Fast Ray Tracing Using K-d Trees

A hierarchical search structure for ray tracing based on k-d trees is introduced. This data structure can handle the variety of surfaces commonly used in computer graphics. Algorithms to build and traverse this binary data structure are described. Only regions through which a ray travels are interrogated and the search proceeds along the path of the ray starting from its origin. The algorithm also ensures that no object is interrogated more than once in the search for intersection. Benchmarking results indicate that when used with axis-aligned bounding parallelepipeds, this method of ray tracing is one of the fastest known.