1. A method of suggesting teleportation destinations in a virtual universe (VU) which are personalized to a current context of a user, the method comprising:
collecting contextual metadata related to current usage of a networked computer or terminal by a user;
developing a query for a search engine based on said contextual metadata;
searching locations of a VU for locations having metadata corresponding to said query to form search results; and
suggesting a VU location having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata as a potential teleportation destination for said user.
2. The method as recited in claim 1, further including:
filtering said contextual metadata to form filtered metadata wherein said search query is developed from said filtered metadata.
3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said collecting includes searching a network to determine a location of a user.
4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
sorting locations resulting from said searching.
5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein weights are applied to said search results to prioritize said sorting.
6. A computer program product for suggesting a teleportation location in a virtual universe (VU) which is consistent with current user context comprising a computer readable medium or a communication medium providing signals for causing a digital data processor to perform steps of:
collecting contextual metadata related to current usage of a networked computer or terminal by a user;
developing a query for a search engine based on said contextual metadata;
searching locations of a VU for locations having metadata corresponding to said search query to form search results; and
suggesting a VU location having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata as a potential teleportation destination for said user.
7. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, further including signals for performing steps of:
filtering said contextual metadata to form filtered metadata wherein said search query is developed from said filtered metadata.
8. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, wherein said collecting includes searching a network to determine a location of a user.
9. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, further comprising signal for performing a step of:
sorting locations resulting from said searching.
10. The computer program product as recited in claim 9, wherein weights are applied to said search results to prioritize said sorting.
11. Apparatus for suggesting virtual universe (VU) locations to a user of a networked computer or terminal wherein said suggestions are consistent with current usage of said networked computer or terminal, said apparatus comprising:
means for detecting at least one of a location, a timedate, an activityevent and a personobject in data available to said computer and related to current usage of said networked computer or terminal by a user to form contextual metadata for said user;
a memory for storing said contextual metadata;
a search engine for searching locations of a VU for locations having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata to form search results; and
an interface for prompting a user to view a suggestion of a VU location having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata as a potential teleportation destination for said user.
12. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further including:
a filter interposed between said memory and said search engine to prevent selected contextual metadata from reaching said search engine.
13. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising:
a comparator for comparing said contextual metadata and said search results.
14. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising:
a further memory for storing said search results.
15. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising
means for sorting said search results based upon quality of match to said contextual metadata.
16. A teleportation proxy service comprising furnishing use of software to a user of a networked computer or terminal participating in a virtual universe system to configure a computer accessible to said networked computer or terminal to provide:
means for detecting at least one of a location, a timedate, an activityevent and a personobject in data available to said computer and related to current usage of said networked computer or terminal by a user to form contextual metadata for said user;
a memory for storing said contextual metadata;
a search engine for searching locations of a VU for locations having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata to form search results; and
an interface for prompting a user to view a suggestion of a VU location having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata as a potential teleportation destination for said user.
17. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further provides:
a filter interposed between said memory and said search engine to prevent selected contextual metadata from reaching said search engine.
18. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further provides:
a comparator for comparing said contextual metadata and said search results.
19. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further provides:
a further memory for storing said search results.
20. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further provides:
means for sorting said search results based upon quality of match to said contextual metadata.
21. A method of operating a virtual universe (VU) in connection with another activity of a user being conducted on a networked data processor, said method including steps of
collecting contextual metadata related to current usage of a networked computer or terminal by a user during said another activity or in said VU;
developing a query for a search engine based on said contextual metadata;
searching locations of a VU for locations having metadata corresponding to said query to form search results; and
suggesting a VU location having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata as a potential teleportation destination for said user.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for providing controllable texture sampling, comprising:
specifying via a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of a host computing system at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map by a graphics subsystem of the host computing system having a graphics processing unit, wherein:
said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said specifying further includes specifying a sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling includes iteratively applying the specified sampling direction;
transmitting said at least one parameter via the 3-D graphics API to the graphics processing unit to perform said controllable texture sampling in accordance with said at least one parameter; and
texture sampling said texture map in accordance with said specified at least one parameter of said sampling footprint; and
storing, in a computer-readable medium, the texture sampled texture map.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying includes at least one of (1) modifying at least one standard parameter by specifying at least one offset value for said at least one standard parameter and (2) replacing at least one standard parameter with at least one replacement parameter.
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said modifying includes at least one of adding the offset value and the standard parameter, multiplying the offset value and the standard parameter, applying one of the offset value and the standard parameter as an exponent, subtracting the offset value and the standard parameter, and performing a predefined mathematical function based on the standard parameter and the offset value.
4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said sampling footprint is a sampling footprint from at least one of a point sampling process, a bilinear filtering process, a MIP-mapping process, an anisotropic filtering process and an antialiasing process.
5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying includes specifying said at least one parameter at least one of per vertex and per pixel in connection with said texture sampling.
6. A method according to claim 5, further including iteratively applying said texture sampling.
7. A method according to claim 5, wherein said specifying includes at least one of specifying du spacing of samples in a u direction and specifying dv spacing of samples in a v direction.
8. A method according to claim 5, wherein said specifying includes specifying at least one of a \u0394u value, a \u0394v value and a \u0394w value.
9. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying includes specifying at least one of a stepsize and an orientation of the sampling footprint.
10. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying includes specifying one of an \u03b1a value and an \u03b1b value for use in connection with bilinear filtering computation.
11. A method according to claim 1, wherein said sampling footprint is an anisotropic filtering sampling footprint.
12. A method according to claim 11, wherein said at least one parameter includes at least one of a direction and a spacing of anisotropic filter kernel samples.
13. A method according to claim 1, wherein said texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified parameters alters at least one visual effect of pixel space resulting from said texture sampling, and said at least one visual effect includes at least one of: a blurring effect, a blockiness effect, a texture swimming effect, a pixel-popping effect, a temporal aliasing effect, a texture shimmering effect, a texture crawling effect and a streaking effect.
14. A method according to claim 1, wherein said texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified parameters textures a triangle surface to achieve at least one of a lighting effect, a bump mapping effect, a blurring effect, a reflection bluffing effect, a Fresnel bluffing effect, a marbling effect, a moving water effect, a linear fogging effect, an exponential fogging effect, a range-based fogging effect, a transparency effect, a translucency effect, a curved surface effect, a sharp shadowing effect, a fuzzy shadowing effect and a volumetric texturing effect.
15. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies motion blur and said specifying further includes applying iterated vertex-level data to control a direction vector of the sampling footprint.
16. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies at least one of anisotropic surface reflection, diffuse lighting and an approximation to specular lighting and said specifying further includes applying one of per-vertex and per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
17. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self shadowing and said specifying further includes applying per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
18. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self-shadowing and said specifying further includes applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
19. A method according to claim 18, wherein said specifying further includes specifying control parameters for derivative calculations of Nelson Max’s horizon mapping.
20. A method according to claim 1, further including detecting when one of a cast ray intersects a current z-buffer and when saturation occurs.
21. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies self-shadowed volumetric rendering in combination with conventional slice or splat-style volumetric rendering and said specifying further includes applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
22. A method according to claim 1, wherein said specifying includes specifying a direction vector of the sampling footprint via an API component.
23. At least one of an operating system, driver code, an application programming interface, a tool kit and a coprocessing device for providing the controllable texture sampling of claim 1.
24. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 1.
25. A computer readable medium for providing controllable texture sampling having stored thereon at least one computer-executable module comprising computer executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:
specifying via a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of a host computing system at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map by a graphics subsystem of the host computing system having a programmable graphics processing unit, wherein:
said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said specifying further includes specifying the sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling initiated by said initiating texture sampling includes iterative application of the specified sampling direction;
transmitting said at least one parameter via the 3-D graphics API to the programmable graphics processing unit to perform said controllable texture sampling in accordance with said at least one parameter; and
initiating texture sampling whereby said programmable graphics processing unit performs texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified at least one parameter of said sampling footprint received via said 3-D graphics API.
26. The computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying includes at least one of (1) modifying at least one standard parameter by specifying at least one offset value for said at least one standard parameter and (2) replacing at least one standard parameter with at least one replacement parameter.
27. A computer readable medium according to claim 26, wherein said modifying includes at least one of adding the offset value and the standard parameter, multiplying the offset value and the standard parameter, applying one of the offset value and the standard parameter as an exponent, subtracting the offset value and the standard parameter, and performing a predefined mathematical function based on the standard parameter and the offset value.
28. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said sampling footprint is a sampling footprint from at least one of a point sampling process, a bilinear filtering process, a MIP-mapping process, an anisotropic filtering process and an antialiasing process.
29. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying includes specifying said at least one parameter at least one of per vertex and per pixel in connection with said texture sampling.
30. A computer readable medium according to claim 29, further including iteratively applying said texture sampling.
31. A computer readable medium according to claim 29, wherein said specifying includes at least one of specifying du spacing of samples in a u direction and specifying dv spacing of samples in a v direction.
32. A computer readable medium according to claim 29, wherein said specifying includes specifying at least one of a \u0394u value, a \u0394v value and a \u0394w value.
33. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying includes specifying at least one of a stepsize and an orientation of the sampling footprint.
34. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying includes specifying one of an \u03b1a value and an \u03b1b value for use in connection with bilinear filtering computation.
35. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said sampling footprint is an anisotropic filtering sampling footprint.
36. A computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein said at least one parameter includes at least one of a direction and a spacing of anisotropic filter kernel samples.
37. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein texture sampling initiated by said initiating texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified parameters alters at least one visual effect of pixel space resulting from said texture sampling, and said at least one visual effect includes at least one of: a blurring effect, a blockiness effect, a texture swimming effect, a pixel-popping effect, a temporal aliasing effect, a texture shimmering effect, a texture crawling effect and a streaking effect.
38. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said texture sampling initiated by said initiating texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified parameters textures a triangle surface to achieve at least one of a lighting effect, a bump mapping effect, a bluffing effect, a reflection bluffing effect, a Fresnel blurring effect, a marbling effect, a moving water effect, a linear fogging effect, an exponential fogging effect, a range-based fogging effect, a transparency effect, a translucency effect, a curved surface effect, a sharp shadowing effect, a fuzzy shadowing effect and a volumetric texturing effect.
39. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies motion blur and said specifying further includes applying iterated vertex-level data to control a direction vector of the sampling footprint.
40. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies at least one of anisotropic surface reflection, diffuse lighting and an approximation to specular lighting and said specifying further includes applying one of per-vertex and per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
41. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self-shadowing and said specifying further includes applying per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
42. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self-shadowing and said specifying further includes applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
43. A computer readable medium according to claim 42, wherein said specifying further includes specifying control parameters for derivative calculations of Nelson Max’s horizon mapping.
44. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, further including detecting when one of a cast ray intersects a current z-buffer and when saturation occurs.
45. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies self-shadowed volumetric rendering in combination with conventional slice or splat-style volumetric rendering and said specifying further includes applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
46. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said specifying includes specifying a direction vector of the sampling footprint via an application programming interface (API) component.
47. A computer readable medium according to claim 25, wherein said modules are included in at least one of an application programming interface (API), driver code, an operating system and an application.
48. A coprocessing device of a graphics subsystem of a host computing system for use in connection with controllable texture sampling instructions from the host computing system, comprising:
an input component operable to receive from a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of the host computing system a specification of at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map, wherein:
said input component that receives instructions for specifying of at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a second input component that receives instructions for specifying a sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling component iteratively applies the specified sampling direction; and
a texture sampling component operable to perform controllable texture sampling on said texture map in accordance with said specified at least one parameter of said sampling footprint received from the 3-D graphics API of the host computing system.
49. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component includes at least one of (1) a first input component that receives instructions for modifying at least one standard parameter by receiving a specification of at least one offset value for said at least one standard parameter and (2) a second input component that receives instructions for replacing at least one standard parameter with at least one replacement parameter.
50. A coprocessing device according to claim 49, wherein said first input component that receives instructions for modifying includes at least one of a third input component that receives instructions for adding the offset value and the standard parameter, a fourth input component that receives instructions for multiplying the offset value and the standard parameter, a fifth input component that receives instructions for applying one of the offset value and the standard parameter as an exponent, a sixth input component that receives instructions for subtracting the offset value and the standard parameter, and a seventh input component that receives instructions for performing a predefined mathematical function based on the standard parameter and the offset value.
51. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said sampling footprint is a sampling footprint from at least one of a point sampling process, a bilinear filtering process, a MIP-mapping process, an anisotropic filtering process and an antialiasing process.
52. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes a component that receives instructions for specifying said at least one parameter at least one of per vertex and per pixel in connection with said texture sampling component.
53. A coprocessing device according to claim 52, further including iteratively applying said texture sampling of the texture sampling component.
54. A coprocessing device according to claim 52, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes at least one of a first input component that receives instructions for specifying du spacing of samples in a u direction and a second input component that receives instructions for specifying dv spacing of samples in a v direction.
55. A coprocessing device according to claim 52, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes a component that receives instructions for specifying at least one of a \u0394u value, a \u0394v value and a \u0394w value.
56. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes a component that receives instructions for specifying at least one of a stepsize and an orientation of the sampling footprint.
57. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes a component that receives instructions for specifying one of an \u03b1a value and an \u03b1b value for use in connection with bilinear filtering computation.
58. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said sampling footprint is an anisotropic filtering sampling footprint.
59. A coprocessing device according to claim 58, wherein said at least one parameter includes at least one of a direction and a spacing of anisotropic filter kernel samples.
60. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said texture sampling of said texture map by the texture sampling component in accordance with said specified parameters alters at least one visual effect of pixel space resulting from said texture sampling, and said at least one visual effect includes at least one of: a blurring effect, a blockiness effect, a texture swimming effect, a pixel-popping effect, a temporal aliasing effect, a texture shimmering effect, a texture crawling effect and a streaking effect.
61. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said texture sampling of said texture map by the texture sampling component in accordance with said specified parameters textures a triangle surface to achieve at least one of a lighting effect, a bump mapping effect, a blurring effect, a reflection blurring effect, a Fresnel bluffing effect, a marbling effect, a moving water effect, a linear fogging effect, an exponential fogging effect, a range-based fogging effect, a transparency effect, a translucency effect, a curved surface effect, a sharp shadowing effect, a fuzzy shadowing effect and a volumetric texturing effect.
62. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying of at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies motion blur and said input component further includes a second component that receives instructions for applying iterated vertex-level data to control a direction vector of the sampling footprint.
63. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying of at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies at least one of anisotropic surface reflection, diffuse lighting and an approximation to specular lighting and said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a second component that receives instructions for applying one of per-vertex and per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
64. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self-shadowing and said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a second input component that receives instructions for applying per-pixel specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
65. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying of at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies surface self shadowing and said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a second input component that receives instructions for applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
66. A coprocessing device according to claim 65, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a component that receives instructions for specifying control parameters for derivative calculations of Nelson Max’s horizon mapping.
67. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, further including a detecting component that detects when one of a cast ray intersects a current z-buffer and when saturation occurs.
68. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying of at least one parameter includes a first input component that receives instructions for specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies self-shadowed volumetric rendering in combination with conventional slice or splat-style volumetric rendering and said input component that receives instructions for specifying further includes a second input component that receives instructions for applying per-vertex specification of sampling direction of the sampling footprint.
69. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said input component that receives instructions for specifying includes a component that receives instructions for specifying a direction vector of the sampling footprint from at least one of an application programming interface (API), driver code, an operating system and an application.
70. A coprocessing device according to claim 48, wherein said coprocessing device includes at least one graphics processing unit (GPU).
71. A computer readable medium for providing controllable texture sampling having stored thereon one or more computer-executable modules comprising computer executable instructions, the modules comprising:
means for specifying via a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of a host computing system at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map by a graphics subsystem of the host computing system having a programmable co-processing unit, wherein:
said means for specifying includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said specifying further includes specifying a sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling includes iteratively applying the specified sampling direction; and
means for transmitting said at least one parameter via the 3-D graphics API to a programmable co-processing unit, thereby initiating controllable texture sampling of said texture map in accordance with said specified at least one parameter of said sampling footprint.
72. A coprocessing device for use in connection with controllable texture sampling instructions, comprising:
means for receiving via a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of a host computing system a specification of at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map by the coprocessing device, wherein:
said specification of at least one parameter includes a specification of at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said specifying further includes specifying the sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling includes iteratively applying the specified sampling direction; and
means for controllably texture sampling said texture map in accordance with said specified parameters of said sampling footprint received via the 3-D graphics API.