Parallel Rendering Methods
AFR belongs to a class of parallel rendering methods, which subdivide a four dimensional image frame sequence (x,y,z and time) into smaller regions, each of which is then assigned to a different physical processor within a multi-processor array. Note that the regional boundaries may be defined in space or in time. Also, the multiple processors can be implemented within a single video card or separate video graphics cards can be combined, subject to the motherboard and I/O slot limitations. When separate video cards are used, they must be specifically designed to allow a "cross-link" between them.
If a computer has two video cards that combine their outputs into a single video monitor, then one of four methods could be used to create the images.
- Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR): One graphics processing unit (GPU) computes all the odd video frames, the other renders the even frames. (i.e. time division)
- Scissors: One GPU renders the top half of each video frame, the other does the bottom. (i.e. plane division)
- Checker board: As the name implies, the image is split into smaller squares, which are assigned to different cards
- Scan-Line Interleave: The origin of the SLI trademark, as employed by the 3dfx Voodoo2, which renders a frame's even scan-lines on the first GPU and its odd scan-lines on the second. The SLI trademark passed to Nvidia upon its acquisition of 3dfx in 2000 and now stands for Scalable Link Interface.
Read more about this topic: Alternate Frame Rendering
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