Patent Document ID: 9639975
Application ID: 12909792
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for generating a shadow in a graphics scene, the method comprising: casting, using a processor, a ray having a pre-determined finite length associated with a point on a surface of an object in the graphics scene towards a light source; determining whether the ray intersects any other objects in the graphics scene; generating a shadow value associated with the point on the surface of the object based on a combination of geometric scene information obtained as a result of determining whether the ray intersects any other objects in the graphics scene and an image-based shadow map value; and casting a plurality of additional rays associated with the point on the surface towards the light source, wherein each ray in the plurality of additional rays is associated with an angle that is within a cone angle associated with the ray, wherein each ray in the plurality of additional rays has a length that is within a range of the finite length of the ray, wherein the additional ray lengths are determined using a stochastic sampling.