Snapchatters love to use augmented reality to try on the products of the most loved fashion brands, this way theirs shopping experience becomes personalized, accessible and fun. Indeed, Snap announces that from today, February 15, the rollout of the feature will begin Ray Tracing on Snap’s AR platform.
Snap Ray Tracing, how it works
Il Ray Tracing is a technology that allows you to obtain realistic renderings on objects created with augmented reality, based on the tracing of light. Snap is the first company to make ray tracing technologies available to mobile AR developers at this scale. Through the advanced tools of Lens Studio that enable highly realistic AR experiences, aims to democratize AR development.
What is it and what are the characteristics of the technology
Ray Tracing is a rendering technology that simulates the behavior of light in the real world and allows augmented reality objects to reflect ambient light onto their digital surface. In general, it is used in more advanced offline applications, such as some video games; lately, however, it has also been applied to the AR on diamondssports cars, clothes and much more, reaching an ultra-realistic quality on mobile devices.
Ray Tracing simulates the behavior of light by using an algorithm to trace the path that a Ray of light would do in the real world. With this technology, developers can make virtual light rays appear to bounce off digital objects, creating realistic reflections.
This technology improves the quality and rendering of any Lens that includes scenes and objects where light can bounce and reflect off, such as shiny materials such as metals, stones and glass surfaces.
Snap is the first company to offer ray tracing technologies to AR creators. Thanks to this technology, their Lenses will be available to Snapchatters on Android and iOS mobile devices. Tiffany & Co is the first Snapchat partner to use Ray Tracing with its Tiffany Lock Lens: the first Lens built with this technology, which – starting February 15 – will be available to Snapchatters around the world on iOS and Android.