Brace yourself for a fun challenge: build a photorealistic 3D renderer from scratch! It's
easier than you think. In just a couple of weeks build a ray-tracer that renders beautiful
scenes with shadows reflections brilliant refraction effects and subjects composed of
various graphics primitives: spheres cubes cylinders triangles and more. With each chapter
implement another piece of the puzzle and move the renderer that much further forward. Do all
of this in whichever language and environment you prefer and do it entirely test-first so you
know it's correct. Recharge yourself with this project's immense potential for personal
exploration experimentation and discovery. The renderer is a ray tracer which means it
simulates the physics of light by tracing the path of light rays around your scene. Each
exciting chapter presents a bite-sized piece of the puzzle building on earlier chapters and
setting the stage for later ones. Requirements are given in plain English which you translate
into tests and code. When the project is complete look back and realize you've built an entire
system test-first! There's no research necessary -- all the necessary formulas and algorithms
are presented and illustrated right here. Dive into intriguing topics from fundamental concepts
such as vectors and matrices to the algorithms that simulate the intersection of light rays
with spheres planes cubes cylinders and triangles to geometric patterns such as checkers
and rings. Lighting and shading effects such as shadows and reflections make your scenes come
to life and constructive solid geometry (CSG) enables you to combine your graphics primitives
in simple ways to produce complex shapes. Play and experiment as you discover the fun of
writing a ray tracer. Accept the challenge today! What You Need: Aside from a computer
operating system and programming environment you'll need a way to display PPM image files. On
Windows programs like Photoshop will work or free programs like IrfanView. On Mac no special
software is needed as Preview can open PPM files.
