No octree/quadtree. It's just a stacked grid of textures, halving resolution (or otherwise reducing) each level. Low resolution layers capture many rays (lowest

No octree/quadtree. It's just a stacked grid of textures, halving resolution (or otherwise reducing) each level. Low resolution layers capture many rays (lowest resolution say 4096 rays) and longer distances at lower spatial resolution. High resolution layers capture fewer rays (lowest say 4 rays) for shorter distances at high spatial resolution. When you merge them all together, you get cheap, soft shadows and a globally illuminated scene. In the post I wrote, I calculated it's similar in cost to firing 16 rays using a classic path tracer. But in theory should look similar to 4096 rays (or whatever the highest cascade layer does) but softer shadows. Depending on your approach the geometry of the scene is completely irrelevant. (Fixed step / DDA truly, JFA + DF has some dependence due to circle marching, but largely independent)