Parallel processing of an object space for image synthesis using ray tracing

This paper presents a novel parallel processing system for image synthesis using ray tracing. An object space is divided into parts (subspaces), each of which is allocated to a processor. The processor detects, simultaneously the intersections of the surfaces of each object and a fixed number of rays over the whole space, and calculates the local intensity on an object in each subspace. The global intensities of pixels on a screen are calculated by the other kind of processors simultaneously. We also present the optimal data structure, based on an adaptive division algorithm, for parallel processing of the object space.