Ray tracing is the art of tracing rays and detecting collision.
Ray tracing is used in photon mapping and path tracing.
With photon mapping you trace a ray from a light source and store the light energy for the area where the light hits an object.
With path tracing you ray trace a ray from the camera and every time you hit an object you check if you can see a light source from that spot. If true you return all the gathered energy back to the camera (pixel).
Ray tracing is used in photon mapping and path tracing.
With photon mapping you trace a ray from a light source and store the light energy for the area where the light hits an object.
With path tracing you ray trace a ray from the camera and every time you hit an object you check if you can see a light source from that spot. If true you return all the gathered energy back to the camera (pixel).