Context-aware compression with quantization of hierarchical transform matrices

A method comprising:

• traversing rays through a hierarchical acceleration data structure to identify intersections between rays and primitives of a graphics scene;
• compressing hierarchical transformation matrices to generate compressed hierarchical transformation matrices by quantizing N-bit floating point data elements associated with child transforms of the hierarchical transformation matrices to variable-bit floating point numbers or integers comprising offsets from a parent transform of the child transform, wherein the hierarchical transformation matrices store representation of the hierarchical acceleration data structure;
• and
• generating a plurality of instances of one or more base geometric objects in accordance with the compressed hierarchical transformation matrices, wherein instances of the one or more base geometric objects form the primitives of the graphics scene.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

• traversing rays through a hierarchical acceleration data structure to identify intersections between rays and primitives of a graphics scene;
• compressing hierarchical transformation matrices to generate compressed hierarchical transformation matrices by quantizing N-bit floating point data elements associated with child transforms of the hierarchical transformation matrices to variable-bit floating point numbers or integers comprising offsets from a parent transform of the child transform, wherein the hierarchical transformation matrices store representation of the hierarchical acceleration data structure;
• and
• generating a plurality of instances of one or more base geometric objects in accordance with the compressed hierarchical transformation matrices, wherein instances of the one or more base geometric objects form the primitives of the graphics scene.