This project has been created as part of the 42 curriculum by qvan-der, mshulgin

MiniRT

Description

miniRT is a minimal ray tracer written in C using the MLX42 graphics library. The goal of this project is to introduce the fundamentals of ray tracing by rendering simple 3D scenes.

The program reads a scene description file (.rt) and generates a computer-rendered image using the ray tracing technique. It supports essential rendering features such as object intersections, ambient and diffuse lighting, and hard shadows.

Implemented Features

• Window rendering with MLX42
• Scene parsing from .rt files
• Camera with configurable FOV
• Ambient and diffuse lighting
• Hard shadows
• Supported objects
  • Sphere
  • Plane
  • Cylinder
  • Cube (bonus)
  • Cone (bonus)
• Proper memory management
• Error handling
• Configurable multithreaded rendering (bonus)
• Configurable anti-aliasing (bonus)
• Multiple light sources (bonus)
• Checkboard pattern on objects (bonus)
• Live progress bar and rotating 3D cube during rendering (bonus)

Scene Configuration (.rt format)

The program reads custom .rt files. Each element is defined on a single line. To apply the checkerboard pattern to any object, append the ch flag to the end of its definition.

ID	Origin	Orientation	Intensity	FOV	Diameter/Size	Height	Color	*Optional
Essentials
A			0.2				255,255,255
C	0,0,-10	0,0,1		70
L	0,10,10		0.75				255,255,255
Objects
sp	0,1.25,0				2.5		129,22,90	ch
pl	0,0,0	0,1,0					129,22,255	ch
cy	1,2,-2	-0.2,0.3,1			3	10	129,255,90	ch
cu	0,0,0				6		220,20,20	ch
co	-12,8,-5	0.7,-0.7,0			6	10	20,100,255	ch

Instructions

Requirements

• C compiler (e.g., cc)
• MLX42 library
• Make
• Math library (-lm)

Compilation

~$ make

Available Makefile rules:

~$ make         # Build the project.
~$ make clean   # Remove object files.
~$ make fclean  # Remove object files and binary.
~$ make re      # Rebuild everything.
~$ make norm    # Run norminette without checking the tests etc.

Usage

Simply run the program with a scene file:

~$ ./miniRT <scene_file.rt>

Running the program with additional options:

~$ ./miniRT <scene_file.rt> [options]
   Options:
      --threads=<threads>  # Number of threads to use for rendering (default: 1)
      --spp=<samples>      # Number of samples per pixel for anti-aliasing (default: 1)
      --help               # Display this help message
      --debug			   # Enable debug mode (prints additional information during rendering, and allows clicking on objects to print the ray information)

Controls

• ESC: Exit the program
• Window close button: Exit the program

Resources

Ray Tracing

• Ray Tracing in One Weekend
• Ray Tracing Wikipedia

AI Usage

AI tools were used for clarifying and debugging, including:

• Brainstorming project structure
• Clarifying mathematical formulas
• Debugging graphics issues
• Creating complex scenes

Images