Raytracer
2018
- C++
I was given the task to create a raytracer for a project on BUAS. I did not know what a raytracer was when starting with this project. We were given reference images that we had to create with our own raytracer, each reference image brought it's own challenge that our raytracer had to work with.
Project info
- Project: Raytracer
- Role(s): General programmer
- Engine: Custom Engine
- Platform: PC
- Development time: 8 weeks
- Team: Solo project
Raytracer features
- Reflection, Refraction
- Quad, sphere, cube and triangle support
- Implementation of a BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) system
Reference images
The first reference image showed us the use of reflection, refraction and a checkerboard quad was also used in the image. Here one can see the outcome of this reference image in my raytracer.
The second reference image showed us a lot of cubes and a reflective sphere in the middle. The challenge in this image was to render the image in as less time as possible since because there are a lot of cubes the raytracer itself had to do a lot of ray calculations against every object in the scene. The asked solution to this rendering problem was to implement a BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) system which decreases the rendering time since less raytracer calculations against objects are made when a BVH system is implemented. I implemented this system and the result of this reference image in my raytracer is shown here.
UML
I focused heavily on system design for this Raytracer where I tried to be as detailed as possible when creating the UML for the system architecture of this Raytracer. The UML for this Raytracer is shown here.
What I learned from this project
I learned what a raytracer is and everything that comes with the implementation of a raytracer. Because of this I can say that I learned everything that I did in this project.