---
id: wiki-2026-0508-spatial-partitioning
title: Spatial Partitioning
category: 10_Wiki/Topics
status: verified
canonical_id: self
aliases: [bvh, octree, kd-tree, spatial-hashing, broadphase]
duplicate_of: none
source_trust_level: A
confidence_score: 0.9
verification_status: applied
tags: [graphics, game-engine, data-structures, collision]
raw_sources: []
last_reinforced: 2026-05-10
github_commit: pending
tech_stack:
  language: cpp
  framework: unity-unreal
---

# Spatial Partitioning

## 매 한 줄
> **"매 N 의 brute force → log N 의 spatial query"**. Spatial partitioning 은 매 3D/2D space 를 hierarchical 의 chunk 로 분할하여 collision / raycast / nearest-neighbor query 를 가속 — 매 game engine, ray tracing, physics, particle 의 핵심. 매 2026 의 RTX hardware BVH 가 game-changer.

## 매 핵심

### 매 주요 구조
- **Uniform Grid**: 매 fixed-size cell 의 array — 매 simple, 균일 분포에 best.
- **Spatial Hash**: 매 grid 의 hash 변형 — 매 unbounded space 처리.
- **Quadtree (2D) / Octree (3D)**: 매 recursive 4/8 분할 — 매 sparse 분포 efficient.
- **KD-Tree**: 매 axis-aligned plane 의 split — 매 nearest-neighbor 의 best.
- **BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy)**: 매 AABB 의 tree — 매 ray tracing 의 standard, RTX 의 hardware accel.
- **BSP Tree**: 매 arbitrary plane 의 split — 매 Quake-era, 현재 의 obsolete.

### 매 Trade-off
- **Build cost**: BVH > Octree > Grid (매 dynamic scene 의 Grid 가 cheap).
- **Query cost**: BVH ≈ KD-tree (log N) > Octree > Grid.
- **Memory**: Grid 가 dense 분포에 최악, BVH 가 balanced.
- **Update cost**: Grid 의 O(1) per object, BVH 의 refit / rebuild 필요.

### 매 응용
1. **Broadphase collision** — 매 physics 의 candidate pair 추출.
2. **Ray tracing** — 매 BVH traversal (RTX, Embree, OptiX).
3. **Frustum culling** — 매 octree 의 view 외 chunk skip.
4. **Nearest neighbor** — 매 KD-tree (kNN, point cloud).
5. **Particle system** — 매 spatial hash 의 SPH fluid.

## 💻 패턴

### Uniform Grid (2D, fast broadphase)
```cpp
struct Grid {
    float cellSize;
    std::unordered_map<int64_t, std::vector<Entity*>> cells;

    int64_t key(int x, int y) { return (int64_t)x << 32 | (uint32_t)y; }

    void insert(Entity* e) {
        int x = (int)(e->pos.x / cellSize);
        int y = (int)(e->pos.y / cellSize);
        cells[key(x, y)].push_back(e);
    }

    std::vector<Entity*> queryRadius(Vec2 c, float r) {
        std::vector<Entity*> out;
        int minX = (int)((c.x - r) / cellSize), maxX = (int)((c.x + r) / cellSize);
        int minY = (int)((c.y - r) / cellSize), maxY = (int)((c.y + r) / cellSize);
        for (int x = minX; x <= maxX; ++x)
            for (int y = minY; y <= maxY; ++y)
                for (auto* e : cells[key(x, y)])
                    if ((e->pos - c).lengthSq() <= r * r) out.push_back(e);
        return out;
    }
};
```

### Octree (recursive)
```cpp
struct OctreeNode {
    AABB bounds;
    std::vector<Entity*> objects;
    std::unique_ptr<OctreeNode> children[8];
    static constexpr int MAX = 8, MAX_DEPTH = 6;

    void insert(Entity* e, int depth = 0) {
        if (children[0]) {
            int idx = childIndex(e->pos);
            if (idx >= 0) { children[idx]->insert(e, depth + 1); return; }
        }
        objects.push_back(e);
        if (objects.size() > MAX && depth < MAX_DEPTH) subdivide();
    }

    void subdivide() { /* split bounds, redistribute objects */ }
    int childIndex(Vec3 p) { /* return 0..7 or -1 if straddles */ }
};
```

### BVH (top-down SAH build)
```cpp
struct BVHNode { AABB box; int left, right; std::vector<int> tris; };

int buildBVH(std::vector<Tri>& tris, int begin, int end) {
    BVHNode node;
    node.box = computeAABB(tris, begin, end);
    if (end - begin <= 4) { node.tris.assign(tris.begin()+begin, tris.begin()+end); return addNode(node); }
    int axis = node.box.longestAxis();
    int mid = surfaceAreaHeuristicSplit(tris, begin, end, axis);
    node.left  = buildBVH(tris, begin, mid);
    node.right = buildBVH(tris, mid, end);
    return addNode(node);
}
```

### KD-Tree (kNN)
```cpp
struct KDNode { Point p; int axis; KDNode *left, *right; };

void kNN(KDNode* n, Point q, int k, std::priority_queue<...>& heap) {
    if (!n) return;
    float d = dist(n->p, q);
    if (heap.size() < k || d < heap.top().d) heap.push({n->p, d});
    float diff = q[n->axis] - n->p[n->axis];
    KDNode *near = diff < 0 ? n->left : n->right;
    KDNode *far  = diff < 0 ? n->right : n->left;
    kNN(near, q, k, heap);
    if (heap.size() < k || diff*diff < heap.top().d) kNN(far, q, k, heap);
}
```

### RTX Hardware BVH (DXR / Vulkan RT)
```hlsl
RaytracingAccelerationStructure scene : register(t0);
RayDesc ray = { origin, 0.0, dir, 1000.0 };
RayQuery<RAY_FLAG_CULL_BACK_FACING_TRIANGLES> q;
q.TraceRayInline(scene, 0, 0xFF, ray);
q.Proceed();
if (q.CommittedStatus() == COMMITTED_TRIANGLE_HIT) { /* hit */ }
```

### Unity Job + Burst spatial hash
```csharp
[BurstCompile]
struct HashJob : IJobParallelFor {
    [ReadOnly] public NativeArray<float3> positions;
    public NativeParallelMultiHashMap<int, int>.ParallelWriter hash;
    public float cellSize;
    public void Execute(int i) {
        int3 c = (int3)math.floor(positions[i] / cellSize);
        hash.Add((c.x*73856093) ^ (c.y*19349663) ^ (c.z*83492791), i);
    }
}
```

## 매 결정 기준
| 상황 | Approach |
|---|---|
| Dynamic 균일 entity (RTS) | Uniform Grid / Spatial Hash |
| Static scene + ray tracing | BVH (SAH build) |
| Sparse 큰 world | Octree |
| Point cloud kNN | KD-Tree |
| GPU ray tracing | Hardware BVH (DXR/Vulkan RT) |
| Particle SPH | Spatial Hash (Burst) |

**기본값**: dynamic 의 Spatial Hash, static 의 BVH. 매 GPU 가능 하면 hardware BVH 우선.

## 🔗 Graph
- 부모: [[Computational Geometry (Frontend)]]
- 변형: [[BVH]] · [[Octree]] · [[KD-Tree]]
- 응용: [[Collision-Detection]] · [[Frustum Culling]] · [[K-Nearest-Neighbors-K-NN|Nearest-Neighbor-Search]]
- Adjacent: [[Physics-Engine]] · [[GPU-Compute]] · [[ECS]]

## 🤖 LLM 활용
**언제**: structure choice 추천, Burst/SIMD 의 boilerplate 생성, debug visualization code.
**언제 X**: production engine 의 from-scratch BVH — 매 Embree / OptiX 의 battle-tested 사용.

## ❌ 안티패턴
- **Brute force O(N²)**: 100+ entities 에서 frame drop. 매 Grid 만으로도 충분히 해결.
- **Octree 의 over-depth**: 작은 scene 의 8-level 의 cache miss. Depth cap.
- **BVH 의 매 frame full rebuild**: dynamic 의 refit 사용. 큰 변화 시 만 rebuild.
- **Grid cell size mismatch**: object size 와 mismatch 시 either cell 의 폭주 or query 의 over-scan. cellSize ≈ avg object diameter.
- **Cache-unfriendly traversal**: pointer chase. SoA / linearized BVH (flat array) 사용.

## 🧪 검증 / 검증
- Verified (Real-Time Collision Detection by Ericson, PBRT v4, NVIDIA OptiX docs, Unity DOTS Physics).
- 신뢰도 A.

## 🕓 Changelog
| 날짜 | 변경 |
|---|---|
| 2026-05-08 | Phase 1 |
| 2026-05-10 | Manual cleanup — spatial structures + RTX hardware BVH |