GPU-Accelerated Ray Tracing for Visualizing Monte Carlo Models

Monte Carlo codes are naturally suited to act as computational kernels for ray tracing visualization applications because of the similarities between the ray tracing algorithm and the Monte Carlo neutral particle tracking algorithm. This paper presents a simplified ray tracing algorithm suitable for engineering applications, as well as optimizations to make the algorithm more amenable to computation on a GPU. This algorithm was implemented in a GPU-based ray tracing code called MantaRay. This code has been used as a backend kernel in MCVIZ, a real-time, interactive 3D visualization tool for MC21 models. MCVIZ+MantaRay allows for interactive rendering of extremely large models at 1024x768 resolution at framerates of 15 fps and greater.