# Accelerating Force-Directed Graph Drawing with RT Cores

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.11235 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.11235/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 25 Aug 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [RT-kNNS Unbound: Using RT Cores to Accelerate Unrestricted Neighbor Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18356/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Graph drawing with spring embedders employs a V x V computation phase over the graph's vertex set to compute repulsive forces. Here, the efficacy of forces diminishes with distance: a vertex can effectively only influence other vertices in a certain radius around its position. Therefore, the algorithm lends itself to an implementation using search data structures to reduce the runtime complexity. NVIDIA RT cores implement hierarchical tree traversal in hardware. We show how to map the problem of finding graph layouts with force-directed methods to a ray tracing problem that can subsequently be implemented with dedicated ray tracing hardware. With that, we observe speedups of 4x to 13x over a CUDA software implementation.