US Patent 7515152 Adaptive sampling of a static data set

A sampling module that adjusts the sampling density of a static data set. Two or more rays are cast onto a surface from a single point of origin. The ray or rays intersect the surface at various locations. The distance between the intersection points of each pair of adjacent rays is calculated. This distance is the current sample density. The current sample density is compared to the desired sample density. If the current sample density is not equal to the desired sample density then the sample density of the next casting of rays is adjusted accordingly.