A Fast Ray Tracing Algorithm Using Space Indexing Techniques

Abstract

A fast ray tracing algorithm is presented. Spatial coherency is exploited by adopting a linear octree data structure which corresponds to an adaptive partitioning of space. A ray strides over a number of empty regions aligning on its way and intersects the desired objects directly, Efficiency of the algorithm is achieved by decreasing the number of regions that the ray must be checked with, by reducing the computations involved in skipping an empty region and by performing a binary search to find the next region. An efficient algorithm based on linear programming for mapping the whole environment into a sorted linear octree is also described. Only the terminal nodes containing boundary surfaces of objects are explicitly represented, which not only shortens the searching process but also leads to a considerable saving on storage space.