About Rendering with Autodesk Raytracer

Autodesk Raytracer is the in-product rendering engine, allowing you to create high quality rendered images and animations.

Autodesk Raytracer is a physically-based and unbiased rendering engine. The rendering process simulates the flow of light according to physical equations and realistic shading/lighting models to accurately represent real-world materials. As an unbiased renderer, Raytracer calculates the path of light as accurately as statistically possible.

Rendered scenes are based on physically-accurate lights, materials, and reflected light. Two important terms in lighting, reflection and diffusion, describe the most basic separation of surface/light interactions.

• Reflection: When light hits a surface boundary some of the light will reflect or bounce off of the surface at an opposing angle.
• Diffusion: Not all light reflects from a surface. In most cases, some light penetrates into the illuminated object. This light is either absorbed by the material or scattered internally. The scattered light that makes its way back out of the surface becomes visible once more to the eye and to cameras. This light is referred to as diffusion, or diffuse light.

Using physically-based rendering, different types of surfaces (such as metal, brick, plastic, glass, etc.) should look "natural" because of the calculated way light reflects off of the material, and the accuracy with which shadows are created.