scene

A Javascript ray tracer.

TODO

• optimise (especially meshes)
• geometric transformations for surfaces
• improved shading model

Usage

See /demos for examples.

In the following Vector means an object of the form { x: <number>, y: <number>, z: <number> }; and Colour means an object of the form { r: <number>, g: <number>, b: <number> } where r, g, and b are between 0 and 255 inclusive.

Rendering:

Scene.render(surfaces, lights, buffer, options);

surfaces - an array of surfaces (see surfaces section below)

lights - an array of lights (see lights section below)

buffer - an array-like object that the image/pixel data will be written into in RGBA8 format (e.g. Buffer or Uint8Array)

options - object holds the render options:

{
    cameraPosition: <Vector>,  // the position of the camera (default: { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 })
    viewDir: <Vector>,  // the direction the camera is pointing (default: { x: 0, y: 0, z: -1 })
    cameraUp: <Vector>,  // the upward orientation of the camera (default: { x: 0, y: 1, z: 0 })
    verticalFOV: <number>,  // the vertical field of view in radians (default: Math.PI / 4)
    background: <Colour>,  // the default colour for rays that don't intersect with any surfaces 
                           // (default: black)
    ambientLight: <number>,  // the intensity of the ambient (white) light (default: 0.1)
    targetWidth: <number>,  // width (in pixels) of the output image that will be drawn to buffer
    targetHeight: <number>,  // height (in pixels) of the output image that will be drawn to buffer
    ssaa: <number>  // super-sample anti-aliasing - should be either 4 or 16, representing the 
                    // number of samples per pixel. Don't include (or set to a fasley value) to 
                    // turn off SSAA. Warning: Using SSAA will greatly increase render time.
}

Scene.renderToCanvas(surfaces, lights, canvas, options);

Same as render except it accepts a canvas and draws directly to that.

Surfaces:

There are 3 types of surfaces provided out-of-the-box: Scene.Sphere, Scene.Plane, and Scene.Mesh. Take a look in /lib/surfaces and /demos to see their usage.

Lights:

There are 3 types of lights provided out-of-the-box: Scene.PointLight, Scene.DirectionalLight, and Scene.SpotLight. Take a look in /lib/lights and /demos to see their usage.