Apparatus and method for data-parallel ray tracing using volume proxies

A system comprising:

• a first core to perform a first plurality of ray traversal operations based on a first partition of ray tracing data and to perform a second plurality of ray traversal operations based on first proxy data comprising a compressed representation of a second partition of the ray tracing data, the first partition and first proxy data stored in a first memory coupled to the first core;
• and
• a second core communicatively coupled to the first core, the second core to perform a third plurality of ray traversal operations based on the second partition of ray tracing data stored in a second memory coupled to the second core,
• wherein the first and second partitions of ray tracing data comprise respective first and second portions of data associated with a plurality of rays, first and second portions of data associated with a plurality of primitives, and first and second portions of data associated with a bounding volume hierarchy,
• wherein if the first core determines, based on the second plurality of ray traversal operations, that performing ray traversal operations with respect to a first ray requires at least a portion of the second partition of ray tracing data, then either at least the portion of the second partition of ray tracing data is to be stored in the first memory or an indication is to be provided to the second core, wherein responsive to the indication, the second core is to perform a fourth plurality of ray traversal operations based on the at least the portion of the second partition of the ray tracing data.

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

• dividing ray tracing work between a first core and a second core, the second core communicatively coupled to the first core;
• performing a first plurality of ray traversal operations on the first core based on a first partition of ray tracing data;
• performing a second plurality of ray traversal operations based on first proxy data comprising a compressed representation of a second partition of the ray tracing data, the first partition and first proxy data stored in a first memory coupled to the first core;
• performing a third plurality of ray traversal operations based on the second partition of ray tracing data stored in a second memory coupled to the second core;
• and
• determining, based on the second plurality of ray traversal operations, that performing ray traversal operations with respect to a first ray requires at least a portion of the second partition of ray tracing data and responsive to the determining, either storing at least the portion of the second partition of ray tracing data in the first memory or providing an indication to the second core, wherein responsive to the indication, the second core is to perform a fourth plurality of ray traversal operations based on the at least a portion of the second partition of the ray tracing data,
• wherein the first and second partitions of ray tracing data comprise respective first and second portions of data associated with a plurality of rays, first and second portions of data associated with a plurality of primitives, and first and second portions of data associated with a bounding volume hierarchy.