PER PIXEL MIP MAPPING AND TRILINEAR FILTERING USING SCANLINE GRADIENTS FOR SELECTING APPROPRIATE TEXTURE MAPS

The number of computations performed in rendering graphics is reduced by computing certain terms only at the beginning of each scanline. A scanline gradient is calculated once at the beginning of each scanline for each of two texture values with respect to the x-coordinate of the scanline. Following the scanline gradient calculations at the beginning of each scanline, a pixel gradient is calculated for each pixel of the scanline with respect to the y-coordinate of the scanline. The sum of the squares of the scanline gradients and the pixel gradients are compared, and the larger of the two quantities is selected to be a maximum Rho constant term for the corresponding pixel, wherein the maximum Rho constant is used to select a texture map for rendering the corresponding pixel. Furthermore, at the beginning of each scanline, a pixel gradient may be calculated for each of two texture values for a first pixel of the scanline with respect to the y-coordinate of the scanline. Derivatives are calculated for the pixel gradients, wherein pixel gradients are found using the derivatives, thereby eliminating the calculation of pixel gradients for each pixel.