Intel's Ambitious Plan: Path Tracing on Integrated Graphics for Affordable GPUs

Ray tracing and path tracing are both techniques used in computer graphics to create realistic lighting effects. While ray tracing calculates the intersection of rays with objects in the scene, path tracing takes it a step further by recursively tracing rays multiple times to gather additional data. This results in better image quality, especially in indoor scenes, as path tracing simulates the behavior of light-reflecting objects as secondary light sources. Path tracing improves the accuracy of shadows, ambient occlusion, and overall illumination, making the lighting in the scene more realistic.