Intersection testing in a ray tracing system using a ray coordinate system

Abstract

A method and an intersection testing module for performing intersection testing of a ray with a convex polygon in a ray tracing system. The ray and the convex polygon are defined in a 3D space using a space-coordinate system. The ray is defined with a ray origin and a ray direction. A ray-coordinate system is used to perform intersection testing, wherein the ray-coordinate system has an origin at the ray origin, and wherein the ray-coordinate system has three basis vectors. A first of the basis vectors is aligned with the ray direction. A second and a third of the basis vectors: (i) are both orthogonal to the first basis vector, (ii) are not parallel with each other, and (iii) have a zero as one component when expressed in the space-coordinate system. A result of performing the intersection testing is outputted for use by the ray tracing system.