I have little to contribute to the real point of the thread, which is whether or not raytrace renderers should be used for realtime graphics, but I do have a response to both the thread title and a significant tangent within the thread.
I am mightily confused by people making a distinction between polygons and raytracing. Polygons are simply how the geometry is represented in the computer's memory. Raytracing is a method for rendering an image based on that geometry. The two are completely separate considerations.
I am mightily confused by people making a distinction between polygons and raytracing. Polygons are simply how the geometry is represented in the computer's memory. Raytracing is a method for rendering an image based on that geometry. The two are completely separate considerations.