US 12,260,487 B2
Intersection testing in ray tracing systems with skipping of nodes in sub-trees of hierarchical acceleration structures
Gregory Clark, Hemel Hempstead (GB); and Steven J. Clohset, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Imagination Technologies Limited, Kings Langley (GB)
Filed by Imagination Technologies Limited, Kings Langley (GB)
Filed on Sep. 11, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/244,799.
Application 18/244,799 is a continuation of application No. 17/720,060, filed on Apr. 13, 2022, granted, now 11,756,257, issued on Sep. 12, 2023.
Application 17/720,060 is a continuation of application No. 16/913,673, filed on Jun. 26, 2020, granted, now 11,335,055, issued on May 17, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0419589 A1, Dec. 28, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06T 15/06 (2011.01); G06T 15/00 (2011.01); G06T 17/00 (2006.01)
CPC G06T 15/06 (2013.01) [G06T 15/005 (2013.01); G06T 17/005 (2013.01); G06T 2210/21 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method of performing intersection testing in a ray tracing system for use in rendering an image of a scene, the method comprising:
in response to determining that testing of one or more rays for intersection with a region represented by a particular node within a hierarchical acceleration structure is to be skipped, testing the one or more rays for intersection with regions represented by descendants of the particular node, thereby skipping the testing of the one or more rays for intersection with the region represented by the particular node.