Methods and systems for constructing ray tracing acceleration structures
AssigneeImagination Technologies Limited
InventorSimon Fenney
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Abstract
A computer-implemented method of constructing a ray tracing acceleration structure for a scene defined with respect to an overall coordinate system. The acceleration structure includes a top-level acceleration structure (TLAS) having leaf nodes referencing one or more instances of a bottom-level acceleration structures (BLAS). The method comprises defining one or more TLAS nodes, for each TLAS node, determining a first bounding volume and associating the node with a transformation matrix that maps between the first bounding volume and a second bounding volume in the overall coordinate system.
Claims19
A computer-implemented method of constructing a ray tracing acceleration structure for a scene defined with respect to an overall coordinate system, the acceleration structure comprising a top-level acceleration structure (TLAS) having leaf nodes referencing one or more instances of a bottom-level acceleration structures (BLAS), the method comprising:
- defining one or more TLAS nodes;
- for each TLAS node, determining a first bounding volume and associating the node with a transformation matrix that maps between the first bounding volume and a second bounding volume in the overall coordinate system.
A computer-implemented method of tracing a ray through an acceleration structure for a scene defined with respect to an overall coordinate system, the acceleration structure comprising a top-level acceleration structure (TLAS) having leaf nodes referencing one or more instances of a bottom-level acceleration structure (BLAS), the method comprising:
- evaluating if a ray intersects with a node of the TLAS, the node having a first bounding volume defined in the overall coordinate system, wherein the evaluating comprises:
- identifying a transformation matrix associated with the node, the transformation matrix representing a mapping between the first bounding volume for the node and a second bounding volume in the overall coordinate system;
- transforming the ray using the identified transformation matrix, to test if the ray intersects with the node.
A ray tracing system configured to construct a ray tracing acceleration structure for a scene defined with respect to an overall coordinate system, the acceleration structure comprising a top-level acceleration structure (TLAS) having leaf nodes referencing one or more instances of a bottom-level acceleration structures (BLAS), the system comprising a module configured to:
- define one or more TLAS nodes;
- for each TLAS node, determine a first bounding volume and associate the node with a transformation matrix that maps between the first bounding volume and a second bounding volume in the overall coordinate system;
- and
- store in memory the TLAS, including the second bounding volume and the association between the node and the transformation matrix.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.