Patent ID: 8350846

Claim:
A method of rendering an image using ray tracing, the method comprising: determining a rate of change between a first ray origin of a first ray cast in a first frame and a second ray origin of a second ray cast in a second frame, wherein the first frame is a new frame, wherein the second frame is an existing frame, wherein the first ray origin and the second ray origin correspond to a moving camera perspective; comparing the determined rate of change to a threshold rate of change to determine whether the determined rate of change is more than the threshold rate of change, wherein the threshold rate of change is a relatively high rate of change that corresponds to a motion blur that is naturally expected; and determining whether to build a new acceleration data structure based on the comparison of the determined rate of change and the threshold rate of change, including: in response to determining that the determined rate of change is not more than the threshold rate of change: building the new acceleration data structure in a manner that reduces an amount of processing resources; and using the new acceleration data structure to render the image of the first frame; in response to determining that the determined rate of change is more than the threshold rate of change: determine whether the second frame includes an off-scene attention drawing event: in response to determining that the second frame includes the off-scene attention drawing event: reusing an existing acceleration data structure to render the image of the first frame as the off-scene attention drawing event of the second frame will divert a viewer's focus temporarily and the viewer's focus will likely revert to a frame prior to the second frame; and rendering the image based on the existing acceleration data structure.