About Us

About FerioWorks

FerioWorks is an independent engineering studio focused on real-time rendering research and system design.

The company was founded around a simple idea:

Real-time ray tracing should not be limited to laboratories or extreme high-end hardware.
It should scale, remain deterministic, and be accessible to individuals.

Origins

Development began in 2009 with a gemstone rendering experiment.

At that time:

• Hardware RT cores did not exist
• DXR did not exist
• Hybrid ray tracing was not yet a common term

The initial system (RigidGems 1.0) used Ray Classification for internal gemstone tracing.
RigidGems 2.0 transitioned to a custom DDA-based traversal algorithm for greater deterministic control.

The objective was never offline photorealism.
The objective was real-time scalability.

Architectural Philosophy

FerioWorks develops rendering systems with three principles:

1. Determinism over brute force
Predictable behavior is preferred over uncontrolled global illumination.

2. Mid-range hardware as baseline
Not everyone can afford extreme GPUs.

Systems are designed to run on realistically accessible hardware.

3. Clarity over buzzwords
Technologies are chosen for architectural coherence, not trend alignment.

Recent demonstrations include:

• 2,015,440,000 polygons per frame
• Native 4K rendering (no DLSS / no upscaling)
• Real-time DXR pipeline
• RTX 4070 Laptop GPU baseline

Even experimental work related to light field rendering systems follows the same efficiency-first philosophy.

Energy consumption, scalability, and long-term accessibility matter.

Recognition

In 2019, RigidGems was featured in a ray tracing publication by Jon Peddie (Springer), recognizing years of independent research in real-time ray tracing architecture.

From Research to Application

The rendering engine now evolves into an interactive gemstone crafting project:

RigidGems: Jewel Architect

The engine remains the foundation.
The application is a practical expression of years of research.

FerioWorks does not aim to be the largest studio.

It aims to remain focused, technically honest, and architecturally consistent.

Development continues.

Rigid Gems' Milestones

Ver. 1.0
Sept. 1, 2009 - Oct. 5, 2009

• Hybrid architecture combining rasterized primary visibility and ray-based internal gemstone tracing.
• Early implementation of Ray Classification for controlled internal light transport.
• Real-time interaction under strict GPU limitations of the era.

Ver. 2.0
May 5, 2012

• Transition to custom DDA-based traversal for deterministic control.
• Expanded hybrid rendering structure using DirectX 11 and compute shaders.
• Improved material response, depth-of-field, and interactive camera control.

Ver. 2.2
Feb. 5, 2018

• HDR-compatible pipeline implemented prior to widespread HDR monitor adoption.
• Advanced gemstone inclusion rendering (internal volumetric effects).
• Broader material experimentation beyond standalone gemstones.

Ver. 3.0
Sept. 10, 2019

• DirectX 12 integration.
• Transition to hardware-accelerated DXR pipeline.
• Unified ray tracing architecture replacing previous shader-based conversions.

Rigid Gems' Milestones

Ver. 4.0
Sept. 12, 2024

• Large-scale geometry stress testing (8,000 vehicle instances).
• 2,015,440,000 polygons per frame at native 4K.
• No DLSS / no upscaling.
• RTX 4070 Laptop GPU baseline.
• Fully ray-traced ballroom scene with 6,800 individually rendered gemstones.
• Expanded material coverage: glass, marble, gold, ceramics, fabric, and layered reflections.
• Architectural validation of deterministic DXR pipeline at extreme scene complexity.