Antialiasing of ray traced images is typically performed by supersampling the image plane. While this type of filtering works well for many algorithms, it is much more efficient to perform filtering locally on a surface for algorithms such as texture mapping. In order to perform this type of filtering, one must not only trace the ray passing through the pixel, but also have some approximation of the distance to neighboring rays hitting the surface (i.e., a ray's footprint). In this paper, we present a fast, simple, robust scheme for tracking such a quantity based on ray differentials, derivatives of the ray with respect to the image plane.
Ray differentials REF ] were developed to approximate partial derivatives of the ray geometry, in particular for texture filtering.
Tracing ray differentials
SIGGRAPH '99
Computer Science