ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Beam tracing

Beam tracing is like playing a game of hide and seek, but with light! Instead of looking for a person, we look for beams of light. A beam tracing program takes light from a source and traces out how it moves. It can figure out how the light might travel from the source and bounce around before it finally reaches something. This helps us to figure out what something might look like when it is lit with the light from the source.
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