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Efficient triangular shaped meshesEfficient triangular shaped meshes description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070188487, Efficient triangular shaped meshes. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a division of, and claims the benefit of the filing date of, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/242,523 entitled Efficient Triangular Shaped Meshes, filed Sep. 12, 2002. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This invention relates generally to graphics, and more particularly, to the rendering triangular shaped meshes from triangle shaped graphics primitives. BACKGROUND [0003] In computer graphics, various graphical shapes are created and rendered by the employment of basic graphical building blocks, known as graphics primitives. One widely-used graphics primitive is a triangle graphic primitive. Triangle primitives can be aggregated into triangle strips. The triangle strips comprise a row of triangle primitives aggregated together in alternating apex-orientations, both upwards and downwards. Triangle strips are typically a flexible unit of computer graphic manipulation because they can represent a single triangle (that is, a "three vertex" triangle strip), a single quadrilateral (that is, a "four vertex" triangle strip), or a rectangular lattice comprising a plurality of vertically-aggregated triangle strips. A rectangular lattice is generally defined as a rectangular two-dimensional aggregation of a plurality of rows of triangle strips, wherein internal vertices are repeated during transmission. [0004] Employing triangle strips can be reasonably data efficient for the transmittal and rendering of long aggregations of triangle primitives to create a single row. This is because, in a triangle strip, the number of vertices per graphical triangle shaped primitive approaches the ratio of one to one, thereby necessitating the transmission of a minimum number of vertices to render (that is, to graphically recreate and display) a triangular strip. [0005] However, the employment of triangle strips to render a rectangular lattice entails inefficiencies. Generally, the inefficiencies are because each row of vertices internal to the rectangular lattice has to be repeated. For instance, a rectangular lattice, comprising 24 equilateral triangles, actually requires 30 strip vertices to be rendered (eight triangles per row by three rows). [0006] Subdivision surfaces, that is, the graphical technique of segmenting a given shape into constituent sub-shapes, are becoming ever more widely employed in graphics. However, subdivision can be especially inefficient with respect to data transfer overhead, particularly when triangle strip data is generated. This is typically because, similar to a rectangular lattice, internal row vertices are repeated. In the limit (that is, as the subdivision level approaches infinity), the efficiency approaches 50%. [0007] A second approach to graphical design is to directly support basic graphical primitives so that internal row vertices need not be repeated. This creates a mesh, such as a rectangular mesh. A rectangular mesh is generally defined as a rectangular aggregation of graphics primitives, wherein the rectangular aggregation of graphics primitives did not occur due to the two-dimensional aggregation of a plurality of triangle strips. [0008] In one known approach of creating a rectangular mesh, the renderer caches both the previous row of vertices of a given row of aggregated triangle-shaped or quadrilateral-shaped primitives. Then, instead of receiving both rows of vertices for the next row of aggregated triangle-shaped or quadrilateral-shaped primitives, the renderer only receives the top row of vertices for the next row of aggregated triangle-shaped or quadrilateral-shaped primitives, thereby reducing the transmitted information needed to draw the rectangular mesh and increasing efficiency. Rendering a rectangular mesh can be more efficient than rendering a rectangular lattice created by the aggregation of primitive strips. [0009] However, processor performance has outpaced memory and bus performance, while at he same time, the employment of subdivision surfaces has increased the demand for higher throughput. Therefore, there is a need for employing graphics primitives for rendering a subdivided triangle that overcomes the shortcomings of existing approaches. SUMMARY [0010] The present invention employs video information associated with a triangular mesh. The present invention derives a plurality of adjacent triangle-shaped primitives of a first row. Each triangle-shaped primitive is defined as having both at least one lower vertex and at least one upper vertex. At least one lower vertex and at least one upper vertex of a selected triangular primitive of the first row are cached. At least one lower vertex of the selected triangle primitive is overwritten with at least one upper vertex of the selected triangular primitive. One or more new upper vertexes of a selected triangle primitive of the next row are cached, thereby generating a triangular mesh. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following Detailed Description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: [0012] FIG. 1A illustrates a 3-dimensional shape having a triangular mesh, wherein the triangular mesh is further subdivided into triangular graphics primitives; [0013] FIG. 1B illustrates a more-detailed triangular mesh, wherein the triangular mesh has been further subdivided into triangular graphics primitives; [0014] FIG. 2 illustrates a method for employing and rendering display information associated with a triangular mesh; and [0015] FIG. 3 illustrates a "C" pseudo-code subroutine, drawTriangualarMesh( ), employable for the rendering of a triangular mesh by a video device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0016] In the following discussion, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, well-known elements have been illustrated in schematic or block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. Additionally, for the most part, details concerning network communications, electro-magnetic signaling techniques, and the like, have been omitted inasmuch as such details are not considered necessary to obtain a complete understanding of the present invention, and are considered to be within the understanding of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art. [0017] It is further noted that, unless indicated otherwise, all functions described herein may be performed in either hardware or software, or some combination thereof. In a preferred embodiment, however, the functions are performed by a processor, such as a computer or an electronic data processor, in accordance with code, such as computer program code, software, and/or integrated circuits that are coded to perform such functions, unless indicated otherwise. In a further preferred embodiment, the computer program is embodied upon or within a computer program product, such as a floppy disk or compact disk, or other storage medium. [0018] Referring to FIG. 1A, illustrated is an exemplary 3-dimensional shape, an octahedron 100, subdivided into a triangular shape 105, wherein the triangular shape is one triangle base of the octahedron 100. The octahedron 100 is further subdivided into triangular meshes 150. The triangular mesh 150 is subdivided into triangle primitives 155. Therefore, the triangular shape 105 also comprises a triangular mesh 150. Each triangle primitive 155 has its own unique set of defined vertices, although a vertex element of a unique set of defined vertices can be shared with another triangle primitive 155. Continue reading about Efficient triangular shaped meshes... Full patent description for Efficient triangular shaped meshes Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Efficient triangular shaped meshes patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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