Interactive ray tracing of point-based models

Point-based methods have recently gained significant interest, as their simplicity and independence of connectivity make them a simple and powerful tool in both modelling and rendering. Still, their use for high-quality and photorealistic rendering is still in its infancy, in particular for interactive applications. This paper describes a framework for interactively ray tracing point-based models based on a combination of an implicit surface representation, an efficient surface intersection algorithm, and a specially designed acceleration structure. Using this framework allows for interactively ray tracing even highly complex models on a single PC, including global illumination effects and the interactive visualization of a 24-million-point model with ray traced shadows.