THEORETICAL BASICS OF THE RAYTRACER ALGORITHM FOR RENDERING

Abstract

Raytracer is a global lighting algorithm which is used for rendering images with a high degree of realism. Basically, the idea is to imitate the propagation of light rays through the space. If the space through which light moves is homogeneous and isotropic, the path of light ray is the straight line. So, the problem could be accessed in the following way: by moving from a source of light we would follow the movement of one of the ray. When moving through the space at one time the ray would come to the dioptic surfaces, and one part of it would reflect, the other refracts, and the third absorbed. In case the surface is not dioptric, we would simply ignore the reflection of light. Now we will follow the generated rays and repeat the procedure for each ray intersection with the surface until the ray would reach the lens of the camera or the eye of the observer. Only rays which ultimately pass through the lens surface or eye contribute to the generation of an image. The procedure should be repeated for every ray sent from the appropriate light source, and it should be done the same for all other light sources (if any) on the scene.