Resample hardware for 3D graphics

Texture mapping is a core technology of current real-time 3D graphics systems. To avoid aliasing artifacts, the texture mapping resample process requires proper filtering. We present a new resample algorithm for two-pass forward texture mapping that is suited to an efficient hardware implementation. This method delivers high quality anti-aliased images using filter techniques based on digital signal processing. We use an input sample driven texture resample and filtering algorithm that "splats" the contribution of each input sample (texel) to output samples (pixels). We show how the algorithm can be efficiently implemented in a hardware resample structure. The algorithm is incorporated and tested in a standard 3D graphics pipeline using the OpenGL interface. Our results exhibit better anti-aliasing of textures than anisotropic filtering found in current advanced graphics chips. We also show that the same texture filtering method can be used to implement edge anti-aliasing. Our edge anti-aliasing results show an absence of aliasing on most edges.