A simplified and accelerated determination of how much of a display element, generated by instructions executing on a computing device, is displayed is achieved through approximations based on a two-dimensional array whose dimensions are commensurate with a size of the display element. Each entry in the array is initialized to one binary value. If the display element is cut off by either physical display boundaries or by boundaries of a host display element, or if it is overlapped by another element, then the entries in the array corresponding to those portions of the display element that are not visible are changed to another binary value. Subsequently, the quantity of entries in the array having the original, initialized binary value, as compared with the total quantity of entries in the array, can provide an accurate approximation for how much of the display element was displayed.