Josh English <eng### [at] spiritonecom> wrote:
: Thanks, Warp. It's a good summary, and it sounds like a procedure I dont' want to
: explore, or I'll try to figure it out mathematically

  Basic raytracing is pretty simple. Anyone with minimal knowledge of
programming and calculus can make a simple sphere/plane raytracer (with
reflections and refractions and simple textures).
  For the count, I have seen this kind of raytracer made in PostScript (!)
in less than 20 lines (!!!).

  Scanline rendering is, however, a lot harder process. It requires tons of
complicated algorithms and code. I know the basics of scanline rendering and
I'm sure that I could make a simple renderer, but it would certainly take
quite lot of time and thinking. It's so complicated, however, that I have
no inspiration in doing one. A simple raytracer would be a lot easier to make.

  There's one big advantage in scanline renderers: When done well, they are
extremely fast.
  That's why 3D-cards use scanline rendering.

-- 
char*i="b[7FK@`3NB6>B:b3O6>:B:b3O6><`3:;8:6f733:>::b?7B>:>^B>C73;S1";
main(_,c,m){for(m=32;c=*i++-49;c&m?puts(""):m)for(_=(
c/4)&7;putchar(m),_--?m:(_=(1<<(c&3))-1,(m^=3)&3););}    /*- Warp -*/

Post a reply to this message