Ray tracing with cones

A new approach to ray tracing is introduced. The definition of a “ray” is extended into a cone by including information on the spread angle and the virtual origin. The advantages of this approach, which tries to model light propagation with more fidelity, include a better method of anti-aliasing, a way of calculating fuzzy shadows and dull reflections, a method of calculating the correct level of detail in a procedural model and texture map, and finally, a procedure for faster intersection calculation.