GPU Ray Tracing Techniques and Optimization - SIGGRAPH 2011

Explore cutting-edge GPU ray tracing techniques in this 56-minute SIGGRAPH 2011 conference talk by Nvidia. Discover the latest approaches to leveraging GPUs for optimal ray tracing performance, presented by experts developing the NVIDIA OptiX ray tracing engine, the NVIDIA iray team, and custom renderer creators. Delve into multiple rendering techniques, GPU programming languages, and optimal hardware configurations. Gain insights into evolving views on GPU ray tracing, debunk common myths, and understand similarities in modern GPU ray tracing methods. Learn about GPU computing overview, various programming approaches, and NVIDIA's goals for advanced rendering. Examine the NVIDIA ARC platform, including mental ray, iray integration, and the OptiX ray tracing engine. Understand the beauty of OptiX as middleware, explore the life of a ray, and dive into program objects, acceleration structure choices, and fast BVH build on GPU. Discover large dataset paging techniques and get a glimpse of the OptiX roadmap, including version 2.5 and preliminary test results.

Intro
Evolving Views on GPU Ray Tracing (it)
GPU Ray Tracing Myths
Similarities for today's GPU Ray Tracing
GPU Computing Overview
Many Programming Approaches in Use
Solutions Vary in their GPU Exploitation
NVIDIA Goals for Advanced Rendering
NVIDIA ARC: mental ray platform
NVIDIA ARC: mental ray AO
NVIDIA ARC: iray integration platform
NVIDIA ARC: Optix ray tracing engine
The Beauty of Optix as Middleware
Life of a ray
Program objects (shaders)
Programmable Operations OpenGL
Acceleration Structure Choices
Fast BVH Build on GPU
Large Dataset Paging
Optix Roadmap • Version 2.5
Primary tests with Optix 2.5
Preliminary tests with Optix 2.5