RAYS by Sketchbot Studios

Designed for iPhone Duo

RAYS

Portable Path Tracer

Bring your 3D models to life with real path-traced light, right on your iPhone. Open USDZ, glTF or OBJ, light it with an HDRI, and render a photoreal image in seconds.

Download on the App Store $9.99 · no subscription

Sketchbots, rendered in RAYS

The same kind of light simulation used by film and product-visualization renderers, running on your iPhone's hardware ray tracing.

The Sketchbot eye, Sketchbot Studios' mark

As a computer graphics artist for more than 30 years, I've always loved the idea of creating on the go: real images, made wherever I happen to be. RAYS is the first app in a creative suite built on that philosophy.

Steve Talkowski, Sketchbot Studios

Designed for iPhone Duo

Folded or open.

RAYS was designed for iPhone Duo from the start. Open it up for a wide canvas with the panels beside your render; fold it closed and the whole studio is still in one hand. It's at home on every iPhone with hardware ray tracing, too.

RAYS on the open iPhone Duo: three traffic cones path traced on a reflective floor.
Open
RAYS on the closed iPhone Duo's outer display: the same traffic cones.
Closed

iPhone Duo, rendered on iPhone Duo

Duo, on a Duo!

Apple's own iPhone Duo USDZ model, opened in RAYS on an iPhone Duo. Switch its Color and Pose variants, light it with an HDRI and a shadow catcher, and render it, all in your hand.

An iPhone Duo held in hand, showing RAYS with the Night Sky Duo model closed.

Now on iPad

Share scenes between iPad and iPhone.

RAYS runs natively on iPad, with the Scene list, your render and the panels side by side. Save a scene on your iPhone, AirDrop it to your iPad and pick up right where you left off: the models, lights, cameras and HDRI all travel in one file.

RAYS on a 13-inch iPad Pro in landscape: the Scene list on the left, a yellow and red traffic-light robot in the middle with its head selected and the turn handles showing, and the Environment panel on the right.
iPad Pro
RAYS on an iPhone 17 Pro Max: Sketchbot in a workshop, with the Environment panel open below.
iPhone 17 Pro Max
Sketchbot, an orange one-eyed robot holding a pencil, standing in a Cornell box with a red left wall and green right wall, beside a small glass ball and a mirror ball, lit by one ceiling light.
1 / 128 spp

Rendered by RAYS

Sketchbot Cornell Box

Hit Render and the image comes together in front of you: soft shadows, reflections, glass and the color bounce from every wall, refining with every sample. It's a progressive path tracer: one full light path for every pixel, every frame, until the noise is gone.

  • Soft shadows
  • Mirror reflections
  • Refraction
  • Color bleed
  • Denoiser

The Cornell box: computer graphics' most famous test scene, built from Cornell's published measurements.

Import

  • USDZ, USD, glTF, GLB and OBJ, from Files, Mail, Messages or AirDrop ("Open in RAYS").
  • Materials, textures, variants and lights come in with the model. Your original file is never changed.
  • Several models in one scene: move, turn and scale them with an on-screen gizmo.
RAYS on iPhone Duo: the Scene panel listing Sketchbot's hierarchy, cameras and materials beside the rendered character.

Light

  • Three studio HDRIs for real image-based light: turn them, set their exposure, show them behind the model.
  • Sun, bulb, spot and area lights, placed and aimed right in the view.
  • Shadow catcher and ground projection: soft shadows and reflections on the HDRI's own floor.
  • Backdrop colors with Bounce light, like a colored studio cyc.
An area light selected above Sketchbot on a blue backdrop, with its size shown and the light's settings panel open.

Render

  • Progressive path tracing: soft shadows, reflections, glass and bounce light.
  • Physically based materials: metal, gloss, clear coat, clear and frosted glass.
  • Denoiser and depth of field, with real camera settings and Tap to Focus.
  • Save to Photos as PNG or HDR, plus EXR for compositing.
Render settings and the HUD over the material spheres: 128 of 128 samples done in 11.5 seconds, with Samples, Bounces, Resolution, Denoise and Firefly clamp.

Composite

  • All-HDRI: enable Show as Background, Ground Projection and Shadow Catcher, and the HDRI becomes the room and floor, with accurately cast shadows.
  • Your own photo: pick a background picture from Photos or Files, drag, pinch and twist it into place, and lock it. The shadow catcher sets your model on its floor, and the HDRI lights it to match.
  • Make it sit: camera Roll matches a photo that wasn't shot level, depth of field blurs the picture with the scene, and film grain ties render and photo together.
RAYS on iPhone Duo: Sketchbot standing in a backplate photo of a brick loft, with the Environment panel open on Backdrop Image, Lock, Follows depth of field and Picture distance.

Preview

  • A fast real-time Preview for framing and arranging.
  • Preview Effects: ambient occlusion, curvature, depth of field, bloom, tone mapping, color balance, grain and more.
  • Saved cameras with real focal lengths, including a Default camera to get back to the opening view.
Preview Effects on Sketchbot: ambient occlusion, scanlines and grain, with the effects panel open.

Scenes

  • Save your scene, with every move, light, camera and material edit, as one file that opens in Quick Look and other USD apps.
  • Sample scenes to start from: Sketchbot, Material Spheres and two classic Cornell boxes.
The classic 1985 Cornell box sample, path traced in RAYS: a tall and a short block between red and green walls.
Six Sketchbot characters in orange, lime, magenta, red, blue and charcoal, each holding an art tool, reflected in a glossy blue floor.
Hit Render. Get a phenomenal image.Rendered in RAYS.
RAYS app icon

Your Portable Renderer.

Download on the App Store Support
Requirements. Rendering is fastest with hardware ray tracing: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 or later; iPad Pro (M4 or later), iPad Air (M3 or later), iPad mini (A17 Pro or later).