As the August 4 release date for Ray Tracing Gems II nears, NVIDIA is offering another free chapter from the book to celebrate. This time, the topic is reservoir sampling, which is a family of algorithms that, given a stream of N elements, randomly select a K-element subset in a single pass. Usually, K is defined as a small constant, but N need not be known in advance.
This powerful gem is a foundational tool as real-time ray tracing becomes ubiquitous. Examples of reservoir sampling in action include stochastic transparency and importance sampling techniques unlocking the ability to effectively sample millions of lights within a real-time budget. You can download the full chapter free here.
Just like the first book, the digital edition of Ray Tracing Gems II will be free to download and the print edition will be available for purchase from Apress and Amazon.
We’ve collaborated with our partners to make four limited edition versions of the book, including custom covers that highlight real-time ray tracing in Fortnite, Control, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Quake II RTX.
To win a limited edition print copy of Ray Tracing Gems II, enter the giveaway contest here: https://developer.nvidia.com/ray-tracing-gems-ii
