Real Time Highly Realistic Computer Graphics

This proposal aims to fund the Direct-Trace algorithms and their library to allow using Ray-Tracing for Real-Time 3D computer applications. Ray-Tracing is a technique that can provide more realistic 3D effects, and the grant will provide a proof-of-concept for the new technique and its extensions, following research supported by a previous EPSRC grant and a patent filed on the technology. Prior funding has helped discovering much faster techniques for Ray-Tracing and the objective is to port these techniques to a much faster platform (i.e., a Graphics card) to speed it up. This will allow for use of Ray-Tracing in real-time dynamic applications such as 3D games, the movie industry, or Physics simulations. There is a great opportunity for the first sustained real-time implementation of Ray-Tracing, as Ray-Tracing can provide much higher realism for 3D Graphics and games in particular.

Ray-tracing is broadly regarded as the most logical step in consumer graphics technology. It is widely anticipated that when a real-time implementation exists, the technology will be included inside the graphics card drivers available on each PC [or console]. This will mean that, in time, the technology will be present inside hundreds of millions of PCs and consoles. For the consumer, be they a movie producer, architect or gamer, this will mean more realistic 3D images. To the very active 3D Computer Graphics sector however, the change will mean a revolution in the technology used and considerable economic stimulation of the field. To be the first to demonstrate real-time global illumination in 3D applications would not only proffer the commercial benefits discussed below, but also grant the individuals and institutions concerned considerable eminence in the field.