Nvidia patents grid system for faster 3D rendering
Nvidia describes a method called a micromesh that overlays a regular grid on 3D objects to help computers draw them more efficiently. By using a specific mathematical shortcut to find data points, the system can quickly determine how to shade or shape parts of an image without storing extra information.
In the filing’s own words
A μ-mesh (“micromesh”), which is a structured representation of geometry that exploits coherence for compactness and exploits its structure for efficient rendering with intrinsic level of detail is provided. The micromesh is a regular mesh having a power-of-two number of segments along its perimeters, and which can be overlaid on a surface of a geometric primitive. The micromesh is used for providing a visibility map and/or a displacement map that is accessible using barycentric coordinates of a point of interest on the micromesh.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computer system comprising a memory, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising: identifying a microtriangle of interest in a grid of microtriangles overlaid on an area on a surface of an object; determining an index into an index data structure based only on barycentric coordinates of the microtriangle of interest within the grid of microtriangles without storing a mapping from the barycentric coordinates of the microtriangle of interest to an index into the index data structure; accessing by indexing, in the memory and based only on the determined index, a value stored in the index data structure, wherein the value represents a characteristic of the surface at a location corresponding to a position of the microtriangle of interest; and rendering, in accordance with the accessed value, a pixel corresponding to the location corresponding to the position of the microtriangle of interest.
Facts
- Company
- Nvidia (NVIDIA Corporation)
- Official title
- Micro-meshes, a structured geometry for computer graphics
- Patent number
- US12762783B2
- Application number
- 17946235
- Filed
- Sep 16, 2022
- Granted
- Oct 13, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 18
Classified under
G06T 15/06 Physics & computingG06T 1/60 Physics & computingG06T 9/001 Physics & computingG06T 15/005 Physics & computingG06T 15/40 Physics & computingG06T 15/50 Physics & computingMore from Nvidia in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.