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Dive into the world of ray tracing with this comprehensive guide. Learn about its origins, how it works, and step-by-step instructions on building your own ray tracer. Explore different view modes and add advanced features like Phong shading and recursive ray tracing for stunning results. Test your creations and unlock the potential of this versatile technique in various applications such as video games, movies, and medical imaging.
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The Construction of a Ray Tracer Nicole Bieber
What is Ray Tracing? • A method of converting a 3D model into a 2D image • Traces the path of light through each pixel • An extension of ray casting, which was first developed by Arthur Appel in 1968 • Turner Whitted adds rays for reflection, refraction, and shadow in 1979 • Many applications: video games, movies, medical imaging…
How does it work? Diagram courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons.
How I Built It • Step 1: Write a Ray Caster • Step 2: Add Phong Shading • Step 3: Add recursive ray tracing for shadows and reflections • Step 4: Add other fun things, like supersampling, procedural solid textures, and a bounding sphere hierarchy • Step 5: Test, test, test!
How I Built It • Step 1: Write a Ray Caster • Write representations and intersection methods for several different types of objects • Write code to orchestrate the entire process, first calling the provided parser and then creating the necessary objects • Write three different view modes: regular, depth, and normal • Test, test, test! • Step 2: Add Phong Shading • Step 3: Add recursive ray tracing for shadows and reflections • Step 4: Add other fun things, like supersampling, procedural solid textures, and a bounding sphere hierarchy • Step 5: Test, test, test!