{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/134205"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/134205","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Optimized ray tracing for real time use without hardware accelerators","abstract":"Many real time applications such as games or animation engines wish to simulate realistic light transport to present the user with streams of high fidelity images. For decades rasterization was the rendering technique of choice because it is fast and produces high quality images. However, in recent years graphics hardware has begun including specialized cores to accelerate ray tracing, an alternative rendering solution to rasterization and a type of light transport simulation. Ray tracing is generally the more desirable choice due to its ability to present images with higher fidelity than rasterization, and due to advances in graphics hardware it can now be simulated in real time. However, with the price increases of graphics processing hardware outpacing their performance increases, and with many other devices still not including this specialized hardware due to power constraints, we present an optimized model which uses ray tracing to produce a higher quality output than that of a raster engine while at the same time not requiring the use of specialized hardware accelerators to achieve real time frame rates. 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Ray tracing is generally the more desirable choice due to its ability to present images with higher fidelity than rasterization, and due to advances in graphics hardware it can now be simulated in real time. However, with the price increases of graphics processing hardware outpacing their performance increases, and with many other devices still not including this specialized hardware due to power constraints, we present an optimized model which uses ray tracing to produce a higher quality output than that of a raster engine while at the same time not requiring the use of specialized hardware accelerators to achieve real time frame rates. 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For decades rasterization was the rendering technique of choice because it is fast and produces high quality images. However, in recent years graphics hardware has begun including specialized cores to accelerate ray tracing, an alternative rendering solution to rasterization and a type of light transport simulation. Ray tracing is generally the more desirable choice due to its ability to present images with higher fidelity than rasterization, and due to advances in graphics hardware it can now be simulated in real time. However, with the price increases of graphics processing hardware outpacing their performance increases, and with many other devices still not including this specialized hardware due to power constraints, we present an optimized model which uses ray tracing to produce a higher quality output than that of a raster engine while at the same time not requiring the use of specialized hardware accelerators to achieve real time frame rates. In this thesis we present two experiments we performed in pursuit of this goal, one which simulated global illumination but could not maintain reasonable levels of accuracy, and another which simulated lighting, shadows, and reflections and produced images which closely resembled our reference model while achieving consistent real time frame rates."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstractgeneral","label":"General Abstract","values":["There are many use cases for which a real time rendering engine is needed. Realistic image synthesis is a common goal of such rendering engines and this normally involves simulating how light interacts with a virtualized three dimensional scene. Most techniques which can realistically approximate light transport in a scene are far too computationally expensive to run in real time. However, recent advances in graphics processing hardware have begun commercializing the use of ray tracing, a form of light transport simulation, for real time use. While this is a significant step forward, many devices still do not contain the specialized hardware needed to accelerate ray tracing. In this thesis, we present two experiments which work towards the goal of finding a compromise between rendering speed and quality using ray tracing. Our first experiment considers caching methods to speed up runtime calculations while our second produced a model which can synthesize an image that displays characteristics of a ray tracing engine while also running in real time without the use of specialized hardware accelerators."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"dc:format.medium","label":"Dc Format Medium","values":["ETD"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Optimized ray tracing for real time use without hardware accelerators"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Hsiao, Michael S."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Abbott, Amos L.","Ransbottom, Jeffrey Scot"],"dc:contributor.department":["Electrical and Computer Engineering"],"dc:creator":["DiDio, Tad Angelo"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2025-05-24T08:00:45Z"],"dc:date.available":["2025-05-24T08:00:45Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2025-05-23"],"dc:description.abstract":["Many real time applications such as games or animation engines wish to simulate realistic light transport to present the user with streams of high fidelity images. 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In this thesis we present two experiments we performed in pursuit of this goal, one which simulated global illumination but could not maintain reasonable levels of accuracy, and another which simulated lighting, shadows, and reflections and produced images which closely resembled our reference model while achieving consistent real time frame rates."],"dc:description.abstractgeneral":["There are many use cases for which a real time rendering engine is needed. Realistic image synthesis is a common goal of such rendering engines and this normally involves simulating how light interacts with a virtualized three dimensional scene. Most techniques which can realistically approximate light transport in a scene are far too computationally expensive to run in real time. However, recent advances in graphics processing hardware have begun commercializing the use of ray tracing, a form of light transport simulation, for real time use. While this is a significant step forward, many devices still do not contain the specialized hardware needed to accelerate ray tracing. In this thesis, we present two experiments which work towards the goal of finding a compromise between rendering speed and quality using ray tracing. Our first experiment considers caching methods to speed up runtime calculations while our second produced a model which can synthesize an image that displays characteristics of a ray tracing engine while also running in real time without the use of specialized hardware accelerators."],"dc:description.degree":["Master of Science"],"dc:format.medium":["ETD"],"dc:identifier.other":["vt_gsexam:43947"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/10919/134205"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Raytracing","Rendering"],"dc:title":["Optimized ray tracing for real time use without hardware accelerators"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:11Z"}