A Simple C++ Ray Tracer

Project Description

Author: Kairong Jiang

This project implements a distribution ray tracer, with advanced effects such as anti-aliasing, depth of field, glossy reflaction and refraction, and hard shadow.

The number of samples can be modified at run time.

There is also an option to switch to a simple ray tracer with diffuse, specular and ambient shading models.

A custom scene file myscene.txt is provided (credit to Dr. Joshua Levine) to illustrated the effects of the distribution ray tracer. myscene.ppm is the result of 100 samples.

User Instructions

System Requirements

• CMake 2.8 or newer
• C++ compiler with C++11 support (gcc 4.8.1 or newer, or Clang 3.3 or newer)
• SDL2 library

Build and Run

Build the program using cmake.

Run the program with the relative path to the scene txt file set as program argument.

e.g.

mkdir build

cd build

cmake ..

make

./simple_raytrace ../myscene.txt

The program will show the image rendered by the ray tracer. By default, simple ray tracer will be used. You can perform the following keyboard operations:

• press d to change between simple ray tracer and distribution ray tracer.

• when in distribution mode:

  • press n to decrease number of samples.
  • press k to increase number of samples.