raymarching

Raymarching is a rendering technique used in computer graphics to visualize 3D scenes by advancing a ray step-by-step through space instead of calculating exact geometric intersections. At each step, the algorithm evaluates information about the scene—such as distance to the nearest surface (from a distance field)—to determine how far the ray can safely move forward. This process continues until the ray hits a surface or exits the scene. Raymarching is commonly used for rendering implicit surfaces, volumetric effects, and procedural content like fractals or signed distance fields because it doesn’t require explicit mesh geometry.