Parallel BVH Construction using Progressive Hierarchical Refinement

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 487 - 494
• Main Authors: Hendrich, J., Meister, D., Bittner, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2017
• Subjects: Algorithms; Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS); Construction; Hierarchies; I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Object Hierarchies; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Raytracing; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism; Rapid prototyping; Ray tracing
• ISSN: 0167-7055; 1467-8659
• DOI: 10.1111/cgf.13143

We propose a novel algorithm for construction of bounding volume hierarchies (BVHs) for multi‐core CPU architectures. The algorithm constructs the BVH by a divisive top‐down approach using a progressively refined cut of an existing auxiliary BVH. We propose a new strategy for refining the cut that significantly reduces the workload of individual steps of BVH construction. Additionally, we propose a new method for integrating spatial splits into the BVH construction algorithm. The auxiliary BVH is constructed using a very fast method such as LBVH based on Morton codes. We show that the method provides a very good trade‐off between the build time and ray tracing performance. We evaluated the method within the Embree ray tracing framework and show that it compares favorably with the Embree BVH builders regarding build time while maintaining comparable ray tracing speed.