determine which pixels in the geometry buffer to light. On the first pass, the processor renders a front-side of a light volume corresponding to the light source. Any pixels of the geometry buffer which are in front of the front-side of the light volume are marked as pixels to be discarded. Then, during the second pass, only those pixels which were not marked to be discarded are sent to the pixel shader. This approach helps to reduce the overhead involved in applying a lighting effect to the scene by reducing the amount of work performed by the pixel shader.

A computer-implemented method includes obtaining an input polygon mesh representing at least part of a three-dimensional scene and comprising a plurality of input polygons, and obtaining mapping data for mapping at least part of an image to a region of the input polygon when the three-dimensional scene is rendered. Said region extends at least partway across the plurality of input polygons. The method includes using the mapping data to generate one or more test polygons to match or approximate said region of the input polygon mesh. Each of the generated test polygons is distinct from each of said plurality of input polygons.

Improved video compression and video streaming systems and methods are disclosed for environments where camera motion is common, such as cameras incorporated into head-mounted displays. This is accomplished by combining a 3D representation of the shape of the user's environment (walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, etc.), image data, and data representative of changes in the location and orientation (pose) of the camera between successive image frames, thereby reducing data bandwidth needed to send streaming video in the presence of camera motion.

Disclosed are methods for augmenting progressive meter information presented in association with a gaming device. The methods include controlling a camera on a mobile device using an augmented reality gaming assistance component and enabling a user to employ the camera to capture an image of a game screen display, the image including one or more progressive meters associated with a respective progressive award. The captured image is sent via a network to a server that, for each of one or more progressive meters, determines a location of the progressive meters within the captured image, determines a value for each associated progressive award based on the captured image at each respective location, and determines a progressive rating for the associated progressive award based on the value. Content based on the one or more progressive ratings is received at the mobile device and displayed to the user via a display.

A method and system for culling a patch of surface data from one or more tiles in a tile based computer graphics system. A rendering space is divided into a plurality of tiles and a patch of surface data read. Then, at least a portion of the patch is analysed to determine data representing a bounding depth value evaluated over at least one tile. This may comprise tessellating the patch of surface data to derive a plurality of tessellated primitives and analysing at least some of the tessellated primitives. For each tile within which the patch is located, the data representing the bounding depth value is then used to determine whether the patch is hidden in the tile, and at least a portion of the patch is rendered, if the patch is determined not to be hidden in at least one tile.