How does 3dsmax (for example) implement more than 8 lights?

[ElDonAntonio]

OpenGL has an 8 light limitation, how does progs like 3Dsmax allow you to create more lights than that?

 

[RSMemphis]

Software rendering... What did ray tracers do back in the day when there was no hardware acceleration?
It's much slower, of course.
Basically, they already calculate the textures directly for the light sources.

 

[ElDonAntonio]

For the rendering, no doubt it's a raytracer doing the job, but can't you see the lights in action in the viewports while working?