Latest revision as of 11:56, 11 February 2026

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) graphics output started with traditional local shading models processed in real time. Ray-tracing techniques are actively introduced for high-quality output. These traditional local shading pipelines and ray tracing pipelines are typically provided independently. Recently, hybrid rendering methods were introduced to integrate the results of these pipelines for better real-time graphics results. However, technical problems arise with heterogeneous application programming interfaces (APIs). Vulkan was recently introduced as a new low-level graphics API in practical 3D graphics implementations. With its new ray tracing extensions, Vulkan has become one of the 3D graphics environments that simultaneously supports traditional local shading and modern ray tracing pipelines. Stand-alone ray tracing and hybrid rendering techniques are implemented to determine a practical implementation of the ray tracing technique in this latest Vulkan environment. This work reveals the completeness of both implementations and compares the graphics performance with experimental computer animation sequences and different camera configurations. The hybrid rendering techniques perform better with previous graphics processing unit models, and the core ray tracing implementation achieves faster processing speeds of 39% to 64% compared to the stand-alone ray tracing method, at least in the Vulkan environment with the latest NVIDIA graphics card. In contrast, the preprocessing of the geometry pass takes noticeable time, which reduces our overall performance improvements. The experimental results can be applied as guidelines for implementing practical real-time 3D graphics applications and as a new benchmark model for ray tracing implementations.OPEN ACCESS Received: 23/08/2025 Accepted: 28/11/2025 Published: 03/02/2026

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