Figure 1: Buddha (1.08M, 315 ms), Dragon (871K, 283 ms) and Fairy (174K, 276ms) models rendered with shadows using our approach. Right: Buddha model with 8 ambient occlusion rays per pixel (410 ms). Resolution 1024 × 1024.
AbstractDivide and Conquer Ray Tracing (DACRT) is a recent technique which constructs no explicit acceleration structure. It creates and traverses an implicit hierarchy in a depth-first fashion recursively and is suited for dynamic scenes that change constantly. In this paper, we present a parallel version of DACRT that runs entirely on the GPU, which exploits efficient primitives like sort and reduce. Our approach suits the GPU well, with a low memory footprint. Our implementation outperforms the serial CPU algorithm for both primary and secondary ray passes. We show good performance on primary pass and on advanced effects.