Patent · US Active

Method, system, and computer program product for efficient ray tracing of micropolygon geometry

US8570322B2 · kind B2 · utility

28Cited by

1References

31Claims

0Family size

Assignee

NVIDIA Corporation · US

Inventors

Johannes Hanika · Ulm, DE
Alexander Keller · Berlin, DE
Hendrik Lensch · Blaustein, DE

Key dates

Filing date	May 12, 2009
Grant date	Oct 29, 2013
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Dec 28, 2031

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06T2210/36
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for efficiently ray tracing micropolygon or other highly complex geometry. In operation, a first hierarchy of a plurality of objects is established. Additionally, rays are traced using the first hierarchy to efficiently identify which of the plurality of objects are potentially intersected. Furthermore, at least one of the potentially intersected objects are decomposed, on-demand, into a set of subobjects, each set of subobjects corresponding to one of the at least one of the potentially intersected objects. Still yet, a second hierarchy is established for at least one of the set of subobjects, the second hierarchy being determined by a connectivity of subobjects in an associated set of subobjects in order to accelerate ray tracing.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.