4 ms·

Ray tracing in Excel

55 points by Impossible 7y ago

mirimir 7y ago
What a trip. I've never done anything that visually elaborate. But I have created data visualizations, using conditionally colored cells in large arrays.
bloogsy 7y ago
Very impressive, I wonder what PC spec is needed to crunch that much data in excel?
leibnitz27 7y ago
I feel I should link a function mode excel ray tracer a friend wrote in 2004. https://github.com/simon-frankau/excel-ray-tracer https://github.com/simon-frankau/excel-ray-tracer
BurnGpuBurn 7y ago
I really really hate websites that hijack my back button. Come on pc-gamer, do you really think that making me click two extra times on the back button to return where I came from is going to make me spend more time on your site? Crazy excel project though, well done.
airstrike 7y ago
Should probably change the URL to https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ctf9f7/raytracing_in_excel_incl_excel_model_link_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ctf9f7/raytracing_...
- melling 7y ago
  I added that to my list of ray tracing links: https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics/blob/master/ray_tracing.md https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics/blob/master/ray_...
  - ggambetta 7y ago
    I have a couple of contributions to your list: https://gabrielgambetta.com/tiny-raytracer.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/tiny-raytracer.html and https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/raytracing.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/r...
sipos 7y ago
The question is, why do this? Is it for fun? If so, great. Not my cup of tea personally, but I can imagine how it could be someone's. If not for fun, what is the point? It presumably isn't to create a usable ray-tracing system. Perhaps a challenge to improve the author's Excel skills? If so, I suggest they move on to a proper programming language and visualisation system. There seems to be this obsession, among some people, with using Excel for all sorts of inappropriate things, and I have a sinking feeling that this might be related to that. A system for generating contracts using Excel formulas, in Excel, instead of using mail merge, or something else, with Word or something else designed to format prose text, is a horrible example I have come across at work.
- NikolaeVarius 7y ago
  Because you can
- Haga 7y ago
  Why not use a easily available horse instead of this dangerous hobbyist contraption of steel and wood?
- astrea 7y ago
  You're overthinking this
- ihuman 7y ago
  I see what the author is doing as part of the demoscene. Many people enjoy programming in limited environments, learning how to optimize, and pushing it to the limit. No one is actually going to use this in a product; its just art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene
  - pixelpoet 7y ago
    Not all constrained programming is demoscene related; IMO demoscene is chiefly a social phenomenon, about competition at gatherings.
    - 7y ago
pixelpoet 7y ago
I feel like nobody understands what Turing completeness really means anymore, i.e. why this is kinda amusing but also not really remarkable. Back in the day people did ray tracing by hand on calculators, in PostScript (yes, the document description language used by printers), ... ray tracing is really simple, a basic exercise in vector maths, so we should expect to see it everywhere.

55 points by Impossible 7y ago

What a trip. I've never done anything that visually elaborate. But I have created data visualizations, using conditionally colored cells in large arrays.

bloogsy 7y ago

Very impressive, I wonder what PC spec is needed to crunch that much data in excel?

leibnitz27 7y ago

I feel I should link a function mode excel ray tracer a friend wrote in 2004. https://github.com/simon-frankau/excel-ray-tracer https://github.com/simon-frankau/excel-ray-tracer

BurnGpuBurn 7y ago

I really really hate websites that hijack my back button. Come on pc-gamer, do you really think that making me click two extra times on the back button to return where I came from is going to make me spend more time on your site? Crazy excel project though, well done.

airstrike 7y ago

Should probably change the URL to https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ctf9f7/raytracing_in_excel_incl_excel_model_link_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ctf9f7/raytracing_...

melling 7y ago
I added that to my list of ray tracing links: https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics/blob/master/ray_tracing.md https://github.com/melling/ComputerGraphics/blob/master/ray_...
- ggambetta 7y ago
  I have a couple of contributions to your list: https://gabrielgambetta.com/tiny-raytracer.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/tiny-raytracer.html and https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/raytracing.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/r...

sipos 7y ago

The question is, why do this? Is it for fun? If so, great. Not my cup of tea personally, but I can imagine how it could be someone's. If not for fun, what is the point? It presumably isn't to create a usable ray-tracing system. Perhaps a challenge to improve the author's Excel skills? If so, I suggest they move on to a proper programming language and visualisation system. There seems to be this obsession, among some people, with using Excel for all sorts of inappropriate things, and I have a sinking feeling that this might be related to that. A system for generating contracts using Excel formulas, in Excel, instead of using mail merge, or something else, with Word or something else designed to format prose text, is a horrible example I have come across at work.

NikolaeVarius 7y ago
Because you can
Haga 7y ago
Why not use a easily available horse instead of this dangerous hobbyist contraption of steel and wood?
astrea 7y ago
You're overthinking this
ihuman 7y ago
I see what the author is doing as part of the demoscene. Many people enjoy programming in limited environments, learning how to optimize, and pushing it to the limit. No one is actually going to use this in a product; its just art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene
- pixelpoet 7y ago
  Not all constrained programming is demoscene related; IMO demoscene is chiefly a social phenomenon, about competition at gatherings.
  - 7y ago

pixelpoet 7y ago

I feel like nobody understands what Turing completeness really means anymore, i.e. why this is kinda amusing but also not really remarkable. Back in the day people did ray tracing by hand on calculators, in PostScript (yes, the document description language used by printers), ... ray tracing is really simple, a basic exercise in vector maths, so we should expect to see it everywhere.