Asynchronous and concurrent ray tracing and rasterization rendering processes

摘要

Rendering systems that can use combinations of rasterization rendering processes and ray tracing rendering processes are disclosed. In some implementations, these systems perform a rasterization pass to identify visible surfaces of pixels in an image. Some implementations may begin shading processes for visible surfaces, before the geometry is entirely processed, in which rays are emitted. Rays can be culled at various points during processing, based on determining whether the surface from which the ray was emitted is still visible. Rendering systems may implement rendering effects as disclosed.

主权项

1. A machine-implemented method for rasterizing a stream of geometry for a frame of pixels wherein a value of each pixel is defined based on one or more samples for that pixel, the method comprising:
processing at least one element of geometry from the stream and determining a first visible element of geometry at a sample for a pixel in the frame of pixels; responsive to determining the first visible element of geometry, initiating running of a shader for said first visible element of geometry, comprising emitting a ray to be traced within a 3-D scene in which elements of the geometry are located, the ray associated with the sample; and processing at least one other element of geometry from the stream and determining a second visible element of geometry at the sample and determining whether the second visible element of geometry is the same element of geometry as the first visible element of geometry, and if so, then continuing to process the ray, and otherwise terminating the processing of the ray.