NVIDIA Did It: Ray Tracing 10,000 Times Faster!

Dear Fellow Scholars, this is Two Minute  Papers with Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér. Today is a good day. Scientists at NVIDIA have  done it. Now, I hear you asking, Doctor, what   are you talking about? Well, we like to say that  ray tracing is the holy grail of computer graphics   research, and within ray tracing, wave-optical  light simulations perhaps are the holy grail.    Yes, the holy grail within the holy grail.   However, achieving that is really difficult. You see, ray tracing means writing a simulation  program that takes rays of light and bounces them   around in the scene, creating a beautiful,  photorealistic image. Note that I used   the word rays of light. However, light is an  electromagnetic wave. Yes a wave, not a ray. If we simulated it as a wave instead, it  could create a convincing image of incredibly   beautiful microscopic structures, like light  diffraction off of the scales of a Brazilian   Rainbow Boa or a piece of Bornite ore. Or it  could create an image of beetle shells that   have multiple layers that bounce light around  between them. These beautiful wave effects   can also be observed in the spoke guards of some  bicycles, and other parts as well. All beautiful   shiny rainbowy things that are unfortunately  almost impossible to simulate. This previous   technique from just a year ago can at least start  rendering the diffractive surface of a CD disk,   but look. This one should be a line, not  a collection of dots. So, unfortunately,   no wave-optics simulations for us. Until today.   Yes, scientists at NVIDIA introduced a new   technique that can simulate light  both as a ray, but as a wave too,   and this gives rise to these beautiful effects. Oh  my goodness, look at that gorgeous scene. So good! And... yes! Finally, when it comes to CDs, rainbowy  lines are now lines, we can have our beetles,   our bornite ore, and even the snake. Now  hold on to your papers Fellow Scholars,   because here comes the best part, it can simulate  all of these phenomena up to 10,000 times faster   than previous techniques. And note that this  is a handcrafted technique. A product of pure   human ingenuity. Wow. As we are approaching  superintelligence, I mean these AI things are   starting to be able to decode Hungarian words,  yes, this is a Hungarian word, really, and yes,   the translation is also correct. But such a pure  handcrafted technique is…chef’s kiss. Love it. And here is something that also made  me extremely happy. Look at this. This   is a new work on how to simulate the appearance of  glints, shiny little dotty things in a simulator.    This can take car paint materials, snow,  shiny presents and create a next level video.   Up to 5x faster than the state of the art. And  does that mean that? Oh yes, yes it does! All   this is happening in real time. Pinch me, I can’t  believe it. All this beautiful footage in real   time. You see, there is a ton of action happening  in light transport simulation research, and these   incredible papers just keep coming out one  after another. Breakthrough after breakthrough. Now, if you allow me, I would also like to show  you a really cool new paper from my colleague,   Christian Freude, who was not happy with the  way we compare the results of different ray   tracing programs. You see, these two images were  computed differently, however, this renderer was   cutting some corners. But where? If we use  the usual previous ways of comparing images,   we get some information, but not that much,  however, look. Haha! This new technique tells   us exactly where those corners were cut. I was a small part of this paper too,   and if you wish to read it, make sure to check  it out in the video description. Bravo Christian!

Thanks for watching and for your generous  support, and I'll see you next time!