Ray Tracing Sample Compositing Before Rasterization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current image production pipelines discard significant information during the rasterization process, limiting the flexibility and effectiveness of compositing operations, and existing rendering systems lack secure measures to prevent piracy of rendered images and videos.
Innovation Solution
A method that allows for direct compositing from ray tracing samples before rasterization, incorporating a secure rendering system that obfuscates position data to prevent piracy, and a compression system for efficient storage and transmission of ray tracing samples.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If rasterization is performed before compositing operations, then the rendering pipeline is compatible with traditional pixel-based processing, but a large amount of information from ray tracing samples is discarded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional rendering pipeline by performing compositing operations on ray tracing samples before rasterization. Instead of rasterizing first and then compositing, the system composites the high-detail ray tracing samples and only then converts them to pixels, thereby preserving information while achieving compatibility with traditional workflows.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies compositing operations preliminarily to ray tracing samples before the final rasterization step. By performing color corrections, blending, and other compositing operations on the sample data while it still contains full geometric and radiometric information, the system ensures that these operations can be applied with greater precision before the information is condensed into pixels.
2Reliability
If rendering infrastructure is kept in-house to prevent piracy, then security against piracy is improved, but efficiency and resource utilization deteriorate due to inability to outsource
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary encryption layer that sits between the rendering system and the output. By encrypting the ray tracing samples or the intermediate representation before transmission to external rendering farms, the system enables secure outsourcing while maintaining piracy prevention. The encryption acts as a mediator that allows data to leave the secure environment in a protected form.
3Reliability
If encryption is applied post-rendering, then security against piracy is improved, but the rendering system still generates and stores unencrypted intermediate data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies encryption preliminarily to the ray tracing samples or intermediate representation data before it is stored or transmitted. Instead of rendering complete images and then encrypting them, the system encrypts the sample data at an earlier stage, ensuring that even intermediate data remains protected. This preliminary encryption prevents exposure of unencrypted sensitive data throughout the pipeline.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of directly modifying ray tracing samples generated by a ray tracing renderer. Modifications to samples may be made after rendering and before rasterizing, in contrast to typical compositing workflows that manipulate pixels of a rasterized image. Modifications may be based on user input. Rasterization may be performed afterwards at any desired resolutions, for example to adapt to different displays. Samples may be tagged with object identities, facilitating object selection without the need for object masks. Pseudo-random ray patterns typically used by renderers may be supported directly. Many operations may be performed directly on samples, including color changes, object repositioning, and merging of samples from different scenes. Secure samples with scrambled ray directions may be modified directly. Modified samples may be compressed for storage or transmission, and may be streamed to receiving devices that rasterize the samples for display, possibly after decompressing or decrypting the received streams.