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This recursive ray tracing of reflective colored spheres on a white surface demonstrates the effects of shallow depth of field, "area" light sources, and diffuse interreflection. (c. 2008) In 3D computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for modeling light transport for use in a wide variety of rendering algorithms for generating digital images.
An early description of the problem in computer graphics shows two common approaches (ray casting and angle summation) in use as early as 1974. [1] An attempt of computer graphics veterans to trace the history of the problem and some tricks for its solution can be found in an issue of the Ray Tracing News. [2]
Ray tracing of a beam of light passing through a medium with changing refractive index.The ray is advanced by a small amount, and then the direction is re-calculated. Ray tracing works by assuming that the particle or wave can be modeled as a large number of very narrow beams (), and that there exists some distance, possibly very small, over which such a ray is locally straight.
The ray tracing technique is based on two reference planes, called the input and output planes, each perpendicular to the optical axis of the system. At any point along the optical train an optical axis is defined corresponding to a central ray; that central ray is propagated to define the optical axis further in the optical train which need ...
When applied to problems of electromagnetic radiation, ray tracing often relies on approximate solutions to Maxwell's equations such as geometric optics, that are valid as long as the light waves propagate through and around objects whose dimensions are much greater than the light's wavelength.
The problem of planning air travel from one destination to another, when fares are taken into account. [14] In the ray tracing problem for a 3-dimensional system of reflective or refractive objects, determining if a ray beginning at a given position and direction eventually reaches a certain point. [15]
In optics, the law is used in ray tracing to compute the angles of incidence or refraction, and in experimental optics to find the refractive index of a material. The law is also satisfied in meta-materials, which allow light to be bent "backward" at a negative angle of refraction with a negative refractive index.
Ray tracing solves this problem by reversing the process, instead sending view rays from the observer and calculating how they interact until they reach a light source. [24] Although this way more effectively uses processing time and produces a light simulation closely imitating natural lighting, ray tracing still has high computation costs due ...