At block 310, according to at least one particular embodiment, the received rendering results are merged with rendering results received from one or more other computers (e.g., one or more other rendering engines 130 of FIG. 1), such as a second computer. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, the received rendering results are merged at the merger 140.

At block 312, according to at least one particular embodiment, it is determined whether the merged rendering results meet a particular condition. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, the merger 140 determines whether the merged rendering results meet a particular condition.

According to at least one particular embodiment, the particular condition is based on an image quality threshold that is specified by a user.

If it is determined that the merged rendering results meet the particular condition, the computer is controlled to halt rendering operations (see block 318). Otherwise, the method may proceed to block 314.

At block 314, it may be determined whether the computer has not yet identified at least one pixel of the tile that had been identified at block 302. If the computer has not yet identified at least one such pixel, the method may return to block 304, such that a different pixel of the tile identified at block 302 can be identified. Otherwise (e.g., the computer has identified all pixels of the tile), the method may proceed to block 316. Alternatively, in some particular situations (e.g., during a coarse pass), the method may proceed to block 316 even if at least one pixel of the tile is not yet processed at some iteration.