Patent ID: 7782318

Claim:
A method of performing ray tracing, comprising: configuring one or more processors to perform an operation, comprising: issuing a ray into a three-dimensional scene; with a first processor: tracing the ray through a spatial index having nodes representing bounding volumes within the three-dimensional scene by taking branches to nodes defining bounding volumes intersected by the ray until a first leaf node is reached; and, after a leaf node is reached, sending information defining the ray and the first leaf node to a second processor; with the second processor: performing ray-primitive intersection tests to determine if the ray intersects a primitive contained within a bounding volume defined by the first leaf node; generating a first set of secondary rays; sending, information defining the first set of secondary rays to the first processor; and sending a ray-primitive intersection point to the first processor; and with the first processor, generating a second set of secondary rays based on at least the ray-primitive intersection point.