I can haz raytracing question:
ray-traced shadows and ray-traced reflections are talked about like they are somehow separate from ray-tracing this makes no sense to me maybe thats because I'm looking at it from the pov of physics and not computer graphics
If you ray-trace you know where the rays are, and if you know where the rays are you also know where the rays are not and shadows are just where the rays are not. Reflections, we see things for 2 reasons they either emit light or they reflect light . If your rays didnt reflect the only things visible would be light sources where the rays have a direct path from light source to camera.
ray-traced shadows and ray-traced reflections are talked about like they are somehow separate from ray-tracing this makes no sense to me maybe thats because I'm looking at it from the pov of physics and not computer graphics
If you ray-trace you know where the rays are, and if you know where the rays are you also know where the rays are not and shadows are just where the rays are not. Reflections, we see things for 2 reasons they either emit light or they reflect light . If your rays didnt reflect the only things visible would be light sources where the rays have a direct path from light source to camera.