Systems and methods of defining rays for ray tracing rendering

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable code for programming a processor to execute a method of accepting ray data from shader modules, the method comprising:

• storing in one or more locations in a memory one or more attributes identified as being available for reference by rays upon their emission;
• storing data defining a first ray, the definition data for the ray comprising a reference to at least one of the stored attributes;
• running a shader code module in response to an intersection testing result for the ray;
• using the reference to the at least one stored attribute to obtain data defining the at least one stored attribute for use by the shader code module;
• and
• providing definition data for a second ray, the definition data comprising attribute source information indicating which attributes of the second ray are to be sourced from the one or more attributes stored in the one or more locations in memory, and which attributes of the second ray are explicitly defined in the definition data for the second ray.

A system for managing ray memory in rendering with ray tracing, comprising:

• a memory for storing ray attribute data;
• a processor configurable with computer executable shader code modules to produce rays to be intersection tested in a 3-D scene, the processor interfacing with the memory;
• and
• a module configured for effecting storage of definition data for a first ray in a first data structure in the memory, the definition data comprising identification of an attribute of the first ray that is present in a separate second data structure that is already stored in the memory, a reference to the separate second data structure, and data explicitly defining an attribute of the first ray distinct from attributes stored in that separate second data structure.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions comprising a shader code module for configuring a processor, the shader code module comprising:

• computer executable code to receive identifying information for a first ray that caused the shader code module to be run as a result of intersection testing;
• computer executable code for reading definition data for the first ray from a memory location storing a data structure for the first ray;
• computer executable code for parsing the definition data to determine whether an attribute of the first ray is defined explicitly in the data structure or by reference to an attribute source other than ray data structure for the first ray;
• computer executable code for reading data descriptive of the attribute, for use if the attribute is defined by reference to an attribute source other than the data structure for the first ray;
• and
• computer executable code for computing a shading effect using the attribute.