New techniques for ray tracing procedurally defined objects

Abstract

We present new algorithms for efficient ray tracing of three procedurally defined objects: fractal surfaces, prisms, and surfaces of revolution. The fractal surface algorithm performs recursive subdivision adaptively. Subsurfaces which cannot intersect a given ray are culled from further consideration. The prism algorithm transforms the three dimensional ray-surface intersection problem into a two dimensional ray-curve intersection problem, which is solved by the method of strip trees. The surface of revolution algorithm transforms the three dimensional ray-surface intersection problem into a two dimensional curve-curve intersection problem, which again is solved by strip trees.