Re:A Ray-Tracing Pioneer Explains How He Stumbled into Globa...
by elihu on Friday August 03, 2018 @04:00AM
(#17678033)
> It's a good historical anecdote about making progress in computer graphics, but ray tracing is largely an obsolete method,
A ray tracer and a path tracer are very similar and are based on the same foundation of ray-object intersection tests, render the same kinds of geometry, and use the same kinds of acceleration structures. Lighting and textures are a little different, and the process of tracing a ray into the scene is a little different, but a ray tracer is really just a simplified path tracer.
Calling it an obsolete method seems strange, since about 90% of the code in a typical ray tracer could be re-used directly to make a path tracer, and a person setting out to create a path tracer in 2018 would probably start by making a ray tracer and then enabling path tracing once they've verified that ray tracing is working. Path tracing is more like a feature you enable than a completely different method.
A ray tracer and a path tracer are very similar and are based on the same foundation of ray-object intersection tests, render the same kinds of geometry, and use the same kinds of acceleration structures. Lighting and textures are a little different, and the process of tracing a ray into the scene is a little different, but a ray tracer is really just a simplified path tracer.
Calling it an obsolete method seems strange, since about 90% of the code in a typical ray tracer could be re-used directly to make a path tracer, and a person setting out to create a path tracer in 2018 would probably start by making a ray tracer and then enabling path tracing once they've verified that ray tracing is working. Path tracing is more like a feature you enable than a completely different method.