raytracing is the next level of lighting and occlusion. most platforms and games use shortcuts to dodge actually doing everything you see that way, but when it does come out, you’re talking REAL shadows and real light effects and all that shat. right now they essentially paint a black blob below the item blocking sunlight. raytracing also would accomplish shadowing on things walking through shadows. That is not very common at the moment.
that is the tidbit i know about raytracing, hope it helps