Ray

Ray

The Ray Node can be queried during rendering to ascertain which type of ray is currently being evaluated. A material can react directly to this information to, as in this example, make a sphere’s material glow in the reflection, whereas the same material has a normal shaded appearance in the areas viewed directly by the camera.

This Node can be used to query the ray type at the current sample position. You can ascertain if the ray computes a shadow, is used to create a reflection or even if it is used for Global Illumination. The corresponding Boole signals can, for example, be used to modify specific properties of a given material during the various rendering phases. This makes entirely new possibilities available for creating material effects, which otherwise can’t be achieved.