Analyzing Performance of Bounding Volume Hierarchies for Ray Tracing

Abstract

A Bounding Volume Hierarchy — a type of informational data structure commonly used in computer graphics — is a popular means of accelerating the ray tracing algorithm used to render 3D images. There are many possible variations to consider when implementing a BVH for a particular ray tracing project. The goal of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how a few of the most significant design decisions affect a BVH’s performance. To gain a thorough understanding of the internal mechanics of BVHs, I wrote and assembled my own codebase that records runtime metrics during the execution of the ray tracing algorithm.