Normal vector shading for 3-D graphics display system

Claim 2

A normal vector shading processor for use in a serial pipeline of identical processors for shading pixels of a three-dimensional image to be displayed, comprising: a processor input; a memory for storing set-up data indicating at least a direction and intensity of at least one light source and a viewpoint of a viewer of said three-dimensional image; means coupled to said memory, for performing mathematical operations on a representation of a pixel provided to said processor input in accordance with said set-up in said memory, said mathematical operations including at least a vector dot product, a scaler product and a scaler sum; and command interpretation means, coupled to said processor input and having control inputs coupled to said memory and said means for performing mathematical operations, for detecting a load command in a predetermined command field of input data on said processor input and providing first control signals to said memory to load said set-up data in a predetermined data field of said input data into said memory, detecting a process command in said command field and providing second control signals to said means for performing mathematical operations, and detecting a grabbed command in said command field and providing third control signals to cause said input data to be presented to an output of said processor without being altered.

Claim 3

The processor of claim 1 wherein said means for performing mathematical operations comprises: dot product means for comprising the dot products of two vectors; vector product means coupled to the dot product means for computing the product of two vectors and adding a third vector; multiplier-adder means connected to each of the dot product means and the vector product means for computing products and sums of scaler values; and square root storage means connected to the dot product means and the vector product means for storing a table of inverse square roots of values; wherein the memory is connected to each of the dot product means, vector product means and multiplier-adder means.

Claim 4

The processor of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of identical processors coupled in series.

Claim 5

The processor of claim 1 wherein said command interpretation means detects a first code in a second predetermined field of said input data and designates a pixel corresponding to said first code as a background pixel.

Claim 6

The processor of claim 1 wherein said input data includes a field representing a normalization vector for a pixel represented by said input data, said command interpretation means substituting a color or shading value calculated by said means for performing mathematical operations for said normalization vector to produce a modified input data, and providing said modified input data to said processor output.

Claim 7

A normal vector shading system comprising: a serial pipeline of a plurality of identical processors for shading pixels of a three-dimensional image to be displayed, each processor including a processor input; a plurality of light source registers for storing at least a direction and intensity of at least one light source; at least one viewpoint register for storing a viewpoint of a viewer of said three-dimensional image; a plurality of material registers for storing information regarding the external appearance of an object in said image; dot product means for comprising the dot product of two vectors; vector product means coupled to the dot product means for computing the product of two vectors and adding a third vector; multiplier-adder means connected to each of the dot product means and the vector product means for computing products and sums of scaler values; square root storage means connected to the dot products means and the vector product means for storing a table of inverse square root of values; wherein the registers are connected to each of the dot product means, vector product means and multiplier-adder means; and control means for providing command signals to said dot product means, vector product means, multiplier-adder means and square root storage means to perform operations on a normalization vector in a pixel representation provided to said processor input, detecting a load command in a predetermined command field of input data on said processor input and providing first control signals to said memory to load set-up data in a predetermined data field of said input data into said registers, detecting a process command in said command field and generating said command signals, detecting a grabbed command in said command field and providing second control signals to cause said input data to be presented to an output of said processor without being altered, and substituting a color or a shading value calculated by said processor for said normalizations vector to produce a modified input data, and providing said modified input data to said processor output.

Claim 8

A normal vector shading system comprising: a serial pipeline of a plurality of identical processors for shading pixels of a three-dimensional image to be displayed, each processor including a processor input; a plurality of light source registers for storing at least a direction and intensity of at least one light source; at least one viewpoint register for storing a viewpoint of a viewer of said three-dimensional image; a plurality of material registers for storing information regarding the external appearance of an object in said image; dot product means for comprising the dot product of two vectors; vector product means coupled to the dot product means for computing the product of two vectors and adding a third vector; multiplier-adder means connected to each of the dot product means and the vector product means for computing products and sums of scaler values; square root storage means connected to the dot products means and the vector product means for storing a table of inverse square root of values; wherein the registers are connected to each of the dot product means, vector product means and multiplier-adder means; and control means for providing command signals to said dot product means, vector product means, multiplier-adder means and square root storage means to perform operations on a normalization vector in a pixel representation provided to said processor input, detecting a load command in a predetermined command field of input data on said processor input and providing first control signals to said memory to load set-up data in a predetermined data field of said input data into said registers, detecting a process command in said command field and generating said command signals, detecting a grabbed command in said command field and providing second control signals to cause said input data to be presented to an output of said processor without being altered, and substituting a color or a shading value calculated by said processor for said normalizations vector to produce a modified input data, and providing said modified input data to said processor output.