Determining anti-aliasing settings in graphics processing based on assessment of presence of primitive edges

1. A graphics processing system configured to render a scene using a rendering space that is sub-divided into sections, wherein the graphics processing system comprises:

assessment logic configured to make an assessment regarding the presence of primitive edges in a section; and

determination logic configured to determine an anti-aliasing setting for the section based on the assessment.

2. The graphics processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the determination logic is configured to determine the anti-aliasing setting for a section based on the assessment for the section and at least one other assessment for at least one other section.

3. The graphics processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the assessment logic forms part of a geometry processing logic, and is configured to make an assessment regarding the presence of primitive edges for each of the sections.

4. The graphics processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the rendering space is divided into regions, each region comprising a group of sections, and wherein the determination logic is configured to determine a common anti-aliasing setting for a subset of the sections within the region.

5. The graphics processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the rendering space is sub-divided into sections based on a number of samples each section contains at a maximum anti-aliasing setting, and further comprising:

rendering logic configured to render the rendering space section-by-section at a maximum anti-aliasing setting.

6. The graphics processing system according to claim 4 , wherein the rendering space is sub-divided into sections based on a number of samples each section contains at a maximum anti-aliasing setting, and further comprising:

rendering logic configured to render the rendering space section-by-section at a maximum anti-aliasing setting, wherein the rendering logic is further configured to render together, rather than section-by-section, the sections within a subset of sections of a region that have a common anti-aliasing setting that is not the maximum anti-aliasing setting.

7. The graphics processing system according to claim 3 , wherein the rendering logic is configured to render the subset of sections, within a region, together by rendering the subset of sections together at a lower sample resolution than when rendering a section at the maximum anti-aliasing setting.

8. The graphics processing system according to claim 4 , wherein the geometry processing logic is further configured to produce a per-region region header, comprising common settings applicable to the sections within the group of sections forming the region.

9. The graphics processing system according to claim 1 , wherein determining the anti-aliasing setting for a section comprises enabling or disabling anti-aliasing for the section.

10. A method of manufacturing, using an integrated circuit manufacturing system, a graphics processing system as claimed in claim 1 .

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon an integrated circuit definition dataset that, when processed in an integrated circuit manufacturing system, configures the integrated circuit manufacturing system to manufacture a graphics processing system as claimed in claim 1 .

12. An integrated circuit manufacturing system configured to manufacture a graphics processing system as claimed in claim 1 .

13. A method of rendering primitives in a graphics processing system that is configured to render primitives using a rendering space that is sub-divided into sections, wherein the method comprises:

making an assessment regarding the presence of primitive edges in a section; and

determining an anti-aliasing setting for the section based on the assessment.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein determining an anti-aliasing comprises determining the anti-aliasing setting for a section based on the assessment for the section and at least one other assessment for at least one other section.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein making an assessment forms part of a geometry processing phase, and further comprises making an assessment regarding the presence of primitive edges for each of the sections.

16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the rendering space is divided into regions, each region comprising a group of sections, and wherein determining an anti-aliasing setting further comprises determining a common anti-aliasing setting for a subset of the sections within the region.

17. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the rendering space is sub-divided into sections based on a number of samples each section contains at a maximum anti-aliasing setting, and the method further comprises:

a rendering phase comprising rendering the rendering space section-by-section for sections with a maximum anti-aliasing setting.

18. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the rendering space is sub-divided into sections based on a number of samples each section contains at a maximum anti-aliasing setting, and the method further comprises:

a rendering phase comprising rendering the rendering space section-by-section for sections with a maximum anti-aliasing setting, wherein the rendering phase further comprises rendering together, rather than section-by-section, the sections within a subset of sections of a region that have a common anti-aliasing setting that is not the maximum anti-aliasing setting.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the rendering together is performed by rendering the subset of sections together at a lower sample resolution than when rendering a section at the maximum anti-aliasing setting.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable code configured to cause the method of claim 13 to be performed when the code is run.