RayTracing

A real-time ray tracing demo built in C++17 using ImGui, glm, GLFW, and Vulkan, with the help of the Pecan framework as a submodule. This project showcases a simple approach to multi-bounce ray tracing with interactive scene editing, camera movement, and material adjustments.

Project Description

RayTracing provides an educational playground for understanding fundamental concepts of ray tracing, such as:

• Multiple bounces: Rays reflect off objects up to a small, fixed number of bounces.
• Material & lighting: Each sphere has a configurable color (Albedo), Roughness, and Metallic factor, controlling how light reflects.
• Camera & UI: An ImGui interface lets you move the camera, tweak scene objects, and watch changes update in real time.
• Parallel acceleration: Uses C++17’s parallel execution (via <execution> and std::for_each) to speed up rendering on supported CPUs.

You can explore ray tracing logic without complex shading languages or GPU code—everything is done on the CPU. This makes it easier to modify and experiment with core rendering algorithms.

Getting Started

Cloning the Repository

Because Pecan is a submodule, clone this repository with:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/dasautoooo/RayTracing.git

If you’ve already cloned the repo without submodules, you can fetch them separately:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Dependencies

• C++17 (compiler)
• Pecan (included as a git submodule)
• Vulkan SDK (required by Pecan and for rendering)
• GLFW (windowing and input)
• GLM (math library)
• ImGui (GUI library)

Building

1. Configure

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

You can also specify Debug or Dist builds.

2. Compile

cmake --build .

This builds the RayTracing executable.

Usage & Controls

Camera Movement

• Right-Click & Drag: Rotate the camera.
• W, A, S, D, Q, E: Move forward, left, backward, right, down, and up.

Scene Editing

• “Scene” Panel: Displays each sphere’s transform (position, radius) and material index.
• “Material” Entries: Customize Albedo (color), Roughness, and Metallic parameters.

Rendering Controls

• “Accumulate”: Toggle whether to average samples over frames for smoother results.
• “Reset”: Clear the accumulation buffer (useful if you moved the camera or changed scene settings).

Live Updates

• Any time you move the camera or tweak scene settings, the frame index resets or accumulates as specified, so you can see results in real time.