Simple Ray Tracer

By Ray Go

Ray tracing is a technique used to render images with computers. The idea behind a ray tracer is that objects we see in the real world are composed by light, and that light comes from a light source and bounces off objects until it reaches our eyes. The ideas behind ray tracing are simple, but this approach to rendering images is computationally taxing. Because of this, ray tracing is not commonly used for real-time applications. For my solution, I can render images with spheres in a scene. I use the Phong lighting model to color and shade my scene. My solution also renders reflections.

Sample Images

References

http://www.codermind.com/articles/Raytracer-in-C++-Introduction-What-is-ray-tracing.html

http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/raytrace/rtrace0.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_%28graphics%29