Memory efficient progressive refinement in ray tracing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8970591-B2
Application number	US-201213687535-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2012
Priority date	Nov 28, 2012
Publication date	Mar 3, 2015
Grant date	Mar 3, 2015

Abstract

In one aspect, a method provides for iteratively taking passes of samples for each pixel of a set of pixels. Initially, the set of pixels can be all of the pixels of an image. For each pixel, an accumulated color at the beginning of a pass and at the end of a pass can be compared. If a difference between these is within a threshold, a convergence count, which begins at an initial value, is reduced. If the difference is not within the threshold, then the convergence count is reset. When the convergence count reaches a preset value, then the pixel is considered converged and removed from the set. However, if a pixel adjacent to a converged pixel fails a convergence test, then the converged pixel is reset to unconverged and returned to the set and at least a minimum number of additional sample passes are undertaken for that pixel.

First claim

We claim:

1. A machine for rendering a 2-D representation of a 3-D scene, comprising:
a sampler for sampling a 3-D scene for a set of pixels being rendered;
a sample buffer in a tangible machine readable medium coupled to the sampler for storing samples taken by the sampler;
a controller for controlling the sampler according to a method comprising:
maintaining the set of pixels being sampled, from pixels of a 2-D representation being rendered,
defining a pixel convergence c…

Assignees

• Caustic Graphics Inc
• Imagination Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Özdas Cüneyt
• Blackmon Steven

Classifications

• G06T15/06 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic