ray tracing
noun
variants
or less commonly ray-tracing
or raytracing
computers
: a process of creating digital images that include a simulation of real-world illumination by calculating the paths that individual beams of light would travel to a viewer's eye in a depicted scene
… because ray tracing works by simulating and tracking every ray of light produced by a source of lighting, it kind of takes a lot of horsepower …—
Jackie Thomas
Jackie ThomasBoth companies eventually boasted that high-end graphical features such as ray-tracing would happen on smartphones.—C. Scott Brown
C. Scott BrownWhile traditional lighting (AKA rasterization) in games works by essentially using clever trickery to approximate believable lighting, raytracing behaves much more like real light, simulating the actual path light rays would take from their source to your eyes.—Napier Lopez
Napier Lopezray-tracing capabilities
a GPU with improved ray tracing performance
Examples of ray tracing in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Similar to the ray tracing situation, games must be PS5 Pro Enhanced to use PSSR.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 16 Mar. 2026
The extra graphical features of this re-release (including ray tracing) help sell the 'haunted house' feeling of an empty colony at the center of constant storms.
—Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 3 Oct. 2025
The growth is also being driven by incredible innovations, including Nvidia GeForce chips with real-time ray tracing capabilities and artificial intelligence capabilities.
—Nish Acharya, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
In 2025, this is also a bit of a niche win for the RX 7900 XTX, as most new AAA games from major game developers support ray tracing, and having better performance with ray tracing active is far more important.
—PCMAG, 5 Mar. 2025
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Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 16 Mar. 2026
The extra graphical features of this re-release (including ray tracing) help sell the 'haunted house' feeling of an empty colony at the center of constant storms.
—Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 3 Oct. 2025
The growth is also being driven by incredible innovations, including Nvidia GeForce chips with real-time ray tracing capabilities and artificial intelligence capabilities.
—Nish Acharya, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
In 2025, this is also a bit of a niche win for the RX 7900 XTX, as most new AAA games from major game developers support ray tracing, and having better performance with ray tracing active is far more important.
—PCMAG, 5 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ray tracing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ray%20tracing. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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