% Embree: High Performance Ray Tracing Kernels 3.5.2
% Intel Corporation

Embree Overview
===============

Intel® Embree is a collection of high-performance ray tracing kernels,
developed at Intel. The target users of Intel® Embree are graphics application
engineers who want to improve the performance of their
photo-realistic rendering application by leveraging Embree's
performance-optimized ray tracing kernels. The kernels are optimized
for the latest Intel® processors with support for SSE, AVX, AVX2, and
AVX-512 instructions. Intel® Embree supports runtime code selection to choose
the traversal and build algorithms that best matches the instruction
set of your CPU. We recommend using Intel® Embree through its API to get the
highest benefit from future improvements. Intel® Embree is released as Open
Source under the
[Apache 2.0 license](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).

Intel® Embree supports applications written with the Intel® SPMD Program
Compiler (ISPC, <https://ispc.github.io/>) by also providing an ISPC
interface to the core ray tracing algorithms. This makes it possible
to write a renderer in ISPC that automatically vectorizes and
leverages SSE, AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512 instructions. ISPC also supports
runtime code selection, thus ISPC will select the best code path for
your application.

Intel® Embree contains algorithms optimized for incoherent workloads (e.g.
Monte Carlo ray tracing algorithms) and coherent workloads
(e.g. primary visibility and hard shadow rays).

The single-ray traversal kernels of Intel® Embree provide high performance
for incoherent workloads and are very easy to integrate into existing
rendering applications. Using the stream kernels, even higher
performance for incoherent rays is possible, but integration might
require significant code changes to the application to use the stream
paradigm. In general for coherent workloads, the stream mode with
coherent flag set gives the best performance.

Intel® Embree also supports dynamic scenes by implementing high-performance
two-level spatial index structure construction algorithms.

In addition to the ray tracing kernels, Intel® Embree provides some
[Embree Tutorials] to demonstrate how to use the
[Embree API].

Supported Platforms
-------------------

Embree supports Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Linux (64-bit), and macOS
(64-bit). The code compiles with the Intel® Compiler, GCC, Clang,
and the Microsoft Compiler.

Using the Intel® Compiler improves performance by approximately
10%. Performance also varies across different operating
systems, with Linux typically performing best as it supports
transparently transitioning to 2MB pages.

Embree is optimized for Intel CPUs supporting SSE, AVX, AVX2, and
AVX-512 instructions, and requires at least a CPU with support for
SSE2.

Embree Support and Contact
--------------------------

If you encounter bugs please report them via [Embree's GitHub Issue
Tracker](https://github.com/embree/embree/issues).

For questions and feature requests please write us at
<embree_support@intel.com>.

To receive notifications of updates and new features of Embree please
subscribe to the [Embree mailing
list](https://groups.google.com/d/forum/embree/).

Acknowledgements
----------------

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

Installation of Embree
======================

Windows MSI Installer
---------------------

You can install the Embree library using the Windows MSI installer
[embree-3.5.2-x64.vc12.msi](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x64.vc12.msi). This
will install the 64-bit Embree version by default in `Program
Files\Intel\Embree v3.5.2 x64`.

You have to set the path to the `bin` folders manually to your `PATH`
environment variable for applications to find Embree.

To compile applications with Embree using CMake, please have a look at
the `find_embree` tutorial. To compile this tutorial, you need to set
the `embree_DIR` CMake variable of this tutorial to `Program
Files\Intel\Embree v3.5.2 x64`.

To uninstall Embree, open `Programs and Features` by clicking the
`Start button`, clicking `Control Panel`, clicking `Programs`, and
then clicking `Programs and Features`. Select `Embree
3.5.2 x64` and uninstall it.

Windows ZIP File
-----------------

Embree linked against Visual Studio 2013
[embree-3.5.2.x64.vc12.windows.zip](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x64.vc12.windows.zip)
and Visual Studio 2015
[embree-3.5.2.x64.vc14.windows.zip](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x64.vc14.windows.zip)
are provided as a ZIP file. After unpacking this ZIP file, you should
set the path to the `lib` folder manually to your `PATH` environment
variable for applications to find Embree. To compile applications with
Embree, you also have to set the `Include Directories` path in Visual
Studio to the `include` folder of the Embree installation.

If you plan to ship Embree with your application, best use the Embree
version from this ZIP file.

Linux RPMs
----------

Uncompress the `tar.gz` file
[embree-3.5.2.x86_64.rpm.tar.gz](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x86_64.rpm.tar.gz)
to obtain the individual RPM files:

    tar xzf embree-3.5.2.x86_64.rpm.tar.gz

To install Embree using the RPM packages on your Linux system, type
the following:

    sudo rpm --install embree3-lib-3.5.2-1.x86_64.rpm
    sudo rpm --install embree3-devel-3.5.2-1.noarch.rpm
    sudo rpm --install embree3-examples-3.5.2-1.x86_64.rpm

You also have to install the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB)
using `yum`:

    sudo yum install tbb.x86_64 tbb-devel.x86_64

On Debian-based Linux distributions you first need to convert the RPM
filed into DEB files using the `alien` tool:

    sudo apt-get install alien dpkg-dev debhelper build-essential

    sudo alien embree3-lib-3.5.2-1.x86_64.rpm
    sudo alien embree3-devel-3.5.2-1.noarch.rpm
    sudo alien embree3-examples-3.5.2-1.x86_64.rpm

    sudo dpkg -i embree3-lib_3.5.2-2_amd64.deb
    sudo dpkg -i embree3-devel_3.5.2-2_all.deb
    sudo dpkg -i embree3-examples_3.5.2-2_amd64.deb

Also install the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB) using `apt-get`:

    sudo apt-get install libtbb-dev

Alternatively you can download the latest TBB version from
[https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/download](https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/download)
and set the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable to point
to the TBB library.

Note that the Embree RPMs are linked against the TBB version coming
with CentOS. This older TBB version is missing some features required
to get optimal build performance, and does not support building of
scenes lazily during rendering. To get a full featured Embree, please
install using the `tar.gz` files, which always ship with the latest TBB
version.

Under Linux, Embree is installed by default in the `/usr/lib64` and
`/usr/include` directories. This way applications will find Embree
automatically. The Embree tutorials are installed into the
`/usr/bin/embree3` folder. Specify the full path to
the tutorials to start them.

To uninstall Embree, just execute the following:

    sudo rpm --erase embree3-lib-3.5.2-1.x86_64
    sudo rpm --erase embree3-devel-3.5.2-1.noarch
    sudo rpm --erase embree3-examples-3.5.2-1.x86_64

Linux tar.gz Files
------------------

The Linux version of Embree is also delivered as a `tar.gz` file:
[embree-3.5.2.x86_64.linux.tar.gz](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x86_64.linux.tar.gz). Unpack this file using `tar` and source the provided `embree-vars.sh` (if you
are using the bash shell) or `embree-vars.csh` (if you are using the
C shell) to set up the environment properly:

    tar xzf embree-3.5.2.x86_64.linux.tar.gz
    source embree-3.5.2.x86_64.linux/embree-vars.sh

If you want to ship Embree with your application, best use the Embree
version provided in the `tar.gz` file.

We recommend adding a relative `RPATH` to your application that points
to the location where Embree (and TBB) can be found, e.g. `$ORIGIN/../lib`.

macOS PKG Installer
-------------------

To install the Embree library on your macOS system use the
provided package installer inside
[embree-3.5.2.x86_64.dmg](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x86_64.dmg). This
will install Embree by default into `/opt/local/lib` and
`/opt/local/include` directories. The Embree tutorials are installed
into the `/Applications/Embree3` directory.

You also have to install the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB)
using [MacPorts](http://www.macports.org/):

    sudo port install tbb

Alternatively you can download the latest TBB version from
[https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/download](https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/download)
and set the `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable to point
to the TBB library.

To uninstall Embree, execute the uninstaller script
`/Applications/Embree3/uninstall.command`.

macOS tar.gz file
-----------------

The macOS version of Embree is also delivered as a `tar.gz` file:
[embree-3.5.2.x86_64.macosx.tar.gz](https://github.com/embree/embree/releases/download/v3.5.2/embree-3.5.2.x86_64.macosx.tar.gz). Unpack this file using `tar` and source the provided `embree-vars.sh` (if you
are using the bash shell) or `embree-vars.csh` (if you are using the
C shell) to set up the environment properly:

    tar xzf embree-3.5.2.x64.macosx.tar.gz
    source embree-3.5.2.x64.macosx/embree-vars.sh

If you want to ship Embree with your application, please use the Embree
library of the provided `tar.gz` file. The library name of that Embree
library is of the form `@rpath/libembree.3.dylib`
(and similar also for the included TBB library). This ensures that you
can add a relative `RPATH` to your application that points to the location
where Embree (and TBB) can be found, e.g. `@loader_path/../lib`.

Compiling Embree
================

We recommend to use CMake to build Embree. Do not enable fast-math
optimizations; these might break Embree.

Linux and macOS
---------------

To compile Embree you need a modern C++ compiler that supports C++11.
Embree is tested with Intel® Compiler 17.0 (Update 1), Intel®
Compiler 16.0 (Update 1), Clang 3.8.0 (supports AVX2), Clang 4.0.0
(supports AVX512) and GCC 5.4.0. If the GCC that comes with your
Fedora/Red Hat/CentOS distribution is too old then you can run the
provided script `scripts/install_linux_gcc.sh` to locally install a
recent GCC into `$HOME/devtools-2`.

Embree supports using the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB) as the
tasking system. For performance and flexibility reasons we recommend
to use Embree with the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB) and best
also use TBB inside your application. Optionally you can disable TBB
in Embree through the `EMBREE_TASKING_SYSTEM` CMake variable.

Embree supports the Intel® SPMD Program Compiler (ISPC), which allows
straightforward parallelization of an entire renderer. If you do not
want to use ISPC then you can disable `EMBREE_ISPC_SUPPORT` in
CMake. Otherwise, download and install the ISPC binaries (we have
tested ISPC version 1.9.1) from
[ispc.github.io](https://ispc.github.io/downloads.html). After
installation, put the path to `ispc` permanently into your `PATH`
environment variable or you need to correctly set the
`ISPC_EXECUTABLE` variable during CMake configuration.

You additionally have to install CMake 2.8.11 or higher and the developer
version of GLUT.

Under macOS, all these dependencies can be installed
using [MacPorts](http://www.macports.org/):

    sudo port install cmake tbb-devel glfw-devel

Depending on your Linux distribution you can install these dependencies
using `yum` or `apt-get`.  Some of these packages might already be
installed or might have slightly different names.

Type the following to install the dependencies using `yum`:

    sudo yum install cmake
    sudo yum install tbb-devel
    sudo yum install glfw-devel

Type the following to install the dependencies using `apt-get`:

    sudo apt-get install cmake-curses-gui
    sudo apt-get install libtbb-dev
    sudo apt-get install libglfw3-dev

Finally you can compile Embree using CMake. Create a build directory
inside the Embree root directory and execute `ccmake ..` inside this
build directory.

    mkdir build
    cd build
    ccmake ..

Per default CMake will use the compilers specified with the `CC` and
`CXX` environment variables. Should you want to use a different
compiler, run `cmake` first and set the `CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER` and
`CMAKE_C_COMPILER` variables to the desired compiler. For example, to
use the Intel® Compiler instead of the default GCC on most Linux machines
(`g++` and `gcc`), execute

    cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=icpc -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=icc ..

Similarly, to use Clang set the variables to `clang++` and `clang`,
respectively. Note that the compiler variables cannot be changed anymore
after the first run of `cmake` or `ccmake`.

Running `ccmake` will open a dialog where you can perform various
configurations as described below in [CMake Configuration]. After having
configured Embree, press `c` (for configure) and `g` (for generate) to
generate a Makefile and leave the configuration. The code can be
compiled by executing make.

    make

The executables will be generated inside the build folder. We recommend
to finally install the Embree library and header files on your
system. Therefore set the `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` to `/usr` in cmake
and type:

    sudo make install

If you keep the default `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` of `/usr/local` then
you have to make sure the path `/usr/local/lib` is in your
`LD_LIBRARY_PATH`.

You can also uninstall Embree again by executing:

    sudo make uninstall

If you cannot install Embree on your system (e.g. when you don't have
administrator rights) you need to add embree_root_directory/build to
your `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`.


Windows
-------

Embree is tested under Windows using the Visual Studio 2017, Visual
Studio 2015 (Update 1) compiler (Win32 and x64), Visual Studio 2013
(Update 5) compiler (Win32 and x64), Intel® Compiler 17.0 (Update 1)
(Win32 and x64), Intel® Compiler 16.0 (Update 1) (Win32 and x64), and
Clang 3.9 (Win32 and x64). Using the Visual Studio 2015 compiler,
Visual Studio 2013 compiler, Intel® Compiler, and Clang you can
compile Embree for AVX2. To compile Embree for AVX-512 you have to use
the Intel® Compiler.

Embree supports using the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB) as the
tasking system. For performance and flexibility reasons we recommend
to use Embree with the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB) and best
also use TBB inside your application. Optionally you can disable TBB
in Embree through the `EMBREE_TASKING_SYSTEM` CMake variable.

Embree will either find the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB)
installation that comes with the Intel® Compiler, or you can install the
binary distribution of TBB directly from
[www.threadingbuildingblocks.org](https://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/download)
into a folder named `tbb` into your Embree root directory. You also have
to make sure that the libraries `tbb.dll` and `tbb_malloc.dll` can be
found when executing your Embree applications, e.g. by putting the path
to these libraries into your `PATH` environment variable.

Embree supports the Intel® SPMD Program Compiler (ISPC), which allows
straightforward parallelization of an entire renderer. When
installing ISPC, make sure to download an ISPC version from
[ispc.github.io](https://ispc.github.io/downloads.html) that is
compatible with your Visual Studio version. There are two ISPC
versions, one for Visual Studio 2013 and earlier, and one for Visual
Studio 2015 and later. When using the wrong ISPC version you will get
link errors. After installation, put the path to `ispc.exe`
permanently into your `PATH` environment variable or you need to
correctly set the `ISPC_EXECUTABLE` variable during CMake
configuration. We have tested ISPC version 1.9.1. If you do not want
to use ISPC then you can disable `EMBREE_ISPC_SUPPORT` in CMake.

You additionally have to install [CMake](http://www.cmake.org/download/)
(version 2.8.11 or higher). Note that you need a native Windows CMake
installation, because CMake under Cygwin cannot generate solution files
for Visual Studio.

### Using the IDE

Run `cmake-gui`, browse to the Embree sources, set the build directory
and click Configure. Now you can select the Generator, e.g. "Visual
Studio 12 2013" for a 32-bit build or "Visual Studio 12 2013 Win64"
for a 64-bit build.

To use a different compiler than the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, you
additionally need to specify the proper compiler toolset through the
option "Optional toolset to use (-T parameter)". E.g. to use Clang for
compilation set the toolset to "LLVM-vs2013", to use the Intel®
Compiler 2017 for compilation set the toolset to "Intel C++
Compiler 17.0".

Do not change the toolset manually in a solution file (neither through
the project properties dialog, nor through the "Use Intel Compiler"
project context menu), because then some compiler specific command line
options cannot be set by CMake.

Most configuration parameters described in the [CMake Configuration]
can be set under Windows as well. Finally, click "Generate" to create
the Visual Studio solution files. 

The following CMake options are only available under Windows:

+ `CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPE`:  List of generated
  configurations. Default value is Debug;Release;RelWithDebInfo.

+  `USE_STATIC_RUNTIME`: Use the static version of the C/C++ runtime
  library. This option is turned OFF by default.

Use the generated Visual Studio solution file `embree2.sln` to compile
the project. To build Embree with support for the AVX2 instruction set
you need at least Visual Studio 2013 (Update 4).

We recommend enabling syntax highlighting for the `.ispc` source and
`.isph` header files. To do so open Visual Studio, go to Tools ⇒
Options ⇒ Text Editor ⇒ File Extension and add the `isph` and `ispc`
extensions for the "Microsoft Visual C++" editor.

### Using the Command Line

Embree can also be configured and built without the IDE using the Visual
Studio command prompt:

    cd path\to\embree
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -G "Visual Studio 12 2013 Win64" ..
    cmake --build . --config Release

To use the Intel® Compiler, set the proper toolset, e.g. for Intel
Compiler 17.0:

    cmake -G "Visual Studio 12 2013 Win64" -T "Intel C++ Compiler 17.0" ..
    cmake --build . --config Release

You can also build only some projects with the `--target` switch.
Additional parameters after "`--`" will be passed to `msbuild`. For
example, to build the Embree library in parallel use

    cmake --build . --config Release --target embree -- /m


CMake Configuration
-------------------

The default CMake configuration in the configuration dialog should be
appropriate for most usages. The following list describes all
parameters that can be configured in CMake:

+ `CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE`: Can be used to switch between Debug mode
  (Debug), Release mode (Release) (default), and Release mode with
  enabled assertions and debug symbols (RelWithDebInfo).

+ `EMBREE_STACK_PROTECTOR`: Enables protection of return address
  from buffer overwrites. This option is OFF by default.

+ `EMBREE_ISPC_SUPPORT`: Enables ISPC support of Embree. This option
  is ON by default.

+ `EMBREE_STATIC_LIB`: Builds Embree as a static library (OFF by
  default). Further multiple static libraries are generated for the
  different ISAs selected (e.g. `embree3.a`, `embree3_sse42.a`,
  `embree3_avx.a`, `embree3_avx2.a`, `embree3_avx512knl.a`,
  `embree3_avx512skx.a`). You have to link these libraries in exactly
  this order of increasing ISA.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_NAMESPACE`: Specifies a namespace name to put all Embree
  API symbols inside. By default no namespace is used and plain C symbols
  exported.

+ `EMBREE_LIBRARY_NAME`: Specifies the name of the Embree library file
  created. By default the name embree3 is used.

+ `EMBREE_IGNORE_CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS`: When enabled, Embree ignores
  default CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS. This option is turned ON by default.

+ `EMBREE_TUTORIALS`: Enables build of Embree tutorials (default ON).

+ `EMBREE_BACKFACE_CULLING`: Enables backface culling, i.e. only
  surfaces facing a ray can be hit. This option is turned OFF by
  default.

+ `EMBREE_FILTER_FUNCTION`: Enables the intersection filter function
  feature (ON by default).

+ `EMBREE_RAY_MASK`: Enables the ray masking feature (OFF by default).

+ `EMBREE_RAY_PACKETS`: Enables ray packet traversal kernels. This
  feature is turned ON by default. When turned on packet traversal is
  used internally and packets passed to rtcIntersect4/8/16 are kept
  intact in callbacks (when the ISA of appropiate width is enabled).

+ `EMBREE_IGNORE_INVALID_RAYS`: Makes code robust against the risk of
  full-tree traversals caused by invalid rays (e.g. rays containing
  INF/NaN as origins). This option is turned OFF by default.

+ `EMBREE_TASKING_SYSTEM`: Chooses between Intel® Threading TBB
  Building Blocks (TBB), Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) (Windows
  only), or an internal tasking system (INTERNAL). By default TBB is
  used.

+ `EMBREE_MAX_ISA`: Select highest supported ISA (SSE2, SSE4.2, AVX,
  AVX2, AVX512KNL, AVX512SKX, or NONE). When set to NONE the
  EMBREE_ISA_* variables can be used to enable ISAs individually. By
  default the option is set to AVX2.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_SSE2`: Enables SSE2 when EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to
  NONE. By default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_SSE42`: Enables SSE4.2 when EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to
  NONE. By default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_AVX`: Enables AVX when EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to NONE. By
  default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_AVX2`: Enables AVX2 when EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to
  NONE. By default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_AVX512KNL`: Enables AVX-512 for Xeon Phi when
  EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to NONE. By default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_ISA_AVX512SKX`: Enables AVX-512 for Skylake when
  EMBREE_MAX_ISA is set to NONE. By default this option is turned OFF.

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_TRIANGLE`: Enables support for trianglegeometries
  (ON by default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_QUAD`: Enables support for quad geometries (ON by
  default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_CURVE`: Enables support for curve geometries (ON by
  default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_SUBDIVISION`: Enables support for subdivision
  geometries (ON by default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_INSTANCE`: Enables support for instances (ON by
  default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_USER`: Enables support for user defined geometries
  (ON by default).

+ `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_POINT`: Enables support for point geometries
  (ON by default).

+ `EMBREE_CURVE_SELF_INTERSECTION_AVOIDANCE_FACTOR`: Specifies a
  factor that controls the self intersection avoidance feature for flat
  curves. Flat curve intersections which are closer than
  curve_radius*`EMBREE_CURVE_SELF_INTERSECTION_AVOIDANCE_FACTOR` to
  the ray origin are ignored. A value of 0.0f disables self
  intersection avoidance while 2.0f is the default value.


Using Embree
=============

The most convenient way of using Embree is through CMake. Just let
CMake find Embree using the `FIND_PACKAGE` function inside your
`CMakeLists.txt` file:

     FIND_PACKAGE(embree 3.0 REQUIRED)

If you installed Embree using the Linux RPM or macOS PKG installer,
this will automatically find Embree. If you used the `zip` or `tar.gz`
files to extract Embree, you need to set the `embree_DIR` variable to
the folder you extracted Embree to. If you used the Windows MSI
installer, you need to set `embree_DIR` to point to the Embree install
location (e.g. `C:\Program Files\Intel\Embree3`).

The `FIND_PACKAGE` CMake function will set the `EMBREE_INCLUDE_DIRS`
variable to point to the directory containing the Embree headers. You
should add this folder to the include directories of your build:

    INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${EMBREE_INCLUDE_DIRS})

Further, the `EMBREE_LIBRARY` variable will point to the Embree
library to link against. Link against Embree the following way:

    TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(application ${EMBREE_LIBRARY})

Now please have a look at the [Embree Tutorials] source code and the
[Embree API] section to get started.


Embree API
==========

The Embree API is a low-level C99 ray tracing API which can be used to
construct 3D scenes and perform ray queries of different types inside
these scenes. All API calls carry the prefix `rtc` (or `RTC` for types)
which stands for **r**ay **t**racing **c**ore.

The API also exists in an ISPC version, which is almost identical but
contains additional functions that operate on ray packets with a size
of the native SIMD width used by ISPC. For simplicity this document
refers to the C99 version of the API functions. For changes when
upgrading from the Embree 2 to the current Embree 3 API see Section
[Upgrading from Embree 2 to Embree
3](#upgrading-from-embree-2-to-embree-3).

The API supports scenes consisting of different geometry types such as
triangle meshes, quad meshes (triangle pairs), grid meshes, flat
curves, round curves, oriented curves, subdivision meshes, instances,
and user-defined geometries. See Section [Scene Object](#scene-object)
for more information.

Finding the closest hit of a ray segment with the scene
(`rtcIntersect`-type functions), and determining whether any hit
between a ray segment and the scene exists (`rtcOccluded`-type
functions) are both supported. The API supports queries for single
rays, ray packets, and ray streams. See Section [Ray
Queries](#ray-queries) for more information.

The API is designed in an object-oriented manner, e.g. it contains
device objects (`RTCDevice` type), scene objects (`RTCScene` type),
geometry objects (`RTCGeometry` type), buffer objects (`RTCBuffer`
type), and BVH objects (`RTCBVH` type). All objects are reference
counted, and handles can be released by calling the appropriate release
function (e.g. `rtcReleaseDevice`) or retained by incrementing the
reference count (e.g. `rtcRetainDevice`). In general, API calls that
access the same object are not thread-safe, unless specified
differently. However, attaching geometries to the same scene and
performing ray queries in a scene is thread-safe.

Device Object
-------------

Embree supports a device concept, which allows different components of
the application to use the Embree API without interfering with each
other. An application typically first creates a device using the
[rtcNewDevice](#rtcnewdevice) function. This device can then be used to
construct further objects, such as scenes and geometries. Before the
application exits, it should release all devices by invoking
[rtcReleaseDevice](#rtcreleasedevice). An application typically creates
only a single device. If required differently, it should only use a
small number of devices at any given time.

Each user thread has its own error flag per device. If an error occurs
when invoking an API function, this flag is set to an error code (if it
isn't already set by a previous error). See Section
[rtcGetDeviceError](#rtcgetdeviceerror) for information on how to read
the error code and Section
[rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction](#rtcsetdeviceerrorfunction) on how to
register a callback that is invoked for each error encountered. It is
recommended to always set a error callback function, to detect all
errors.

Scene Object
------------

A scene is a container for a set of geometries, and contains a spatial
acceleration structure which can be used to perform different types of
ray queries.

A scene is created using the `rtcNewScene` function call, and released
using the `rtcReleaseScene` function call. To populate a scene with
geometries use the `rtcAttachGeometry` call, and to detach them use the
`rtcDetachGeometry` call. Once all scene geometries are attached, an
`rtcCommitScene` call (or `rtcJoinCommitScene` call) will finish the
scene description and trigger building of internal data structures.
After the scene got committed, it is safe to perform ray queries (see
Section [Ray Queries](#ray-queries)) or to query the scene bounding box
(see [rtcGetSceneBounds](#rtcgetscenebounds) and
[rtcGetSceneLinearBounds](#rtcgetscenelinearbounds)).

If scene geometries get modified or attached or detached, the
`rtcCommitScene` call must be invoked before performing any further ray
queries for the scene; otherwise the effect of the ray query is
undefined. The modification of a geometry, committing the scene, and
tracing of rays must always happen sequentially, and never at the same
time.

Scene flags can be used to configure a scene to use less memory
(`RTC_SCENE_FLAG_COMPACT`), use more robust traversal algorithms
(`RTC_SCENE_FLAG_ROBUST`), and to optimize for dynamic content. See
Section [rtcSetSceneFlags](#rtcsetsceneflags) for more details.

A build quality can be specified for a scene to balance between
acceleration structure build performance and ray query performance. See
Section [rtcSetSceneBuildQuality](#rtcsetscenebuildquality) for more
details on build quality.

Geometry Object
---------------

A new geometry is created using the `rtcNewGeometry` function.
Depending on the geometry type, different buffers must be bound (e.g.
using `rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer`) to set up the geometry data. In
most cases, binding of a vertex and index buffer is required. The
number of primitives and vertices of that geometry is typically
inferred from the size of these bound buffers.

Changes to the geometry always must be committed using the
`rtcCommitGeometry` call before using the geometry. After committing, a
geometry is not included in any scene. A geometry can be added to a
scene by using the `rtcAttachGeometry` function (to automatically
assign a geometry ID) or using the `rtcAttachGeometryById` function (to
specify the geometry ID manually). A geometry can only be attached to a
single scene at a time.

All geometry types support multi-segment motion blur with an arbitrary
number of equidistant time steps (in the range of 2 to 129) inside a
user specified time range. Each geometry can have a different number of
time steps and a different time range. The motion blur geometry is
defined by linearly interpolating the geometries of neighboring time
steps. To construct a motion blur geometry, first the number of time
steps of the geometry must be specified using the
`rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` function, and then a vertex buffer for
each time step must be bound, e.g. using the
`rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` function. Optionally, a time range
defining the start (and end time) of the first (and last) time step can
be set using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeRange` function. This feature will
also allow geometries to appear and disappear during the camera shutter
time if the time range is a sub range of [0,1].

The API supports per-geometry filter callback functions (see
`rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction` and
`rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction`) that are invoked for each
intersection found during the `rtcIntersect`-type or `rtcOccluded`-type
calls. The former ones are called geometry intersection filter
functions, the latter ones geometry occlusion filter functions. These
filter functions are designed to be used to ignore intersections
outside of a user-defined silhouette of a primitive, e.g. to model tree
leaves using transparency textures.

Ray Queries
-----------

The API supports finding the closest hit of a ray segment with the
scene (`rtcIntersect`-type functions), and determining whether any hit
between a ray segment and the scene exists (`rtcOccluded`-type
functions).

Supported are single ray queries (`rtcIntersect1` and `rtcOccluded1`)
as well as ray packet queries for ray packets of size 4
(`rtcIntersect4` and `rtcOccluded4`), ray packets of size 8
(`rtcIntersect8` and `rtcOccluded8`), and ray packets of size 16
(`rtcIntersect16` and `rtcOccluded16`).

Ray streams in a variety of layouts are supported as well, such as
streams of single rays (`rtcIntersect1M` and `rtcOccluded1M`), streams
of pointers to single rays (`rtcIntersect1p` and `rtcOccluded1p`),
streams of ray packets (`rtcIntersectNM` and `rtcOccludedNM`), and
large packet-like streams in structure of pointer layout
(`rtcIntersectNp` and `rtcOccludedNp`).

See Sections [rtcIntersect1](#rtcintersect1) and
[rtcOccluded1](#rtcoccluded1) for a detailed description of how to set
up and trace a ray.

See tutorial [Triangle Geometry] for a complete example of how to trace
single rays and ray packets. Also have a look at the tutorial [Stream
Viewer] for an example of how to trace ray streams.

Miscellaneous
-------------

A context filter function, which can be set per ray query is supported
(see `rtcInitIntersectContext`). This filter function is designed to
change the semantics of the ray query, e.g. to accumulate opacity for
transparent shadows, count the number of surfaces along a ray, collect
all hits along a ray, etc.

The internal algorithms to build a BVH are exposed through the `RTCBVH`
object and `rtcBuildBVH` call. This call makes it possible to build a
BVH in a user-specified format over user-specified primitives. See the
documentation of the `rtcBuildBVH` call for more details.

For getting the most performance out of Embree, see the Section
[Performance Recommendations](#performance-recommendations).



Upgrading from Embree 2 to Embree 3
===================================

We decided to introduce an improved API in Embree 3 that is not
backward compatible with the Embree 2 API. This step was required to
remove various deprecated API functions that accumulated over time,
improve extensibility of the API, fix suboptimal design decisions, fix
design mistakes (such as incompatible single ray and ray packet
layouts), clean up inconsistent naming, and increase flexibility.

To make porting to the new API easy, we provide a conversion script
that can do most of the work, and will annotate the code with remaining
changes required. The script can be invoked the following way for CPP
files:

    ./scripts/cpp-patch.py --patch embree2_to_embree3.patch
      --in infile.cpp --out outfile.cpp

When invoked for ISPC files, add the `--ispc` option:

    ./scripts/cpp-patch.py --ispc --patch embree2_to_embree3.patch
      --in infile.ispc --out outfile.ispc

Apply the script to each source file of your project that contains
Embree API calls or types. The input file and output file can also be
identical to perform the patch in-place. Please always backup your
original code before running the script, and inspect the code changes
done by the script using diff (e.g. `git diff`), to make sure no
undesired code locations got changed. Grep the code for comments
containing `EMBREE_FIXME` and perform the action described in the
comment.

The following changes need to be performed when switching from Embree 2
to Embree 3. Most of these changes are automatically done by the script
if not described differently.

We strongly recommend to set an error callback function (see
`rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction`) when porting to Embree 3 to detect all
runtime errors early.

Device
------

-   `rtcInit` and `rtcExit` got removed. Please use the device concept
    using the `rtcNewDevice` and `rtcReleaseDevice` functions instead.

-   Functions that conceptually should operate on a device but did not
    get a device argument got removed. The upgrade script replaces
    these functions by the proper functions that operate on a device,
    however, manually propagating the device handle to these function
    calls might still be required.

Scene
-----

-   The API no longer distinguishes between a static and a dynamic
    scene. Some users had issues as they wanted to do minor
    modifications to static scenes, but maintain high traversal
    performance.

    The new approach gives more flexibility, as each scene is
    changeable, and build quality settings can be changed on a commit
    basis to balance between build performance and render performance.

-   The `rtcCommitThread` function got removed; use
    `rtcJoinCommitScene` instead.

-   The scene now supports different build quality settings. Please use
    those instead of the previous way of `RTC_SCENE_STATIC`,
    `RTC_SCENE_DYNAMIC`, and `RTC_SCENE_HIGH_QUALITY` flags.

Geometry
--------

-   There is now only one `rtcNewGeometry` function to create
    geometries which gets passed an enum to specify the type of
    geometry to create. The number of vertices and primitives of the
    geometries is inferred from the size of data buffers.

-   We introduced an object type `RTCGeometry` for all geometries.
    Previously a geometry was not a standalone object and could only
    exist inside a scene. The new approach comes with more flexibility
    and more readable code.

    Operations like `rtcInterpolate` can now be performed on the
    geometry object directly without the need of a scene. Further, an
    application can choose to create its geometries independent of a
    scene, e.g. each time a geometry node is added to its scene graph.

    This modification changed many API functions to get passed one
    `RTCGeometry` object instead of a `RTCScene` and `geomID`. The
    script does all required changed automatically. However, in some
    cases the script may introduce `rtcGetGeometry(scene, geomID)`
    calls to retrieve the geometry handle. Best store the geometry
    handle inside your scene representation (and release it in the
    destructor) and access the handle directly instead of calling
    `rtcGetGeometry`.

-   Geometries are not included inside a scene anymore but can be
    attached to a single scene using the `rtcAttachGeomety` or
    `rtcAttachGeometryByID` functions.

-   As geometries are separate objects, commit semantics got introduced
    for them too. Thus geometries must be committed through the
    `rtcCommitGeometry` call before getting used. This allows for
    earlier error checking and pre-calculating internal data per
    geometry object.

    Such commit points were previously not required in the Embree 2
    API. The upgrade script attempts to insert the commits
    automatically, but cannot do so properly under all circumstances.
    Thus please check if every `rtcCommitGeometry` call inserted by the
    script is properly placed, and if a `rtcCommitGeometry` call is
    placed after a sequence of changes to a geometry.

-   Only the latest version of the previous displacement function call
    (`RTCDisplacementFunc2`) is now supported, and the callback is
    passed as a structure containing all arguments.

-   The deprecated `RTCBoundaryMode` type and `rtcSetBoundaryMode`
    function got removed and replaced by `RTCSubdivisionMode` enum and
    the `rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode` function. The script does this
    replacement automatically.

-   Ribbon curves and lines now avoid self-intersections automatically
    The application can be simplified by removing special code paths
    that previously did the self-intersection handling.

-   The previous Embree 2 way of instancing was suboptimal as it
    required user geometries to update the `instID` field of the ray
    differently when used inside an instanced scene or inside a
    top-level scene. The user geometry intersection code now just has
    to copy the `context.instID` field into the `ray.instID` field to
    function properly under all circumstances.

-   The internal instancing code will update the `context.instID` field
    properly when entering or leaving an instance. When instancing is
    implemented manually through user geometries, the code must be
    modified to set the `context.instID` field properly and no longer
    pass `instID` through the ray. This change must done manually and
    cannot be performed by the script.

-   We flipped the direction of the geometry normal to the widely used
    convention that a shape with counter-clockwise layout of vertices
    has the normal pointing upwards (right-hand rule). Most modeling
    tools follow that convention.

    The conversion script does not perform this change, thus if
    required adjust your code to flip `Ng` for triangle, quad, and
    subdivision surfaces.

Buffers
-------

-   With Embree 3 we are introducing explicit `RTCBuffer` objects.
    However, you can still use the short way of sharing buffers with
    Embree through the `rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` call.

-   The `rtcMapBuffer` and `rtcUnmapBuffer` API calls were removed, and
    we added the `rtcGetBufferData` call instead.

    Previously the `rtcMapBuffer` call had the semantics of creating an
    internal buffer when no buffer was shared for the corresponding
    buffer slot. These invocations of `rtcMapBuffer` must be replaced
    by an explicit creation of an internally managed buffer using the
    `rtcNewGeometryBuffer` function.

    The upgrade script cannot always detect if the `rtcMapBuffer` call
    would create an internal buffer or just map the buffer pointer.
    Thus check whether the `rtcNewGeometryBuffer` and
    `rtcGetBufferData` calls are correct after the conversion.

-   The `rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer` function now must be called for every
    buffer that got modified by the application. Note that the
    conversion script cannot automatically detect each location where a
    buffer update is now required.

-   The buffer type no longer encodes the time step or user vertex
    buffer index. Now `RTC_VERTEX_BUFFER_TYPE` and additional `slot`
    specifies the vertex buffer for a specific time step, and
    `RTC_USER_VERTEX_BUFFER_TYPE` and additional `slot` specifies a
    vertex attribute.

Miscellaneous
-------------

-   The header files for Embree 3 are now inside the `embree3` folder
    (instead of `embree2` folder) and `libembree.so` is now called
    `libembree3.so` to be able to install multiple Embree versions side
    by side. We made the headers C99 compliant.

-   All API objects are now reference counted with release functions to
    decrement and retain functions to increment the reference count (if
    required).

-   Most callback functions no longer get different arguments as input,
    but a pointer to a structure containing all arguments. This results
    in more readable code, faster callback invocation (as some
    arguments do not change between invocations) and is extensible, as
    new members to the structure can be later added in a backward
    compatible way (if required).

    The conversion script can convert the definition and declaration of
    the old callback functions in most cases. Before running the
    script, make sure that you never type-cast a callback function when
    assigning it (as this has the danger of assigning a callback
    function with a wrong type if the conversion did not detect some
    callbacks as such). If the script does not detect a callback
    function, make sure the argument types match exactly the types in
    the header (e.g. write `const int` instead of `int const` or
    convert the callback manually).

-   An intersection context is now required for each ray query
    invocation. The context should be initialized using the
    `rtcInitIntersectContext` function.

-   The `rtcIntersect`-type functions get as input an `RTCRayHit` type,
    which is similar to before, but has the ray and hit parts split
    into two sub-structures.

    The `rtcOccluded`-type functions get as input an `RTCRay` type,
    which does not contain hit data anymore. When an occlusion is
    found, the `tfar` element of the ray is set to `-inf`.

    Required code changes cannot be done by the upgrade script and need
    to be done manually.

-   The ray layout for single rays and packets of rays had certain
    incompatibilities (alignment of `org` and `dir` for single rays
    caused gaps in the single ray layout that were not in the ray
    packet layout). This issue never showed up because single rays and
    ray packets were separate in the system initially. This layout
    issue is now fixed, and a single ray has the same layout as a ray
    packet of size 1.

-   Previously Embree supported placing additional data at the end of
    the ray structure, and accessing that data inside user geometry
    callbacks and filter callback functions.

    With Embree 3 this is no longer supported, and the ray passed to a
    callback function may be copied to a different memory location. To
    attach additional data to your ray, simply extend the intersection
    context with a pointer to that data.

    This change cannot be done by the script. Further, code will still
    work if you extend the ray as the implementation did not change
    yet.

-   The ray structure now contains an additional `id` and `flags`
    field. The `id` can be used to store the index of the ray with
    respect to a ray packet or ray stream. The `flags` is reserved for
    future use, and currently must be set to 0.

-   All previous intersection filter callback variants have been
    removed, except for the `RTCFilterFuncN` which gets a varying size
    ray packet as input. The semantics of this filter function type
    have changed from copying the hit on acceptance to clearing the
    ray's valid argument in case of non-acceptance. This way, chaining
    multiple filters is more efficient.

    We kept the guarantee that for `rtcIntersect1/4/8/16` and
    `rtcOccluded1/4/8/16` calls the packet size and ray order will not
    change from the initial size and ordering when entering a filter
    callback.

-   We no longer export ISPC-specific symbols. This has the advantage
    that certain linking issues went away, e.g. it is now possible to
    link an ISPC application compiled for any combination of ISAs, and
    link this to an Embree library compiled with a different set of
    ISAs. Previously the ISAs of the application had to be a subset of
    the ISAs of Embree, and when the user enabled exactly one ISA, they
    had to do this in Embree and the application.

-   We no longer export the ISPC tasking system, which means that the
    application has the responsibility to implement the ISPC tasking
    system itself. ISPC comes with example code on how to do this. This
    change is not performed by the script and must be done manually.

-   Fixed many naming inconsistencies, and changed names of further API
    functions. All these renamings are properly done by the script and
    need no further attention.



Embree API Reference
====================

rtcNewDevice
------------

#### NAME

    rtcNewDevice - creates a new device

#### SYNOPSIS

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCDevice rtcNewDevice(const char* config);

#### DESCRIPTION

This function creates a new device and returns a handle to this device.
The device object is reference counted with an initial reference count
of 1. The handle can be released using the `rtcReleaseDevice` API call.

The device object acts as a class factory for all other object types.
All objects created from the device (like scenes, geometries, etc.)
hold a reference to the device, thus the device will not be destroyed
unless these objects are destroyed first.

Objects are only compatible if they belong to the same device, e.g it
is not allowed to create a geometry in one device and attach it to a
scene created with a different device.

A configuration string (`config` argument) can be passed to the device
construction. This configuration string can be `NULL` to use the
default configuration.

When creating the device, Embree reads configurations for the device
from the following locations in order:

1)  `config` string passed to the `rtcNewDevice` function
2)  `.embree3` file in the application folder
3)  `.embree3` file in the home folder

Settings performed later overwrite previous settings. This way the
configuration for the application can be changed globally (either
through the `rtcNewDevice` call or through the `.embree3` file in the
application folder), and each user has the option to modify the
configuration to fit their needs.

The following configuration is supported:

-   `threads=[int]`: Specifies a number of build threads to use. A
    value of 0 enables all detected hardware threads. By default all
    hardware threads are used.

-   `set_affinity=[0/1]`: When enabled, build threads are affinitized
    to hardware threads. This option is disabled by default on standard
    CPUs, and enabled by default on Xeon Phi Processors.

-   `start_threads=[0/1]`: When enabled, the build threads are started
    upfront. This can be useful for benchmarking to exclude thread
    creation time. This option is disabled by default.

-   `isa=[sse2,sse4.2,avx,avx2,avx512knl,avx512skx]`: Use specified
    ISA. By default the ISA is selected automatically.

-   `max_isa=[sse2,sse4.2,avx,avx2,avx512knl,avx512skx]`: Configures
    the automated ISA selection to use maximally the specified ISA.

-   `hugepages=[0/1]`: Enables or disables usage of huge pages. Under
    Linux huge pages are used by default but under Windows and macOS
    they are disabled by default.

-   `enable_selockmemoryprivilege=[0/1]`: When set to 1, this enables
    the `SeLockMemoryPrivilege` privilege with is required to use huge
    pages on Windows. This option has an effect only under Windows and
    is ignored on other platforms. See Section [Huge Page Support] for
    more details.

-   `ignore_config_files=[0/1]`: When set to 1, configuration files are
    ignored. Default is 0.

-   `verbose=[0,1,2,3]`: Sets the verbosity of the output. When set to
    0, no output is printed by Embree, when set to a higher level more
    output is printed. By default Embree does not print anything on the
    console.

-   `frequency_level=[simd128,simd256,simd512]`: Specifies the
    frequency level the application want to run on, which can be
    either: a) simd128 for apps that do not use AVX instructions, b)
    simd256 for apps that use heavy AVX instruction, c) simd512 for
    apps that use heavy AVX-512 instructions. When some frequency level
    is specified, Embree will avoid doing optimizations that may reduce
    the frequency level below the level specified. E.g. if your app
    does not use AVX instructions setting "frequency\_level=simd128"
    will cause some CPUs to run at highest frequency, which may result
    in higher application performance. However, this will prevent
    Embree from using AVX optimizations to achieve higher ray tracing
    performance, thus applications that trace many rays may still
    perform better with the default setting of simd256, even though
    this reduces frequency on some CPUs.

Different configuration options should be separated by commas, e.g.:

    rtcNewDevice("threads=1,isa=avx");

#### EXIT STATUS

On success returns a handle of the created device. On failure returns
`NULL` as device and sets a per-thread error code that can be queried
using `rtcGetDeviceError(NULL)`.

#### SEE ALSO

[rtcRetainDevice], [rtcReleaseDevice]



rtcRetainDevice
---------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcRetainDevice - increments the device reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcRetainDevice(RTCDevice device);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Device objects are reference counted. The `rtcRetainDevice` function
increments the reference count of the passed device object (`device`
argument). This function together with `rtcReleaseDevice` allows to use
the internal reference counting in a C++ wrapper class to manage the
ownership of the object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewDevice], [rtcReleaseDevice]



rtcReleaseDevice
----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcReleaseDevice - decrements the device reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcReleaseDevice(RTCDevice device);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Device objects are reference counted. The `rtcReleaseDevice` function
decrements the reference count of the passed device object (`device`
argument). When the reference count falls to 0, the device gets
destroyed.

All objects created from the device (like scenes, geometries, etc.)
hold a reference to the device, thus the device will not get destroyed
unless these objects are destroyed first.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewDevice], [rtcRetainDevice]



rtcGetDeviceProperty
--------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetDeviceProperty - queries properties of the device

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    ssize_t rtcGetDeviceProperty(
      RTCDevice device,
      enum RTCDeviceProperty prop
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetDeviceProperty` function can be used to query properties
(`prop` argument) of a device object (`device` argument). The returned
property is an integer of type `ssize_t`.

Possible properties to query are:

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_VERSION`: Queries the combined version number
    (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH) with two decimal digits per component. E.g. for
    Embree 2.8.3 the integer 208003 is returned.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_VERSION_MAJOR`: Queries the major version
    number of Embree.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_VERSION_MINOR`: Queries the minor version
    number of Embree.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_VERSION_PATCH`: Queries the patch version
    number of Embree.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY4_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether the
    `rtcIntersect4` and `rtcOccluded4` functions preserve packet size
    and ray order when invoking callback functions. This is only the
    case if Embree is compiled with `EMBREE_RAY_PACKETS` and `SSE2` (or
    `SSE4.2`) enabled, and if the machine it is running on supports
    `SSE2` (or `SSE4.2`).

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY8_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether the
    `rtcIntersect8` and `rtcOccluded8` functions preserve packet size
    and ray order when invoking callback functions. This is only the
    case if Embree is compiled with `EMBREE_RAY_PACKETS` and `AVX` (or
    `AVX2`) enabled, and if the machine it is running on supports `AVX`
    (or `AVX2`).

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY16_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether the
    `rtcIntersect16` and `rtcOccluded16` functions preserve packet size
    and ray order when invoking callback functions. This is only the
    case if Embree is compiled with `EMBREE_RAY_PACKETS` and
    `AVX512SKX` (or `AVX512KNL`) enabled, and if the machine it is
    running on supports `AVX512SKX` (or `AVX512KNL`).

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_RAY_STREAM_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    `rtcIntersect1M`, `rtcIntersect1Mp`, `rtcIntersectNM`,
    `rtcIntersectNp`, `rtcOccluded1M`, `rtcOccluded1Mp`,
    `rtcOccludedNM`, and `rtcOccludedNp` are supported. This is only
    the case if Embree is compiled with `EMBREE_RAY_PACKETS` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_RAY_MASK_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether ray masks
    are supported. This is only the case if Embree is compiled with
    `EMBREE_RAY_MASK` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_BACKFACE_CULLING_ENABLED`: Queries whether
    back face culling is enabled. This is only the case if Embree is
    compiled with `EMBREE_BACKFACE_CULLING` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_FILTER_FUNCTION_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    filter functions are supported, which is the case if Embree is
    compiled with `EMBREE_FILTER_FUNCTION` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_IGNORE_INVALID_RAYS_ENABLED`: Queries whether
    invalid rays are ignored, which is the case if Embree is compiled
    with `EMBREE_IGNORE_INVALID_RAYS` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_TRIANGLE_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    triangles are supported, which is the case if Embree is compiled
    with `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_TRIANGLE` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_QUAD_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    quads are supported, which is the case if Embree is compiled with
    `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_QUAD` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_SUBDIVISION_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries
    whether subdivision meshes are supported, which is the case if
    Embree is compiled with `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_SUBDIVISION` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_CURVE_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    curves are supported, which is the case if Embree is compiled with
    `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_CURVE` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_POINT_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    points are supported, which is the case if Embree is compiled with
    `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_POINT` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_USER_GEOMETRY_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether user
    geometries are supported, which is the case if Embree is compiled
    with `EMBREE_GEOMETRY_USER` enabled.

-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_TASKING_SYSTEM`: Queries the tasking system
    Embree is compiled with. Possible return values are:

    0.  internal tasking system
    1.  Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB)
    2.  Parallel Patterns Library (PPL)
-   `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_COMMIT_JOIN_SUPPORTED`: Queries whether
    `rtcJoinCommitScene` is supported. This is not the case when Embree
    is compiled with PPL or older versions of TBB.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On success returns the value of the queried property. For properties
returning a boolean value, the return value 0 denotes `false` and 1
denotes `true`.

On failure zero is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.



rtcGetDeviceError
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetDeviceError - returns the error code of the device

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCError rtcGetDeviceError(RTCDevice device);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Each thread has its own error code per device. If an error occurs when
calling an API function, this error code is set to the occurred error
if it stores no previous error. The `rtcGetDeviceError` function reads
and returns the currently stored error and clears the error code. This
assures that the returned error code is always the first error occurred
since the last invocation of `rtcGetDeviceError`.

Possible error codes returned by `rtcGetDeviceError` are:

-   `RTC_ERROR_NONE`: No error occurred.

-   `RTC_ERROR_UNKNOWN`: An unknown error has occurred.

-   `RTC_ERROR_INVALID_ARGUMENT`: An invalid argument was specified.

-   `RTC_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION`: The operation is not allowed for the
    specified object.

-   `RTC_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY`: There is not enough memory left to
    complete the operation.

-   `RTC_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_CPU`: The CPU is not supported as it does
    not support the lowest ISA Embree is compiled for.

-   `RTC_ERROR_CANCELLED`: The operation got canceled by a memory
    monitor callback or progress monitor callback function.

When the device construction fails, `rtcNewDevice` returns `NULL` as
device. To detect the error code of a such a failed device
construction, pass `NULL` as device to the `rtcGetDeviceError`
function. For all other invocations of `rtcGetDeviceError`, a proper
device pointer must be specified.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

Returns the error code for the device.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction]



rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction
-------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction - sets an error callback function for the device

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    typedef void (*RTCErrorFunction)(
      void* userPtr,
      RTCError code,
      const char* str
    );

    void rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction(
      RTCDevice device,
      RTCErrorFunction error,
      void* userPtr
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Using the `rtcSetDeviceErrorFunction` call, it is possible to set a
callback function (`error` argument) with payload (`userPtr` argument),
which is called whenever an error occurs for the specified device
(`device` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per device, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

When the registered callback function is invoked, it gets passed the
user-defined payload (`userPtr` argument as specified at registration
time), the error code (`code` argument) of the occurred error, as well
as a string (`str` argument) that further describes the error.

The error code is also set if an error callback function is registered.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetDeviceError]



rtcSetDeviceMemoryMonitorFunction
---------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetDeviceMemoryMonitorFunction - registers a callback function
      to track memory consumption

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    typedef bool (*RTCMemoryMonitorFunction)(
      void* userPtr,
      ssize_t bytes,
      bool post
    );

    void rtcSetDeviceMemoryMonitorFunction(
      RTCDevice device,
      RTCMemoryMonitorFunction memoryMonitor,
      void* userPtr
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Using the `rtcSetDeviceMemoryMonitorFunction` call, it is possible to
register a callback function (`memoryMonitor` argument) with payload
(`userPtr` argument) for a device (`device` argument), which is called
whenever internal memory is allocated or deallocated by objects of that
device. Using this memory monitor callback mechanism, the application
can track the memory consumption of an Embree device, and optionally
terminate API calls that consume too much memory.

Only a single callback function can be registered per device, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

Once registered, the Embree device will invoke the memory monitor
callback function before or after it allocates or frees important
memory blocks. The callback function gets passed the payload as
specified at registration time (`userPtr` argument), the number of
bytes allocated or deallocated (`bytes` argument), and whether the
callback is invoked after the allocation or deallocation took place
(`post` argument). The callback function might get called from multiple
threads concurrently.

The application can track the current memory usage of the Embree device
by atomically accumulating the `bytes` input parameter provided to the
callback function. This parameter will be \>0 for allocations and \<0
for deallocations.

Embree will continue its operation normally when returning `true` from
the callback function. If `false` is returned, Embree will cancel the
current operation with the `RTC_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY` error code.
Issuing multiple cancel requests from different threads is allowed.
Canceling will only happen when the callback was called for allocations
(bytes \> 0), otherwise the cancel request will be ignored.

If a callback to cancel was invoked before the allocation happens
(`post == false`), then the `bytes` parameter should not be
accumulated, as the allocation will never happen. If the callback to
cancel was invoked after the allocation happened (`post == true`), then
the `bytes` parameter should be accumulated, as the allocation properly
happened and a deallocation will later free that data block.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewDevice]



rtcNewScene
-----------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcNewScene - creates a new scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCScene rtcNewScene(RTCDevice device);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

This function creates a new scene bound to the specified device
(`device` argument), and returns a handle to this scene. The scene
object is reference counted with an initial reference count of 1. The
scene handle can be released using the `rtcReleaseScene` API call.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On success a scene handle is returned. On failure `NULL` is returned
and an error code is set that can be queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcRetainScene], [rtcReleaseScene]



rtcRetainScene
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcRetainScene - increments the scene reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcRetainScene(RTCScene scene);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Scene objects are reference counted. The `rtcRetainScene` function
increments the reference count of the passed scene object (`scene`
argument). This function together with `rtcReleaseScene` allows to use
the internal reference counting in a C++ wrapper class to handle the
ownership of the object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewScene], [rtcReleaseScene]



rtcReleaseScene
---------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcReleaseScene - decrements the scene reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcReleaseScene(RTCScene scene);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Scene objects are reference counted. The `rtcReleaseScene` function
decrements the reference count of the passed scene object (`scene`
argument). When the reference count falls to 0, the scene gets
destroyed.

The scene holds a reference to all attached geometries, thus if the
scene gets destroyed, all geometries get detached and their reference
count decremented.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewScene], [rtcRetainScene]



rtcAttachGeometry
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcAttachGeometry - attaches a geometry to the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcAttachGeometry(
      RTCScene scene,
      RTCGeometry geometry
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcAttachGeometry` function attaches a geometry (`geometry`
argument) to a scene (`scene` argument) and assigns a geometry ID to
that geometry. All geometries attached to a scene are defined to be
included inside the scene. A geometry can only get attached to a single
scene at a given time. However, it is possible to detach and re-attach
a geometry to a different scene. The geometry ID is unique for the
scene, and is used to identify the geometry when hit by a ray during
ray queries.

This function is thread-safe, thus multiple threads can attach
geometries to a scene in parallel.

The geometry IDs are assigned sequentially, starting from 0, as long as
no geometry got detached. If geometries got detached, the
implementation will reuse IDs in an implementation dependent way.
Consequently sequential assignment is no longer guaranteed, but a
compact range of IDs.

These rules allow the application to manage a dynamic array to
efficiently map from geometry IDs to its own geometry representation.
Alternatively, the application can also use per-geometry user data to
map to its geometry representation. See `rtcSetGeometryUserData` and
`rtcGetGeometryUserData` for more information.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryUserData], [rtcGetGeometryUserData]



rtcAttachGeometryByID
---------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcAttachGeometryByID - attaches a geometry to the scene
      using a specified geometry ID

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcAttachGeometryByID(
      RTCScene scene,
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int geomID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcAttachGeometryByID` function attaches a geometry (`geometry`
argument) to a scene (`scene` argument) and assigns a user provided
geometry ID (`geomID` argument) to that geometry. All geometries
attached to a scene are defined to be included inside the scene. A
geometry can only get attached to a single scene at a given time.
However, it is possible to detach and re-attach a geometry to a
different scene. The passed user-defined geometry ID is used to
identify the geometry when hit by a ray during ray queries. Using this
function, it is possible to share the same IDs to refer to geometries
inside the application and Embree.

This function is thread-safe, thus multiple threads can attach
geometries to a scene in parallel.

The user-provided geometry ID must be unused in the scene, otherwise
the creation of the geometry will fail. Further, the user-provided
geometry IDs should be compact, as Embree internally creates a vector
which size is equal to the largest geometry ID used. Creating very
large geometry IDs for small scenes would thus cause a memory
consumption and performance overhead.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcAttachGeometry]



rtcDetachGeometry
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcDetachGeometry - detaches a geometry from the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcDetachGeometry(RTCScene scene, unsigned int geomID);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

This function detaches a geometry identified by its geometry ID
(`geomID` argument) from a scene (`scene` argument). When detached, the
geometry is no longer contained in the scene.

This function is thread-safe, thus multiple threads can detach
geometries from a scene at the same time.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcAttachGeometry], [rtcAttachGeometryByID]



rtcGetGeometry
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometry - returns the geometry bound to
      the specified geometry ID

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry rtcGetGeometry(RTCScene scene, unsigned int geomID);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometry` function returns the geometry that is bound to the
specified geometry ID (`geomID` argument) for the specified scene
(`scene` argument). This function just looks up the handle and does
*not* increment the reference count. If you want to get ownership of
the handle, you need to additionally call `rtcRetainGeometry`. For this
reason, this function is fast and can be used during rendering.
However, it is generally recommended to store the geometry handle
inside the application's geometry representation and look up the
geometry handle from that representation directly.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcAttachGeometry], [rtcAttachGeometryByID]



rtcCommitScene
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcCommitScene - commits scene changes

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcCommitScene(RTCScene scene);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcCommitScene` function commits all changes for the specified
scene (`scene` argument). This internally triggers building of a
spatial acceleration structure for the scene using all available worker
threads. Ray queries can be performed only after committing all scene
changes.

The kind of acceleration structure built can be influenced using scene
flags (see `rtcSetSceneFlags`), and the quality can be specified using
the `rtcSetSceneBuildQuality` function.

Embree silently ignores primitives during spatial acceleration
structure construction that would cause numerical issues, e.g.
primitives containing NaNs, INFs, or values greater than 1.844E18f (as
no reasonable calculations can be performed with such values without
causing overflows).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcJoinCommitScene]



rtcJoinCommitScene
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcJoinCommitScene - commits the scene from multiple threads

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcJoinCommitScene(RTCScene scene);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcJoinCommitScene` function commits all changes for the specified
scene (`scene` argument). In contrast to the `rtcCommitScene` function,
the `rtcJoinCommitScene` function can be called from multiple threads,
which all cooperate in the same scene commit. All threads will return
from this function after the scene commit is finished. All threads must
consistently call `rtcJoinCommitScene` and not `rtcCommitScene`.

The scene commit internally triggers building of a spatial acceleration
structure for the scene. Ray queries can be performed after scene
changes got properly committed.

The `rtcJoinCommitScene` feature allows a flexible way to lazily create
hierarchies during rendering. A thread reaching a not-yet-constructed
sub-scene of a two-level scene can generate the sub-scene geometry and
call `rtcJoinCommitScene` on that just generated scene. During
construction, further threads reaching the not-yet-built scene can join
the build operation by also invoking `rtcJoinCommitScene`. A thread
that calls `rtcJoinCommitScene` after the build finishes will directly
return from the `rtcJoinCommitScene` call.

Multiple scene commit operations on different scenes can be running at
the same time, hence it is possible to commit many small scenes in
parallel, distributing the commits to many threads.

When using Embree with the Intel® Threading Building Blocks (which is
the default), threads that call `rtcJoinCommitScene` will join the
build operation, but other TBB worker threads might also participate in
the build. To avoid thread oversubscription, we recommend using TBB
also inside the application. Further, the join mode only works properly
starting with TBB v4.4 Update 1. For earlier TBB versions, threads that
call `rtcJoinCommitScene` to join a running build will just trigger the
build and wait for the build to finish. Further, old TBB versions with
`TBB_INTERFACE_VERSION_MAJOR < 8` do not support `rtcJoinCommitScene`,
and invoking this function will result in an error.

When using Embree with the internal tasking system, only threads that
call `rtcJoinCommitScene` will perform the build operation, and no
additional worker threads will be scheduled.

When using Embree with the Parallel Patterns Library (PPL),
`rtcJoinCommitScene` is not supported and calling that function will
result in an error.

To detect whether `rtcJoinCommitScene` is supported, use the
`rtcGetDeviceProperty` function.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcCommitScene], [rtcGetDeviceProperty]



rtcSetSceneProgressMonitorFunction
----------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetSceneProgressMonitorFunction - registers a callback
      to track build progress

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    typedef bool (*RTCProgressMonitorFunction)(
      void* ptr,
      double n
    );

    void rtcSetSceneProgressMonitorFunction(
      RTCScene scene,
      RTCProgressMonitorFunction progress,
      void* userPtr
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Embree supports a progress monitor callback mechanism that can be used
to report progress of hierarchy build operations and to cancel build
operations.

The `rtcSetSceneProgressMonitorFunction` registers a progress monitor
callback function (`progress` argument) with payload (`userPtr`
argument) for the specified scene (`scene` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per scene, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

Once registered, Embree will invoke the callback function multiple
times during hierarchy build operations of the scene, by passing the
payload as set at registration time (`userPtr` argument), and a double
in the range $[0, 1]$ which estimates the progress of the operation
(`n` argument). The callback function might be called from multiple
threads concurrently.

When returning `true` from the callback function, Embree will continue
the build operation normally. When returning `false`, Embree will
cancel the build operation with the `RTC_ERROR_CANCELLED` error code.
Issuing multiple cancel requests for the same build operation is
allowed.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewScene]



rtcSetSceneBuildQuality
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetSceneBuildQuality - sets the build quality for
      the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetSceneBuildQuality(
      RTCScene scene,
      enum RTCBuildQuality quality
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetSceneBuildQuality` function sets the build quality
(`quality` argument) for the specified scene (`scene` argument).
Possible values for the build quality are:

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_LOW`: Create lower quality data structures, e.g.
    for dynamic scenes. A two-level spatial index structure is built
    when enabling this mode, which supports fast partial scene updates,
    and allows for setting a per-geometry build quality through the
    `rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality` function.

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_MEDIUM`: Default build quality for most usages.
    Gives a good compromise between build and render performance.

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_HIGH`: Create higher quality data structures for
    final-frame rendering. For certain geometry types this enables a
    spatial split BVH.

Selecting a higher build quality results in better rendering
performance but slower scene commit times. The default build quality
for a scene is `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_MEDIUM`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality]



rtcSetSceneFlags
----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetSceneFlags - sets the flags for the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetSceneFlags(RTCScene scene, enum RTCSceneFlags flags);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetSceneFlags` function sets the scene flags (`flags` argument)
for the specified scene (`scene` argument). Possible scene flags are:

-   `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_NONE`: No flags set.

-   `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_DYNAMIC`: Provides better build performance for
    dynamic scenes (but also higher memory consumption).

-   `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_COMPACT`: Uses compact acceleration structures and
    avoids algorithms that consume much memory.

-   `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_ROBUST`: Uses acceleration structures that allow
    for robust traversal, and avoids optimizations that reduce
    arithmetic accuracy. This mode is typically used for avoiding
    artifacts caused by rays shooting through edges of neighboring
    primitives.

-   `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_CONTEXT_FILTER_FUNCTION`: Enables support for a
    filter function inside the intersection context. See Section
    [rtcInitIntersectContext] for more details.

Multiple flags can be enabled using an `or` operation, e.g.
`RTC_SCENE_FLAG_COMPACT | RTC_SCENE_FLAG_ROBUST`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetSceneFlags]



rtcGetSceneFlags
----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetSceneFlags - returns the flags of the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    enum RTCSceneFlags rtcGetSceneFlags(RTCScene scene);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Queries the flags of a scene. This function can be useful when setting
individual flags, e.g. to just set the robust mode without changing
other flags the following way:

    RTCSceneFlags flags = rtcGetSceneFlags(scene);
    rtcSetSceneFlags(scene, RTC_SCENE_FLAG_ROBUST | flags);

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `RTC_SCENE_FLAG_NONE` is returned and an error code is set
that can be queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetSceneFlags]



rtcGetSceneBounds
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetSceneBounds - returns the axis-aligned bounding box of the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCORE_ALIGN(16) RTCBounds
    {
      float lower_x, lower_y, lower_z, align0;
      float upper_x, upper_y, upper_z, align1;
    };

    void rtcGetSceneBounds(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCBounds* bounds_o
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetSceneBounds` function queries the axis-aligned bounding box
of the specified scene (`scene` argument) and stores that bounding box
to the provided destination pointer (`bounds_o` argument). The stored
bounding box consists of lower and upper bounds for the x, y, and z
dimensions as specified by the `RTCBounds` structure.

The provided destination pointer must be aligned to 16 bytes. The
function may be invoked only after committing the scene; otherwise the
result is undefined.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetSceneLinearBounds], [rtcCommitScene], [rtcJoinCommitScene]



rtcGetSceneLinearBounds
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetSceneLinearBounds - returns the linear bounds of the scene

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCORE_ALIGN(16) RTCLinearBounds
    {
      RTCBounds bounds0;
      RTCBounds bounds1;
    };

    void rtcGetSceneLinearBounds(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCLinearBounds* bounds_o
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetSceneLinearBounds` function queries the linear bounds of the
specified scene (`scene` argument) and stores them to the provided
destination pointer (`bounds_o` argument). The stored linear bounds
consist of bounding boxes for time 0 (`bounds0` member) and time 1
(`bounds1` member) as specified by the `RTCLinearBounds` structure.
Linearly interpolating these bounds to a specific time `t` yields
bounds for the geometry at that time.

The provided destination pointer must be aligned to 16 bytes. The
function may be called only after committing the scene, otherwise the
result is undefined.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetSceneBounds], [rtcCommitScene], [rtcJoinCommitScene]



rtcNewGeometry
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcNewGeometry - creates a new geometry object

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    enum RTCGeometryType
    {
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_LINEAR_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BEZIER_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BSPLINE_CURVE,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_GRID,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER,
     RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE
    };

    RTCGeometry rtcNewGeometry(
      RTCDevice device,
      enum RTCGeometryType type
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Geometries are objects that represent an array of primitives of the
same type. The `rtcNewGeometry` function creates a new geometry of
specified type (`type` argument) bound to the specified device
(`device` argument) and returns a handle to this geometry. The geometry
object is reference counted with an initial reference count of 1. The
geometry handle can be released using the `rtcReleaseGeometry` API
call.

Supported geometry types are triangle meshes
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE` type), quad meshes (triangle pairs)
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD` type), Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION` type), curve geometries with different
bases (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_LINEAR_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BSPLINE_CURVE` types), grid meshes
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_GRID`), point geometries
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT`, `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT`,
`RTC_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT`), user-defined geometries
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER`), and instances
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE`).

The types `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE` and
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE` will treat the curve as a sweep
surface of a varying-radius circle swept tangentially along the curve.
The types `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE` and
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE` use ray-facing ribbons as a
faster-to-intersect approximation.

After construction, geometries are enabled by default and not attached
to any scene. Geometries can be disabled (`rtcDisableGeometry` call),
and enabled again (`rtcEnableGeometry` call). A geometry can be
attached to a single scene using the `rtcAttachGeometry` call (or
`rtcAttachGeometryByID` call), and detached using the
`rtcDetachGeometry` call. During attachment, a geometry ID is assigned
to the geometry (or assigned by the user when using the
`rtcAttachGeometryByID` call), which uniquely identifies the geometry
inside that scene. This identifier is returned when primitives of the
geometry are hit in later ray queries for the scene.

Geometries can also be modified, including their vertex and index
buffers. After modifying a buffer, `rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer` must be
called to notify that the buffer got modified.

The application can use the `rtcSetGeometryUserData` function to set a
user data pointer to its own geometry representation, and later read
out this pointer using the `rtcGetGeometryUserData` function.

After setting up the geometry or modifying it, `rtcCommitGeometry` must
be called to finish the geometry setup. After committing the geometry,
vertex data interpolation can be performed using the `rtcInterpolate`
and `rtcInterpolateN` functions.

A build quality can be specified for a geometry using the
`rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality` function, to balance between acceleration
structure build performance and ray query performance. The build
quality per geometry will be used if a two-level acceleration structure
is built internally, which is the case if the `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_LOW`
is set as the scene build quality. See Section
[rtcSetSceneBuildQuality] for more details.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcEnableGeometry], [rtcDisableGeometry], [rtcAttachGeometry],
[rtcAttachGeometryByID], [rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer],
[rtcSetGeometryUserData], [rtcGetGeometryUserData],
[rtcCommitGeometry], [rtcInterpolate], [rtcInterpolateN],
[rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality], [rtcSetSceneBuildQuality],
[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_TRIANGLE], [RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_QUAD],
[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION], [RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_CURVE],
[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_GRID], [RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_POINT],
[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_USER], [RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_INSTANCE]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_TRIANGLE
-----------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE - triangle geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
      rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Triangle meshes are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE` to
the `rtcNewGeometry` function call. The triangle indices can be
specified by setting an index buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX` type) and
the triangle vertices by setting a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` type). See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and
`rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more details on how to set buffers.
The index buffer contains an array of three 32-bit indices per triangle
(`RTC_FORMAT_UINT` format) and the number of primitives is inferred
from the size of that buffer. The vertex buffer contains an array of
single precision `x`, `y`, `z` floating point coordinates
(`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3` format), and the number of vertices are inferred
from the size of that buffer. The vertex buffer can be at most 16 GB
large.

The parametrization of a triangle uses the first vertex `p0` as base
point, the vector `p1 - p0` as u-direction and the vector `p2 - p0` as
v-direction. Thus vertex attributes `t0,t1,t2` can be linearly
interpolated over the triangle the following way:

    t_uv = (1-u-v)*t0 + u*t1 + v*t2
         = t0 + u*(t1-t0) + v*(t2-t0)

A triangle whose vertices are laid out counter-clockwise has its
geometry normal pointing upwards outside the front face, like
illustrated in the following picture:

![][imgTriangleUV]

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers have to have the same stride and size.

Also see tutorial [Triangle Geometry] for an example of how to create
triangle meshes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that be get
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_QUAD
-------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD - quad geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
      rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Quad meshes are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD` to the
`rtcNewGeometry` function call. The quad indices can be specified by
setting an index buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX` type) and the quad
vertices by setting a vertex buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` type).
See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and `rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more
details on how to set buffers. The index buffer contains an array of
four 32-bit indices per quad (`RTC_FORMAT_UINT4` format), and the
number of primitives is inferred from the size of that buffer. The
vertex buffer contains an array of single precision `x`, `y`, `z`
floating point coordinates (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3` format), and the number
of vertices is inferred from the size of that buffer. The vertex buffer
can be at most 16 GB large.

A quad is internally handled as a pair of two triangles `v0,v1,v3` and
`v2,v3,v1`, with the `u'`/`v'` coordinates of the second triangle
corrected by `u = 1-u'` and `v = 1-v'` to produce a quad
parametrization where `u` and `v` are in the range 0 to 1. Thus the
parametrization of a quad uses the first vertex `p0` as base point, and
the vector `p1 - p0` as `u`-direction, and `p3 - p0` as v-direction.
Thus vertex attributes `t0,t1,t2,t3` can be bilinearly interpolated
over the quadrilateral the following way:

    t_uv = (1-v)((1-u)*t0 + u*t1) + v*((1-u)*t3 + u*t2)

Mixed triangle/quad meshes are supported by encoding a triangle as a
quad, which can be achieved by replicating the last triangle vertex
(`v0,v1,v2` -\> `v0,v1,v2,v2`). This way the second triangle is a line
(which can never get hit), and the parametrization of the first
triangle is compatible with the standard triangle parametrization.

A quad whose vertices are laid out counter-clockwise has its geometry
normal pointing upwards outside the front face, like illustrated in the
following picture.

![][imgQuadUV]

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers must have the same stride and size.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_GRID
-------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_GRID - grid geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
      rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_GRID);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Grid meshes are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_GRID` to the
`rtcNewGeometry` function call, and contain an array of grid
primitives. This array of grids can be specified by setting up a grid
buffer (with `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_GRID` type and `RTC_FORMAT_GRID` format)
and the grid mesh vertices by setting a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` type). See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and
`rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more details on how to set buffers.
The number of grid primitives in the grid mesh is inferred from the
size of the grid buffer.

The vertex buffer contains an array of single precision `x`, `y`, `z`
floating point coordinates (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3` format), and the number
of vertices is inferred from the size of that buffer.

Each grid in the grid buffer is of the type `RTCGrid`:

    struct RTCGrid
    {
      unsigned int startVertexID;
      unsigned int stride;
      unsigned short width,height; 
    };

The `RTCGrid` structure describes a 2D grid of vertices (with respect
to the vertex buffer of the grid mesh). The `width` and `height`
members specify the number of vertices in u and v direction, e.g.
setting both `width` and `height` to 3 sets up a 3×3 vertex grid. The
maximum allowed `width` and `height` is 32767. The `startVertexID`
specifies the ID of the top-left vertex in the vertex grid, while the
`stride` parameter specifies a stride (in number of vertices) used to
step to the next row.

A vertex grid of dimensions `width` and `height` is treated as a
`(width-1)` x `(height-1)` grid of `quads` (triangle-pairs), with the
same shared edge handling as for regular quad meshes. However, the
`u`/`v` coordinates have the uniform range `[0..1]` for an entire
vertex grid. The `u` direction follows the `width` of the grid while
the `v` direction the `height`.

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers must have the same stride and size.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION
--------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION - subdivision geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
      rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Catmull-Clark subdivision meshes are supported, including support for
edge creases, vertex creases, holes, non-manifold geometry, and
face-varying interpolation. The number of vertices per face can be in
the range of 3 to 15 vertices (triangles, quadrilateral, pentagons,
etc).

Subdivision meshes are created by passing
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION` to the `rtcNewGeometry` function.
Various buffers need to be set by the application to set up the
subdivision mesh. See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and
`rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more details on how to set buffers.
The face buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_FACE` type and `RTC_FORMAT_UINT`
format) contains the number of edges/indices of each face (3 to 15),
and the number of faces is inferred from the size of this buffer. The
index buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX` type) contains multiple (3 to 15)
32-bit vertex indices (`RTC_FORMAT_UINT` format) for each face, and the
number of edges is inferred from the size of this buffer. The vertex
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` type) stores an array of single
precision `x`, `y`, `z` floating point coordinates (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3`
format), and the number of vertices is inferred from the size of this
buffer.

Optionally, the application may set additional index buffers using
different buffer slots if multiple topologies are required for
face-varying interpolation. The standard vertex buffers
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX`) are always bound to the geometry topology
(topology 0) thus use `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX` with buffer slot 0. User
vertex data interpolation may use different topologies as described
later.

Optionally, the application can set up the hole buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_HOLE`) which contains an array of 32-bit indices
(`RTC_FORMAT_UINT` format) of faces that should be considered
non-existing in all topologies. The number of holes is inferred from
the size of this buffer.

Optionally, the application can fill the level buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_LEVEL`) with a tessellation rate for each of the
edges of each face. This buffer must have the same size as the index
buffer. The tessellation level is a positive floating point value
(`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT` format) that specifies how many quads along the
edge should be generated during tessellation. If no level buffer is
specified, a level of 1 is used. The maximally supported edge level is
4096, and larger levels are clamped to that value. Note that edges may
be shared between (typically 2) faces. To guarantee a watertight
tessellation, the level of these shared edges should be identical. A
uniform tessellation rate for an entire subdivision mesh can be set by
using the `rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate` function. The existence of a
level buffer has precedence over the uniform tessellation rate.

Optionally, the application can fill the sparse edge crease buffers to
make edges appear sharper. The edge crease index buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_EDGE_CREASE_INDEX`) contains an array of pairs of
32-bit vertex indices (`RTC_FORMAT_UINT2` format) that specify
unoriented edges in the geometry topology. The edge crease weight
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_EDGE_CREASE_WEIGHT`) stores for each of these
crease edges a positive floating point weight (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT`
format). The number of edge creases is inferred from the size of these
buffers, which has to be identical. The larger a weight, the sharper
the edge. Specifying a weight of infinity is supported and marks an
edge as infinitely sharp. Storing an edge multiple times with the same
crease weight is allowed, but has lower performance. Storing an edge
multiple times with different crease weights results in undefined
behavior. For a stored edge (i,j), the reverse direction edges (j,i) do
not have to be stored, as both are considered the same unoriented edge.
Edge crease features are shared between all topologies.

Optionally, the application can fill the sparse vertex crease buffers
to make vertices appear sharper. The vertex crease index buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_CREASE_INDEX`), contains an array of 32-bit
vertex indices (`RTC_FORMAT_UINT` format) to specify a set of vertices
from the geometry topology. The vertex crease weight buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_CREASE_WEIGHT`) specifies for each of these
vertices a positive floating point weight (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT` format).
The number of vertex creases is inferred from the size of these
buffers, and has to be identical. The larger a weight, the sharper the
vertex. Specifying a weight of infinity is supported and makes the
vertex infinitely sharp. Storing a vertex multiple times with the same
crease weight is allowed, but has lower performance. Storing a vertex
multiple times with different crease weights results in undefined
behavior. Vertex crease features are shared between all topologies.

Subdivision modes can be used to force linear interpolation for parts
of the subdivision mesh; see `rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode` for more
details.

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers have to have the same stride and size.

Also see tutorial [Subdivision Geometry] for an example of how to
create subdivision surfaces.

#### Parametrization

The parametrization for subdivision faces is different for
quadrilaterals and non-quadrilateral faces.

The parametrization of a quadrilateral face uses the first vertex `p0`
as base point, and the vector `p1 - p0` as u-direction and `p3 - p0` as
v-direction.

The parametrization for all other face types (with number of vertices
not equal 4), have a special parametrization where the subpatch ID `n`
(of the `n`-th quadrilateral that would be obtained by a single
subdivision step) and the local hit location inside this quadrilateral
are encoded in the UV coordinates. The following code extracts the
sub-patch ID `i` and local UVs of this subpatch:

    unsigned int l = floorf(0.5f*U);
    unsigned int h = floorf(0.5f*V);
    unsigned int i = 4*h+l;
    float u = 2.0f*fracf(0.5f*U)-0.5f;
    float v = 2.0f*fracf(0.5f*V)-0.5f;

This encoding allows local subpatch UVs to be in the range `[-0.5,1.5[`
thus negative subpatch UVs can be passed to `rtcInterpolate` to sample
subpatches slightly out of bounds. This can be useful to calculate
derivatives using finite differences if required. The encoding further
has the property that one can just move the value `u` (or `v`) on a
subpatch by adding `du` (or `dv`) to the special UV encoding as long as
it does not fall out of the `[-0.5,1.5[` range.

To smoothly interpolate vertex attributes over the subdivision surface
we recommend using the `rtcInterpolate` function, which will apply the
standard subdivision rules for interpolation and automatically takes
care of the special UV encoding for non-quadrilaterals.

#### Face-Varying Data

Face-varying interpolation is supported through multiple topologies per
subdivision mesh and binding such topologies to vertex attribute
buffers to interpolate. This way, texture coordinates may use a
different topology with additional boundaries to construct separate UV
regions inside one subdivision mesh.

Each such topology `i` has a separate index buffer (specified using
`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX` with buffer slot `i`) and separate subdivision
mode that can be set using `rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode`. A vertex
attribute buffer `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE` bound to a buffer
slot `j` can be assigned to use a topology for interpolation using the
`rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeTopology` call.

The face buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_FACE` type) is shared between all
topologies, which means that the `n`-th primitive always has the same
number of vertices (e.g. being a triangle or a quad) for each topology.
However, the indices of the topologies themselves may be different.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_CURVE
--------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_LINEAR_CURVE -
      flat curve geometry with linear basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE -
      flat curve geometry with cubic Bézier basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE - 
      flat curve geometry with cubic B-spline basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_HERMITE_CURVE - 
      flat curve geometry with cubic Hermite basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BEZIER_CURVE -
      flat normal oriented curve geometry with cubic Bézier basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BSPLINE_CURVE - 
      flat normal oriented curve geometry with cubic B-spline basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_HERMITE_CURVE - 
      flat normal oriented curve geometry with cubic Hermite basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE -
      sweep surface curve geometry with cubic Bézier basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE -
      sweep surface curve geometry with cubic B-spline basis

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_HERMITE_CURVE -
      sweep surface curve geometry with cubic Hermite basis

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_LINEAR_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_HERMITE_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BEZIER_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_BSPLINE_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_HERMITE_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_HERMITE_CURVE);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Curves with per vertex radii are supported with linear, cubic Bézier,
cubic B-spline, and cubic Hermite bases. Such curve geometries are
created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_LINEAR_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_HERMITE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_FLAT_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_FLAT_BSPLINE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_FLAT_HERMITE_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BEZIER_CURVE`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_BSPLINE_CURVE`, or
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_HERMITE_CURVE` to the `rtcNewGeometry`
function. The curve indices can be specified through an index buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX`) and the curve vertices through a vertex
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX`). For the Hermite basis a tangent
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_TANGENT`), normal oriented curves a normal
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_NORMAL`), and for normal oriented Hermite
curves a normal derivative buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_NORMAL_DERIVATIVE`)
has to get specified additionally. See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and
`rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more details on how to set buffers.

The index buffer contains an array of 32-bit indices (`RTC_FORMAT_UINT`
format), each pointing to the first control vertex in the vertex
buffer, but also to the first tangent in the tangent buffer, and first
normal in the normal buffer if these buffers are present.

The vertex buffer stores each control vertex in the form of a single
precision position and radius stored in (`x`, `y`, `z`, `r`) order in
memory (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT4` format). The number of vertices is inferred
from the size of this buffer. The radii may be smaller than zero but
the interpolated radii should always be greater or equal to zero.
Similarly, the tangent buffer stores the derivative of each control
vertex (`x`, `y`, `z`, `r` order and `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT4` format) and
the normal buffer stores a single precision normal per control vertex
(`x`, `y`, `z` order and `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3` format).

For the linear basis the indices point to the first of 2 consecutive
control points in the vertex buffer. The first control point is the
start and the second control point the end of the line segment. When
constructing hair strands in this basis, the end-point can be shared
with the start of the next line segment.

For the cubic Bézier basis the indices point to the first of 4
consecutive control points in the vertex buffer. These control points
use the cubic Bézier basis, where the first control point represents
the start point of the curve, and the 4th control point the end point
of the curve. The Bézier basis is interpolating, thus the curve does go
exactly through the first and fourth control vertex.

For the cubic B-spline basis the indices point to the first of 4
consecutive control points in the vertex buffer. These control points
make up a cardinal cubic B-spline (implicit equidistant knot vector).
This basis is not interpolating, thus the curve does in general not go
through any of the control points directly. A big advantage of this
basis is that 3 control points can be shared for two continuous
neighboring curve segments, e.g. the curves (p0,p1,p2,p3) and
(p1,p2,p3,p4) are C1 continuous. This feature make this basis a good
choise to construct continuous multi-segment curves, as memory
consumption can be kept minimal.

For the cubic Hermite basis the indices point to the first of 2
consecutive points in the vertex buffer, and the first of 2 consecutive
tangents in the tangent buffer. These two points and two tangents make
up a cubic Hermite curve. This basis is interpolating, thus does
exactly go through the first and second control point, and the first
order derivative at the begin and end matches exactly the value
specified in the tangent buffer. When connecting two segments
continuously, the end point and tangent of the previous segment can be
shared. Different versions of Catmull-Rom splines can be easily
constructed usig the Hermite basis, by calculating a proper tangent
buffer from the control points.

The `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_FLAT_*` flat mode is a fast mode designed to
render distant hair. In this mode the curve is rendered as a connected
sequence of ray facing quads. Individual quads are considered to have
subpixel size, and zooming onto the curve might show geometric
artifacts. The number of quads to subdivide into can be specified
through the `rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate` function. By default the
tessellation rate is 4.

The `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_NORMAL_ORIENTED_*` mode is a mode designed to
render blades of grass. In this mode a vertex spline has to get
specified as for the previous modes, but additionally a normal spline
is required. If the Hermite basis is used, the `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_NORMAL`
and `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_NORMAL_DERIVATIVE` buffers have both to be set.

The curve is rendered as a flat band whose center approximately follows
the provided vertex spline, whose half width approximately follows the
provided radius spline, and whose normal orientation approximately
follows the provided normal spline.

To intersect the normal oriented curve, we perform a newton-raphson
style intersection of a ray with a tensor product surface of a linear
basis (perpendicular to the curve) and cubic Bézier basis (along the
curve). We use a guide curve and its derivatives to construct the
control points of that surface. The guide curve is defined by a sweep
surface defined by sweeping a line centered at the vertex spline
location along the curve. At each parameter value the half width of the
line matches the radius spline, and the direction matches the cross
product of the normal from the normal spline and tangent of the vertex
spline. Note that this construction does not work when the provided
normals are parallel to the curve direction. For this reason the
provided normals should best be kept as perpendicular to the curve
direction as possible.

In the `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ROUND_*` round mode, a real geometric surface
is rendered for the curve, which is more expensive but allows closeup
views. This mode renders a sweep surface by sweeping a varying radius
circle tangential along the curve. As a limitation, the radius of the
curve has to be smaller than the curvature radius of the curve at each
location on the curve. The round mode is currently not supported for
the linear basis.

The intersection with the curve segment stores the parametric hit
location along the curve segment as u-coordinate (range 0 to +1).

For flat curves, the v-coordinate is set to the normalized distance in
the range -1 to +1. For normal oriented curves the v-coordinate is in
the range 0 to 1. For the linear basis and in round mode the
v-coordinate is set to zero.

In flat mode, the geometry normal `Ng` is set to the tangent of the
curve at the hit location. In round mode and for normal oriented
curves, the geometry normal `Ng` is set to the non-normalized geometric
normal of the surface.

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers must have the same stride and size. For the Hermite
basis also a tangent buffer has to be set for each time step and for
normal oriented curves a normal buffer has to get specified for each
time step.

Also see tutorials [Hair] and [Curves] for examples of how to create
and use curve geometries.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_POINT
--------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT -
      point geometry spheres

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT -
      point geometry with ray-oriented discs

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT -
      point geometry with normal-oriented discs

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT);
    rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Points with per vertex radii are supported with sphere, ray-oriented
discs, and normal-oriented discs geometric represetntations. Such point
geometries are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT`,
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT`, or
`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT` to the `rtcNewGeometry`
function. The point vertices can be specified t through a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX`). For the normal oriented discs a normal
buffer (`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_NORMAL`) has to get specified additionally.
See `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` and `rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` for more
details on how to set buffers.

The vertex buffer stores each control vertex in the form of a single
precision position and radius stored in (`x`, `y`, `z`, `r`) order in
memory (`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT4` format). The number of vertices is inferred
from the size of this buffer. Similarly, the normal buffer stores a
single precision normal per control vertex (`x`, `y`, `z` order and
`RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3` format).

In the `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SPHERE_POINT` mode, a real geometric surface
is rendered for the curve, which is more expensive but allows closeup
views.

The `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_DISC_POINT` flat mode is a fast mode designed to
render distant points. In this mode the point is rendered as a ray
facing disc.

The `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_ORIENTED_DISC_POINT` mode is a mode designed as
a midpoint geometrically between ray facing discs and spheres. In this
mode the point is rendered as a normal oriented disc.

For all point types, only the hit distance and geometry normal is
returned as hit information, u and v are set to zero.

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` call. Then a vertex
buffer for each time step can be set using different buffer slots, and
all these buffers must have the same stride and size.

Also see tutorial [Points] for an example of how to create and use
point geometries.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_USER
-------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER - user geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
      rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

User-defined geometries contain a number of user-defined primitives,
just like triangle meshes contain multiple triangles. The shape of the
user-defined primitives is specified through registered callback
functions, which enable extending Embree with arbitrary types of
primitives.

User-defined geometries are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER`
to the `rtcNewGeometry` function call. One has to set the number of
primitives (see `rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount`), a user data
pointer (see `rtcSetGeometryUserData`), a bounding function closure
(see `rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction`), as well as user-defined intersect
(see `rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction`) and occluded (see
`rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction`) callback functions. The bounding
function is used to query the bounds of all time steps of a user
primitive, while the intersect and occluded callback functions are
called to intersect the primitive with a ray. The user data pointer is
passed to each callback invocation and can be used to point to the
application's representation of the user geometry.

The creation of a user geometry typically looks the following:

    RTCGeometry geometry = rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_USER);
    rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount(geometry, numPrimitives);
    rtcSetGeometryUserData(geometry, userGeometryRepresentation);
    rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction(geometry, boundsFunction);
    rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction(geometry, intersectFunction);
    rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction(geometry, occludedFunction);

Please have a look at the `rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction`,
`rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction`, and `rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction`
functions on the implementation of the callback functions.

See tutorial [User Geometry] for an example of how to use the
user-defined geometries.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount],
[rtcSetGeometryUserData], [rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction],
[rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction], [rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction]



RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_INSTANCE
-----------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE - instance geometry type

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCGeometry geometry =
       rtcNewGeometry(device, RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Embree supports instancing of scenes using affine transformations (3×3
matrix plus translation). As the instanced scene is stored only a
single time, even if instanced to multiple locations, this feature can
be used to create very complex scenes with small memory footprint. Only
single-level instancing is supported natively by Embree, however,
multi-level instancing can be manually implemented through user
geometries.

Instances are created by passing `RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE` to the
`rtcNewGeometry` function call. The instanced scene can be set using
the `rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene` call, and the affine transformation
can be set using the `rtcSetGeometryTransform` function.

Please note that `rtcCommitScene` on the instanced scene should be
called first, followed by `rtcCommitGeometry` on the instance, followed
by `rtcCommitScene` for the top-level scene containing the instance.

If a ray hits the instance, the `geomID` and `primID` members of the
hit are set to the geometry ID and primitive ID of the hit primitive in
the instanced scene, and the `instID` member of the hit is set to the
geometry ID of the instance in the top-level scene.

The instancing scheme can also be implemented using user geometries. To
achieve this, the user geometry code should set the `instID` member of
the intersection context to the geometry ID of the instance, then trace
the transformed ray, and finally set the `instID` field of the
intersection context again to -1. The `instID` field is copied
automatically by each primitive intersector into the `instID` field of
the hit structure when the primitive is hit. See the [User Geometry]
tutorial for an example.

For multi-segment motion blur, the number of time steps must be first
specified using the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` function. Then a
transformation for each time step can be specified using the
`rtcSetGeometryTransform` function.

See tutorial [Instanced Geometry] for an example of how to use
instances.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene],
[rtcSetGeometryTransform]



rtcRetainGeometry
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcRetainGeometry - increments the geometry reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcRetainGeometry(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Geometry objects are reference counted. The `rtcRetainGeometry`
function increments the reference count of the passed geometry object
(`geometry` argument). This function together with `rtcReleaseGeometry`
allows to use the internal reference counting in a C++ wrapper class to
handle the ownership of the object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcReleaseGeometry]



rtcReleaseGeometry
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcReleaseGeometry - decrements the geometry reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcReleaseGeometry(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Geometry objects are reference counted. The `rtcReleaseGeometry`
function decrements the reference count of the passed geometry object
(`geometry` argument). When the reference count falls to 0, the
geometry gets destroyed.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcRetainGeometry]



rtcCommitGeometry
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcCommitGeometry - commits geometry changes

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcCommitGeometry(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcCommitGeometry` function is used to commit all geometry changes
performed to a geometry (`geometry` parameter). After a geometry gets
modified, this function must be called to properly update the internal
state of the geometry to perform interpolations using `rtcInterpolate`
or to commit a scene containing the geometry using `rtcCommitScene`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcInterpolate], [rtcCommitScene]



rtcEnableGeometry
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcEnableGeometry - enables the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcEnableGeometry(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcEnableGeometry` function enables the specified geometry
(`geometry` argument). Only enabled geometries are rendered. Each
geometry is enabled by default at construction time.

After enabling a geometry, the scene containing that geometry must be
committed using `rtcCommitScene` for the change to have effect.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcDisableGeometry], [rtcCommitScene]



rtcDisableGeometry
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcDisableGeometry - disables the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcDisableGeometry(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcDisableGeometry` function disables the specified geometry
(`geometry` argument). A disabled geometry is not rendered. Each
geometry is enabled by default at construction time.

After disabling a geometry, the scene containing that geometry must be
committed using `rtcCommitScene` for the change to have effect.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcEnableGeometry], [rtcCommitScene]



rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount
---------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount - sets the number of time steps of the
      geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int timeStepCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` function sets the number of time
steps for multi-segment motion blur (`timeStepCount` parameter) of the
specified geometry (`geometry` parameter).

For triangle meshes (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE`), quad meshes
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD`), curves (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_CURVE`), points
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_POINT`), and subdivision geometries
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION`), the number of time steps directly
corresponds to the number of vertex buffer slots available
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` buffer type). For these geometries, one
vertex buffer per time step must be specified when creating
multi-segment motion blur geometries.

For instance geometries (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_INSTANCE`), a
transformation must be specified for each time step (see
`rtcSetGeometryTransform`).

For user geometries, the registered bounding callback function must
provide a bounding box per primitive and time step, and the
intersection and occlusion callback functions should properly intersect
the motion-blurred geometry at the ray time.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcSetGeometryTimeRange]



rtcSetGeometryTimeRange
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryTimeRange - sets the time range for a motion blur geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryTimeRange(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      float startTime,
      float endTime
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryTimeRange` function sets a time range which defines
the start (and end time) of the first (and last) time step of a motion
blur geometry. The time range is defined relative to the camera shutter
interval [0,1] but it can be arbitrary. Thus the startTime can be
smaller, equal, or larger 0, indicating a geometry whose animation
definition start before, at, or after the camera shutter opens. Similar
the endTime can be smaller, equal, or larger than 1, indicating a
geometry whose animation definition ends after, at, or before the
camera shutter closes. The startTime has to be smaller or equal to the
endTime.

The default time range when this function is not called is the entire
camera shutter [0,1]. For best performance at most one time segment of
the piece wise linear definition of the motion should fall outside the
shutter window to the left and to the right. Thus do not set the
startTime or endTime too far outside the [0,1] interval for best
performance.

This time range feature will also allow geometries to appear and
disappear during the camera shutter time if the specified time range is
a sub range of [0,1].

Please also have a look at the `rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount` function
to see how to define the time steps for the specified time range.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryTimeStepCount]



rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeCount
----------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeCount - sets the number of vertex
      attributes of the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeCount(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int vertexAttributeCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeCount` function sets the number of
slots (`vertexAttributeCount` parameter) for vertex attribute buffers
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE`) that can be used for the specified
geometry (`geometry` parameter).

This function is supported only for triangle meshes
(`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_TRIANGLE`), quad meshes (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_QUAD`),
curves (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_CURVE`), points (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_POINT`),
and subdivision geometries (`RTC_GEOMETRY_TYPE_SUBDIVISION`).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [RTCBufferType]



rtcSetGeometryMask
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryMask - sets the geometry mask

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryMask(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int mask
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryMask` function sets a 32-bit geometry mask (`mask`
argument) for the specified geometry (`geometry` argument).

This geometry mask is used together with the ray mask stored inside the
`mask` field of the ray. The primitives of the geometry are hit by the
ray only if the bitwise `and` operation of the geometry mask with the
ray mask is not 0. This feature can be used to disable selected
geometries for specifically tagged rays, e.g. to disable shadow casting
for certain geometries.

Ray masks are disabled in Embree by default at compile time, and can be
enabled through the `EMBREE_RAY_MASK` parameter in CMake. One can query
whether ray masks are enabled by querying the
`RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_RAY_MASK_SUPPORTED` device property using
`rtcGetDeviceProperty`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCRay], [rtcGetDeviceProperty]



rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality
--------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality - sets the build quality for the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBuildQuality quality
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryBuildQuality` function sets the build quality
(`quality` argument) for the specified geometry (`geometry` argument).
The per-geometry build quality is only a hint and may be ignored.
Embree currently uses the per-geometry build quality when the scene
build quality is set to `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_LOW`. In this mode a
two-level acceleration structure is build, and geometries build a
separate acceleration structure using the geometry build quality. The
per-geometry build quality can be one of:

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_LOW`: Creates lower quality data structures,
    e.g. for dynamic scenes.

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_MEDIUM`: Default build quality for most usages.
    Gives a good compromise between build and render performance.

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_HIGH`: Creates higher quality data structures
    for final-frame rendering. Enables a spatial split builder for
    certain primitive types.

-   `RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_REFIT`: Uses a BVH refitting approach when
    changing only the vertex buffer.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetSceneBuildQuality]



rtcSetGeometryBuffer
--------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryBuffer - assigns a view of a buffer to the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryBuffer(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBufferType type,
      unsigned int slot,
      enum RTCFormat format,
      RTCBuffer buffer,
      size_t byteOffset,
      size_t byteStride,
      size_t itemCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryBuffer` function binds a view of a buffer object
(`buffer` argument) to a geometry buffer type and slot (`type` and
`slot` argument) of the specified geometry (`geometry` argument).

One can specify the start of the first buffer element in bytes
(`byteOffset` argument), the byte stride between individual buffer
elements (`byteStride` argument), the format of the buffer elements
(`format` argument), and the number of elements to bind (`itemCount`).

The start address (`byteOffset` argument) and stride (`byteStride`
argument) must be both aligned to 4 bytes, otherwise the
`rtcSetGeometryBuffer` function will fail.

After successful completion of this function, the geometry will hold a
reference to the buffer object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer], [rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer]



rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer
--------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer - assigns a view of a shared data buffer
      to a geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBufferType type,
      unsigned int slot,
      enum RTCFormat format,
      const void* ptr,
      size_t byteOffset,
      size_t byteStride,
      size_t itemCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer` function binds a view of a shared
user-managed data buffer (`ptr` argument) to a geometry buffer type and
slot (`type` and `slot` argument) of the specified geometry (`geometry`
argument).

One can specify the start of the first buffer element in bytes
(`byteOffset` argument), the byte stride between individual buffer
elements (`byteStride` argument), the format of the buffer elements
(`format` argument), and the number of elements to bind (`itemCount`).

The start address (`byteOffset` argument) and stride (`byteStride`
argument) must be both aligned to 4 bytes; otherwise the
`rtcSetGeometryBuffer` function will fail.

When the buffer will be used as a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` and `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE`), the
last buffer element must be readable using 16-byte SSE load
instructions, thus padding the last element is required for certain
layouts. E.g. a standard `float3` vertex buffer layout should add
storage for at least one more float to the end of the buffer.

The buffer data must remain valid for as long as the buffer may be
used, and the user is responsible for freeing the buffer data when no
longer required.

Sharing buffers can significantly reduce the memory required by the
application, thus we recommend using this feature. When enabling the
`RTC_SCENE_COMPACT` scene flag, the spatial index structures index into
the vertex buffer, resulting in even higher memory savings.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryBuffer], [rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer]



rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer - creates and assigns a new data buffer to
      the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void* rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBufferType type,
      unsigned int slot,
      enum RTCFormat format,
      size_t byteStride,
      size_t itemCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer` function creates a new data buffer of
specified format (`format` argument), byte stride (`byteStride`
argument), and number of items (`itemCount` argument), and assigns it
to a geometry buffer slot (`type` and `slot` argument) of the specified
geometry (`geometry` argument). The buffer data is managed internally
and automatically freed when the geometry is destroyed.

The byte stride (`byteStride` argument) must be aligned to 4 bytes;
otherwise the `rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer` function will fail.

The allocated buffer will be automatically over-allocated slightly when
used as a vertex buffer, where a requirement is that each buffer
element should be readable using 16-byte SSE load instructions.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryBuffer], [rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer]



rtcGetGeometryBufferData
------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryBufferData - gets pointer to
      the first buffer view element

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void* rtcGetGeometryBufferData(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBufferType type,
      unsigned int slot
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryBufferData` function returns a pointer to the first
element of the buffer view attached to the specified buffer type and
slot (`type` and `slot` argument) of the geometry (`geometry`
argument).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryBuffer], [rtcSetSharedGeometryBuffer],
[rtcSetNewGeometryBuffer]



rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer - marks a buffer view bound to the geometry
      as modified

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      enum RTCBufferType type,
      unsigned int slot
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer` function marks the buffer view bound to
the specified buffer type and slot (`type` and `slot` argument) of a
geometry (`geometry` argument) as modified.

If a data buffer is changed by the application, the
`rtcUpdateGeometryBuffer` call must be invoked for that buffer. Each
buffer view assigned to a buffer slot is initially marked as modified,
thus this function needs to be called only when doing buffer
modifications after the first `rtcCommitScene`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewGeometry], [rtcCommitScene]



rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction
-------------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction - sets the intersection filter
      for the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCFilterFunctionNArguments
    {
      int* valid;
      void* geometryUserPtr;
      const struct RTCIntersectContext* context;
      struct RTCRayN* ray;
      struct RTCHitN* hit;
      unsigned int N;
    };

    typedef void (*RTCFilterFunctionN)(
      const struct RTCFilterFunctionNArguments* args
    );

    void rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCFilterFunctionN filter
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction` function registers an
intersection filter callback function (`filter` argument) for the
specified geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered intersection filter function is invoked for every hit
encountered during the `rtcIntersect`-type ray queries and can accept
or reject that hit. The feature can be used to define a silhouette for
a primitive and reject hits that are outside the silhouette. E.g. a
tree leaf could be modeled with an alpha texture that decides whether
hit points lie inside or outside the leaf.

If the `RTC_SCENE_HIGH_QUALITY` mode is set, the filter functions may
be called multiple times for the same primitive hit. Further, rays
hitting exactly the edge might also report two hits for the same
surface. For certain use cases, the application may have to work around
this limitation by collecting already reported hits (`geomID`/`primID`
pairs) and ignoring duplicates.

The filter function callback of type `RTCFilterFunctionN` gets passed a
number of arguments through the `RTCFilterFunctionNArguments`
structure. The `valid` parameter of that structure points to an integer
valid mask (0 means invalid and -1 means valid). The `geometryUserPtr`
member is a user pointer optionally set per geometry through the
`rtcSetGeometryUserData` function. The `context` member points to the
intersection context passed to the ray query function. The `ray`
parameter points to `N` rays in SOA layout. The `hit` parameter points
to `N` hits in SOA layout to test. The `N` parameter is the number of
rays and hits in `ray` and `hit`. The hit distance is provided as the
`tfar` value of the ray. If the hit geometry is instanced, the `instID`
member of the ray is valid, and the ray and the potential hit are in
object space.

The filter callback function has the task to check for each valid ray
whether it wants to accept or reject the corresponding hit. To reject a
hit, the filter callback function just has to write `0` to the integer
valid mask of the corresponding ray. To accept the hit, it just has to
leave the valid mask set to `-1`. The filter function is further
allowed to change the hit and decrease the `tfar` value of the ray but
it should not modify other ray data nor any inactive components of the
ray or hit.

When performing ray queries using `rtcIntersect1`, it is guaranteed
that the packet size is 1 when the callback is invoked. When performing
ray queries using the `rtcIntersect4/8/16` functions, it is not
generally guaranteed that the ray packet size (and order of rays inside
the packet) passed to the callback matches the initial ray packet.
However, under some circumstances these properties are guaranteed, and
whether this is the case can be queried using `rtcGetDeviceProperty`.
When performing ray queries using the stream API such as
`rtcIntersect1M`, `rtcIntersect1Mp`, `rtcIntersectNM`, or
`rtcIntersectNp` the order of rays and ray packet size of the callback
function might change to either 1, 4, 8, or 16.

For many usage scenarios, repacking and re-ordering of rays does not
cause difficulties in implementing the callback function. However,
algorithms that need to extend the ray with additional data must use
the `rayID` component of the ray to identify the original ray to access
the per-ray data.

The implementation of the filter function can choose to implement a
single code path that uses the ray access helper functions `RTCRay_XXX`
and hit access helper functions `RTCHit_XXX` to access ray and hit
data. Alternatively the code can branch to optimized implementations
for specific sizes of `N` and cast the `ray` and `hit` inputs to the
proper packet types.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction]



rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction
------------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction - sets the occlusion filter
      for the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCFilterFunctionN filter
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryOccludedFilterFunction` function registers an
occlusion filter callback function (`filter` argument) for the
specified geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered intersection filter function is invoked for every hit
encountered during the `rtcOccluded`-type ray queries and can accept or
reject that hit. The feature can be used to define a silhouette for a
primitive and reject hits that are outside the silhouette. E.g. a tree
leaf could be modeled with an alpha texture that decides whether hit
points lie inside or outside the leaf.

Please see the description of the
`rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction` for a description of the filter
callback function.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction]



rtcFilterIntersection
---------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcFilterIntersection - invokes the intersection filter function

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcFilterIntersection(
      const struct RTCIntersectFunctionNArguments* args,
      const struct RTCFilterFunctionNArguments* filterArgs
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcFilterIntersection` function can be called inside an
`RTCIntersectFunctionN` callback function to invoke the intersection
filter registered to the geometry and stored inside the context. For
this an `RTCFilterFunctionNArguments` structure must be created (see
`rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction`) which basically consists of a
valid mask, a hit packet to filter, the corresponding ray packet, and
the packet size. After the invocation of `rtcFilterIntersection`, only
rays that are still valid (valid mask set to -1) should update a hit.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcFilterOcclusion], [rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction]



rtcFilterOcclusion
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcFilterOcclusion - invokes the occlusion filter function

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcFilterOcclusion(
      const struct RTCOccludedFunctionNArguments* args,
      const struct RTCFilterFunctionNArguments* filterArgs
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcFilterOcclusion` function can be called inside an
`RTCOccludedFunctionN` callback function to invoke the occlusion filter
registered to the geometry and stored inside the context. For this an
`RTCFilterFunctionNArguments` structure must be created (see
`rtcSetGeometryIntersectFilterFunction`) which basically consists of a
valid mask, a hit packet to filter, the corresponding ray packet, and
the packet size. After the invocation of `rtcFilterOcclusion` only rays
that are still valid (valid mask set to -1) should signal an occlusion.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcFilterIntersection], [rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction]



rtcSetGeometryUserData
----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryUserData - sets the user-defined data pointer of the
      geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryUserData(RTCGeometry geometry, void* userPtr);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryUserData` function sets the user-defined data
pointer (`userPtr` argument) for a geometry (`geometry` argument). This
user data pointer is intended to be pointing to the application's
representation of the geometry, and is passed to various callback
functions. The application can use this pointer inside the callback
functions to access its geometry representation.

The `rtcGetGeometryUserData` function can be used to query an already
set user data pointer of a geometry.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryUserData]



rtcGetGeometryUserData
----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryUserData - returns the user data pointer
      of the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void* rtcGetGeometryUserData(RTCGeometry geometry);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryUserData` function queries the user data pointer
previously set with `rtcSetGeometryUserData`. When
`rtcSetGeometryUserData` was not called yet, `NULL` is returned.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryUserData]



rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount
--------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount - sets the number of primitives
      of a user-defined geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int userPrimitiveCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryUserPrimitiveCount` function sets the number of
user-defined primitives (`userPrimitiveCount` parameter) of the
specified user-defined geometry (`geometry` parameter).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_USER]



rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction
----------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction - sets a callback to query the
      bounding box of user-defined primitives

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCBoundsFunctionArguments
    {
      void* geometryUserPtr;
      unsigned int primID;
      unsigned int timeStep;
      struct RTCBounds* bounds_o;
    };

    typedef void (*RTCBoundsFunction)(
      const struct RTCBoundsFunctionArguments* args
    );

    void rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCBoundsFunction bounds,
      void* userPtr
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryBoundsFunction` function registers a bounding box
callback function (`bounds` argument) with payload (`userPtr` argument)
for the specified user geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered bounding box callback function is invoked to calculate
axis-aligned bounding boxes of the primitives of the user-defined
geometry during spatial acceleration structure construction. The
bounding box callback of `RTCBoundsFunction` type is invoked with a
pointer to a structure of type `RTCBoundsFunctionArguments` which
contains various arguments, such as: the user data of the geometry
(`geometryUserPtr` member), the ID of the primitive to calculate the
bounds for (`primID` member), the time step at which to calculate the
bounds (`timeStep` member), and a memory location to write the
calculated bound to (`bounds_o` member).

In a typical usage scenario one would store a pointer to the internal
representation of the user geometry object using
`rtcSetGeometryUserData`. The callback function can then read that
pointer from the `geometryUserPtr` field and calculate the proper
bounding box for the requested primitive and time, and store that
bounding box to the destination structure (`bounds_o` member).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_USER]



rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction
-------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction - sets the callback function to
      intersect a user geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCIntersectFunctionNArguments
    {
      int* valid;
      void* geometryUserPtr;
      unsigned int primID;
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context;
      struct RTCRayHitN* rayhit;
      unsigned int N;
    };

    typedef void (*RTCIntersectFunctionN)(
      const struct RTCIntersectFunctionNArguments* args
    );

    void rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCIntersectFunctionN intersect
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction` function registers a
ray/primitive intersection callback function (`intersect` argument) for
the specified user geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered callback function is invoked by `rtcIntersect`-type ray
queries to calculate the intersection of a ray packet of variable size
with one user-defined primitive. The callback function of type
`RTCIntersectFunctionN` gets passed a number of arguments through the
`RTCIntersectFunctionNArguments` structure. The value `N` specifies the
ray packet size, `valid` points to an array of integers that specify
whether the corresponding ray is valid (-1) or invalid (0), the
`geometryUserPtr` member points to the geometry user data previously
set through `rtcSetGeometryUserData`, the `context` member points to
the intersection context passed to the ray query, the `rayhit` member
points to a ray and hit packet of variable size `N`, and the `primID`
member identifies the primitive ID of the primitive to intersect.

The `ray` component of the `rayhit` structure contains valid data, in
particular the `tfar` value is the current closest hit distance found.
All data inside the `hit` component of the `rayhit` structure are
undefined and should not be read by the function.

The task of the callback function is to intersect each active ray from
the ray packet with the specified user primitive. If the user-defined
primitive is missed by a ray of the ray packet, the function should
return without modifying the ray or hit. If an intersection of the
user-defined primitive with the ray was found in the valid range (from
`tnear` to `tfar`), it should update the hit distance of the ray
(`tfar` member) and the hit (`u`, `v`, `Ng`, `instID`, `geomID`,
`primID` members). In particular, the currently intersected instance is
stored in the `instID` field of the intersection context, which must be
copied into the `instID` member of the hit.

As a primitive might have multiple intersections with a ray, the
intersection filter function needs to be invoked by the user geometry
intersection callback for each encountered intersection, if filtering
of intersections is desired. This can be achieved through the
`rtcFilterIntersection` call.

Within the user geometry intersect function, it is safe to trace new
rays and create new scenes and geometries.

When performing ray queries using `rtcIntersect1`, it is guaranteed
that the packet size is 1 when the callback is invoked. When performing
ray queries using the `rtcIntersect4/8/16` functions, it is not
generally guaranteed that the ray packet size (and order of rays inside
the packet) passed to the callback matches the initial ray packet.
However, under some circumstances these properties are guaranteed, and
whether this is the case can be queried using `rtcGetDeviceProperty`.
When performing ray queries using the stream API such as
`rtcIntersect1M`, `rtcIntersect1Mp`, `rtcIntersectNM`, or
`rtcIntersectNp` the order of rays and ray packet size of the callback
function might change to either 1, 4, 8, or 16.

For many usage scenarios, repacking and re-ordering of rays does not
cause difficulties in implementing the callback function. However,
algorithms that need to extend the ray with additional data must use
the `rayID` component of the ray to identify the original ray to access
the per-ray data.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction], [rtcSetGeometryUserData],
[rtcFilterIntersection]



rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction
------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction - sets the callback function to
      test a user geometry for occlusion

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCOccludedFunctionNArguments
    {
      int* valid;
      void* geometryUserPtr;
      unsigned int primID;
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context;
      struct RTCRayN* ray;
      unsigned int N;
    };

    typedef void (*RTCOccludedFunctionN)(
      const struct RTCOccludedFunctionNArguments* args
    );

    void rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCOccludedFunctionN filter
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryOccludedFunction` function registers a ray/primitive
occlusion callback function (`filter` argument) for the specified user
geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered callback function is invoked by `rtcOccluded`-type ray
queries to test whether the rays of a packet of variable size are
occluded by a user-defined primitive. The callback function of type
`RTCOccludedFunctionN` gets passed a number of arguments through the
`RTCOccludedFunctionNArguments` structure. The value `N` specifies the
ray packet size, `valid` points to an array of integers which specify
whether the corresponding ray is valid (-1) or invalid (0), the
`geometryUserPtr` member points to the geometry user data previously
set through `rtcSetGeometryUserData`, the `context` member points to
the intersection context passed to the ray query, the `ray` member
points to a ray packet of variable size `N`, and the `primID` member
identifies the primitive ID of the primitive to test for occlusion.

The task of the callback function is to intersect each active ray from
the ray packet with the specified user primitive. If the user-defined
primitive is missed by a ray of the ray packet, the function should
return without modifying the ray. If an intersection of the
user-defined primitive with the ray was found in the valid range (from
`tnear` to `tfar`), it should set the `tfar` member of the ray to
`-inf`.

As a primitive might have multiple intersections with a ray, the
occlusion filter function needs to be invoked by the user geometry
occlusion callback for each encountered intersection, if filtering of
intersections is desired. This can be achieved through the
`rtcFilterOcclusion` call.

Within the user geometry occlusion function, it is safe to trace new
rays and create new scenes and geometries.

When performing ray queries using `rtcOccluded1`, it is guaranteed that
the packet size is 1 when the callback is invoked. When performing ray
queries using the `rtcOccluded4/8/16` functions, it is not generally
guaranteed that the ray packet size (and order of rays inside the
packet) passed to the callback matches the initial ray packet. However,
under some circumstances these properties are guaranteed, and whether
this is the case can be queried using `rtcGetDeviceProperty`. When
performing ray queries using the stream API such as `rtcOccluded1M`,
`rtcOccluded1Mp`, `rtcOccludedNM`, or `rtcOccludedNp` the order of rays
and ray packet size of the callback function might change to either 1,
4, 8, or 16.

For many usage scenarios, repacking and re-ordering of rays does not
cause difficulties in implementing the callback function. However,
algorithms that need to extend the ray with additional data must use
the `rayID` component of the ray to identify the original ray to access
the per-ray data.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometryIntersectFunction], [rtcSetGeometryUserData],
[rtcFilterOcclusion]



rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene
----------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene - sets the instanced scene of
      an instance geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCScene scene
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryInstancedScene` function sets the instanced scene
(`scene` argument) of the specified instance geometry (`geometry`
argument).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_INSTANCE], [rtcSetGeometryTransform]



rtcSetGeometryTransform
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryTransform - sets the transformation for a particular
      time step of an instance geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryTransform(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int timeStep,
      enum RTCFormat format,
      const float* xfm
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryTransform` function sets the local-to-world affine
transformation (`xfm` parameter) of an instance geometry (`geometry`
parameter) for a particular time step (`timeStep` parameter). The
transformation is specified as a 3×4 matrix (3×3 linear transformation
plus translation), for which the following formats (`format` parameter)
are supported:

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3X4_ROW_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid out
    in row-major form.

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3X4_COLUMN_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid
    out in column-major form.

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT4X4_COLUMN_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid
    out in column-major form as a 4×4 homogeneous matrix with the last
    row being equal to (0, 0, 0, 1).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_INSTANCE]



rtcGetGeometryTransform
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryTransform - returns the interpolated instance
      transformation for the specified time

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcGetGeometryTransform(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      float time,
      enum RTCFormat format,
      void* xfm
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryTransform` function returns the interpolated local
to world transformation (`xfm` parameter) of an instance geometry
(`geometry` parameter) for a particular time (`time` parameter in range
$[0,1]$) in the specified format (`format` parameter).

Possible formats for the returned matrix are:

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3X4_ROW_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid out
    in row-major form.

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT3X4_COLUMN_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid
    out in column-major form.

-   `RTC_FORMAT_FLOAT4X4_COLUMN_MAJOR`: The 3×4 float matrix is laid
    out in column-major form as a 4×4 homogeneous matrix with last row
    equal to (0, 0, 0, 1).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_INSTANCE], [rtcSetGeometryTransform]



rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate
------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate - sets the tessellation rate of the
      geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      float tessellationRate
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryTessellationRate` function sets the tessellation
rate (`tessellationRate` argument) for the specified geometry
(`geometry` argument). The tessellation rate can only be set for flat
curves and subdivision geometries. For curves, the tessellation rate
specifies the number of ray-facing quads per curve segment. For
subdivision surfaces, the tessellation rate specifies the number of
quads along each edge.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_CURVE], [RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION]



rtcSetGeometryTopologyCount
---------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryTopologyCount - sets the number of topologies of
      a subdivision geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryTopologyCount(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int topologyCount
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryTopologyCount` function sets the number of
topologies (`topologyCount` parameter) for the specified subdivision
geometry (`geometry` parameter). The number of topologies of a
subdivision geometry must be greater or equal to 1.

To use multiple topologies, first the number of topologies must be
specified, then the individual topologies can be configured using
`rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode` and by setting an index buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_INDEX`) using the topology ID as the buffer slot.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION], [rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode]



rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode
-----------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode - sets the subdivision mode
      of a subdivision geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int topologyID,
      enum RTCSubdivisionMode mode
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode` function sets the subdivision mode
(`mode` parameter) for the topology (`topologyID` parameter) of the
specified subdivision geometry (`geometry` parameter).

The subdivision modes can be used to force linear interpolation for
certain parts of the subdivision mesh:

-   `RTC_SUBDIVISION_MODE_NO_BOUNDARY`: Boundary patches are ignored.
    This way each rendered patch has a full set of control vertices.

-   `RTC_SUBDIVISION_MODE_SMOOTH_BOUNDARY`: The sequence of boundary
    control points are used to generate a smooth B-spline boundary
    curve (default mode).

-   `RTC_SUBDIVISION_MODE_PIN_CORNERS`: Corner vertices are pinned to
    their location during subdivision.

-   `RTC_SUBDIVISION_MODE_PIN_BOUNDARY`: All vertices at the border are
    pinned to their location during subdivision. This way the boundary
    is interpolated linearly. This mode is typically used for texturing
    to also map texels at the border of the texture to the mesh.

-   `RTC_SUBDIVISION_MODE_PIN_ALL`: All vertices at the border are
    pinned to their location during subdivision. This way all patches
    are linearly interpolated.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION]



rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeTopology
-------------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeTopology - binds a vertex
      attribute to a topology of the geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeTopology(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int vertexAttributeID,
      unsigned int topologyID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryVertexAttributeTopology` function binds a vertex
attribute buffer slot (`vertexAttributeID` argument) to a topology
(`topologyID` argument) for the specified subdivision geometry
(`geometry` argument). Standard vertex buffers are always bound to the
default topology (topology 0) and cannot be bound differently. A vertex
attribute buffer always uses the topology it is bound to when used in
the `rtcInterpolate` and `rtcInterpolateN` calls.

A topology with ID `i` consists of a subdivision mode set through
`rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode` and the index buffer bound to the index
buffer slot `i`. This index buffer can assign indices for each face of
the subdivision geometry that are different to the indices of the
default topology. These new indices can for example be used to
introduce additional borders into the subdivision mesh to map multiple
textures onto one subdivision geometry.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcSetGeometrySubdivisionMode], [rtcInterpolate], [rtcInterpolateN]



rtcSetGeometryDisplacementFunction
----------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcSetGeometryDisplacementFunction - sets the displacement function
      for a subdivision geometry

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCDisplacementFunctionNArguments
    {
      void* geometryUserPtr;
      RTCGeometry geometry;
      unsigned int primID;
      unsigned int timeStep;
      const float* u;
      const float* v;
      const float* Ng_x;
      const float* Ng_y;
      const float* Ng_z;
      float* P_x;
      float* P_y;
      float* P_z;
      unsigned int N;
    };

    typedef void (*RTCDisplacementFunctionN)(
       const struct RTCDisplacementFunctionNArguments* args
    );

    void rtcSetGeometryDisplacementFunction(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      RTCDisplacementFunctionN displacement
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcSetGeometryDisplacementFunction` function registers a
displacement callback function (`displacement` argument) for the
specified subdivision geometry (`geometry` argument).

Only a single callback function can be registered per geometry, and
further invocations overwrite the previously set callback function.
Passing `NULL` as function pointer disables the registered callback
function.

The registered displacement callback function is invoked to displace
points on the subdivision geometry during spatial acceleration
structure construction, during the `rtcCommitScene` call.

The callback function of type `RTCDisplacementFunctionN` is invoked
with a number of arguments stored inside the
`RTCDisplacementFunctionNArguments` structure. The provided user data
pointer of the geometry (`geometryUserPtr` member) can be used to point
to the application's representation of the subdivision mesh. A number
`N` of points to displace are specified in a structure of array layout.
For each point to displace, the local patch UV coordinates (`u` and `v`
arrays), the normalized geometry normal (`Ng_x`, `Ng_y`, and `Ng_z`
arrays), and the position (`P_x`, `P_y`, and `P_z` arrays) are
provided. The task of the displacement function is to use this
information and change the position data.

The geometry handle (`geometry` member) and primitive ID (`primID`
member) of the patch to displace are additionally provided as well as
the time step `timeStep`, which can be important if the displacement is
time-dependent and motion blur is used.

All passed arrays must be aligned to 64 bytes and properly padded to
make wide vector processing inside the displacement function easily
possible.

Also see tutorial [Displacement Geometry] for an example of how to use
the displacement mapping functions.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTC\_GEOMETRY\_TYPE\_SUBDIVISION]



rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge
---------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge - returns the first half edge of a face

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int faceID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge` function returns the ID of the first
half edge belonging to the specified face (`faceID` argument). For
instance in the following example the first half edge of face `f1` is
`e4`.

![][imgHalfEdges]

This function can only be used for subdivision geometries. As all
topologies of a subdivision geometry share the same face buffer the
function does not depend on the topology ID.

Here f0 to f7 are 8 quadrilateral faces with 4 vertices each. The edges
e0 to e23 of these faces are shown with their orientation. For each
face the ID of the edges corresponds to the slots the face occupies in
the index array of the geometry. E.g. as the indices of face f1 start
at location 4 of the index array, the first edge is edge e4, the next
edge e5, etc.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryFace],
[rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge],
[rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge]



rtcGetGeometryFace
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryFace - returns the face of some half edge

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcGetGeometryFace(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int edgeID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryFace` function returns the ID of the face the
specified half edge (`edgeID` argument) belongs to. For instance in the
following example the face `f1` is returned for edges `e4`, `e5`, `e6`,
and `e7`.

![][imgHalfEdges]

This function can only be used for subdivision geometries. As all
topologies of a subdivision geometry share the same face buffer the
function does not depend on the topology ID.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryFace],
[rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge],
[rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge]



rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge
--------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge - returns the next half edge

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int edgeID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge` function returns the ID of the next
half edge of the specified half edge (`edgeID` argument). For instance
in the following example the next half edge of `e10` is `e11`.

![][imgHalfEdges]

This function can only be used for subdivision geometries. As all
topologies of a subdivision geometry share the same face buffer the
function does not depend on the topology ID.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryFace],
[rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge],
[rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge]



rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge
------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge - returns the previous half edge

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int edgeID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge` function returns the ID of the
previous half edge of the specified half edge (`edgeID` argument). For
instance in the following example the previous half edge of `e6` is
`e5`.

![][imgHalfEdges]

This function can only be used for subdivision geometries. As all
topologies of a subdivision geometry share the same face buffer the
function does not depend on the topology ID.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryFace],
[rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge],
[rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge]



rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge
------------------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge - returns the opposite half edge

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    unsigned int rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge(
      RTCGeometry geometry,
      unsigned int topologyID,
      unsigned int edgeID
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge` function returns the ID of the
opposite half edge of the specified half edge (`edgeID` argument) in
the specified topology (`topologyID` argument). For instance in the
following example the opposite half edge of `e6` is `e16`.

![][imgHalfEdges]

An opposite half edge does not exist if the specified half edge has
either no neighboring face, or more than 2 neighboring faces. In these
cases the function just returns the same edge `edgeID` again.

This function can only be used for subdivision geometries. The function
depends on the topology as the topologies of a subdivision geometry
have different index buffers assigned.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcGetGeometryFirstHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryFace],
[rtcGetGeometryOppositeHalfEdge], [rtcGetGeometryNextHalfEdge],
[rtcGetGeometryPreviousHalfEdge]



rtcInterpolate
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcInterpolate - interpolates vertex attributes

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCInterpolateArguments
    {
      RTCGeometry geometry;
      unsigned int primID;
      float u;
      float v;
      enum RTCBufferType bufferType;
      unsigned int bufferSlot;
      float* P;
      float* dPdu;
      float* dPdv;
      float* ddPdudu;
      float* ddPdvdv;
      float* ddPdudv;
      unsigned int valueCount;
    };

    void rtcInterpolate(
      const struct RTCInterpolateArguments* args
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcInterpolate` function smoothly interpolates per-vertex data
over the geometry. This interpolation is supported for triangle meshes,
quad meshes, curve geometries, and subdivision geometries. Apart from
interpolating the vertex attribute itself, it is also possible to get
the first and second order derivatives of that value. This
interpolation ignores displacements of subdivision surfaces and always
interpolates the underlying base surface.

The `rtcInterpolate` call gets passed a number of arguments inside a
structure of type `RTCInterpolateArguments`. For some geometry
(`geometry` parameter) this function smoothly interpolates the
per-vertex data stored inside the specified geometry buffer
(`bufferType` and `bufferSlot` parameters) to the u/v location (`u` and
`v` parameters) of the primitive (`primID` parameter). The number of
floating point values to interpolate and store to the destination
arrays can be specified using the `valueCount` parameter. As
interpolation buffer, one can specify vertex buffers
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX`) and vertex attribute buffers
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE`) as well.

The `rtcInterpolate` call stores `valueCount` number of interpolated
floating point values to the memory location pointed to by `P`. One can
avoid storing the interpolated value by setting `P` to `NULL`.

The first order derivative of the interpolation by u and v are stored
at the `dPdu` and `dPdv` memory locations. One can avoid storing first
order derivatives by setting both `dPdu` and `dPdv` to `NULL`.

The second order derivatives are stored at the `ddPdudu`, `ddPdvdv`,
and `ddPdudv` memory locations. One can avoid storing second order
derivatives by setting these three pointers to `NULL`.

To use `rtcInterpolate` for a geometry, all changes to that geometry
must be properly committed using `rtcCommitGeometry`.

All input buffers and output arrays must be padded to 16 bytes, as the
implementation uses 16-byte SSE instructions to read and write into
these buffers.

See tutorial [Interpolation] for an example of using the
`rtcInterpolate` function.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcInterpolateN]



rtcInterpolateN
---------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcInterpolateN - performs N interpolations of vertex attribute data

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCInterpolateNArguments
    {
      RTCGeometry geometry;
      const void* valid;
      const unsigned int* primIDs;
      const float* u;
      const float* v;
      unsigned int N;
      enum RTCBufferType bufferType;
      unsigned int bufferSlot;
      float* P;
      float* dPdu;
      float* dPdv;
      float* ddPdudu;
      float* ddPdvdv;
      float* ddPdudv;
      unsigned int valueCount;
    };

    void rtcInterpolateN(
      const struct RTCInterpolateNArguments* args
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcInterpolateN` is similar to `rtcInterpolate`, but performs `N`
many interpolations at once. It additionally gets an array of u/v
coordinates and a valid mask (`valid` parameter) that specifies which
of these coordinates are valid. The valid mask points to `N` integers,
and a value of -1 denotes valid and 0 invalid. If the valid pointer is
`NULL` all elements are considers valid. The destination arrays are
filled in structure of array (SOA) layout. The value `N` must be
divisible by 4.

To use `rtcInterpolateN` for a geometry, all changes to that geometry
must be properly committed using `rtcCommitGeometry`.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcInterpolate]



rtcNewBuffer
------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcNewBuffer - creates a new data buffer

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCBuffer rtcNewBuffer(
      RTCDevice device,
      size_t byteSize
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcNewBuffer` function creates a new data buffer object of
specified size in bytes (`byteSize` argument) that is bound to the
specified device (`device` argument). The buffer object is reference
counted with an initial reference count of 1. The returned buffer
object can be released using the `rtcReleaseBuffer` API call. The
specified number of bytes are allocated at buffer construction time and
deallocated when the buffer is destroyed.

When the buffer will be used as a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` and `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE`), the
last buffer element must be readable using 16-byte SSE load
instructions, thus padding the last element is required for certain
layouts. E.g. a standard `float3` vertex buffer layout should add
storage for at least one more float to the end of the buffer.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcRetainBuffer], [rtcReleaseBuffer]



rtcNewSharedBuffer
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcNewSharedBuffer - creates a new shared data buffer

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCBuffer rtcNewSharedBuffer(
      RTCDevice device,
      void* ptr,
      size_t byteSize
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcNewSharedBuffer` function creates a new shared data buffer
object bound to the specified device (`device` argument). The buffer
object is reference counted with an initial reference count of 1. The
buffer can be released using the `rtcReleaseBuffer` function.

At construction time, the pointer to the user-managed buffer data
(`ptr` argument) including its size in bytes (`byteSize` argument) is
provided to create the buffer. At buffer construction time no buffer
data is allocated, but the buffer data provided be the application is
used. The buffer data must remain valid for as long as the buffer may
be used, and the user is responsible to free the buffer data when no
longer required.

When the buffer will be used as a vertex buffer
(`RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX` and `RTC_BUFFER_TYPE_VERTEX_ATTRIBUTE`), the
last buffer element must be readable using 16-byte SSE load
instructions, thus padding the last element is required for certain
layouts. E.g. a standard `float3` vertex buffer layout should add
storage for at least one more float to the end of the buffer.

The data pointer (`ptr` argument) must be aligned to 4 bytes; otherwise
the `rtcNewSharedBuffer` function will fail.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure `NULL` is returned and an error code is set that can be
queried using `rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcRetainBuffer], [rtcReleaseBuffer]



rtcRetainBuffer
---------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcRetainBuffer - increments the buffer reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcRetainBuffer(RTCBuffer buffer);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Buffer objects are reference counted. The `rtcRetainBuffer` function
increments the reference count of the passed buffer object (`buffer`
argument). This function together with `rtcReleaseBuffer` allows to use
the internal reference counting in a C++ wrapper class to handle the
ownership of the object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBuffer], [rtcReleaseBuffer]



rtcReleaseBuffer
----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcReleaseBuffer - decrements the buffer reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcReleaseBuffer(RTCBuffer buffer);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

Buffer objects are reference counted. The `rtcReleaseBuffer` function
decrements the reference count of the passed buffer object (`buffer`
argument). When the reference count falls to 0, the buffer gets
destroyed.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBuffer], [rtcRetainBuffer]



rtcGetBufferData
----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcGetBufferData - gets a pointer to the buffer data

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void* rtcGetBufferData(RTCBuffer buffer);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcGetBufferData` function returns a pointer to the buffer data of
the specified buffer object (`buffer` argument).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBuffer]



RTCRay
------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCRay - single ray structure

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore_ray.h>

    struct RTC_ALIGN(16) RTCRay
    {
      float org_x;        // x coordinate of ray origin
      float org_y;        // y coordinate of ray origin
      float org_z;        // z coordinate of ray origin
      float tnear;        // start of ray segment

      float dir_x;        // x coordinate of ray direction
      float dir_y;        // y coordinate of ray direction
      float dir_z;        // z coordinate of ray direction
      float time;         // time of this ray for motion blur

      float tfar;         // end of ray segment (set to hit distance)
      unsigned int mask;  // ray mask
      unsigned int id;    // ray ID
      unsigned int flags; // ray flags
    };

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `RTCRay` structure defines the ray layout for a single ray. The ray
contains the origin (`org_x`, `org_y`, `org_z` members), direction
vector (`dir_x`, `dir_y`, `dir_z` members), and ray segment (`tnear`
and `tfar` members). The ray direction does not have to be normalized,
and only the parameter range specified by the `tnear`/`tfar` interval
is considered valid.

The ray segment must be in the range $[0, ∞]$, thus ranges that start
behind the ray origin are not allowed, but ranges can reach to
infinity. For rays inside a ray stream, `tfar` \< `tnear` identifies an
inactive ray.

The ray further contains a motion blur time in the range $[0, 1]$
(`time` member), a ray mask (`mask` member), a ray ID (`id` member),
and ray flags (`flags` member). The ray mask can be used to mask out
some geometries for some rays (see `rtcSetGeometryMask` for more
details). The ray ID can be used to identify a ray inside a callback
function, even if the order of rays inside a ray packet or stream has
changed. The ray flags are reserved.

The `embree3/rtcore_ray.h` header additionally defines the same ray
structure in structure of array (SOA) layout for API functions
accepting ray packets of size 4 (`RTCRay4` type), size 8 (`RTCRay8`
type), and size 16 (`RTCRay16` type). The header additionally defines
an `RTCRayNt` template for ray packets of an arbitrary compile-time
size.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCHit]



RTCHit
------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCHit - single hit structure

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTCHit
    {
      float Ng_x;          // x coordinate of geometry normal
      float Ng_y;          // y coordinate of geometry normal
      float Ng_z;          // z coordinate of geometry normal

      float u;             // barycentric u coordinate of hit
      float v;             // barycentric v coordinate of hit

      unsigned int primID; // geometry ID
      unsigned int geomID; // primitive ID
      unsigned int instID[RTC_MAX_INSTANCE_LEVEL_COUNT]; // instance ID
    };

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `RTCHit` type defines the type of a ray/primitive intersection
result. The hit contains the unnormalized geometric normal in object
space at the hit location (`Ng_x`, `Ng_y`, `Ng_z` members), the
barycentric u/v coordinates of the hit (`u` and `v` members), as well
as the primitive ID (`primID` member), geometry ID (`geomID` member),
and instance ID (`instID` member) of the hit. The parametric
intersection distance is not stored inside the hit, but stored inside
the `tfar` member of the ray.

The `embree3/rtcore_ray.h` header additionally defines the same hit
structure in structure of array (SOA) layout for hit packets of size 4
(`RTCHit4` type), size 8 (`RTCHit8` type), and size 16 (`RTCHit16`
type). The header additionally defines an `RTCHitNt` template for hit
packets of an arbitrary compile-time size.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCRay]



RTCRayHit
---------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCRayHit - combined single ray/hit structure

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore_ray.h>

    struct RTCORE_ALIGN(16) RTCRayHit
    {
      struct RTCRay ray;
      struct RTCHit hit;
    };

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `RTCRayHit` structure is used as input for the `rtcIntersect`-type
functions and stores the ray to intersect and some hit fields that hold
the intersection result afterwards.

The `embree3/rtcore_ray.h` header additionally defines the same ray/hit
structure in structure of array (SOA) layout for API functions
accepting ray packets of size 4 (`RTCRayHit4` type), size 8
(`RTCRayHit8` type), and size 16 (`RTCRayHit16` type). The header
additionally defines an `RTCRayHitNt` template to generate ray/hit
packets of an arbitrary compile-time size.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCRay], [RTCHit]



RTCRayN
-------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCRayN - ray packet of runtime size

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore_ray.h>

    struct RTCRayN;

    float& RTCRayN_org_x(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_org_y(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_org_z(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_tnear(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);

    float& RTCRayN_dir_x(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_dir_y(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_dir_z(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCRayN_time (RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);

    float&        RTCRayN_tfar (RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    unsigned int& RTCRayN_mask (RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    unsigned int& RTCRayN_id   (RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    unsigned int& RTCRayN_flags(RTCRayN* ray, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

When the ray packet size is not known at compile time (e.g. when Embree
returns a ray packet in the `RTCFilterFuncN` callback function), Embree
uses the `RTCRayN` type for ray packets. These ray packets can only
have sizes of 1, 4, 8, or 16. No other packet size will be used.

You can either implement different special code paths for each of these
possible packet sizes and cast the ray to the appropriate ray packet
type, or implement one general code path that uses the `RTCRayN_XXX`
helper functions to access the ray packet components.

These helper functions get a pointer to the ray packet (`ray`
argument), the packet size (`N` argument), and returns a reference to a
component (e.g. x-component of origin) of the the i-th ray of the
packet (`i` argument).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCHitN]



RTCHitN
-------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCHitN - hit packet of runtime size

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct HitN;

    float& RTCHitN_Ng_x(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCHitN_Ng_y(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCHitN_Ng_z(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);

    float& RTCHitN_u(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    float& RTCHitN_v(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);

    unsigned& RTCHitN_primID(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    unsigned& RTCHitN_geomID(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i);
    unsigned& RTCHitN_instID(RTCHitN* hit, unsigned int N, unsigned int i, unsigned int l);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

When the hit packet size is not known at compile time (e.g. when Embree
returns a hit packet in the `RTCFilterFuncN` callback function), Embree
uses the `RTCHitN` type for hit packets. These hit packets can only
have sizes of 1, 4, 8, or 16. No other packet size will be used.

You can either implement different special code paths for each of these
possible packet sizes and cast the hit to the appropriate hit packet
type, or implement one general code path that uses the `RTCHitN_XXX`
helper functions to access hit packet components.

These helper functions get a pointer to the hit packet (`hit`
argument), the packet size (`N` argument), and returns a reference to a
component (e.g. x component of `Ng`) of the the i-th hit of the packet
(`i` argument).

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCRayN]



RTCRayHitN
----------

#### NAME {#name}

    RTCRayHitN - combined ray/hit packet of runtime size

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore_ray.h>

    struct RTCRayHitN;

    struct RTCRayN* RTCRayHitN_RayN(struct RTCRayHitN* rayhit, unsigned int N);
    struct RTCHitN* RTCRayHitN_HitN(struct RTCRayHitN* rayhit, unsigned int N);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

When the packet size of a ray/hit structure is not known at compile
time (e.g. when Embree returns a ray/hit packet in the
`RTCIntersectFunctionN` callback function), Embree uses the
`RTCRayHitN` type for ray packets. These ray/hit packets can only have
sizes of 1, 4, 8, or 16. No other packet size will be used.

You can either implement different special code paths for each of these
possible packet sizes and cast the ray/hit to the appropriate ray/hit
packet type, or extract the `RTCRayN` and `RTCHitN` components using
the `rtcGetRayN` and `rtcGetHitN` helper functions and use the
`RTCRayN_XXX` and `RTCHitN_XXX` functions to access the ray and hit
parts of the structure.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[RTCHitN]



rtcInitIntersectContext
-----------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcInitIntersectContext - initializes the intersection context

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    enum RTCIntersectContextFlags
    {
      RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_NONE,
      RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_INCOHERENT,
      RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_COHERENT,
    };

    struct RTCIntersectContext
    {
      enum RTCIntersectContextFlags flags;
      RTCFilterFunctionN filter;
      unsigned int instID[RTC_MAX_INSTANCE_LEVEL_COUNT];
    };

    void rtcInitIntersectContext(
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

A per ray-query intersection context (`RTCIntersectContext` type) is
supported that can be used to configure intersection flags (`flags`
member), specify a filter callback function (`filter` member), specify
the ID of the current instance (`instID` member), and to attach
arbitrary data to the query (e.g. per ray data).

The `rtcInitIntersectContext` function initializes the context to
default values and should be called to initialize every intersection
context. This function gets inlined, which minimizes overhead and
allows for compiler optimizations.

The intersection context flag can be used to tune the behavior of the
traversal algorithm. Using the `RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_INCOHERENT`
flags uses an optimized traversal algorithm for incoherent rays
(default), while `RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_COHERENT` uses an
optimized traversal algorithm for coherent rays (e.g. primary camera
rays).

Best primary ray performance can be obtained by using the ray stream
API and setting the intersect context flag to
`RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_COHERENT`. For secondary rays, it is
typically better to use the `RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_INCOHERENT`
flag, unless the rays are known to be very coherent too (e.g. for
primary transparency rays).

A filter function can be specified inside the context. This filter
function is invoked as a second filter stage after the per-geometry
intersect or occluded filter function is invoked. Only rays that passed
the first filter stage are valid in this second filter stage. Having
such a per ray-query filter function can be useful to implement
modifications of the behavior of the query, such as collecting all hits
or accumulating transparencies. The support for the context filter
function must be enabled for a scene by using the
`RTC_SCENE_FLAG_CONTEXT_FILTER_FUNCTION` scene flag.

It is guaranteed that the pointer to the intersection context passed to
a ray query is directly passed to the registered callback functions.
This way it is possible to attach arbitrary data to the end of the
intersection context, such as a per-ray payload.

Please note that the ray pointer is not guaranteed to be passed to the
callback functions, thus reading additional data from the ray pointer
passed to callbacks is not possible.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

No error code is set by this function.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcIntersect1], [rtcOccluded1]



rtcIntersect1
-------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersect1 - finds the closest hit for a single ray

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersect1(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit* rayhit
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersect1` function finds the closest hit of a single ray with
the scene (`scene` argument). The provided ray/hit structure (`rayhit`
argument) contains the ray to intersect and some hit output fields that
are filled when a hit is found.

The user has to initialize the ray origin (`org` ray member), ray
direction (`dir` ray member), ray segment (`tnear`, `tfar` ray
members), and set the ray flags to `0` (`flags` ray member). If the
scene contains motion blur geometries, also the ray time (`time` ray
member) must be initialized to a value in the range $[0, 1]$. If ray
masks are enabled at compile time, the ray mask (`mask` ray member)
must be initialized as well. The ray segment has to be in the range
$[0, ∞]$, thus ranges that start behind the ray origin are not valid,
but ranges can reach to infinity. See Section [RTCRay] for the ray
layout description.

The instance ID (`instID` hit member) and geometry ID (`geomID` hit
member) of the hit data must be initialized to
`RTC_INVALID_GEOMETRY_ID` (-1).

Further, an intersection context for the ray query function must be
created and initialized (see `rtcInitIntersectContext`).

When no intersection is found, the ray/hit data is not updated. When an
intersection is found, the hit distance is written into the `tfar`
member of the ray and all hit data is set, such as unnormalized
geometry normal in object space (`Ng` hit member), local hit
coordinates (`u`, `v` hit member), instance ID (`instID` hit member),
geometry ID (`geomID` hit member), and primitive ID (`primID` hit
member). See Section [RTCHit] for the hit layout description.

If the instance ID was set (thus it is not equal to
`RTC_INVALID_GEOMETRY_ID`), the instance ID corresponds to the geometry
ID of the hit instance of the top-level scene, the geometry ID
corresponds to the hit geometry inside the hit instanced scene, and the
primitive ID corresponds to the n-th primitive of that geometry.

If the instance ID was not set (thus it is still equal to
`RTC_INVALID_GEOMETRY_ID`), the geometry ID corresponds to the hit
geometry inside the scene, and the primitive ID corresponds to the n-th
primitive of that geometry.

The implementation makes no guarantees that primitives whose hit
distance is exactly at (or very close to) `tnear` or `tfar` are hit or
missed. If you want to exclude intersections at `tnear` just pass a
slightly enlarged `tnear`, and if you want to include intersections at
`tfar` pass a slightly enlarged `tfar`.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The ray pointer passed to callback functions is not guaranteed to be
identical to the original ray provided. To extend the ray with
additional data to be accessed in callback functions, use the
intersection context.

The ray/hit structure must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded1], [RTCRayHit], [RTCRay], [RTCHit]



rtcOccluded1
------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccluded1 - finds any hit for a single ray

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccluded1(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay* ray
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccluded1` function checks for a single ray (`ray` argument)
whether there is any hit with the scene (`scene` argument).

The user must initialize the ray origin (`org` ray member), ray
direction (`dir` ray member), ray segment (`tnear`, `tfar` ray
members), and must set the ray flags to `0` (`flags` ray member). If
the scene contains motion blur geometries, also the ray time (`time`
ray member) must be initialized to a value in the range $[0, 1]$. If
ray masks are enabled at compile time, the ray mask (`mask` ray member)
must be initialized as well. The ray segment must be in the range
$[0, ∞]$, thus ranges that start behind the ray origin are not valid,
but ranges can reach to infinity. See Section [RTCRay] for the ray
layout description.

When no intersection is found, the ray data is not updated. In case a
hit was found, the `tfar` component of the ray is set to `-inf`.

The implementation makes no guarantees that primitives whose hit
distance is exactly at (or very close to) `tnear` or `tfar` are hit or
missed. If you want to exclude intersections at `tnear` just pass a
slightly enlarged `tnear`, and if you want to include intersections at
`tfar` pass a slightly enlarged `tfar`.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The ray pointer passed to callback functions is not guaranteed to be
identical to the original ray provided. To extend the ray with
additional data to be accessed in callback functions, use the
intersection context.

The ray must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded1], [RTCRay]



rtcIntersect4/8/16
------------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersect4/8/16 - finds the closest hits for a ray packet

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersect4(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit4* rayhit
    );

    void rtcIntersect8(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit8* rayhit
    );

    void rtcIntersect16(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit16* rayhit
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersect4/8/16` functions finds the closest hits for a ray
packet of size 4, 8, or 16 (`rayhit` argument) with the scene (`scene`
argument). The ray/hit input contains a ray packet and hit packet. See
Section [rtcIntersect1] for a description of how to set up and trace
rays.

A ray valid mask must be provided (`valid` argument) which stores one
32-bit integer (`-1` means valid and `0` invalid) per ray in the
packet. Only active rays are processed, and hit data of inactive rays
is not changed.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The ray pointer passed to callback functions is not guaranteed to be
identical to the original ray provided. To extend the ray with
additional data to be accessed in callback functions, use the
intersection context.

The implementation of these functions is guaranteed to invoke callback
functions always with the same ray packet size and ordering of rays as
specified initially.

For `rtcIntersect4` the ray packet must be aligned to 16 bytes, for
`rtcIntersect8` the alignment must be 32 bytes, and for
`rtcIntersect16` the alignment must be 64 bytes.

The `rtcIntersect4`, `rtcIntersect8` and `rtcIntersect16` functions may
change the ray packet size and ray order when calling back into
intersect filter functions or user geometry callbacks. Under some
conditions the application can assume packets to stay intakt, which can
determined by querying the `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY4_SUPPORTED`,
`RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY8_SUPPORTED`,
`RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY16_SUPPORTED` properties through the
`rtcGetDeviceProperty` function. See [rtcGetDeviceProperty] for more
information.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded4/8/16]



rtcOccluded4/8/16
-----------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccluded4/8/16 - finds any hits for a ray packet

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccluded4(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay4* ray
    );

    void rtcOccluded8(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay8* ray
    );

    void rtcOccluded16(
      const int* valid,
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay16* ray
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccluded4/8/16` functions checks for each active ray of the ray
packet of size 4, 8, or 16 (`ray` argument) whether there is any hit
with the scene (`scene` argument). See Section [rtcOccluded1] for a
description of how to set up and trace occlusion rays.

A ray valid mask must be provided (`valid` argument) which stores one
32-bit integer (`-1` means valid and `0` invalid) per ray in the
packet. Only active rays are processed, and hit data of inactive rays
is not changed.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The ray pointer passed to callback functions is not guaranteed to be
identical to the original ray provided. To extend the ray with
additional data to be accessed in callback functions, use the
intersection context.

The implementation of these functions is guaranteed to invoke callback
functions always with the same ray packet size and ordering of rays as
specified initially.

For `rtcOccluded4` the ray packet must be aligned to 16 bytes, for
`rtcOccluded8` the alignment must be 32 bytes, and for `rtcOccluded16`
the alignment must be 64 bytes.

The `rtcOccluded4`, `rtcOccluded8` and `rtcOccluded16` functions may
change the ray packet size and ray order when calling back into
intersect filter functions or user geometry callbacks. Under some
conditions the application can assume packets to stay intakt, which can
determined by querying the `RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY4_SUPPORTED`,
`RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY8_SUPPORTED`,
`RTC_DEVICE_PROPERTY_NATIVE_RAY16_SUPPORTED` properties through the
`rtcGetDeviceProperty` function. See [rtcGetDeviceProperty] for more
information.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded4/8/16]



rtcIntersect1M
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersect1M - finds the closest hits for a stream of M single
      rays

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersect1M(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit* rayhit,
      unsigned int M,
      size_t byteStride
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersect1M` function finds the closest hits for a stream of
`M` single rays (`rayhit` argument) with the scene (`scene` argument).
The `rayhit` argument points to an array of ray and hit data with
specified byte stride (`byteStride` argument) between the ray/hit
structures. See Section [rtcIntersect1] for a description of how to set
up and trace rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `M` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded1M]



rtcOccluded1M
-------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccluded1M - finds any hits for a stream of M single rays

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccluded1M(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay* ray,
      unsigned int M,
      size_t byteStride
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccluded1M` function checks whether there are any hits for a
stream of `M` single rays (`ray` argument) with the scene (`scene`
argument). The `ray` argument points to an array of rays with specified
byte stride (`byteStride` argument) between the rays. See Section
[rtcOccluded1] for a description of how to set up and trace occlusion
rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `M` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcIntersect1M]



rtcIntersect1Mp
---------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersect1Mp - finds the closest hits for a stream of M pointers
      to single rays

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersect1Mp(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHit** rayhit,
      unsigned int M
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersect1Mp` function finds the closest hits for a stream of
`M` single rays (`rayhit` argument) with the scene (`scene` argument).
The `rayhit` argument points to an array of pointers to the individual
ray/hit structures. See Section [rtcIntersect1] for a description of
how to set up and trace a ray.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `M` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccluded1Mp]



rtcOccluded1Mp
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccluded1Mp - find any hits for a stream of M pointers to
      single rays

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccluded1M(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRay** ray,
      unsigned int M
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccluded1Mp` function checks whether there are any hits for a
stream of `M` single rays (`ray` argument) with the scene (`scene`
argument). The `ray` argument points to an array of pointers to rays.
Section [rtcOccluded1] for a description of how to set up and trace a
occlusion rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `M` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcIntersect1Mp]



rtcIntersectNM
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersectNM - finds the closest hits for a stream of M
      ray packets of size N

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersectNM(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHitN* rayhit,
      unsigned int N,
      unsigned int M,
      size_t byteStride
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersectNM` function finds the closest hits for a stream of
`M` ray packets (`rayhit` argument) of size `N` with the scene (`scene`
argument). The `rays` argument points to an array of ray and hit
packets with specified byte stride (`byteStride` argument) between the
ray/hit packets. See Section [rtcIntersect1] for a description of how
to set up and trace rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The packet size `N` must be larger than 0, and the stream size `M` can
be an arbitrary positive integer including 0. Each ray must be aligned
to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccludedNM]



rtcOccludedNM
-------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccludedNM - finds any hits for a stream of M ray packets of
      size N

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccludedNM(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayN* ray,
      unsigned int N,
      unsigned int M,
      size_t byteStride
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccludedNM` function checks whether there are any hits for a
stream of `M` ray packets (`ray` argument) of size `N` with the scene
(`scene` argument). The `ray` argument points to an array of ray
packets with specified byte stride (`byteStride` argument) between the
ray packets. See Section [rtcOccluded1] for a description of how to set
up and trace occlusion rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The packet size `N` must be larger than 0, and the stream size `M` can
be an arbitrary positive integer including 0. Each ray must be aligned
to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcIntersectNM]



rtcIntersectNp
--------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcIntersectNp - finds the closest hits for a SOA ray stream of
      size N

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcIntersectNp(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayHitNp* rayhit,
      unsigned int N
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcIntersectNp` function finds the closest hits for a SOA ray
stream (`rays` argument) of size `N` (basically a large ray packet)
with the scene (`scene` argument). The `rayhit` argument points to two
structures of pointers with one pointer for each ray and hit component.
Each of these pointers points to an array with the ray or hit component
data for each ray or hit. This way the individual components of the SOA
ray stream do not need to be stored sequentially in memory, which makes
it possible to have large varying size ray packets in SOA layout. See
Section [rtcIntersect1] for a description of how to set up and trace
rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `N` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray component array must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcOccludedNp]



rtcOccludedNp
-------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcOccludedNp - finds any hits for a SOA ray stream of size N

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcOccludedNp(
      RTCScene scene,
      struct RTCIntersectContext* context,
      struct RTCRayNp* ray,
      unsigned int N
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcOccludedNp` function checks whether there are any hits for a
SOA ray stream (`ray` argument) of size `N` (basically a large ray
packet) with the scene (`scene` argument). The `ray` argument points to
a structure of pointers with one pointer for each ray component. Each
of these pointers points to an array with the ray component data for
each ray. This way the individual components of the SOA ray stream do
not need to be stored sequentially in memory, which makes it possible
to have large varying size ray packets in SOA layout. See Section
[rtcOccluded1] for a description of how to set up and trace occlusion
rays.

The intersection context (`context` argument) can specify flags to
optimize traversal and a filter callback function to be invoked for
every intersection. Further, the pointer to the intersection context is
propagated to callback functions invoked during traversal and can thus
be used to extend the ray with additional data. See Section
`RTCIntersectContext` for more information.

The implementation of the stream ray query functions may re-order rays
arbitrarily and re-pack rays into ray packets of different size. For
this reason, callback functions may be invoked with an arbitrary packet
size (of size 1, 4, 8, or 16) and different ordering as specified
initially. For this reason, one may have to use the `rayID` component
of the ray to identify the original ray, e.g. to access a per-ray
payload.

A ray in a ray stream is considered inactive if its `tnear` value is
larger than its `tfar` value.

The stream size `N` can be an arbitrary positive integer including 0.
Each ray component array must be aligned to 16 bytes.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

For performance reasons this function does not do any error checks,
thus will not set any error flags on failure.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcIntersectNp]



rtcNewBVH
---------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcNewBVH - creates a new BVH object

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    RTCBVH rtcNewBVH(RTCDevice device);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

This function creates a new BVH object and returns a handle to this
BVH. The BVH object is reference counted with an initial reference
count of 1. The handle can be released using the `rtcReleaseBVH` API
call.

The BVH object can be used to build a BVH in a user-specified format
over user-specified primitives. See the documentation of the
`rtcBuildBVH` call for more details.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcRetainBVH], [rtcReleaseBVH], [rtcBuildBVH]



rtcRetainBVH
------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcRetainBVH - increments the BVH reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcRetainBVH(RTCBVH bvh);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

BVH objects are reference counted. The `rtcRetainBVH` function
increments the reference count of the passed BVH object (`bvh`
argument). This function together with `rtcReleaseBVH` allows to use
the internal reference counting in a C++ wrapper class to handle the
ownership of the object.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBVH], [rtcReleaseBVH]



rtcReleaseBVH
-------------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcReleaseBVH - decrements the BVH reference count

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    void rtcReleaseBVH(RTCBVH bvh);

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

BVH objects are reference counted. The `rtcReleaseBVH` function
decrements the reference count of the passed BVH object (`bvh`
argument). When the reference count falls to 0, the BVH gets destroyed.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBVH], [rtcRetainBVH]



rtcBuildBVH
-----------

#### NAME {#name}

    rtcBuildBVH - builds a BVH

#### SYNOPSIS {#synopsis}

    #include <embree3/rtcore.h>

    struct RTC_ALIGN(32) RTCBuildPrimitive
    {
      float lower_x, lower_y, lower_z; 
      unsigned int geomID;
      float upper_x, upper_y, upper_z;
      unsigned int primID;
    };

    typedef void* (*RTCCreateNodeFunction) (
      RTCThreadLocalAllocator allocator,
      unsigned int childCount,
      void* userPtr
    );

    typedef void (*RTCSetNodeChildrenFunction) (
      void* nodePtr,
      void** children,
      unsigned int childCount,
      void* userPtr
    );

    typedef void (*RTCSetNodeBoundsFunction) (
      void* nodePtr,
      const struct RTCBounds** bounds,
      unsigned int childCount,
      void* userPtr
    );

    typedef void* (*RTCCreateLeafFunction) (
      RTCThreadLocalAllocator allocator,
      const struct RTCBuildPrimitive* primitives,
      size_t primitiveCount,
      void* userPtr
    );

    typedef void (*RTCSplitPrimitiveFunction) (
      const struct RTCBuildPrimitive* primitive,
      unsigned int dimension,
      float position,
      struct RTCBounds* leftBounds,
      struct RTCBounds* rightBounds,
      void* userPtr
    );

    typedef bool (*RTCProgressMonitorFunction)(
      void* userPtr, double n
    );

    enum RTCBuildFlags
    {
      RTC_BUILD_FLAG_NONE,
      RTC_BUILD_FLAG_DYNAMIC
    };

    struct RTCBuildArguments
    {
      size_t byteSize;

      enum RTCBuildQuality buildQuality;
      enum RTCBuildFlags buildFlags;
      unsigned int maxBranchingFactor;
      unsigned int maxDepth;
      unsigned int sahBlockSize;
      unsigned int minLeafSize;
      unsigned int maxLeafSize;
      float traversalCost;
      float intersectionCost;

      RTCBVH bvh;
      struct RTCBuildPrimitive* primitives;
      size_t primitiveCount;
      size_t primitiveArrayCapacity;
      
      RTCCreateNodeFunction createNode;
      RTCSetNodeChildrenFunction setNodeChildren;
      RTCSetNodeBoundsFunction setNodeBounds;
      RTCCreateLeafFunction createLeaf;
      RTCSplitPrimitiveFunction splitPrimitive;
      RTCProgressMonitorFunction buildProgress;
      void* userPtr;
    };

    struct RTCBuildArguments rtcDefaultBuildArguments();

    void* rtcBuildBVH(
      const struct RTCBuildArguments* args
    );

#### DESCRIPTION {#description}

The `rtcBuildBVH` function can be used to build a BVH in a user-defined
format over arbitrary primitives. All arguments to the function are
provided through the `RTCBuildArguments` structure. The first member of
that structure must be set to the size of the structure in bytes
(`bytesSize` member) which allows future extensions of the structure.
It is recommended to initialize the build arguments structure using the
`rtcDefaultBuildArguments` function.

The `rtcBuildBVH` function gets passed the BVH to build (`bvh` member),
the array of primitives (`primitives` member), the capacity of that
array (`primitiveArrayCapacity` member), the number of primitives
stored inside the array (`primitiveCount` member), callback function
pointers, and a user-defined pointer (`userPtr` member) that is passed
to all callback functions when invoked. The `primitives` array can be
freed by the application after the BVH is built. All callback functions
are typically called from multiple threads, thus their implementation
must be thread-safe.

Four callback functions must be registered, which are invoked during
build to create BVH nodes (`createNode` member), to set the pointers to
all children (`setNodeChildren` member), to set the bounding boxes of
all children (`setNodeBounds` member), and to create a leaf node
(`createLeaf` member).

The function pointer to the primitive split function (`splitPrimitive`
member) may be `NULL`, however, then no spatial splitting in high
quality mode is possible. The function pointer used to report the build
progress (`buildProgress` member) is optional and may also be `NULL`.

Further, some build settings are passed to configure the BVH build.
Using the build quality settings (`buildQuality` member), one can
select between a faster, low quality build which is good for dynamic
scenes, and a standard quality build for static scenes. One can also
specify the desired maximum branching factor of the BVH
(`maxBranchingFactor` member), the maximum depth the BVH should have
(`maxDepth` member), the block size for the SAH heuristic
(`sahBlockSize` member), the minimum and maximum leaf size
(`minLeafSize` and `maxLeafSize` member), and the estimated costs of
one traversal step and one primitive intersection (`traversalCost` and
`intersectionCost` members). When enabling the `RTC_BUILD_FLAG_DYNAMIC`
build flags (`buildFlags` member), re-build performance for dynamic
scenes is improved at the cost of higher memory requirements.

To spatially split primitives in high quality mode, the builder needs
extra space at the end of the build primitive array to store splitted
primitives. The total capacity of the build primitive array is passed
using the `primitiveArrayCapacity` member, and should be about twice
the number of primitives when using spatial splits.

The `RTCCreateNodeFunc` and `RTCCreateLeafFunc` callbacks are passed a
thread local allocator object that should be used for fast allocation
of nodes using the `rtcThreadLocalAlloc` function. We strongly
recommend using this allocation mechanism, as alternative approaches
like standard `malloc` can be over 10× slower. The allocator object
passed to the create callbacks may be used only inside the current
thread. Memory allocated using `rtcThreadLocalAlloc` is automatically
freed when the `RTCBVH` object is deleted. If you use your own memory
allocation scheme you have to free the memory yourself when the
`RTCBVH` object is no longer used.

The `RTCCreateNodeFunc` callback additionally gets the number of
children for this node in the range from 2 to `maxBranchingFactor`
(`childCount` argument).

The `RTCSetNodeChildFunc` callback function gets a pointer to the node
as input (`nodePtr` argument), an array of pointers to the children
(`childPtrs` argument), and the size of this array (`childCount`
argument).

The `RTCSetNodeBoundsFunc` callback function gets a pointer to the node
as input (`nodePtr` argument), an array of pointers to the bounding
boxes of the children (`bounds` argument), and the size of this array
(`childCount` argument).

The `RTCCreateLeafFunc` callback additionally gets an array of
primitives as input (`primitives` argument), and the size of this array
(`primitiveCount` argument). The callback should read the `geomID` and
`primID` members from the passed primitives to construct the leaf.

The `RTCSplitPrimitiveFunc` callback is invoked in high quality mode to
split a primitive (`primitive` argument) at the specified position
(`position` argument) and dimension (`dimension` argument). The
callback should return bounds of the clipped left and right parts of
the primitive (`leftBounds` and `rightBounds` arguments).

The `RTCProgressMonitorFunction` callback function is called with the
estimated completion rate `n` in the range $[0,1]$. Returning `true`
from the callback lets the build continue; returning `false` cancels
the build.

#### EXIT STATUS {#exit-status}

On failure an error code is set that can be queried using
`rtcGetDeviceError`.

#### SEE ALSO {#see-also}

[rtcNewBVH]



Performance Recommendations
===========================

MXCSR control and status register
---------------------------------

It is strongly recommended to have the `Flush to Zero` and
`Denormals are Zero` mode of the MXCSR control and status register
enabled for each thread before calling the `rtcIntersect`-type and
`rtcOccluded`-type functions. Otherwise, under some circumstances
special handling of denormalized floating point numbers can
significantly reduce application and Embree performance. When using
Embree together with the Intel® Threading Building Blocks, it is
sufficient to execute the following code at the beginning of the
application main thread (before the creation of the
`tbb::task_scheduler_init` object):

    #include <xmmintrin.h>
    #include <pmmintrin.h>
    ...
    _MM_SET_FLUSH_ZERO_MODE(_MM_FLUSH_ZERO_ON);
    _MM_SET_DENORMALS_ZERO_MODE(_MM_DENORMALS_ZERO_ON);

If using a different tasking system, make sure each rendering thread
has the proper mode set.

Thread Creation and Affinity Settings
-------------------------------------

Tasking systems like TBB create worker threads on demand, which will
add a runtime overhead for the very first `rtcCommitScene` call. In
case you want to benchmark the scene build time, you should start the
threads at application startup. You can let Embree start TBB threads by
passing `start_threads=1` to the `cfg` parameter of `rtcNewDevice`.

On machines with a high thread count (e.g. dual-socket Xeon or Xeon Phi
machines), affinitizing TBB worker threads increases build and
rendering performance. You can let Embree affinitize TBB worker threads
by passing `set_affinity=1` to the `cfg` parameter of `rtcNewDevice`.
By default, threads are not affinitized by Embree with the exception of
Xeon Phi Processors where they are affinitized by default.

All Embree tutorials automatically start and affinitize TBB worker
threads by passing `start_threads=1,set_affinity=1` to `rtcNewDevice`.

Fast Coherent Rays
------------------

For getting the highest performance for highly coherent rays, e.g.
primary or hard shadow rays, it is recommended to use packets or
streams of single rays/packets with setting the
`RTC_INTERSECT_CONTEXT_FLAG_COHERENT` flag in the `RTCIntersectContext`
passed to the `rtcIntersect`/`rtcOccluded` calls. The total number of
rays in a coherent stream of ray packets should be around 64, e.g. 8
times 8-wide packets, or 4 times 16-wide packets. The rays inside each
packet should be grouped as coherent as possible.

Huge Page Support
-----------------

It is recommended to use huge pages under Linux to increase rendering
performance. Embree supports 2MB huge pages under Windows, Linux, and
macOS. Under Linux huge page support is enabled by default, and under
Windows and macOS disabled by default. Huge page support can be enabled
in Embree by passing `hugepages=1` to `rtcNewDevice` or disabled by
passing `hugepages=0` to `rtcNewDevice`.

We recommend using 2MB huge pages with Embree under Linux as this
improves ray tracing performance by about 5-10%. Under Windows using
huge pages requires the application to run in elevated mode which is a
security issue, thus likely not an option for most use cases. Under
macOS huge pages are rarely available as memory tends to get quickly
fragmented, thus we do not recommend using huge pages on macOS.

### Huge Pages under Linux

Linux supports transparent huge pages and explicit huge pages. To
enable transparent huge page support under Linux, execute the following
as root:

    echo always > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled

When transparent huge pages are enabled, the kernel tries to merge 4KB
pages to 2MB pages when possible as a background job. Many Linux
distributions have transparent huge pages enabled by default. See the
following webpage for more information on [transparent huge pages under
Linux](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/transhuge.txt). In
this mode each application, including your rendering application based
on Embree, will automatically tend to use huge pages.

Using transparent huge pages, the transitioning from 4KB to 2MB pages
might take some time. For that reason Embree also supports allocating
2MB pages directly when a huge page pool is configured. Such a pool can
be configured by writing some number of huge pages to allocate to
`/proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages` as root user. E.g. to configure
2GB of address space for huge page allocation, execute the following as
root:

    echo 1000 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages

See the following webpage for more information on [huge pages under
Linux](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt).

### Huge Pages under Windows

To use huge pages under Windows, the current user must have the "Lock
pages in memory" (SeLockMemoryPrivilege) assigned. This can be
configured through the "Local Security Policy" application, by adding a
user to "Local Policies" -\> "User Rights Assignment" -\> "Lock pages
in memory". You have to log out and in again for this change to take
effect.

Further, your application must be executed as an elevated process ("Run
as administrator") and the "SeLockMemoryPrivilege" must be explicitly
enabled by your application. Example code on how to enable this
privilege can be found in the "common/sys/alloc.cpp" file of Embree.
Alternatively, Embree will try to enable this privilege when passing
`enable_selockmemoryprivilege=1` to `rtcNewDevice`. Further, huge pages
should be enabled in Embree by passing `hugepages=1` to `rtcNewDevice`.

When the system has been running for a while, physical memory gets
fragmented, which can slow down the allocation of huge pages
significantly under Windows.

### Huge Pages under macOS

To use huge pages under macOS you have to pass `hugepages=1` to
`rtcNewDevice` to enable that feature in Embree.

When the system has been running for a while, physical memory gets
quickly fragmented, and causes huge page allocations to fail. For this
reason, huge pages are not very useful under macOS in practice.

Avoid store-to-load forwarding issues with single rays
------------------------------------------------------

We recommend to use a single SSE store to set up the `org` and `tnear`
components, and a single SSE store to set up the `dir` and `time`
components of a single ray (`RTCRay` type). Storing these values using
scalar stores causes a store-to-load forwarding penalty because Embree
is reading these components using SSE loads later on.
Embree Tutorials
================

Embree comes with a set of tutorials aimed at helping users understand
how Embree can be used and extended. All tutorials exist in an ISPC and
C++ version to demonstrate the two versions of the API. Look for files
named `tutorialname_device.ispc` for the ISPC implementation of the
tutorial, and files named `tutorialname_device.cpp` for the single ray C++
version of the tutorial. To start the C++ version use the `tutorialname`
executables, to start the ISPC version use the `tutorialname_ispc`
executables. All tutorials can print available command line options
using the `--help` command line parameter.

For all tutorials, you can select an initial camera using the `--vp`
(camera position), `--vi` (camera look-at point), `--vu` (camera up
vector), and `--fov` (vertical field of view) command line parameters:

    ./triangle_geometry --vp 10 10 10 --vi 0 0 0

You can select the initial window size using the `--size` command line
parameter, or start the tutorials in full screen using the `--fullscreen`
parameter:

    ./triangle_geometry --size 1024 1024
    ./triangle_geometry --fullscreen

The initialization string for the Embree device (`rtcNewDevice` call)
can be passed to the ray tracing core through the `--rtcore` command
line parameter, e.g.:

    ./triangle_geometry --rtcore verbose=2,threads=1

The navigation in the interactive display mode follows the camera orbit
model, where the camera revolves around the current center of interest.
With the left mouse button you can rotate around the center of interest
(the point initially set with `--vi`). Holding Control pressed while
clicking the left mouse button rotates the camera around its location.
You can also use the arrow keys for navigation.

You can use the following keys:

F1
:   Default shading

F2
:   Gray EyeLight shading

F3
:   Traces occlusion rays only.

F4
:   UV Coordinate visualization

F5
:   Geometry normal visualization

F6
:   Geometry ID visualization

F7
:   Geometry ID and Primitive ID visualization

F8
:   Simple shading with 16 rays per pixel for benchmarking.

F9
:   Switches to render cost visualization. Pressing again reduces
    brightness.

F10
:   Switches to render cost visualization. Pressing again increases
    brightness.

f
:   Enters or leaves full screen mode.

c
:   Prints camera parameters.

ESC
:   Exits the tutorial.

q
:   Exits the tutorial.

Triangle Geometry
-----------------

![][imgTriangleGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the creation of a static cube and ground
plane using triangle meshes. It also demonstrates the use of the
`rtcIntersect1` and `rtcOccluded1` functions to render primary visibility
and hard shadows. The cube sides are colored based on the ID of the hit
primitive.

Dynamic Scene
-------------

![][imgDynamicScene]

This tutorial demonstrates the creation of a dynamic scene, consisting
of several deforming spheres. Half of the spheres use the
`RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_REFIT` geometry build quality, which allows Embree
to use a refitting strategy for these spheres, the other half uses the
`RTC_BUILD_QUALITY_LOW` geometry build quality, causing a high
performance rebuild of their spatial data structure each frame. The
spheres are colored based on the ID of the hit sphere geometry.

User Geometry
-------------

![][imgUserGeometry]

This tutorial shows the use of user-defined geometry, to re-implement
instancing, and to add analytic spheres. A two-level scene is created,
with a triangle mesh as ground plane, and several user geometries that
instance other scenes with a small number of spheres of different kinds.
The spheres are colored using the instance ID and geometry ID of the hit
sphere, to demonstrate how the same geometry instanced in different
ways can be distinguished.

Viewer
------

![][imgViewer]

This tutorial demonstrates a simple OBJ viewer that traces primary
visibility rays only. A scene consisting of multiple meshes is created,
each mesh sharing the index and vertex buffer with the application.
It also demonstrates how to support additional per-vertex data, such as
shading normals.

You need to specify an OBJ file at the command line for this tutorial to
work:

    ./viewer -i model.obj

Stream Viewer
-------------

![][imgViewerStream]

This tutorial is a simple OBJ viewer that demonstrates the use of ray
streams. You need to specify an OBJ file at the command line for this
tutorial to work:

    ./viewer_stream -i model.obj

Instanced Geometry
------------------

![][imgInstancedGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the in-build instancing feature of Embree, by
instancing a number of other scenes built from triangulated spheres. The
spheres are again colored using the instance ID and geometry ID of the
hit sphere, to demonstrate how the same geometry instanced in different
ways can be distinguished.

Intersection Filter
-------------------

![][imgIntersectionFilter]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of filter callback functions to
efficiently implement transparent objects. The filter function used for
primary rays lets the ray pass through the geometry if it is entirely
transparent. Otherwise, the shading loop handles the transparency
properly, by potentially shooting secondary rays. The filter function
used for shadow rays accumulates the transparency of all surfaces along
the ray, and terminates traversal if an opaque occluder is hit.

Path Tracer
-----------

![][imgPathtracer]

This tutorial is a simple path tracer, based on the viewer tutorial.

You need to specify an OBJ file and light source at the command line for
this tutorial to work:

    ./pathtracer -i model.obj --ambientlight 1 1 1

As example models we provide the "Austrian Imperial Crown" model by
[Martin Lubich](http://www.loramel.net) and the "Asian Dragon" model from the
[Stanford 3D Scanning Repository](http://graphics.stanford.edu/data/3Dscanrep/).

[crown.zip](https://github.com/embree/models/releases/download/release/crown.zip)

[asian_dragon.zip](https://github.com/embree/models/releases/download/release/asian_dragon.zip)

To render these models execute the following:

    ./pathtracer -c crown/crown.ecs
    ./pathtracer -c asian_dragon/asian_dragon.ecs

Hair
----

![][imgHairGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of the hair geometry to render a
hairball.

Bézier Curves
-------------

![][imgCurveGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of the Bézier curve geometry.

Subdivision Geometry
--------------------

![][imgSubdivisionGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of Catmull-Clark subdivision
surfaces.

Displacement Geometry
---------------------

![][imgDisplacementGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of Catmull-Clark subdivision
surfaces with procedural displacement mapping using a constant edge
tessellation level.

Grid Geometry
---------------------

![][imgGridGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of the memory efficient grid
primitive to handle highly tessellated and displaced geometry.

Point Geometry
---------------------

![][imgPointGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates the use of the three representations
of point geometry.

Motion Blur Geometry
--------------------

![][imgMotionBlurGeometry]

This tutorial demonstrates rendering of motion blur using the
multi-segment motion blur feature. Shown is motion blur of a triangle mesh,
quad mesh, subdivision surface, line segments, hair geometry, Bézier
curves, instantiated triangle mesh where the instance moves,
instantiated quad mesh where the instance and the quads move, and user
geometry.

The number of time steps used can be configured using the `--time-steps
<int>` and `--time-steps2 <int>` command line parameters, and the
geometry can be rendered at a specific time using the the `--time
<float>` command line parameter.

Interpolation
-------------

![][imgInterpolation]

This tutorial demonstrates interpolation of user-defined per-vertex data.

BVH Builder
-----------

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the templated hierarchy builders
of Embree to build a bounding volume hierarchy with a user-defined
memory layout using a high-quality SAH builder using spatial splits, a
standard SAH builder, and a very fast Morton builder.

BVH Access
-----------

This tutorial demonstrates how to access the internal triangle
acceleration structure build by Embree. Please be aware that the
internal Embree data structures might change between Embree updates.

Find Embree
-----------

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the `FIND_PACKAGE` CMake feature
to use an installed Embree. Under Linux and macOS the tutorial finds
the Embree installation automatically, under Windows the `embree_DIR`
CMake variable must be set to the following folder of the Embree
installation: `C:\Program Files\Intel\Embree3`.

[Embree API]: #embree-api
[Embree Tutorials]: #embree-tutorials
[Ray Layout]: #ray-layout
[Extending the Ray Structure]: #extending-the-ray-structure
[Embree Example Renderer]: https://embree.github.io/renderer.html
[Triangle Geometry]: #triangle-geometry
[Stream Viewer]: #stream-viewer
[User Geometry]: #user-geometry
[Instanced Geometry]: #instanced-geometry
[Intersection Filter]: #intersection-filter
[Hair]: #hair
[Curves]: #bézier-curves
[Subdivision Geometry]: #subdivision-geometry
[Displacement Geometry]: #displacement-geometry
[BVH Builder]: #bvh-builder
[Interpolation]: #interpolation
[imgHalfEdges]: https://embree.github.io/images/half_edges.png
[imgTriangleUV]: https://embree.github.io/images/triangle_uv.png
[imgQuadUV]: https://embree.github.io/images/quad_uv.png
[imgTriangleGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/triangle_geometry.jpg
[imgDynamicScene]: https://embree.github.io/images/dynamic_scene.jpg
[imgUserGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/user_geometry.jpg
[imgViewer]: https://embree.github.io/images/viewer.jpg
[imgViewerStream]: https://embree.github.io/images/viewer_stream.jpg
[imgInstancedGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/instanced_geometry.jpg
[imgIntersectionFilter]: https://embree.github.io/images/intersection_filter.jpg
[imgPathtracer]: https://embree.github.io/images/pathtracer.jpg
[imgHairGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/hair_geometry.jpg
[imgCurveGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/curve_geometry.jpg
[imgSubdivisionGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/subdivision_geometry.jpg
[imgDisplacementGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/displacement_geometry.jpg
[imgGridGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/grid_geometry.jpg
[imgPointGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/point_geometry.jpg
[imgMotionBlurGeometry]: https://embree.github.io/images/motion_blur_geometry.jpg
[imgInterpolation]: https://embree.github.io/images/interpolation.jpg
