Ray Tracing Complex Scenes: Sequential or In Parallel?

Abstract

We present a discussion whether current parallel machines or, preferable, fast sequential computers should be used to render images using ray tracing. Based on the definitions of cost--effective speedup and efficiency, we will show that shared memory machines have advantages over distributed memory machines. Moreover, the SB--Pram appears to be an architecture which allows for cost--effective absolute speedup on large data bases. 1 Introduction According to the parallel computing community and the manufacturers of parallel machines, parallel systems are suited to solve large and complex problems. In [1] it is said: The main purpose of parallel processing is to perform computations faster than can be done with a single processor by using a number of processors concurrently. ... The need for "faster solutions" and for "solving larger--size problems" arises in a wide variety of applications. Ray tracing is a large and complex task which offers the possibility to generate high quality im..