1. A method of producing a pixel coverage mask based on an alpha value, the method comprising: enabling bits in a quantized alpha mask based on an alpha-to-coverage ordering associated with a sampling mode; combining a virtual coverage mask that indicates which virtual samples and real samples within a pixel are covered by a graphics primitive and a quantized alpha mask based on the alpha value to produce the pixel coverage mask; determining a link field that indicates links between the virtual samples and the real samples; adjusting the link field based on the pixel coverage mask to link any orphaned virtual sample to one of the real samples, wherein each virtual sample inherits color data computed for the real sample to which the virtual sample is linked; and outputting the pixel coverage mask and the link field for the pixel.