Multilevel, client-server, large model traverser

Claim 2

An improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of the type comprising a server system, a client system, and a data path connecting said server system to said client system, wherein the improvement comprises: (a) pruning means within said server system for pruning objects which are not rendered by the client, said pruning means eliminating said objects from the set of objects which will be transmitted by said server system to said client system, said set of objects selected in response to data transmitted from said client system to said server system; (b) means for storing objects at said server system and for storing indicators at said server system, said indicators indicating whether one of said objects may be visible when another one of said objects is visible, wherein said pruning means eliminates said one of said objects based on said indicators; (c) culling means within said client system for eliminating the data associated with objects which will not be viewed prior to the server sending data to the client over said data path, whereby data which is not needed by said client can be pruned by said server system prior to sending data over said data path to said client system, and data which will not be part of the scene can be culled by said client system prior to being rendered.

Claim 3

An improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of the type comprising a server system, a client system, and a data path connecting said server system to said client system, wherein the improvement comprises: (a) pruning means within said server system for pruning objects which are not rendered by the client, said pruning means eliminating said objects from the set of objects which will be transmitted by said server system to said client system, wherein said pruning means within said server system includes: (1) means for performing Object Hierarchy Elimination; (2) means for performing View Cone Elimination; (3) means for performing front-to-back object sorting; and (4) means for performing Obscured Object Rejection; culling means within said client system for eliminating the data associated with objects which will not be viewed prior to the server sending data to the client over said data path, whereby data which is not needed by said client can be pruned by said server system prior to sending data over said data path to said client system, and data which will not be part of the scene can be culled by said client system prior to being rendered.

Claim 4

An improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of the type comprising a server system, a client system, and a data path connecting said server system to said client system, wherein the improvement comprises: (a) pruning means within said server system for pruning objects which are not rendered by the client, said pruning means eliminating said objects from the set of objects which will be transmitted by said server system to said client system, wherein said pruning means within said server system includes: (1) means for performing Object Hierarchy Elimination; (2) means for performing View Cone Elimination; (3) means for performing front-to-back object sorting; and (4) means for performing Obscured Object Rejection; culling means within said client system for eliminating the data associated with objects which will not be viewed prior to the server sending data to the client over said data path, whereby data which is not needed by said client can be pruned by said server system prior to sending data over said data path to said client system, and data which will not be part of the scene can be culled by said client system prior to being rendered.

Claim 5

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 2 wherein said means for performing Object Hierarchy Elimination comprises a hierarchical data structure containing object data arranged as a hierarchy of objects, wherein said hierarchy defines the relationship between a first object and a second object based upon whether said first object contains or is contained by a second object.

Claim 6

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 2 wherein said means for performing View Cone Elimination comprises means for determining whether a graphics object having a defined radius and position in space is within the field of view of an observer looking in a particular direction with a defined viewing angle.

Claim 7

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 2 wherein said means for performing front-to-back object sorting comprises means for determining the relative distances from an observer of other graphics objects.

Claim 8

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 2 wherein said means for performing Obscured Object Rejection comprises means for determining whether a first graphics object having a defined radius and position in space is obscured by a closer graphics object to an observer, wherein said closer graphics object has a defined opaque radius and position, and said first graphics object has a defined radius and position.

Claim 9

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 3 wherein said hierarchy defines the relationship between said first object and said second object based upon whether said first object and said second object are contained by a third object.

Claim 10

The improved multi-level client server, large model traverser of claim 3 wherein said hierarchy defines the relationship between said first object and said second object based upon whether said first object is contained by a fourth object which also contains a second object.

Claim 11

An improved method of rendering graphics scenes on a client system served by a server through a data path, the improvement comprising the steps of: (a) storing the data as a hierarchy of objects on said server, said object data being stored in a hierarchy being in the form of a tree structure in which objects contained by other objects are at different levels of said tree structure, each object being able to point to any parent object in which said object is contained, to any child object which said object contains, and to all sibling objects which are contained by the same parent object; (b) pruning objects from said tree structure if they are not contained by said object or if they are not contained by the same parental objects which contain said object, where a parental object is either a parent of said object, a sibling of a parent of said object or a parental object of a parental object; (c) pruning from objects which have not been pruned, those objects which are outside of the field of view of the observer; (d) sorting those objects which have not been pruned, and pruning from said sorted objects those objects which would be obscured by objects closer to the observer; (e) transmitting data which has not been pruned over said data path to said client; (f) culling from said transmitted data those objects which have minimal detail; (g) culling from the remaining data those objects whose bounding volume is outside of the view frustum of the observer; (h) culling from the remaining data those objects which can be eliminated by the graphics API; and (i) rendering the remaining objects.

Claim 12

An improved method of rendering graphics scenes on a client system served by a server through a data path, the improvement comprising the steps of: (a) storing the data as a hierarchy of objects on said server, said object data being stored in a hierarchy being in the form of a tree structure in which objects contained by other objects are at different levels of said tree structure, each object being able to point to any parent object in which said object is contained, to any child object which said object contains, and to all sibling objects which are contained by the same parent object; (b) pruning objects from said tree structure if they are not contained by said object or if they are not contained by the same parental objects which contain said object, where a parental object is either a parent of said object, a sibling of a parent of said object or a parental object of a parental object; (c) pruning from objects which have not been pruned, those objects which are outside of the field of view of the observer; (d) sorting those objects which have not been pruned, and pruning from said sorted objects those objects which would be obscured by objects closer to the observer; (e) transmitting data which has not been pruned over said data path to said client; (f) culling from said transmitted data those objects which have minimal detail; (g) culling from the remaining data those objects whose bounding volume is outside of the view frustum of the observer; (h) culling from the remaining data those objects which can be eliminated by the graphics API; and (i) rendering the remaining objects.

Claim 13

The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of: (a) performing Object Hierarchy Elimination; (b) performing View Cone Elimination; (c) performing front-to-back object sorting; and (d) performing Obscured Object Rejection.

Claim 14

The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of determining whether a graphics object having a defined radius and position in space is within the field of view of the observer.

Claim 15

The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of determining whether a first graphics object having a defined radius and position in space is obscured by a closer graphics object to the observer, wherein said closer graphics object has a defined opaque radius and position, and said first graphics object has a defined radius and position.

Claim 18

The system of claim 13 wherein said pruning means is configured to select each child object associated with a particular object, each parent object associated with said particular object, and each sibling object associated with each said parent object.

Claim 19

The system of claim 13 wherein said pruning means is further configured to eliminate objects which are outside of an observer view cone.

Claim 20

The system of claim 13 wherein said hierarchical list is a linked list.

Claim 21

The system of claim 16 wherein said pruning means is further configured to eliminate objects based on a distance of an object from an observer.