Rendering scenes using a combination of raytracing and rasterization

A computer program product having a series of operating instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that directs a data processing apparatus when executed thereby to perform operations to render a current scene on a computing system including a graphics processing unit (GPU), said operations comprising:

• determining a first occluder object set from scene data of said current scene utilizing a raytracing algorithm;
• identifying a second occluder object set, wherein said second occluder object set is flagged as visible in a previous rendered scene;
• building a render command buffer utilizing said first and second occluder object sets, wherein said render command buffer identifies raytracing and rasterizing algorithms;
• rendering first display objects utilizing said first and second occluder object sets, said render command buffer, and said GPU;
• testing occlusion of a third object set utilizing said first and second occluder object sets and said first display objects;
• rendering second display objects utilizing said first and second occluder object sets, results from said testing occlusion of said third object set, and a rasterizing algorithm that fetches primitive cluster data from raytracing acceleration structures;
• and
• rendering said current scene utilizing said first and second display objects.

A system to render a scene on a computing system, comprising:

• a scene renderer, capable of rendering said scene, comprising:
• an object analyzer, capable of analyzing said scene, determining rendering techniques to utilize, and generating at least one raytracing acceleration structure;
• a render command buffer, capable of determining render commands, operations, and selecting raytracing algorithms and rasterization algorithms to use with said scene, wherein said render command buffer utilizes output from said object analyzer;
• and
• a render processor, capable of utilizing said raytracing and said rasterization algorithms to render said scene, wherein said render processor is directed by an output from said render command buffer, and, wherein said rasterizing algorithms fetch primitive cluster data from said raytracing acceleration structures.