English: A 3D rendered image using ray tracing, rendered by the POV-Ray program.

The scene uses very simple lighting, and uniform background colors, to make it easier to interpret differences in global illumination. A relatively low resolution mesh was used (some quality issues could be fixed by using a more detailed mesh).

Shadows have clear, un-pixelated outlines (they have sharp edges, because the ray tracer is simulating light from a single direction, rather than the disc of the sun). Reflection and refraction are simulated accurately. The reflection shows the far side of the central cow. The transparent cow has no shadow, because the ray tracer does not have a way to render the shadow (POV-Ray has an option to use a rough approximation of caustics, but this was left disabled because it is not strictly ray tracing). There is no simulation of indirect illumination, which is substituted by a uniform blue light. The low resolution of the mesh causes some artifacts (particularly along the shadow terminator), because ray tracing needs to be able to intersect rays with accurate geometry.