Ray Tracing from the Ground Up

Takes readers through the process of building a modern ray tracer from scratch in C++. This book explains various concepts and processes with the aid of diagrams, ray-traced images, and sample code. It is suitable for undergraduate and graduate computer graphics courses and for individual programmers who would like to learn ray tracing.

With the increase in computing speed and due to the high quality of the optical effects it achieves, ray tracing is becoming a popular choice for interactive and animated rendering. This book takes readers through the whole process of building a modern ray tracer from scratch in C++. All concepts and processes are explained in detail with the aid of hundreds of diagrams, ray-traced images, and sample code. It is suitable for undergraduate and graduate computer graphics courses and for individual programmers who would like to learn ray tracing.

1 Ray Tracer Design and Programming 2 Some Essential Mathematics 3 Bare-Bones Ray Tracing 4 Antialiasing 5 Sampling Techniques 6 Mapping Samples to a Disk 7 Mapping Samples to a Hemisphere 8 Perspective Viewing 9 A Practical Viewing System 10 Depth of Field 11 Nonlinear Projections 12 Stereoscopy 13 Theoretical Foundations 14 Lights and Materials, 15 Specular Reflection 16 Shadows 17 Ambient Occlusion 18 Area Lights 19 Ray-Object Intersections 20 Affine Transformations 21 Transforming Objects 22 Regular Grids 23 Triangle Meshes 24 Mirror Reflection 25 Glossy Reflection 26 Global Illumination 27 Simple Transparency 28 Realistic Transparency 29 Texture Mapping 30 Procedural Textures 31 Noise-Based Textures