Ray Traversal Hierarchy for Dynamic Scene Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current interactive ray tracing methods are inadequate for dynamic scenes and future rendering paradigms, as they assume a complete scene description and acceleration structure, which may not always be available, especially with geometry shaders creating geometry during rendering.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for simultaneously traversing a hierarchy of rays and a hierarchy of objects using bounding volumes, such as oriented bounding boxes, to perform ray tracing, allowing for efficient organization and intersection testing without requiring a complete scene geometry pre-processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional ray tracing is used with complete scene description and pre-built acceleration structure, then ray tracing accuracy is improved, but adaptability to dynamic scenes and future rendering paradigms deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the ray hierarchy structure adaptive and mutable during rendering. Instead of using a static pre-built acceleration structure, the system dynamically constructs and updates ray hierarchies based on current scene state, allowing the data structure to evolve with dynamic scene changes and geometry shader-generated geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the traditional monolithic acceleration structure into hierarchical levels. Rays are organized into multiple hierarchy levels where higher levels contain coarser ray groups and lower levels contain more refined individual rays. This segmentation allows selective processing and updating of different hierarchy levels, improving adaptability to dynamic scenes.
2Measurement precision
If complete acceleration structure is rebuilt per frame for dynamic scenes, then ray tracing accuracy is maintained, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-organizing rays into hierarchical structures and bounding volume hierarchies before actual ray tracing. This preliminary organization allows efficient culling and traversal during rendering, avoiding the need to rebuild complete acceleration structures per frame while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses partial action by updating only the necessary portions of the ray hierarchy rather than rebuilding the complete structure. The hierarchical organization allows selective refinement of specific hierarchy levels based on scene changes, reducing processing time compared to full rebuilds.
3Productivity
If rays are organized using bounding volume hierarchy, then ray tracing efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the nested doll principle by creating hierarchical bounding volume structures where bounding volumes are nested within parent bounding volumes across multiple levels. This nesting allows efficient spatial culling at higher levels before processing individual rays at lower levels, improving ray tracing efficiency while organizing complexity in a manageable hierarchical manner.
Data Source
AI summary
A ray tracing system, method, and computer program product are provided for simultaneously traversing a hierarchy of rays and a hierarchy of objects. In operation, a hierarchy of rays and a hierarchy of objects are simultaneously traversed. Additionally, ray tracing is performed, based on the traversal.