Light Tracer Render
3D Rendering Software & Physically-based GPU renderer

The experience is much better with a discrete (dedicated) graphics card. If you have a dual-GPU laptop, take advantage of running the browser on a dedicated GPU, not the integrated one. We recommend at least GeForce GTX 670 / GeForce GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 560 / Apple M1 or higher to work with Light Tracer Render comfortably.

The web version of Light Tracer Render runs on desktop Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and the latest Safari. Other platforms are not officially supported, although Chromium-based browsers should work fine.

Check the status of WebGL 2

The ray-tracing core requires WebGL 2, so please ensure it is available. You can visit the webgl-report for details. Here, you can also find out which graphics card is used for rendering (check Unmasked Renderer).

Use discrete GPU on a dual-GPU laptop

If your laptop has several GPUs (integrated GPU from Intel/AMD for output and dedicated from NVIDIA/AMD for games), please ensure that the web browser uses the more powerful card (it should be in the Unmasked Renderer). Automatic selection of a dedicated GPU cannot be performed at the application level, so you have to do it yourself:

1. macOS: Check the Apple support page Set graphics performance on MacBook Pro.
2. Windows (NVIDIA/AMD): In the NVIDIA or AMD control panel set chrome.exe to use a dedicated graphics card.

Download/install latest graphics drivers

It is important to keep your graphics drivers up-to-date, because web browsers may not enable WebGL 2 for old GPU driver versions.

Use native OpenGL as graphics backend

Also, since Light Tracer Render is implemented with WebGL 2, it may be reasonable to switch the underlying 3D API to OpenGL. That may improve the performance and makes the shader compiling much faster (as well as renderer initialization time).

In the case of Google Chrome, you can find Chrome flags by just typing "chrome://flags" or "about://flags" in the Omnibox (address/search bar). Once "Chrome flags" open, you will see a list of features that you can enable or disable. We need "Choose ANGLE graphics backend" setting that should be set to OpenGL. After changing it, click on “Relaunch” button that will save your changes and restart Chrome with your changes in place.

For using OpenGL in Firefox you need to change the runtime option. Type "about:config" into the address bar. In recent versions of Firefox, find "webgl.disable-angle" variable. By default, it is set to "false": native OpenGL is not used. Set it to "true" to start using OpenGL (browser restart is not needed).

Our 3D rendering software is based on a verified unbiased rendering engine. Rendering correctness verified by comparison with comprehensive physically-based renderers such as PBRT (https://www.pbrt.org/) and Mitsuba (https://www.mitsuba-renderer.org/). The materials are physically correct and based on the Disney principled model also known as the "PBR" shader, making it compatible with other software such as Pixar’s Renderman®, Unreal Engine®, or Blender. The default settings are adjusted so that the output renders are slightly biased but keep visually plausible results with minimal render times.

Given the strict requirements for working in a Web browser, the Light Tracer's GPU render engine represents color with RGB values. Nevertheless, it supports spectral effects like dispersion on refractive objects.

At the same time, spectral rendering is most apparent when used with measured spectral data for both light sources and materials. But, in an artist-driven scene, the light source spectra are more usually reconstructed from RGB sliders in some way, leading to very smooth spectra, where it is very difficult to see actual visual differences between RGB and spectral rendering. Moreover, spectral rendering is computationally more expensive and generates more noise. For these reasons, Light Tracer is built on the RGB ray tracing engine.

The rendering process runs entirely on the GPU. The CPU is used only for the preparation of input data (in particular, accelerating structures are built and updated on a CPU). Unlike many other GPU renderers, Light Tracer is built on its technology stack using only cross-platform GPU programming interfaces (it does not use NVIDIA CUDA, OptiX, or AMD Radeon Rays). As a result, our rendering software supports different GPUs and operating systems.

Light Tracer can run almost on any GPU produced after 2012 – 2013. In particular, it works fine on NVIDIA GeForce 600 series or higher and AMD Radeon RX 200 series or higher. Also, Light Tracer runs on integrated GPUs, such as Intel HD Graphics 4000 series or higher, Intel Iris Graphics, AMD Radeon Graphics, and Apple M1.

At the same time, the rendering software can utilize unique features of modern NVIDIA GPUs (if available in the system) to run GPU-accelerated AI denoising. To run CPU-based denoising implemented with Intel Open Image Denoise, you need a CPU with SSE 4.2 support.

The standalone (native) version of Light Tracer Render is available for both Windows 10 (64-bit) and macOS Catalina or newer (10.15+). As for the web version, it works on any desktop OS (including Windows, Linux, and macOS) from compatible web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, etc.). Note that WebGL 2.0 support on Safari is still under development, so please use Chromium-based web browser to run the rendering software on macOS.

Light Tracer's rendering performance is on par with the high-performance 3D rendering software available today. However, the rendering performance is not the only goal.

We focus on optimizing the amount of effort you need to set up the 3D scene from start to finish and get the final result. In this sense, rendering is only a fraction of the total time spent. A simple and intuitive workflow for everyone is our primary goal which we pursue in developing our rendering software.

Our 3D rendering software is designed to meet the needs of engineers, designers, and architects. Light Tracer can be used in the fields of Product Design, Interior Design, Advertising, Jewelry Design, Online Configurators and 3D Viewers, Architectural Visualization, Industrial Design, and Game Industry. In just a few steps, apply textured material presets or create your own, set up powerful lighting, add stunning effects, and use post-processing image tools to create high-end visuals.

Yes, but you need to be online only to start Light Tracer Render. Our rendering software uses the Internet to establish a connection with our server in order to verify your license. After launching, the Light Tracer can work even in offline mode. Therefore, it is suitable even for users who have a unstable Internet connection.

We deliver fully automated online sales with no human intervention whatsoever with the help of PayPro Global, our reliable e-commerce partner with exceptional support. Our 3D rendering software is activated in a few minutes after acquiring the license for the e-mail you used to log in.

Yes. You may install Light Tracer Render on several computers (e.g., your workstation and laptop) and use it anywhere, any time. What you cannot do, however, is run the rendering software simultaneously on multiple computers (in such a case, you need to acquire an additional license).

The subscription can be canceled anytime at no additional cost. Note, even if you cancel the plan, you will be able to use our 3D rendering software until the end of your billing period. Past that time, your subscription will be terminated, and there will be no more fees. Of course, you may re-subscribe at any time if you wish to use Light Tracer Render again.

Perpetual licenses can not be canceled. Payment for them is charged once upon purchase, after which you may use the rendering software for an unlimited time.

Light Engine possesses unique expertise to develop intelligent and interactive 3D product visualization software powered by proprietary visualization technology. Light Tracer's rendering engine is a reusable software component with its JavaScript/C++ API and is available for integration into both native and web applications. For further assistance and licensing details, please contact info@lighttracer.org.