If you want more technically accurate terms, you might call raytracers and polygon-pushers "image space" and "geometric space" renderers, respectively. Worth n

If you want more technically accurate terms, you might call raytracers and polygon-pushers "image space" and "geometric space" renderers, respectively. Worth noting that neither method is particularly physically based, and really just boils down to whether you approach the rasterization task "forwards" or "backwards". Which method ends up faster is essentially a function of how much geometry and how many pixels you have.