> Is there a reason to make this distinction here?
The original method, by Whitted, that looked much better than any previous methods, and yet looks horrible by today's standards, is ray tracing. It had no global illumination.
The method based on solving, explicitly or implicitly, the rendering equation by James Kajiya, and one that has built-in global illumination, is path tracing.
The distinction is not important for buzzword hijacking hacks, marketing gimmickers, and snake oil salesmen.
The original method, by Whitted, that looked much better than any previous methods, and yet looks horrible by today's standards, is ray tracing. It had no global illumination.
The method based on solving, explicitly or implicitly, the rendering equation by James Kajiya, and one that has built-in global illumination, is path tracing.
The distinction is not important for buzzword hijacking hacks, marketing gimmickers, and snake oil salesmen.