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RTX Path Tracing v1.3.0

Title

Overview

RTX Path Tracing is a code sample that strives to embody years of ray tracing and neural graphics research and experience. It is intended as a starting point for a path tracer integration, as a reference for various integrated SDKs, and/or for learning and experimentation.

The base path tracing implementation derives from NVIDIA’s Falcor Research Path Tracer, ported to approachable C++/HLSL Donut framework.

GTC presentation How to Build a Real-time Path Tracer provides a high level introduction to most of the features.

Features

Requirements

Known Issues

Folder Structure

/bindefault CMake folder for binaries and compiled shaders
/builddefault CMake folder for build files
/donutcode for a custom version of the Donut framework
/donut/nvrhicode for the NVRHI rendering API layer (a git submodule)
/externalexternal libraries and SDKs, including NRD, RTXDI, and OMM
/mediamodels, textures, scene files
/toolsoptional command line tools (denoiser, texture compressor, etc)
/RTXPTRTX Path Tracing core; Sample.cpp/.h/.hlsl contain entry points
/RTXPT/PathTracerCore path tracing shaders

Build

At the moment, only Windows builds are supported. We are going to add Linux support in the future.

  1. Clone the repository with all submodules recursively:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/RTX-Path-Tracing.git

  2. Use CMake to configure the build and generate the project files.

    cd Path-Tracing-SDK
    cmake CMakeLists.txt -B ./build
    

    Use -G "some tested VS version" if specific Visual Studio or other environment version required. Make sure the x64 platform is used.

  3. Build the solution generated by CMake in the ./build/ folder.

    In example, if using Visual Studio, open the generated solution build/RTXPathTracing.sln and build it.

  4. Select and run the RTXPT project. Binaries get built to the bin folder. Media is loaded from media folder.

    If making a binary build, the media and tools folders can be placed into bin next to executable and packed up together (i.e. the sample app will search for both media/ and ../media/).

Building Vulkan

Due to interaction with various included libraries, Vulkan support is not enabled by default and needs a couple of additional tweaks on the user side; please find the recommended steps below:

User Interface

Once the application is running, most of the SDK features can be accessed via the UI window on the left hand side and drop-down controls in the top-center.

UI

Camera can be moved using W/S/A/D keys and rotated by dragging with the left mouse cursor.

Command Line

Developer Documentation

We are working on more detailed SDK developer documentation - watch this space!

Contact

RTX Path Tracing is under active development. Please report any issues directly through GitHub issue tracker, and for any information, suggestions or general requests please feel free to contact us at pathtracing-sdk-support@nvidia.com!

Thanks

Many thanks to the developers of the following open-source libraries or projects that make this project possible:

Citation

If you use RTX Path Tracing in a research project leading to a publication, please cite the project. The BibTex entry is

@online{RTXPT,
   title   = {{{NVIDIA}}\textregistered{} {RTX Path Tracing}},
   author  = {{NVIDIA}},
   year    = 2023,
   url     = {https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/RTX-Path-Tracing},
   urldate = {2024-01-26},
}

License

See LICENSE.txt

This project includes NVAPI software. All uses of NVAPI software are governed by the license terms specified here: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvapi/blob/main/License.txt.