Hello Ray-Tracing - What's it all about? Introduction to Ray-Tracing and why it's so important for computer graphics

Ray-Tracing has been around forever! However, it's always been avoided due to it's computational complexity! But it's all changed - suddenly we've got all this extra computing power - and what do we do with it? Ray-tracing produces more realistic results and can do things that traditional (rasterization methods) would have struggled to accomplish...

1. Hello Ray-Tracing
What’s It All About?

2. Whyis Ray-Tracing Important?
Your time is valuable –why should you care about ray-tracing?

3. Why is Ray-Tracing Important?
•Creates realistic images
•Simulates the behavior of light
•Widely used in computer graphics, visual effects, and scientific
visualization

4. HowDoes Classical Ray-Tracing Work?

5. How Does Classical Ray-Tracing Work?
•Traces the path of light rays
•Calculates intersections, reflections, and refractions
•Produces realistic images

6. Advantages of Ray-Tracing

7. Advantages of Ray-Tracing
•High-quality images
•Realistic lighting effects
•Accurate reflections and shadows

8. Challenges of Ray-Tracing

9. Challenges of Ray-Tracing
•Computationally intensive
•Time-consuming rendering
•Requires significant processing power

10. Applications of Ray-Tracing

11. Applications of Ray-Tracing
•Film and visual effects
•Video games
•Scientific visualization
•Architecture and design

12. Basic Steps in Ray-Tracing Algorithm

13. Basic Steps in Ray-Tracing Algorithm
•1. Trace a ray from the eye through each pixel
•2. Determine intersections with objects
•3. Calculate color based on lighting and materials
•4. Set the pixel color

14. Reflection and Refraction

15. Reflection and Refraction
•Reflection: Rays bounce off surfaces
•Refraction: Rays bend when passing through materials
•Both effects contribute to realism

16. Shadow Rays

17. Shadow Rays
•Used to determine if a point is in shadow
•Trace rays from the point to the light source
•Check for occlusions

18. Lighting Models

19. Lighting Models
•Phong lighting model
•Blinn-Phong lighting model
•Each model has different techniques for specular highlights and
diffuse reflections

20. Advanced Ray-Tracing Techniques

21. Advanced Ray-Tracing Techniques
•Path tracing: Simulates global illumination
•Photon mapping: Efficiently handles caustics
•Monte Carlo ray tracing: Handles complex lighting scenarios

22. Pseudo Code Example

23. Pseudo Code Example
•For each pixel in the image:
•1. Trace a ray from the eye through the pixel into the scene.
•2. Determine the first object the ray intersects.
•3. Compute the color at the intersection point based on lighting and
material properties.
•4. Set the pixel color in the image.

24. Future of Ray-Tracing

25. Future of Ray-Tracing
•Continued advancements in hardware and software
•Improved real-time ray-tracing performance
•Increased adoption in various industries

26. Special Hardware Technologies

27. Special Hardware Technologies
•Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) with dedicated ray-tracing cores
•Real-time ray-tracing capabilities
•NVIDIA RTX and AMD RDNA 2 architectures

28. Introduction to WebGPU

29. Introduction to WebGPU
•Modern graphics API for the web
•Provides low-level access to GPU hardware
•Enables high-performance graphics and computation in web
applications

30. Summary
•In summary, ray-tracing is a powerful technique for generating
realistic images by simulating the behaviorof light.
•It is essential for creating high-quality visual effects and accurate
scientific visualizations.
•The future of ray-tracing is promising with advancements in
hardware, software, and APIs like WebGPU.

31. Links & Resources
WebGPULab (100s Interactive Projects) –including
ray-tracing/path-tracing and ray-marching
https://webgpulab.xbdev.net
Tutorials and articles (graphics/ray-tracing)
https://xbdev.net