README.md

raytracer

This is a minimal raytracer with diffuse shading and support for reflective objects, written for a Graphics class. The raytracing logic is in ray.c, some minimal vector math functionality is in vec_math.h, and code to write a png image is in stb_image_write.h (I did not write this file, it was provided for this assignment).

Geometry in the scene are defined by an Object struct:

struct Object {
  // object is either a sphere or triangle
  union {
    struct Sphere sphere;
    struct Triangle triangle;
  };
  // calculates the time an intersection occurs
  float (*intersect_fn)(struct Object*, struct Ray*);
  // calculates the normal at a given point
  void (*normal_fn)(struct Object*, float* point, float* normal);
  // color of the object
  unsigned char color[3];
  int is_reflective;
};

I only wrote code for spheres and triangles but the tracing logic is agnostic to object types as long as an intersect function and normal function are provided.

Running

To run the raytracer, clone the repo and run make. There are two scenes defined in ray.c, reference and custom. To make the images, run ./ray reference or ./ray custom. They will produce either reference.png or custom.png, respectfully.

Running make clean will remove ./ray, ./reference.png, and custom.png.