Stochastic addition of rays in a ray tracing image processing system

A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a program which, when executed, performs operations comprising:

• issuing an original ray into a three-dimensional scene;
• tracing the original ray through a spatial index having nodes representing bounding volumes within the three-dimensional scene by taking branches to nodes defining bounding volumes intersected by the original ray until a first leaf node is reached;
• and
• performing ray-primitive intersection tests to determine whether the original ray intersects a primitive contained within a bounding volume defined by the first leaf node;
• and
• upon determining that the original ray intersects a primitive contained in the bounding volume:
• generating a first plurality of secondary rays comprising at least one of a reflected ray, a refracted ray, and a shadow ray;
• determining whether one or more additional secondary rays are to be generated;
• and
• upon determining that one or more additional secondary rays are to be generated, generating one or more additional secondary rays to be issued from a point the original ray intersects the primitive, wherein additional secondary ray has a trajectory that is stochastically determined, and wherein a count of the one or more additional secondary rays is based at least in part on system load.

An image processing system comprising:

• a spatial index having nodes representing bounding volumes within a three-dimensional scene;
• a first processing element configured to:
• issue an original ray into the three-dimensional scene;
• traverse the original ray through the spatial index by taking branches to nodes representing bounding volumes intersected by the original ray until a first leaf node is reached;
• and
• send the original ray to a second processing element;
• and
• a second processing element configured to:
• perform ray-primitive intersection tests to determine whether the original ray intersects a primitive contained within a bounding volume defined by the first leaf node;
• and
• upon determining that the original ray intersects a primitive contained in the bounding volume:
• generate a first plurality of secondary rays comprising at least one of a reflected ray, a refracted ray, and a shadow ray;
• determine whether one or more additional secondary rays are to be generated;
• and
• upon determining that one or more additional secondary rays are to be generated, generate one or more additional secondary rays to be issued from a point the original ray intersects the primitive, wherein each additional secondary ray has a trajectory that is stochastically determined, and wherein a count of the one or more additional secondary rays is based at least in part on system load.