Newsgroups: comp.archives
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!ox.com!msen.com!emv
From: musgrave-forest@cs.yale.edu (F. Ken Musgrave)
Subject: [alt.fractals] Re: Ray tracing fractal objects
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.233359.4008@ox.com>
Followup-To: alt.fractals
Sender: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)
Reply-To: musgrave-forest@cs.yale.edu (F. Ken Musgrave)
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
References: <1991Apr10.201838.10573@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> <30077@cs.yale.edu>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1991 23:33:59 GMT
Approved: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)
X-Original-Newsgroups: alt.fractals

Archive-name: graphics/raytrace/rayshade/1991-04-15
Archive: weedeater.math.yale.edu:/pub/rayshade.4.0/rayshade.4.0.tar.Z [130.132.23.17]
Original-posting-by: musgrave-forest@cs.yale.edu (F. Ken Musgrave)
Original-subject: Re: Ray tracing fractal objects
Reposted-by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)

In article <1991Apr10.201838.10573@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> npw@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Nicholas Wilt) writes:
>I am soliciting references on how to render fractal objects.  I have
>a ray tracer to which I would like to add this capability, but I am at
>a loss as to where to begin.

  Rayshade (available via anonymous ftp at weedeater.math.yale.edu) has 
a "height field" primitive, which is an efficient way to render fractal
terrains.  For a description of the algorithm, see references:

%A F. Kenton Musgrave
%T Grid Tracing: Fast Ray Tracing for Height Fields
%J Yale Dept. of Computer Science Research Report RR-639
%D July 1988

%A F. Kenton Musgrave
%A Craig E. Kolb
%A Robert S. Mace
%T The Synthesis and Rendering of Eroded Fractal Terrains
%J Computer Graphics
%V 23
%N 3
%P 41-50
%D July, 1989

  If John Hart is reading this newsgroup (as I have instructed him to, right,
John?) he can give you info on raytracing deterministic fractals. 

								Ken
-- 
"But what do we do about moose and squirrel?"	 -Boris Badanov

F. Kenton ("Ken") Musgrave	musgrave@yale.edu	(203) 432-4016
Yale U Depts of Math and CS	Box 2155 Yale Station	New Haven, CT 06520

-- comp.archives file verification
weedeater.math.yale.edu
-rw-rw-r--   1 craig    pinheads  289363 Feb 13 19:42 /pub/rayshade.4.0/rayshade.4.0.tar.Z
found rayshade ok
weedeater.math.yale.edu:/pub/rayshade.4.0/rayshade.4.0.tar.Z