Intersection testing for ray tracing
AssigneeImagination Technologies Limited
InventorDaniel Barnard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for performing intersection testing of rays in a ray tracing system. The ray tracing system uses a hierarchical acceleration structure comprising a plurality of nodes, each identifying one or more elements able to be intersected by a ray. The system iteratively obtains ray requests, each of which identifies a ray and a node against which the ray is to be tested, and performs intersection testing based on the ray requests. The number of ray requests obtained in each iteration reduces responsive to an amount of memory occupied by information relating to the rays (undergoing intersection testing) increasing.
Claims19
A computer-implemented method of performing intersection testing between one or more rays and elements identified by nodes of a hierarchical acceleration structure, wherein a ray is defined by ray information and a node identifies one or more elements for intersection testing,
- wherein the computer-implemented method comprises iteratively performing a ray intersection process of:
- obtaining one or more ray requests, each ray request identifying a ray and a node of the hierarchical structure identifying elements for which the ray of the ray request will undergo intersection testing;
- processing the one or more ray requests and the hierarchical acceleration structure to identify, for each ray request, any intersections between the ray of the ray request and the elements identified by the node of the ray request,
- wherein a number of ray requests obtained in the step of obtaining one or more ray requests reduces in response to the amount of memory occupied by information relating to the one or more rays increasing.
An intersection testing system for performing intersection testing between one or more rays and elements identified by nodes of a hierarchical acceleration structure, wherein a ray is defined by ray information and a node identifies one or more elements for intersection testing;
- wherein the intersection testing system comprises:
- a ray request processor configured to iteratively obtain one or more ray requests, each ray request identifying a ray and a node of the hierarchical structure identifying elements for which the ray of the ray request will undergo intersection testing;
- an intersection test processor configured to, for each iteratively obtained ray request;
- process the one or more ray requests and the hierarchical acceleration structure to identify, for each ray request, any intersections between the ray of the ray request and the elements identified by the node of the ray request,
- wherein a number of ray requests obtained by the ray request processor reduces in response to the amount of memory occupied by information relating to the one or more rays increasing.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable code configured to cause to be performed, when the code is run, a method of performing intersection testing between one or more rays and elements identified by nodes of a hierarchical acceleration structure, wherein a ray is defined by ray information and a node identifies one or more elements for intersection testing,
- wherein the computer-implemented method comprises iteratively performing a ray intersection process of:
- obtaining one or more ray requests, each ray request identifying a ray and a node of the hierarchical structure identifying elements for which the ray of the ray request will undergo intersection testing;
- processing the one or more ray requests and the hierarchical acceleration structure to identify, for each ray request, any intersections between the ray of the ray request and the elements identified by the node of the ray request,
- wherein a number of ray requests obtained in the step of obtaining one or more ray requests reduces in response to the amount of memory occupied by information relating to the one or more rays increasing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.