Method and system for providing transparent access to hardware graphic layers
View Patent ↗The present invention relates generally to computer graphics, and more specifically to methods of, and systems for, configuring, controlling and accessing multiple hardware graphics layers that are used to compose a single video display. One aspect of the invention is broadly defined as follows: in a computer environment including a software application and an operating system running on a computer, the computer including a graphics card and a video display, the graphics card being operable to render images to the video display, the improvement comprising: the operating system including a universal application programming interface (API) which supports hardware layers on graphics cards; the operating system being operable to: receive draw events via the universal API; determine what hardware layers are available on the graphics card, and what their parameters are; and respond to draw requests from the software application by rendering the draw requests selectively to any of the available hardware layers on the graphics card; whereby the computer environment allows software applications to exploit available hardware layers on the graphics card.
1. A method of configuring hardware graphics layers, the method comprising:
querying a graphics driver, via a programmatic interface implemented by the graphics driver, for a number of hardware layers that are available, wherein the graphics driver is for graphics hardware that comprises the available hardware layers, and wherein the programmatic interface is common to graphics drivers that have layer support;
querying the graphics driver, via the programmatic interface, for parameters of each of the available hardware layers;
generating video surfaces in a memory based on the number of the available hardware layers and the parameters of the available hardware layers, each of the video surfaces corresponding to a respective one of the available hardware layers; and
rendering draw events in the video surfaces.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the video surfaces comprises creating the video surfaces to match a restriction imposed by the available hardware layers.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the hardware layers.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the available hardware layers based on the number of the available hardware layers and the parameters of the available hardware layers.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating an image for a physical display device with the graphics hardware.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein rendering the draw events comprises rendering the draw events in the video surfaces with the graphics driver.
7. A system comprising:
a graphics hardware comprising a plurality of hardware layers and a video memory;
a processor; and
a computer memory comprising:
a graphics driver for the graphics hardware, the graphics driver comprising a programmatic interface common to graphics drivers that have layer support; and
a configuration application executable with the processor to query the graphics driver via the programmatic interface for a number of available hardware layers,
the configuration application further executable to query the graphics driver, via the programmatic interface, for parameters of each of the available hardware layers, and
the configuration application further executable to generate video surfaces in the video memory based on the number of the available hardware layers and the parameters of the available hardware layers, each of the video surfaces corresponding to a respective one of the available hardware layers, wherein draw events are rendered in the video surfaces.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the configuration application is further executable to place a plurality of regions in an event space, each of the regions corresponding to a respective one of the video surfaces.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the graphics driver is executable with the processor to render a draw event that intersects any one of the regions in the respective one of the video surfaces.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the configuration application is further executable to configure the available hardware layers based on the number of the available hardware layers and the parameters of the available hardware layers.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the configuration application is further executable to generate an image with the graphics hardware for a physical display device.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the parameters of each of the available hardware layers comprises at least one of a number of colours, dimensions, resolution, scale factors, virtual dimension limits, chroma-key capabilities, and alpha blending capabilities.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable with a processor, the instructions comprising:
a graphics driver executable to manipulate a plurality of hardware layers of graphics hardware, the graphics driver comprising a programmatic interface common to graphics drivers that support layers;
instructions executable to query the graphics driver via the programmatic interface for available hardware layers; and
instructions executable to generate video surfaces in video memory of the graphics hardware based on the available hardware layers, each of the video surfaces corresponding to a respective one of the available hardware layers, wherein draw events from multiple applications are rendered in the video surfaces of the graphics hardware.
14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 further comprising executions executable to query the graphics driver, via the programmatic interface, for parameters of each of the available hardware layers.
15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 further comprising executions executable to generate the video surfaces in the video memory based on the available hardware layers and the parameters of the available hardware layers.
16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 further comprising executions executable to to place a plurality of regions in an event space, each of the regions corresponding to a respective one of the video surfaces.