Graphics Gems III (IBM Version)

VII.10

THE SHADER CACHE: A RENDERING PIPELINE ACCELERATOR

James Arvo,     Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Cary Scofield,     Hewlett-Packard, Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Publisher Summary

This chapter describes a caching strategy to accelerate shading calculations in any traditional polygon-rendering pipeline—such as that defined by programmer’s hierarchical interactive graphics system. The purpose of the cache is to reduce the number of redundant shading calculations performed on behalf of adjacent polygons sharing at least one vertex and associated surface normal. Such polygons frequently result from applications that tesselate trimmed or implicit surfaces. The chapter discusses the augmentation of the shading module, with a cache, ...