The motivation for raytracing is to simulate light beams bouncing off of objects. Thus, not only are rays used to tell the camera what color each pixel is, but also to create shadows based on whether light rays coming out of a light source in the scene are being occluded by objects blocking the path to the camera.
The motivation for raytracing is to simulate light beams bouncing off of objects. Thus, not only are rays used to tell the camera what color each pixel is, but also to create shadows based on whether light rays coming out of a light source in the scene are being occluded by objects blocking the path to the camera.