US 12,217,353 B2
Quantized ray intersection testing with definitive hit detection
Christopher A. Burns, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Oct. 19, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/490,548.
Application 18/490,548 is a continuation of application No. 17/456,503, filed on Nov. 24, 2021, granted, now 11,830,124.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/248,143, filed on Sep. 24, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0046550 A1, Feb. 8, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06T 15/06 (2011.01); G06T 15/50 (2011.01)
CPC G06T 15/06 (2013.01) [G06T 15/506 (2013.01); G06T 2215/12 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
test circuitry configured to:
perform an intersection test based on traversal of an acceleration data structure that includes hierarchically-arranged bounding volumes for a graphics scene, wherein:
the intersection test operates on:
reduced-precision representations of rays that are quantized versions of initial representations of the rays; and
reduced-precision representations of primitives that are quantized versions of initial representations of the primitives; and
the intersection test generates a first result for a first ray and a first primitive that indicates that a line coincident with the first ray definitively intersects the first primitive; and
graphics processing circuitry configured to record an intersection for the first ray with the first primitive, based on the first result, without performing an intersection test for the first ray using the initial representation of the first ray and the first primitive.