Ray tracing gets faster, yet still today it’s an ‘offline’ process, meaning you still click a render button and wait. Some applications like fprime for Lightwave and  modo’s interactive renderer have made strides to use sampling tricks and clever programming to simulate interactive ray tracing, the concept isn’t quite there.

Enter Caustic Graphics who think they have a solution combining hardware and software. With 16 patents and probably more on the way, we may see some fruition to the concept of ‘real-time’ ray tracing but I am sure for now that would still be reserved for the largely elite producers.