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Generating High Quality Pictures by Ray‐Tracing
Author(s) -
Bouville C.,
Brusq R.,
Dubois J.L.,
Marchal I.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8659.1985.tb00198.x
Subject(s) - ray tracing (physics) , computer science , computation , ray casting , visualization , distributed ray tracing , feature (linguistics) , computer graphics (images) , class (philosophy) , computational science , computer engineering , algorithm , artificial intelligence , rendering (computer graphics) , optics , volume rendering , philosophy , physics , linguistics
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.