A Rust Ray Tracer (Version 1)

This is just a really simple ray tracer that I'm writing for myself to learn about the mathematics and ideas behind ray tracers.

API Documentation

Follow the Rust API Guidelines.

Sections

• Safety
• Examples
• Panics
• Return(s)
• Units and dimensional analysis
• Definitions

Crate large scale documents

My ideas

• Moving vs. copying
• Definitions
• Using types to prevent bad uses (e.g. irradiance vs radiance, normals vs vectors)

Precision

f32 vs f64 use

I have ended up binding myself to using of f32 and other types such as u16 to the Dimension type.

Precision issues

Lessons Learned

• Use templates instead of f32
• Use copy for cheap types, rather than pass by references.
• Start bench marking early.
• Should I have used ray bounds? PBRT uses them, but I haven't had a use for them yet.
• Prefer to hide types, unless they're immediately needed elsewhere.
• I feel like I should have shared work between the Vector and Point types. (using custom derive or something?)
• Haven't gotten to make/use "tensors" yet.
• It is hard to learn a language which is evolving, and stay up to date, while writing software.
• Learn memory management conventions before working in a language (e.g. Rc, vs Box, etc.)

References

• https://doc.rust-lang.org/
• https://facility9.com/2016/05/writing-documentation-in-rust/