Improved Computational Methods for Ray Tracing
Hank Weghorst, Gary Hooper, Donald P. Greenberg
In ACM Transactions on Graphics, 3(1), January 1984.
Abstract: discussion of bounding volumes, hierarchical structures and the "item buffer"

This paper describes algorithmic procedures that have been implemented to reduce the computational expense of producing ray-traced images. The selection of bounding volumes is examined to reduce the computational cost of the ray-intersection test. The use of object coherence, which relies on a hierarchical description of the environment, is then presented. Finally, since the building of the ray-intersection trees is such a large portion of the computation, a method using image coherence is described. This visible-surface preprocessing method, which is dependent upon the creation of an " item buffer," takes advantage of a priori image formation. Examples that indicate the efficiency of these techniques for a variety of representative environments are presented.
Keyword(s): Ray Tracing, bounding volume
BibTeX format:
@article{Weghorst:1984:ICM,
  author = {Hank Weghorst and Gary Hooper and Donald P. Greenberg},
  title = {Improved Computational Methods for Ray Tracing},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics},
  volume = {3},
  number = {1},
  pages = {52--69},
  month = jan,
  year = {1984},
}
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