Patent attributes
A hierarchical acceleration structure is generated for intersection testing in a ray tracing system. Nodes of the hierarchical acceleration structure are determined, wherein each of the nodes represents a region in a scene, and wherein the nodes are linked to form the hierarchical acceleration structure. Data is stored representing the hierarchical acceleration structure. The stored data defines the regions represented by a plurality of the nodes of the hierarchical acceleration structure. At least one node is an implicitly represented node, wherein data defining a region represented by an implicitly represented node is not explicitly included as part of the stored data but can be inferred from the stored data. Ray tracing systems and computer-implemented methods for performing intersection testing are provided in which, based on conditions in the ray tracing system, a determination is made as to whether testing of one or more rays for intersection with a region represented by a particular node of a sub-tree is to be skipped. The one or more rays are tested for intersection in accordance with the determination.
