Intel corporation (20240233244). APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A HIERARCHICAL BEAM TRACER simplified abstract

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A HIERARCHICAL BEAM TRACER

Organization Name

intel corporation

Inventor(s)

Scott Janus of Loomis CA (US)

Prasoonkumar Surti of Folsom CA (US)

Karthik Vaidyanathan of San Francisco CA (US)

Alexey Supikov of San Jose CA (US)

Gabor Liktor of San Francisco CA (US)

Carsten Benthin of Voelklingen (DE)

Philip Laws of Santa Clara CA (US)

Michael Doyle of Santa Clara CA (US)

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A HIERARCHICAL BEAM TRACER - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20240233244 titled 'APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A HIERARCHICAL BEAM TRACER

The abstract describes an apparatus and method for a hierarchical beam tracer used in graphics scenes. The system includes a beam generator, a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) generator, a hierarchical beam-based traversal unit, and intersection hardware logic.

• Beam generator creates beam data for a projected beam in a graphics scene.
• BVH generator generates BVH data with hierarchically arranged nodes.
• Hierarchical beam-based traversal unit determines beam intersections with BVH nodes and subdivides beams for testing.
• Traversal unit iteratively subdivides intersecting child beams and traverses down the BVH hierarchy.
• Intersection hardware logic performs intersection testing for rays intersecting leaf nodes.

Potential Applications: - Real-time ray tracing in video games - Computer-generated imagery in movies - Virtual reality and augmented reality applications

Problems Solved: - Efficiently tracing beams in complex graphics scenes - Improving rendering speed and accuracy

Benefits: - Enhanced realism in graphics rendering - Faster and more accurate intersection testing - Scalability for large and detailed scenes

Commercial Applications: "Hierarchical Beam Tracer for Real-Time Graphics Rendering: Revolutionizing the Gaming and Entertainment Industry"

Frequently Updated Research: Researchers are constantly exploring optimizations for hierarchical beam tracing algorithms to further improve rendering efficiency and quality.

Questions about Hierarchical Beam Tracer: 1. How does hierarchical beam tracing improve rendering performance compared to traditional methods? 2. What are the key challenges in implementing hierarchical beam tracing in real-time applications?

Original Abstract Submitted

apparatus and method for a hierarchical beam tracer. for example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a beam generator to generate beam data associated with a beam projected into a graphics scene; a bounding volume hierarchy (bvh) generator to generate bvh data comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged bvh nodes; a hierarchical beam-based traversal unit to determine whether the beam intersects a current bvh node and, if so, to responsively subdivide the beam into n child beams to test against the current bvh node and/or to traverse further down the bvh hierarchy to select a new bvh node, wherein the hierarchical beam-based traversal unit is to iteratively subdivide successive intersecting child beams and/or to continue to traverse down the bvh hierarchy until a leaf node is reached with which at least one final child beam is determined to intersect; the hierarchical beam-based traversal unit to generate a plurality of rays within the final child beam; and intersection hardware logic to perform intersection testing for any rays intersecting the leaf node, the intersection testing to determine intersections between the rays intersecting the leaf node and primitives bounded by the leaf node.