Premium
Real‐Time Concurrent Linked List Construction on the GPU
Author(s) -
Yang Jason C.,
Hensley Justin,
Grün Holger,
Thibieroz Nicolas
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2010.01725.x
Subject(s) - computer science , directx , opengl , rendering (computer graphics) , computer graphics (images) , graphics , data structure , graphics pipeline , parallel computing , programming language , 3d computer graphics , visualization , artificial intelligence
We introduce a method to dynamically construct highly concurrent linked lists on modern graphics processors. Once constructed, these data structures can be used to implement a host of algorithms useful in creating complex rendering effects in real time. We present a straightforward way to create these linked lists using generic atomic operations available in APIs such as OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX 11. We also describe several possible applications of our algorithm. One example uses per‐pixel linked lists for order‐independent transparency; as a consequence, we are able to directly implement fully programmable blending, which frees developers from the restrictions imposed by current graphics APIs. The second uses linked lists to implement real‐time indirect shadows.