GPU-Optimized Bi-Directional Path Tracing

Abstract

In this paper we present a light-weight modification of bi-directional path tracing algorithm that is optimized for massively parallel architectures with limited memory, like GPU. The amount of computations performed by the algorithm is still comparable to unidirectional path tracing. Though modified algorithm preserves some benefits of general bi-directional path tracing and handles indirect illumination and caustics quite efficiently.