Application-transparent resolution control by way of command stream interception
A method for controlling image resolution in graphics systems at runtime is provided. In use, the stream of commands and Shaders of the running application is intercepted and analyzed at run time. In the event that an on-the-fly change of resolution is required, the change is made by modification of the Shader assembly code or of the graphics library commands.
1. A method for controlling image resolution in graphics systems at runtime comprising:
providing a computer system having a CPU, one or more of an integrated or a discrete GPU, a display to display images, a non-transitory computer readable system memory and at least one application running on the computer system that generates at least one of a stream of graphic library commands and/or shader codes at run time;
intercepting, analyzing and modifying the stream of graphics library commands and/or shaders codes generated by the running application at run time;
(i) in the event that an on-the-fly change of resolution is desired for keeping a user's experience above a predefined minimal level, changing the resolution by modification of one or more of the:
a. shader code, or
b. graphics library commands;
(ii) in the event that no change of resolution is desired, not changing the resolution.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein modified and unmodified shaders are cached in the memory for optimization.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the resolution is limited by at least one threshold, the at least one threshold selected from: bearable levels of at least one of frame rate, image resolution, image brightness, responsiveness and power consumption.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein any of the thresholds can be modified in the course of the run time of application.
5. method of claim 1 , wherein a low threshold is used for preserving the application's playability.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shader code is modified on-the-fly for the desired resolution.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the change of resolution is applied to 3D scenes only.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein 3D heads-up displays may be modified but 2-dimensional heads-up display may not be modified.
9. The method of claim 8 , comprising the further step of detecting a heads-up display and wherein detection of heads-up display is accomplished by accumulating commands and carrying out an analysis prior to releasing the commands to a pipeline for rendering.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein detection of a heads-up display is accomplished by detecting the last rendering task in a frame that writes to a back buffer.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein an inter-frame dependency analyzer is provided to test resource dependency so as to prevent artifacts.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameters for changing the resolution includes one or more of: the target frame rate, power consumption and the maximum allowed quality hit.