Ray Cache with Ray Transform Support for Ray Tracing

A method, comprising:

• performing, by a graphics processor, intersection tests between rays and bounding regions of an acceleration data structure for a graphics scene;
• transforming, by the graphics processor in response to reaching a transform node in the acceleration data structure, first coordinates of a ray from a first coordinate space to generate second coordinates of the ray in a second coordinate space for subsequent traversal of the acceleration data structure;
• and
• caching, by the graphics processor in a ray cache, ray data for the intersection tests, including:
• the first coordinates of the ray in the first coordinate space;
• the second coordinates of the ray in the second coordinate space;
• and
• shared data for the ray that applies to both the first and second coordinates.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions of a hardware description programming language stored thereon that, when processed by a computing system, program the computing system to generate a computer simulation model, wherein the model represents a hardware circuit that includes:

• shader processor circuitry configured to execute graphics programs;
• ray intersect accelerator circuitry that includes:
• traversal circuitry configured to perform intersection tests between rays and bounding regions of an acceleration data structure for a graphics scene;
• and
• transform circuitry configured to, in response to reaching a transform node in the acceleration data structure, transform first coordinates of a ray from a first coordinate space to generate second coordinates of the ray in a second coordinate space for subsequent traversal of the acceleration data structure;
• and
• ray cache circuitry configured to cache data that is accessible to the ray intersect accelerator circuitry, wherein an entry of the ray cache circuitry is configured to cache data for the ray that includes:
• the first coordinates of the ray in the first coordinate space;
• the second coordinates of the ray in the second coordinate space;
• and
• shared data for the ray that applies to both the first and second coordinates.