Rendering

Rendering is the process of converting a 3D scene (geometry, materials, lights and camera settings) into a 2D image or a sequence of frames for display. In 3D & XR this covers both offline rendering (for high-quality images or film where time per frame is large) and real-time rendering (for games, VR and AR) where frame rate and latency are critical. Key parts of rendering include rasterization vs ray tracing, shading via shaders, lighting and shadow calculations, and post-processing effects such as anti-aliasing and bloom.

Imagine a VR architectural walkthrough where a user freely navigates a virtual building. The engine must generate two slightly different images per frame (one per eye) at high frame rates (e.g. 90+ FPS), handling motion latency, stereo rendering and correct perspective. To meet performance requirements you apply techniques such as Level of Detail (LOD), occlusion culling, baked lighting for static elements, and foveated rendering (often combined with eye-tracking) so only the part of the view the user is looking at is rendered at full resolution.