@inproceedings{1996-reinhard-0,
  title={Cost Prediction in Ray Tracing},
  author={Erik Reinhard and Arjan J. F. Kok and Frederik W. Jansen},
  Booktitle={Rendering Techniques '96},
  ISBN={3-211-82883-4},
  publisher={Springer-Verlag},
  pages={41--50},
  month={June},
  year={1996},
  keywords={Graphics},
  abstract={Although it is generally known that ray tracing is
'time consuming', yet rewarding with respect to image quality, there
are few attempts to predict the rendering time for a given model in
advance. This paper focusses on the develop-ment of such a technique.
The cost of ray tracing using adaptive spatial subdivisions has been
studied by analysing the probability that a ray intersects an object.
Per spatial subdivision cell the surface area relative to the cell
size provides a measure for this proba-bility. This cost function is
refined by taking into account possible overlap when multiple objects
inhabit the same cell. A further refinement is applied by comput-ing
the average tree depth of the spatial subdivision and by assuming that
each ray will on average traverse the spatial subdivision at this depth.
To evaluate and validate our method we applied it to some complex models
and compared the results with the actual rendering cost.},
  source={tech-reports/1996/1996-reinhard-0.pdf},
  pubtype={4}
}