Math
155B - Intro to Computer Graphics II - Winter 2005
Project #4 - Distributed Ray Tracing
Overview: For this assignment you will modify a
"basic" ray tracer to incorporate distributed ray tracing effects. You will also create a simple scene
by modifying RayTraceData.cpp or RayTraceData2.cpp in order to
learn how to use the ray trace software.
Due date: Wednesday, February 16, midnight.
Turn in: Post a web page for public display and save your
functioning source code in a folder Project4 in your ieng9 class folder.
What to do:
-
Get the source and project files. Download from the
text's Ray Trace
web site, the file
RayTrace_2.0.zip. This contains a large C++-project. Extract
the files, maintaining the directory structure. Because of bugs in
Visual C++ file name handling, make map a network drive "Z:" to point to your
class home directory. To do this, choose "Tools" -> "Map
Network Drive...". Then map Z: to "\\acsnsf4\unix-home\solaris\ieng9\cs167f/cs167f\userid"
(get the correct name by cut-and-pasting from your course home directory).
Inside the Z: folder, double-click on RayTrace/RayTrace.dsw, and let the compiler create a .sln solution file
and upgrade all the projects to Visual Studio C++. You should now be
able to compile and run the program.
-
Look at the sample images and read the overviews on the web.
Appendix B in the book describes the Release 1.0 version of the software.
There is a supplemental page that describes the differences
between Release 1.0 and the Release 2.0 versions of the software.
We will discuss the functionality of the programs RayTrace.cpp,
RayTraceData.cpp and RayTraceData2.cpp.
-
Run the main project RayTrace (make that the "active" or "startup"
project in Visual C++, by using the menu that pops up when you right click on
the project name). At first there is a small OpenGL rendered
window. Press "g" or space to switch to ray tracing mode. Press
"G" to return to OpenGL rendering. Use arrow keys to adjust the view
position, and HOME/END to adjust the distance. Resize the window bigger,
but be prepared to wait longer if you use the "g" command to render with ray
tracing.
-
Try the same experiments with the more complicated scene in RayTrace2.
(This has a variant of the textbook's cover design.) Make sure you
make RayTrace2 the active or "Startup" project.
-
For large windows, be sure to be using Release mode or some
optimizing compiler. Release mode is much faster than Debug
mode and is selectable from the Build menu.
-
Look at the documentation in the appendix. Look at the source code in
RayTrace.cpp, RayTraceData.cpp, RayTrace2.cpp, and
RayTraceData2.cpp. This will look confusing at first, but I
will go over a lot of it in class on Wednesday. As part of this you
will need to learn the basic functionality of the VectorR3 and VectorR3
classes for 3-vectors and 4-vectors.
- Change the scene shown in either RayTraceData or (recommended) RayTraceData2.
If you use RayTraceData2, consider deleting some of the
shapes to make the scene less cluttered. Add at least a couple new
shapes or colors or textures to learn the basic functionality of defining a
scene.
- In the main program, add three types of distributed ray tracing features.
These three kinds should be chosen from:
a. Anti-aliasing with jittered subpixels,
b. Depth of field,
c. Motion blur, and
d. Soft shadows.
If you implement only one or two of these four, you will still receive
substantial partial credit. Be sure to combine multiple techniques
wisely, with "random permutations", etc. - Create a web page that shows your
work. At a minimum it should show the scene twice, once rendered without distributed
ray tracing and once with distributed ray tracing, and you should be able to point out the
differences in the two scenes. You may also find it have multiple images
that show the effects of each distributed ray tracing technique separately.
- Upload your web page to the
class project 4 upload page.
Keep your code functioning on ieng9 until you are graded.
Grading: You will be graded on how well you implement
distributed ray tracing, how well your images show the advantages of distributed
ray tracing, number and difficulty of the features implemented, and the overall
scene design. Grading is based on the web page you upload, and on your
discussions with the TA.
Handout: How
to jitter the eye position.