Abstract: A processing system captures raw ray traversal data from a real-time ray tracing application and generates tokens that are compact representations of various aspects of the ray tracing data from which the ray traversal data can be reconstructed and analyzed. For example, a token stream includes tokens having identifiers to uniquely identify a ray in a ray dispatch, a call site within a shader, traversal iteration and parent traversal. Other tokens in the stream may include associated ray and top level and bottom level acceleration structure data, intersection result, function call, hits, and ray user payload data. An analysis and visualization application accesses the stored tokens, parses the tokens, and reconstructs the ray traversal data represented by the tokens for subsequent analysis.

Abstract: Described herein are techniques for performing ray tracing operations. A command processor executes custom instructions for orchestrating a ray tracing pipeline. The custom instructions cause the command processor to perform a series of loop iterations, each at a particular recursion depth. In a first loop iteration, a ray generation shader is executed that triggers execution of a trace ray operation. In any other iteration, zero or more shaders are executed based on the contents of a shader queue. Any shader may trigger execution of a trace ray operation. The trace ray operation determines whether a ray specified by the shader intersects a triangle. The ray trace operation places shader entries into a shader queue, at the current recursion depth plus 1. The command processor updates the current recursion depth based on whether a trace ray operation is executed. The loop ends when the recursion depth is less than a threshold.

Abstract: Described herein are techniques for performing ray tracing operations. A command processor executes custom instructions for orchestrating a ray tracing pipeline. The custom instructions cause the command processor to perform a series of loop iterations, each at a particular recursion depth. In a first loop iteration, a ray generation shader is executed that triggers execution of a trace ray operation. In any other iteration, zero or more shaders are executed based on the contents of a shader queue. Any shader may trigger execution of a trace ray operation. The trace ray operation determines whether a ray specified by the shader intersects a triangle. The ray trace operation places shader entries into a shader queue, at the current recursion depth plus 1. The command processor updates the current recursion depth based on whether a trace ray operation is executed. The loop ends when the recursion depth is less than a threshold.