Low overhead path regeneration

Abstract

Monte Carlo Path Tracing is a core light transport technique which is used for modern methods (like BDPT, MLT, VCM and others). One of the main challenge of efficient GPU Path Tracing implementation is inefficient workload caused by paths of different lengths; few threads process the long paths, while other threads are idle. A work distribution technique called “Path Regeneration” is commonly used to solve this problem. We introduce a novel GPU implementation of path regeneration technique called “in place block based path regeneration.” In comparison to previous approaches our algorithm possesses two main advantages: it has lower self-cost and it does not move any per-ray data along threads in memory, thus, our algorithm can be easily integrated to any advanced path tracing technique (like BDPT, MLT and other) or photon mapping. We tested our solution with path tracing using both CUDA and OpenCL.