Practical Parallel Rendering

Meeting the growing demands for speed and quality in rendering computer graphics images requires new techniques. Practical parallel rendering provides one of the most practical solutions. This book addresses the basic issues of rendering within a parallel or distributed computing environment, and considers the strengths and weaknesses of multiprocessor machines and networked render farms for graphics rendering. Case studies of working applications demonstrate, in detail, practical ways of dealing with complex issues involved in parallel processing.

Part I: Parallel Rendering 1. Introduction to Parallel Processing 2. Task Scheduling and Data Management 3. Parallel Global Illumination Algorithms 4. Overview of Parallel Graphics Hardware 5. Coherence in Ray Tracing Part II: Case Studies 6. Interactive Ray Tracing on a Supercomputer 7. Interactive Ray Tracing on PCs 8. The "Kilauea" Massively Parallel Ray Tracer 9. Parallel Ray Tracing on a Chip

Academic and Professional Practice & Development

Alan Charmers