Raytraced Viewport

The 3d Viewport displays the scene using OpenGL by default. It is possible to switch it to use the rendering engine, either displaying basic color and shading, or fully shading and lighting the scene. Switching from OpenGL to either raytraced modes using requires the rendering engine to boot up, and may take a little time while the geometry and textures are loaded into memory.

Render the Viewport with colors

Click the Viewport Rendering Mode dropdown button, and choose Raytraced with colors. The scene will be interactively raytraced with a simplistic appearance.

The Viewport using OpenGL, and using Raytraced with colors.

Render the Viewport with shading and lighting

Click the Viewport Rendering Mode dropdown button, and choose Raytraced and shaded. The scene will be interactively raytraced with the real shading and lighting.

Switch the Viewport between OpenGL, Raytraced with colors and Raytraced and shaded.

Using the Raytraced with colors and Raytraced and shaded modes stops the current rendering task. Starting a render also switches the Viewport back to OpenGL. The render settings of the Viewport can be changed in Preferences > RenderViewport Settings.