Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
and averaging the results. When one of these rays hits another surface, the pro-
cess is repeated until the light source is hit, or a sufficient depth is reached. This
approach can produce some very realistic images, but at high computational cost.
The problem is that because many rays are spawned at each intersection point, the
number of traced rays grows exponentially with the number of bounces. Methods
for making this more efficient are discussed in the next chapter.
