Patent
1995-03-20
1997-01-28
Nguyen, Phu K.
G06F 1500
Patent
active
055985165
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image synthesizing system using a depth cueing technique and a video game apparatus using such an image synthesizing system.
2. Related Art
There is known an image synthesizing system which uses the computer graphics technique to synthesize a pseudo 3-D image. Such an image synthesizing system is broadly used in various applications such as video games, various simulators and others.
Such an image synthesizing system uses a depth cueing technique in which the brightness in a polygon is varied depending on the distance between that polygon and the view point.
The image synthesizing system of the prior art has such a problem that the depth cueing is not carried out while reducing the burden on the hardware.
In the image synthesis through the depth cueing technique, the brightness of a polygon is varied depending on its Z coordinate representing the distance between that polygon and the view point in a virtual 3-D space so that the polygon will fade into the background in the direction of depth.
However, the prior art requires to provide memories equal in number to N for color palettes into which color information is to be written if the brightness of the polygon in the direction of depth is to be progressively varied through N steps (where N is an integer) depending on its Z coordinate. For example, the base color may be written into the first palette; the next color may be written into the second palette; . . . and a color faded into the background may be written into the final or N-th palette. When the brightness of the polygon is to be smoothly varied through such a technique, a great number of palettes must be provided. This correspondingly increases the memory capacity, leading to increase of the manufacturing cost of the entire system.
Particularly, in the present image synthesizing systems, a great number of basic palettes are frequently used to represent colors delicately. In such a case, if the number of basic palettes is equal to M, palettes equal to MxN in number must be provided. This further increases the memory capacity.
The burden on CPU used for calculation increases correspondingly. Thus, it could not be avoided that the entire system would be more expensive and complicated.
In view of such problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an image synthesizing system of simpler structure capable of performing the depth cueing and a video game apparatus using such an image synthesizing system.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
To this end, the present invention provides an image synthesizing system for perspectively transforming and projecting a 3-D object in a virtual 3-D space represented by a combination of polygons onto a projection plane in a view-point coordinate system to calculate front-color specifying data for every pixel and to synthesize an image to be displayed, the image synthesizing system comprising: in the depth cueing depending on a scene displayed and for calculating the depth information of the each polygon in the view-point coordinate system; corresponding to each pixel for outputting a color signal as a front-color signal; and front-color signal and the back-color signal for outputting a depth-cued color signal for each pixel.
The depth cueing information setting means is operative to set the back-color signal used in the depth cueing, depending on a scene displayed.
In addition, the depth cueing information setting means outputs the depth information of each polygon in the viewpoint coordinate system.
The first color palette is responsive to the color specifying data from each pixel for outputting the color-signal as front-color signal.
The color signal calculating means is responsive to the depth information, front-color signal, back-color signal for calculating, outputting and displaying the depth-cued color signal for each pixel on a display.
By setting the back-color signal used in the depth cueing depending on each scene in such a manner, the present inventio
REFERENCES:
patent: 5452408 (1995-09-01), Westdijk et al.
patent: 5517603 (1996-05-01), Kelley et al.
"Computer Graphics Principles and Practice", J. D. Foley, A. van Dam, S. K. Feiner, and J. F. Hughes, Second Edition (1992), Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., (USA), pp. 610, 727-728.
Namco Ltd.
Nguyen Phu K.
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