Generating High Quality Pictures by Ray‐Tracing
Christian Bouville, R. Brusq, J.L. Dubois, I. Marchal · Computer Graphics Forum · 1985
Abstract Ray‐casting techniques provide a very general framework in which many problems can be solved in a much easier way than with conventional methods. This is particularly true for the illumination model when a high level of realism is required. Another interesting feature of ray‐casting is its ability to display a wide class of algebraic surfaces with a minimum of approximation. Both aspects are developed in this paper where a full lighting model, based on a theoretical approach, is presented. Then, an algorithm for the display of surfaces of revolution is described. Computation time is the major drawback of ray‐tracing. Special purpose parallel processors seem to offer a good price/performance ratio compared to the use of supercomputers.