research-article

The Design and Evolution of Disney’s Hyperion Renderer

Authors:

Matt Jen-Yuan Chiang,

Yining Karl Li,

Daniel TeeceAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), Volume 37, Issue 3

Article No.: 33, Pages 1 - 22

https://doi.org/10.1145/3182159

Published: 27 July 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Walt Disney Animation Studios has transitioned to path-traced global illumination as part of a progression of brute-force physically based rendering in the name of artist efficiency. To achieve this without compromising our geometric or shading complexity, we built our Hyperion renderer based on a novel architecture that extracts traversal and shading coherence from large, sorted ray batches. In this article, we describe our architecture and discuss our design decisions. We also explain how we are able to provide artistic control in a physically based renderer, and we demonstrate through case studies how we have benefited from having a proprietary renderer that can evolve with production needs.

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Zhang XRöthlin GZhu SAydın TSalehi FGross MPapas M(2024)Neural Denoising for Deep‐Z Monte Carlo RenderingsComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1505043:2Online publication date: 15-May-2024
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Index Terms

The Design and Evolution of Disney’s Hyperion Renderer
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Rendering
      1. Ray tracing

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics Volume 37, Issue 3

Special Issue On Production Rendering and Regular Papers

June 2018

198 pages

ISSN:0730-0301

EISSN:1557-7368

DOI:10.1145/3243123

Editor:
Kavita Bala
Cornell University

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 27 July 2018

Accepted: 01 January 2018

Received: 01 November 2017

Published in TOG Volume 37, Issue 3

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Cited By

Li YZhu CNichols GKutz PHuang WAdler DBurley BTeece D(2024)Cache Points for Production-Scale Occlusion-Aware Many-Lights Sampling and Volumetric ScatteringProceedings of the 2024 Digital Production Symposium10.1145/3665320.3670993(1-19)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3665320.3670993
Li HMcbride ARodrig SCulp G(2024)A Pipeline for Effective and Extensible StylizationACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Talks10.1145/3641233.3664336(1-2)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641233.3664336
Zhang XRöthlin GZhu SAydın TSalehi FGross MPapas M(2024)Neural Denoising for Deep‐Z Monte Carlo RenderingsComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1505043:2Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.15050
Song ZGan LXiang SWang YDuan XYang G(2024)Enabling High-Performance Physical Based Rendering on New Sunway Supercomputer2024 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS)10.1109/IPDPS57955.2024.00032(277-288)Online publication date: 27-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/IPDPS57955.2024.00032
Salesin KKnobelspiesse KChowdhary JZhai PJarosz W(2024)Unifying radiative transfer models in computer graphics and remote sensing, Part I: A surveyJournal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer10.1016/j.jqsrt.2023.108847314(108847)Online publication date: Feb-2024
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Ogaki S(2023)Nonlinear Ray Tracing for Displacement and Shell MappingSIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference Papers10.1145/3610548.3618199(1-10)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2023
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Back JHua BHachisuka TMoon B(2023)Input-Dependent Uncorrelated Weighting for Monte Carlo DenoisingSIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference Papers10.1145/3610548.3618177(1-10)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2023
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Misso ZLi YBurley BTeece DJarosz W(2023)Progressive null-tracking for volumetric renderingACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Proceedings10.1145/3588432.3591557(1-10)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
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Firmino AFrisvad JJensen H(2023)Denoising-Aware Adaptive Sampling for Monte Carlo Ray TracingACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Proceedings10.1145/3588432.3591537(1-11)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
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Zhang PMarschner ZSolomon JTamstorf R(2023)Sum-of-Squares Collision Detection for Curved Shapes and PathsACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Proceedings10.1145/3588432.3591507(1-11)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
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