https://github.com/madmann91/bvh
A modern C++ BVH construction and traversal library
https://github.com/madmann91/bvh
bvh c11 construction-algorithms cpp20 header-only raytracing traversal-algorithms
Last synced: 6 months ago
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A modern C++ BVH construction and traversal library
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/madmann91/bvh
- Owner: madmann91
- License: mit
- Created: 2020-01-16T15:11:13.000Z (almost 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2024-09-10T07:50:05.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-10-30T00:33:01.942Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: bvh, c11, construction-algorithms, cpp20, header-only, raytracing, traversal-algorithms
- Language: C++
- Homepage:
- Size: 1.05 MB
- Stars: 937
- Watchers: 18
- Forks: 89
- Open Issues: 4
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.txt
Awesome Lists containing this project
- anything_about_game - bvh
- resources - bvh - A modern C++ BVH construction and traversal library - Implements various algorithms for BVH traversal and construction. (Ray Tracing / BVH)
README
# BVH Construction and Traversal Library
> Note: This is the 2nd version of this library. Check the `v1` branch for the older, first version
> of this library.
This library is a small, standalone library for BVH construction and traversal. It is licensed
under the MIT license.
(Scene by Blend Swap user MaTTeSr, available [here](https://www.blendswap.com/blend/18762),
distributed under CC-BY 3.0)
## Performance
Here is a comparison of this library with other alternatives
([Embree](https://github.com/embree/embree),
[Fast-BVH](https://github.com/brandonpelfrey/Fast-BVH), and
[nanort](https://github.com/lighttransport/nanort)):
## Features
Here is a list of features supported by this library (changes from `v1` are indicated with [NEW]):
- [NEW] C++20 interface using `std::span` instead of raw pointers,
- Low-level API with direct access to various builders,
- [NEW] High-level `DefaultBuilder` API which selects the best builder depending on the desired
BVH quality level.
- High-quality, single-threaded sweeping SAH builder,
- Fast, medium-quality, single-threaded binned SAH builder inspired by
"On Fast Construction of SAH-based Bounding Volume Hierarchies", by I. Wald,
- Fast, high-quality, multithreaded mini-tree BVH builder inspired by
"Rapid Bounding Volume Hierarchy Generation using Mini Trees", by P. Ganestam et al.,
- Reinsertion optimizer based on "Parallel Reinsertion for Bounding Volume Hierarchy
Optimization", by D. Meister and J. Bittner,
- Fast and robust traversal algorithm using "Robust BVH Ray Traversal", by T. Ize.
- Fast ray-triangle intersection algorithm based on
"Fast, Minimum Storage Ray/Triangle Intersection", by T. Möller and B. Trumbore,
- [NEW] Surface area traversal order heuristic for shadow rays based on
"SATO: Surface Area Traversal Order for Shadow Ray Tracing", by J. Nah and D. Manocha,
- Fast ray-sphere intersection routine,
- [NEW] Serialization/deserialization interface,
- [NEW] Variable amount of dimensions (e.g. 2D, 3D, 4D BVHs are supported) and different scalar types
(e.g. `float` or `double`),
- [NEW] Only depends on the standard library (parallelization uses a custom thread pool based on
`std::thread`),
- [NEW] C API for the high-level parts of the library is available.
## Building
This library is header-only, and can be added as a CMake subproject by cloning or adding as this
repository as submodule, for instance in `/contrib/bvh`, and then adding this to
`/CMakeLists.txt`:
add_subdirectory(contrib/bvh)
target_link_library(my_project PUBLIC bvh)
If you want to build the examples, use:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE= -DENABLE_TESTING=ON
cmake --build .
## C API
The library can be used via a small set of high-level C bindings. These bindings are not enabled by
default, but can be built by configuring CMake with `-DBVH_BUILD_C_API=ON`. Additionally, if the
intent is to use the library in a pure C environment which does not have the C++ standard library as
a dependency, it might be a good idea to statically the C++ standard library. That can be done by
adding the flag `-DBVH_STATIC_LINK_STDLIB_C_API=ON` to the CMake command line.
## Usage
The library contains several examples that are kept up-to-date with the API:
- A [basic example](test/simple_example.cpp) that traces one ray on a scene made of a couple of triangles,
- A [benchmarking utility](test/benchmark.cpp) that showcases what the library can do.
- A [serialization test](test/serialize.cpp) that shows how to save and load a BVH from a file.
- A [C API example](test/c_api_example.c) that shows how to use the C bindings to this library.