Method and apparatus for increasing efficiency of transmission and/or storage of rays for parallelized ray intersection testing
US8063902B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 12, 2007 |
| Grant date | Nov 22, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 7, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/06
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
For ray tracing, methods, apparatus, and computer readable media provide efficient transmission and/or storage of rays between ray emitters, and an intersection testing resource. Ray emitters, during emission of a plurality of rays, identify a shared attribute of each ray of the plurality, and represent that attribute as shared ray data. The shared ray data, and other ray data sufficient to determine both an origin and a direction for each ray of the plurality, are transmitted. Functionality in the intersection testing resource receives the shared ray data and the other ray data, and interprets the shared ray data and the other ray data to determine an origin and direction for each ray of the plurality, and provides those rays for intersection testing. Rays can be stored in the shared attribute format in the intersection testing resource and data elements representing the rays can be constructed later. Programmable receiving functionality of the intersection testing resource can accommodate many ray types and other situations.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.