Grouping Techniques for Ray Intersection Traversal

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by ray intersect circuitry, one or more ray intersect requests that indicate origin and direction information for multiple rays in a set of rays in a graphics scene;
• traversing, by the ray intersect circuitry, multiple nodes a spatially-organized acceleration data structure, wherein nodes of the data structure indicate coordinates corresponding to bounding regions of the graphics scene, wherein the traversing includes:
• grouping, by grouping circuitry, portions of the set of rays into multiple groups based on the node of the data structure that they target next;
• and
• processing, using bounding region test circuitry based on the grouping, a first group that includes a subset of the set of rays that target a first node to determine whether rays in the first group intersect with one or more bounding regions of the first node.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon design information that specifies a design of at least a portion of a hardware integrated circuit in a format recognized by a semiconductor fabrication system that is configured to use the design information to produce the circuit according to the design, wherein the design information specifies that the circuit includes:

• ray intersect circuitry, configured to:
• receive one or more ray intersect requests that indicate origin and direction information for multiple rays in a set of rays in a graphics scene;
• traverse multiple nodes a spatially-organized acceleration data structure whose nodes indicate coordinates corresponding to bounding regions of the graphics scene, to determine whether rays intersect bounding regions, including to:
• group, by grouping circuitry, portions of the set of rays into multiple groups based on the node of the data structure that they target next;
• and
• process, by bounding region test circuitry based on the grouping, a first group that includes a subset of the set of rays that target a first node to determine whether rays in the first group intersect with one or more bounding regions of the first node.