United States Patent
US Patent 8049753: Computer graphics methods and systems for…
US 8049753 · granted 2011-11-01
Abstract
Methods, systems, apparatus, and computer program/software code products, operable in a computer graphics system designed to render images and to apply shading to images, enable the following: during rendering of an image, modifying the shading normal in the region of a corner of an object in the image, such that when shading is applied to the image, the shaded image is capable of providing to a human viewer, when viewing the corner in the image, the appearance or visual illusion of a rounded corner, wherein the modifying comprises: calculating an amount of modification to be applied to an original shading normal in the region of the corner to simulate the appearance of a given fillet radius R, the calculating comprising: interrogating surfaces within a distance R of the corner for their shading normal, and calculating a new normal that is a weighted blend between the shading normal of the original surface and the shading normal of the interrogated neighboring surface, thereby, by the shading effect, to simulate at render-time a rounding by varying the shading normal, creating a variation of the surface normal consistent with the appearance the object would have had, had it actually been rounded.
| Patent Number | 8049753 |
|---|---|
| Title | Computer graphics methods and systems for generating images with rounded corners |
| Filed | 2007-08-22 |
| Granted | 2011-11-01 |
| Inventor(s) | Andersson; Hakan |
| Assignee | Mental Images GmbH |
| CPC Classification | G06T 15/50 |
| Number of Claims | 37 |
Abstract
Methods, systems, apparatus, and computer program/software code products, operable in a computer graphics system designed to render images and to apply shading to images, enable the following: during rendering of an image, modifying the shading normal in the region of a corner of an object in the image, such that when shading is applied to the image, the shaded image is capable of providing to a human viewer, when viewing the corner in the image, the appearance or visual illusion of a rounded corner, wherein the modifying comprises: calculating an amount of modification to be applied to an original shading normal in the region of the corner to simulate the appearance of a given fillet radius R, the calculating comprising: interrogating surfaces within a distance R of the corner for their shading normal, and calculating a new normal that is a weighted blend between the shading normal of the original surface and the shading normal of the interrogated neighboring surface, thereby, by the shading effect, to simulate at render-time a rounding by varying the shading normal, creating a variation of the surface normal consistent with the appearance the object would have had, had it actually been rounded.
Claim 1
A method, executable in a computer graphics system operable to render images using an image rendering process, and to apply shading to rendered images using ashading model, wherein the computer graphics system is operable to render images by applying a shading model to geometric representations constructed from a scene description containing geometric primitives, and wherein, as a surface point P is beingshaded, it is assumed to have one shading normal N.sub.s, and one geometric normal N.sub.g, the method comprising: modifying the shading normal in the region of a corner of an object in the image such that the region of the corner of the object in theimage will, when shaded by using a shading model, provide to a human viewer the visual appearance of a rounded edge, the modifying comprising: interrogating the nearby region of the corner for adjacent surfaces within a radius of R of the corner, whereinR is the apparent fillet radius for the corner, the interrogating comprising querying data structures associated with the scene for adjacency information usable to find adjacent surfaces within a radius R of the corner, wherein the interrogatingcomprises executing a ray-casting process,
Claims
37 totalA method, executable in a computer graphics system operable to render images using an image rendering process, and to apply shading to rendered images using ashading model, wherein the computer graphics system is operable to render images by applying a shading model to geometric representations constructed from a scene description containing geometric primitives, and wherein, as a surface point P is beingshaded, it is assumed to have one shading normal N.sub.s, and one geometric normal N.sub.g, the method comprising: modifying the shading normal in the region of a corner of an object in the image such that the region of the corner of the object in theimage will, when shaded by using a shading model, provide to a human viewer the visual appearance of a rounded edge, the modifying comprising: interrogating the nearby region of the corner for adjacent surfaces within a radius of R of the corner, whereinR is the apparent fillet radius for the corner, the interrogating comprising querying data structures associated with the scene for adjacency information usable to find adjacent surfaces within a radius R of the corner, wherein the interrogatingcomprises executing a ray-casting process,