DirectX ray tracing
DirectX Raytracing ( DXR ) is part of Microsoft 's DirectX graphics interface and enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing . DXR is not a standalone version of DirectX, but part of DirectX 12.
The first graphics cards for the end user with support for these features are the Nvidia GeForce 20 series , which solves the features on the hardware side with so-called " RT cores ", and the Nvidia Titan V, which is aimed at professionals, which emulates the features on the software side.
The feature became usable with the Windows 10 1809 update.
Technical details
DXR extends the DirectX 12 API by 4 new elements:
- An " Acceleration Structure ", which makes the 3D geometry accessible to the graphics card and thus enables the calculation of the collisions of the rays with the world on the GPU
- A "DispatchRays" function that emits rays into the world. This is used to control the ray tracing
- Ray tracing can be used in HLSL shaders
- The "ray tracing pipeline state", comparable to already existing graphics and compute pipeline states
Alternative solutions
The open graphic interface of the Khronos Group , Vulkan , also supports ray tracing via an extension.
Nvidia also allows developers access to the " RT Cores " via its own OptiX framework.
Web links
- Microsoft developer blog on DirectX ray tracing
- DirectX Raytracing and the Windows 10 October 2018 Update
- Nvidia blog about ray tracing vs. rasterization
Individual evidence
- ↑ Announcing Microsoft DirectX Raytracing! . Microsoft.
- ↑ Nvidia reveals $ 800 GeForce RTX 2080 at Gamescom 2018 . In: CNet .
- ↑ Port Royal: Raytracing 3DMark sees Titan V behind Geforce RTX - Golem.de. Retrieved January 15, 2019 (German).
- ↑ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/directx/2018/10/02/directx-raytracing-and-the-windows-10-october-2018-update/
- ↑ Carsten Spille: Raytracing in real time with DirectX and Nvidia's RTX graphics chips. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .
- ↑ NVIDIA OptiX 5.1. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .