Ray offsetting for numerical imprecision compensation in content generation systems and applications

Abstract

Approaches presented herein provide for the reduction in artifacts in image data rendered using ray or path tracing, such as may be due to self-intersections with scene geometry. In at least one embodiment, an appropriate offset value is automatically determined that is to be applied to the spawn point of a secondary ray to be traced, such as may correspond to a hit point of an incoming ray on scene geometry. In at least one embodiment, a single offset value can be calculated that accounts for all sources of numerical error in both construction of the spawn point and during ray traversal, including sources of error in both object space and world space. Once calculated, this single offset can be applied along a normal of a scene geometry, so that any ray traced from a shifted spawn point will not self-intersect the triangle, even for edge or corner cases.