Under ray-optical light transport, the classical ray serves as a local and linear "point query" of light's behaviour. Such point queries are useful, and sophisticated path tracing and sampling techniques enable efficiently computing solutions to light transport problems in complex, real-world settings and environments. However, such formulations are firmly confined to the realm of ray optics, while many applications of interest, in computer graphics and computational optics, demand a more precise understanding of light. We rigorously formulate the generalized ray, which enables local and linear point queries of the wave-optical phase space. Furthermore, we present sample-solve: a simple method that serves as a novel link between path tracing and computational optics. We will show that this link enables the application of modern path tracing techniques for wave-optical rendering, improving upon the state-of-the-art in terms of the generality and accuracy of the formalism, ease of application, as well as performance. Sampling using generalized rays enables interactive rendering under rigorous wave optics, with orders-of-magnitude faster performance compared to existing techniques.

翻译：在光线光学光传输框架下，经典光线作为光行为的局部线性"点查询"工具。这类点查询具有实用价值，借助复杂的路径追踪与采样技术，能够高效求解复杂现实场景与环境中的光传输问题。然而，这类公式严格局限于几何光学范畴，而在计算机图形学与计算光学领域的诸多应用中，需要对光有更精确的认知。我们严格推导了广义光线的数学表述，使其能够对波动光学相空间进行局部线性点查询。进一步地，我们提出"样本求解"（sample-solve）方法——一种连接路径追踪与计算光学的新颖桥梁。研究表明，该桥梁机制使现代路径追踪技术得以应用于波动光学渲染，在公式普适性、计算精度、应用便捷性及计算性能方面均超越了现有技术。基于广义光线的采样方法可实现严格波动光学框架下的交互式渲染，其执行速度较现有技术提升数个数量级。