I like this subject

[Farabi]

 :clap: Finally the elite warrior decided to go into war. Im suck at math, but I really like this idea, so I will not go into battelfield.
Will the result(the raytracing binnary) can be use for public(people like me)?

[Mark_Larson]

  Yes, I'll post the code as I go.  For the first two raytracers it will just be the code from tutorials I find on the web.  The first raytracer will be VERY simple, to make it easier to understand. 

The second raytracer is more complex, but it will be easier to add more features. 

I am almost done writing up my tutorial on the first raytracer, so expect something soon.

and my math isn't that good either :)  But thankfully raytracers have been around a long time, and there are tons of different ways to accomplish the job with different kind of math.  So what I do is search the web to find different ways of doing the task I am trying to do, and then I time them, and then optimize them.

so for us non-math people we can still have lots of fun :)

[daydreamer]

ask raymond about math, he rocks and I recommend to ask him about faster ways with/without SSE parallel solution on raytracing, I bet he has much more math skill tricks than knowing snells law simplification when doing refraction calculation

[Mark_Larson]

 
  great idea, thanks :)

[Farabi]

Mark:
Is this raytracer will need OpenGL or DirectX? My old computer is not strong enough for that 2. I can only use GDI.

[Mark_Larson]

Mark:
Is this raytracer will need OpenGL or DirectX? My old computer is not strong enough for that 2. I can only use GDI.

the raytracer doesn't do hardware 3D.  So if we use OpenGL or directx, it will only be as a framebuffer.   The pixels will be ARGB, where A = alhpa, and the rest is obvious.  Each value is 8-bits, so a full 32-bit value.

Which actually makes it a lot simpler.  In the other thread, I posted a link to a turtorial?  He uses GDI.  I'd recommend taking a close look at the code, so that way no matter what I use, you can convert it and get it working with GDI.

[Mika]

Hello,

I decided to register on this forum mainly because of this project as soon as I learned about this. I have been working on and off with my own ray-tracer (not for gaming purposes), but by only briefly looking through some of the threads here I can already see quite many mistakes I have made, most simply because of insufficient information.

My background is in Physics and specialized in Optics. During the studies in University, I learned some of the 8085 to 80186 era Assembly several years ago, but I simply don't know the current programming trends with ASM. I do have some understanding of numerics and of intersection tests. However, I don't know if I have managed to write the most efficient stuff, but I suppose this is the place where it can be found out.

Thanks Mark for your work in here!