Systems and methods for 3-d scene acceleration structure creation and updating

A ray tracing system comprising:

• a store;
• and
• processing logic configured to:
• trace a ray from a light source to identify a location in 3-D space of a 3-D scene at which one or more photons are to be deposited,
• select a level of granularity, within a voxel hierarchy at which to store photon data for the one or more photons,
• store, in the store, the photon data for the one or more photons with respect to a voxel associated with:
• (i) the identified location in the 3-D space, and (ii) the selected level of granularity, and
• use photon data associated with a voxel from the store to produce an element of an acceleration structure representing the photon data associated with the voxel.

A method of forming an acceleration structure, the method comprising:

• tracing a ray from a light source to identify a location in 3-D space of a 3-D scene at which one or more photons are to be deposited;
• storing, in a store, photon data for the one or more photons with respect to a plurality of voxels at a respective plurality of levels in a voxel hierarchy at the identified location in the 3-D space;
• pruning one or more nodes representing voxels in the voxel hierarchy;
• and
• using photon data associated with a voxel from the store to produce an element of the acceleration structure representing the photon data associated with the voxel.

A ray tracing system comprising:

• a store;
• and
• processing logic configured to:
• trace a ray from a light source to identify a location in 3-D space of a 3-D scene at which one or more photons are to be deposited,
• store, in the store, photon data for the one or more photons with respect to a plurality of voxels at a respective plurality of levels in a voxel hierarchy at the identified location in the 3-D space,
• prune one or more nodes representing voxels in the voxel hierarchy, and
• use photon data associated with a voxel from the store to produce an element of an acceleration structure representing the photon data associated with the voxel.