Ray Tracing

What is Ray Tracing?

Ray Tracing is an advanced rendering technique that simulates the physical behavior of light by tracking individual light rays as they interact with surfaces, creating realistic reflections, shadows, and ambient lighting for significantly more authentic virtual environments.

How does Ray Tracing work?

Ray Tracing works as a computationally intensive approach that calculates how light rays travel from sources through an environment, accounting for reflections, refractions, scattering, and absorption based on material properties and physical light behavior.

Unlike traditional rasterization techniques that approximate lighting effects, ray tracing models actual light paths to generate physically accurate illumination, shadows with proper penumbra, reflections that show surrounding environments, and refractions that correctly distort light through transparent materials.

The technology enables true global illumination where light bounces between surfaces, color bleeding where bright objects tint nearby surfaces, and physically accurate caustics from light focusing through refractive materials. While historically too demanding for real-time applications, recent hardware advances and hybrid rendering approaches have made ray tracing increasingly accessible for interactive experiences.

How do you use Ray Tracing?

Modern implementations often selectively apply ray tracing to specific effects like reflections or ambient occlusion while using traditional techniques for other aspects, balancing visual quality with performance requirements across architectural visualization, product design, virtual production, and high-end gaming applications.