Integration cone tracing
US9123162B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 11, 2012 |
| Grant date | Sep 1, 2015 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 11, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/50
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method is provided for integration cone tracing with particular application for feature films and other demanding content creation using scenes of high complexity requiring global illumination. Instead of using a conventional noise prone ray tracer, cones are intersected with a scene bounding hierarchy to determine intersecting scene geometry, and integration results are computed by directional sampling within the cones. As a result, the working data set may be reduced as the rendering may begin with a smaller set of cones as compared to the large number of rays required for acceptable filtering in a conventional ray tracer. Furthermore, by refining the cones during the rendering only on an as-needed basis according to an acceptable noise threshold and by sharing secondary cone bounces among primary cones, the processing workload and data set requirements may be kept to a reasonable level even for multiple global illumination passes.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.