Methods and Systems for Texture Prefetching Based on a Most Recently Hit Primitive Algorithm

A computer readable medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation, comprising:

• creating a most recently hit primitive list based on a first ray issued into a three dimensional scene, wherein the most recently hit primitive list indicates at least one intersected primitive in the three dimensional scene;
• issuing a second ray into the scene;
• executing ray-primitive intersection tests on the second ray in an order according to the most recently hit primitive list;
• and
• pre-fetching a first texture corresponding to the first primitive in the most recently hit primitive list intersected by the second ray.

An image processing system comprising:

• a memory cache;
• and
• a first processing configured to perform the steps comprising:
• creating a most recently hit primitive list in the memory cache based on a first ray issued into a three dimensional scene, wherein the most recently hit primitive list indicates at least one intersected primitive in the three dimensional scene;
• issuing a second ray into the scene;
• executing ray-primitive intersection tests with the second ray in an order according to the most recently hit primitive list;
• and
• pre-fetching a first texture corresponding to the first primitive in the most recently hit primitive list intersected by the second ray.