Simple Ray Tracer
Assignment: The assignment specification is available as a PDF file. Remember that raytracers can be slow and difficult to debug, so start early and stay in touch with the instructor or TA if any problems arise. As noted in the PDF assignment, you will turn this in by making a webpage, and e-mailing the link and relevant material.
Milestone: For the milestone, you are expected to finish and test the basic camera module (section 2.3 in the assignment), and ideally also go further, either in beginning to develop the system and parser for the scene geometry, or beginning to code up the ray-surface intersection tests. As for assignment 3, please make a basic version of your final webpage, indicating what you have accomplished, and briefly how/timeframe you expect to complete the assignment. Include a simple image to demonstrate the correctness of your camera module. Especially, if you are having problems, please don't hesitate to contact the TA. Debugging a raytracer is a difficult (but rewarding) exercise.
Support: The support for this assignment consists of an opengl previewer and executables and test scenes for it. This is available as a zipfile which should unzipped in a separate (new) directory. There is a README file, and please also refer to the written assignment.
Here are some example images from Spring 2008. Clicking on individual images will in some cases link to student websites that describe their assignment and images in more detail.