GI-cube: an architecture for volumetric global illumination and rendering

ABSTRACT

The power and utility of volume rendering is increased by global illumination. We present a hardware architecture, GI-Cube, designed to accelerate volume rendering, empower volumetric global illumination, and enable a host of ray-based volumetric processing. The algorithm reorders ray processing based on a partitioning of the volume. A cache enables efficient processing of coherent rays within a hardware pipeline. We study the flexibility and performance of this new architecture using both high and low level simulations.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.1 Hardware architecture
          Subjects: Graphics processors

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.1 Hardware architecture
          Subjects: Parallel processing
      I.3.5 Computational Geometry and Object Modeling
          Subjects: Curve, surface, solid, and object representations
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Raytracing
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Measurement, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
hardware accelerator, volume processing, volume rendering, volumetric global illumination, volumetric ray tracing