ABSTRACT
In this chapter the mathematical principles of chapter 2 and the structures of chapter 3 come together to produce a collection of algorithms that are used to synthesize images from purely numerical data so that the viewer should instantly be able to exclaim “That’s a . . . !” This synthesis is termed rendering, and from the scientific point of view this is a mathematical modeling process of the way light interacts with surfaces, how light travels to the observer’s location and how they perceive it.
