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.