Hardware accelerated hybrid rendering on PowerVR GPUs

Ray tracing and rasterization are the two fundamental approaches in computer image synthesis. In this paper we give an overview of the current state of Imagination Technologies' PowerVR ray tracing capable GPU IP, which implements a rasterizer and a ray tracer in the same hardware unit, opening the possibilities to implement hybrid rendering techniques. We introduce the basics of hybrid rendering, which combines rasterizing and ray tracing in the same system. We will provide a sample implementation of rendering software built on top of the new hardware architecture.