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A new parallel ray-tracing system based on object decomposition

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Abstract

We propose a new parallel ray-tracing hardware architecture in which processors are connected as a ring. Most parallel ray-tracing algorithms subdivide the whole object space into subregions; A processor handles only rays entering the subregion assigned to it. Here we assign each processor objects that are spread over the whole object space. The processors trace rays on their own objects. The respective partial results are combined to form the final image. This scheme is especially suitable for synthesizing animated sequences because objects need not be reallocated for every frame. Preliminary results show a speed-up factor almost linearly proportional to the number of processors.

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Correspondence to Hyun-Joon Kim.

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Kim, HJ., Kyung, CM. A new parallel ray-tracing system based on object decomposition. The Visual Computer 12, 244–253 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01782238

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