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Cone tracing
 
 
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Cone tracing is a derivative of the ray tracing
Ray tracing

In computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for generating an digital image by tracing the path of light through pixel in an . The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of photorealism; usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computation time....
 algorithm
Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
 that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with cones. Cone tracing is related to beam tracing
Beam tracing

Beam tracing is a derivative of the ray tracing algorithm that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with beams. Beams are shaped like unbounded pyramids, with polygonal cross sections....
, but uses circular rather than polygonal cross sections.

Cone tracing solves certain problems related to sampling and aliasing
Aliasing

In statistics, signal processing, computer graphics and related disciplines, aliasing refers to an effect that causes different continuous signals to become indistinguishable when sampling ....
, which can plague conventional ray tracing. However, cone tracing creates a host of problems of its own. For example, just intersecting a cone with scene geometry leads to an enormous variety of possible results.






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Cone tracing is a derivative of the ray tracing
Ray tracing

In computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for generating an digital image by tracing the path of light through pixel in an . The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of photorealism; usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computation time....
 algorithm
Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
 that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with cones. Cone tracing is related to beam tracing
Beam tracing

Beam tracing is a derivative of the ray tracing algorithm that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with beams. Beams are shaped like unbounded pyramids, with polygonal cross sections....
, but uses circular rather than polygonal cross sections.

Cone tracing solves certain problems related to sampling and aliasing
Aliasing

In statistics, signal processing, computer graphics and related disciplines, aliasing refers to an effect that causes different continuous signals to become indistinguishable when sampling ....
, which can plague conventional ray tracing. However, cone tracing creates a host of problems of its own. For example, just intersecting a cone with scene geometry leads to an enormous variety of possible results. For this reason, cone tracing has always been unpopular. In recent years, increases in computer speed have made Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo method

Monte Carlo methods are a class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results. Monte Carlo methods are often used when computer simulation physics and mathematics systems....
 algorithms like distributed ray tracing
Distributed ray tracing

Distributed ray tracing, also called distribution ray tracing and stochastic ray tracing, is a refinement of ray tracing that allows for the rendering of "soft" phenomena....
 much more viable than cone tracing, which has been all but forgotten.