4 ms·

How can I learn enough trig to really grok this? I can code it up but I don’t understand how it works.

• dahart 6y ago
  Little by little. It’s okay to get it working without understanding all the parts, and revisit or rewrite sections later. It’s also okay (not just okay but recommended) to let this take longer than a weekend, and dive into any rabbit holes that interest you as you go. It will take longer than a weekend to fully understand all the parts, much longer if you want to do it well enough to be able to write all the parts on your own. Personally I absolutely love learning math and using it to code up programs that make pictures, learning and applying the trig and linear algebra is pure fun for me, so if it interests you go for it, I say. :) Becoming fluent with a dot product is maybe the most useful single tidbit of math you could learn...
  • kecupochren 6y ago
    just curious - do you have a CS degree?
    • dahart 6y ago
      Yes. Though FWIW I think math classes, graphics classes, and just practicing graphics over the years and crawling into rabbit holes, got me more familiar with all the math needed to do ray tracing than anything required for a CS degree.