Hello,

I am relatively new to ray tracing and it was suggested that I consider Manta
for my engine development.  I have been impressed by the architecture and
features but was curious whether photon mapping (or other forward ray tracing
concepts) had been incorporated into the existing Manta release.  A post from
March 17, 2010 suggests that forward ray tracing techniques would still need to
be developed.  Is this accurate?


       Off the top of my head, Manta has a simple (brute force) path tracer,
it can do soft shadows (outside of the path tracer as well), and also ambient
occlusion. And of course if it doesn't have something you can add it. I am not
aware of Manta currently having bidirectional path tracing, metropolis light
transport, photon mapping, or any of the other fancy GI stuff.
       Thiago

Thank you,
Daniel