Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Three-dimension
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-29
2002-05-21
Vo, Cliff N. (Department: 2671)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Three-dimension
C345S634000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06392644
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional graphics display system that can represent a three-dimensional virtual space. In particular, the present invention relates to a three-dimensional graphics display system with joint use of a two-dimensional image representation, representing background, resting objects and characters or parts thereof with flat two-dimensional images arranged in the three-dimensional virtual space.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, the ever higher performance of computer systems and the continuous development of multimedia processing techniques has led to environments that can process high-level three-dimensional computer graphics even on personal computers. Dedicated accelerator boards for processing of three-dimensional computer graphics are under continuous development. Games that animate characters or objects such as artificial creatures usually store the object data mainly in form of polygons. To render the object in a fast drawing procedure and to create images with a high flexibility, a texture is wrapped around and pasted to the created polygon mesh.
On the other hand, graphic formats for two-dimensional images are also wide-spread. From a natural image captured with a digital camera or a scanner, high-quality two-dimensional computer graphic images can be created with various computer graphic software packages and authoring tools.
Thus, with three-dimensional graphics processing, images of three-dimensional objects can be created with a high flexibility, whereas with two-dimensional image processing, the creation of high-quality static images is possible. Therefore, by making use of their respective characteristics, the user can take advantage of the two approaches, depending on his goals.
In the past, there have been attempts to simultaneously represent three-dimensional graphics representations and two-dimensional image representations in one three-dimensional virtual space in order to benefit from their respective merits by jointly using three-dimensional graphics and two-dimensional images. However, these attempts consisted largely of pasting two-dimensional images onto the surface of a three-dimensional object. For example, a three-dimensional polygon having a large external surface was arranged in three-dimensional space, and two-dimensional images, such as a texture, were wrapped around and pasted onto this external surface.
As has been mentioned above, two-dimensional images and three-dimensional graphics both have their merits, and there have been attempts to use both three-dimensional and two-dimensional image representations at the same time. However, there are problems with the conventional approaches: With three-dimensional graphics processing, images can be created with a high flexibility, but the number of polygons into which an object can be divided is limited owing to the limits of the computer processing capabilities. Thus, it is difficult to create high-quality, high-definition three-dimensional objects, and overly complicated scenes cannot be drawn. On the other hand, with two-dimensional image processing, high-quality, high-definition rendering is possible, but it cannot be used for movable objects, and a display from another viewpoint is not possible. Therefore, when jointly using three-dimensional graphics and two-dimensional images by pasting a two-dimensional image onto the surface of a three-dimensional object, the quality of the two-dimensional image depends on the quality of the three-dimensional graphics, and a high-quality image cannot be attained due to these limitations, so that the characteristics of three-dimensional graphics and two-dimensional images could not be exploited in their joint use.
In the present invention, a two-dimensional image is not only wrapped around and pasted onto the external surface of a three-dimensional object as in the prior art, but the present invention is adapted to the representation of two-dimensional images in the presence of objects in the three-dimensional virtual space. First, images of static objects for which images from a different viewpoint are not necessary in that scene correspond to “two-dimensional image representations”. Second, object portions that are elements of three-dimensional objects can also correspond to “two-dimensional image representations”. For example, an object portion such as the shadow of a three-dimensional object moves and deforms depending on the three-dimensional object, but a three-dimensional display of such an object is not necessary and it can be adapted for two-dimensional image representation. Thus, if it were possible to simultaneously render two-dimensional image representations, the data processing amount could be reduced.
An important feature for the simultaneous rendering and display of two-dimensional images and three-dimensional images is that it becomes necessary to control the positions and overlapping in the three-dimensional space of the two. Moreover, it is preferable that in an environment for simultaneous representation of two-dimensional images and three-dimensional images, image processing techniques such as lighting and shading can be applied.
The present invention has been developed under consideration of these aspects. It is a purpose of the present invention to provide a three-dimensional graphics display system wherein objects corresponding to three-dimensional image representations can be represented as three-dimensional objects, objects that can be represented as two-dimensional images are represented as flat two-dimensional images arranged in a three-dimensional virtual space, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects can be rendered simultaneously in the three-dimensional virtual space, and a reduction of the data processing amount and an increase of the data processing speed can be achieved.
A three-dimensional graphics display system according to the present invention is characterized in that as input data the system uses image data that comprises (a) three-dimensional polygon data for a three-dimensional object representing a three-dimensional image and (b) two-dimensional image representation data comprising (i) two-dimensional image data for a two-dimensional image representation object representing a three-dimensional object as a two-dimensional image arranged in a three-dimensional virtual space and (ii) a Z-value representing a depth. The three-dimensional graphics display system comprises a data input part; an object perspective control part for determining a perspective order of objects based on the input data; a rendering process part for overlappingly rendering objects in order from a furthest object to a nearest object, based on the determined perspective order, to correctly represent overlap due to perspective representation; an output part for displaying a rendering result. Three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional image representation objects are rendered simultaneously in the three-dimensional virtual space.
According to this configuration, three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional image representation objects can be rendered simultaneously in the three-dimensional virtual space, the data processing amount can be reduced, and the data processing speed can be increased.
It is preferable that this three-dimensional graphics display system further comprises an object exclusion control part for exclusion-controlling an area occupied by the three-dimensional object and an area occupied by the two-dimensional image representation object, and the system can represent a virtual collision in the three-dimensional virtual space between the three-dimensional object and the two-dimensional image representation object, the virtual collision being caused by a movement of the three-dimensional object.
According to this configuration, the presence of two-dimensional image representation objects in the three-dimensional virtual space can be represented more naturally.
It is preferable that in this three-dimensional graphics display, the input data further
Arai Masatoshi
Miyata Ryosuke
Murakami Koichi
Cao Huedung X.
Fujitsu Limited
Staas & Halsey , LLP
Vo Cliff N.
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