4 ms·
A description of a simple Ray Tracer (1995) [pdf]
- angersock 12y agoEverybody should try implementing a ray tracer at least once in their programming career. The math is well-documented, and the wow factor is pretty great. It also is a rabbit-hole of optimizations and modularity; you can always add on yet-another-cool-thing, and so never become bored. :)
- igrekel 12y agoI fully agree, I had written one and eventually ended up using it in a parallel programming class to modify it into a parallel program. It was a lot of fun and the wow factor was definitely there. Since then I've ported it to java when I learned the language. Added features now and then over the years when I wanted to try something new.
- strathmeyer 12y agoThe Ray Tracer, as well as the Operating System, is the common feat of the unemployed programmer. What would be neat is if these skills could be transferred into the real world.
- chrisbarless 12y agosimple.
- Betelgeuse90 12y agoHow handy is this? I need to get a simple Ray Tracer working by the end of the month for a course. :) Thanks! heh.
- laex 12y agoI highly recommend Ray Tracing from Ground Up by Kevin Suffern. The book assumes no prior knowledge. http://www.raytracegroundup.com/ http://www.raytracegroundup.com/ I took the raytracing course taught by Kevin at UTS. It was great.
- Betelgeuse90 12y agoThank you! This is really great stuff. Totally unrelated, I noticed I got downvoted. I hope it didn't seem like I'm going to cheat or anything. I was just looking for good reference material.
- KleinBottler 12y agoI also found the description of the '00 ICFP contest a really good and short reference (take a look at chapter 3). http://www.cs.cornell.edu/icfp/task.htm http://www.cs.cornell.edu/icfp/task.htm