Systems and methods are provided for variable source rate sampling in connection
with image rendering, which accumulate and resolve over all samples forward mapped
to each pixel bin. In accordance with the invention, the textured surface to be
rendered is sampled, or oversampled, at a variable rate that reflects variations
in frequency among different regions, taking into account any transformation that
will be applied to the surface prior to rendering and the view parameters of the
display device, thus ensuring that each bin of the rendering process receives at
least a predetermined minimum number of samples. A variety of image processing
applications are contemplated wherein variable rate source sampling, and accumulation
and resolution of forward mapped point samples can be applied, ranging from 3-D
graphics applications to applications wherein images recorded in a recording/storage
environment are mapped to the arbitrary requirements of a display environment.