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QRT Technical Reference INTRODUCTION The QRT ray tracing system has been designed to make the code easily maintainable and expandable. An object oriented design philosophy was used for the program, and the resulting code has been made as robust as practical given time constraints. This document explains the design of QRT. First, the function of each QRT C file will be listed. Next, the QRT data structures will be explained, and finally, some details of code implementation discussed. QRT C CODE FILES The QRT code is broken down into 16 C files and 3 header files, each containing a group of related functions. The files are, in alphabetical order: FILE FUNCTION bbox.c bounding box intersection routines error.c error reporting routines inout.c recursive decent input parser instance.c file for INSTANCE primitives intersect.c object intersection routines lexer.c simple lexical analyzer mth.c vector math support norm.c normal finding functions for objects offset.c offsets a primitive by dx, dy, dz pattern.c finds pattern info for objects patternio.c auxiliary parser for patterns precomp.c pre-computes some info for objects qrt.c main routine and initialization code ray.c actual ray tracing algorithims relpos.c finds relative position on an object resize.c resize any primitive stack.c stack and object creation routines header.h instantiations of some global variables pattern.h pattern info qrt.h main data structure definitions The function of each group of routines will be discussed in greater detail in rest of this document. QRT Ray Tracer Page 1 Technical Reference DATA STRUCTURES All QRT data structures are defined in qrt.h. This file is broken down into sections, as follows: OBJECT TYPE DEFINITIONS: C #define statements for each object type (sphere, lamp, observer, etc). MISC DEFINES Other #defines for screen size, etc. VECTOR data structure A floating point 3-tuple vector definition. COLOR VECTOR data structure A red,green,blue integer 3-tuple structure. COLOR INFO structure This is an important structure. It lists color information for an object, including ambient and diffuse light characteristics, reflection and transmission data, Phong specular reflection coefficient, index of refraction, and object dithering data. PRECOMPUTE structure This contains some fields which can be filled with precomputed information before the ray-tracing is begun. This saves time by eliminating redundant calculations for every line/object intersection. The use of these fields is up to the intersection routines. Each object also has a 'precompute' routine which fills this structure. PATTERN structure The pattern definition structure contains a color info structure. It is used to change the characteristics of a QRT Ray Tracer Page 2 Technical Reference primitive object over the surface of that object. For example, checkered, brick, or tile patterns may be defined. OBJECT structure The base structure of QRT. All objects are defined as an object structure. This structure contains: A) A location vector for the object B) 3 directional vectors C) The object type flag D) Some constants for QUADRATIC objects E) A color info structure F) Sibling and child pointers for the object tree G) A pointer to a pattern structure H) A pointer to a pattern for the REMOVE command I) x and y multipliers for pattern sizing J) A name field for the object WORLD structure This structure contains all data about the world. It contains pointers to the object tree, the lamp list, the observer, and the sky, and the pattern stack. It also contains statistic information, such as total number of rays traced, and the output file name and pointer. OBJECT_DATA structure The header.h file contains an array of this structure, one array element per object type. The structure itself contains pointers to functions that perform known operations on object structures. This design allows much cleaner code and easier addition of object types. The object function pointers are: ColTest: Tests for object collisions FindNorm: Finds normal to surface at a given position FindBbox: Computes size of bounding box for object RelPos: Finds relative position on object surface given a position in space PreComp: Stuffs 'precomp' structure for each object before ray-tracing is begun. The precomp and intersect routines must agree on the exact usage of the fields in this structure. QRT Ray Tracer Page 3 Technical Reference Offset: Moves a primitive by dx, dy, dz. This is used for instances. Resize: Resizes a primitive ( and scales its location vector). This is also used for instances. This structure permits expressions such as: (*(ObjData[CurrObj->type].ColTest))(line,Currobj,&t); which means: (collision func for this obj type )(parameters); instead of a large case statement. Execution is faster, and if new objects are added, the code does not have to be changed. If a certain operation is illegal for a certain object type, the ObjData entry points to an Err() function. This way, if something goes wrong, execution is terminated gracefully instead of jumping to a random location in memory. MATH defines MIN, MAX, SQRT, DotProd macros DEFAULT structure Keeps default color information, and a few other things, like resolution and aspect ratio. ERROR codes Defines for all possible error conditions ROBUST flag There are many sections of code of the form: # ifdef ROBUST code # endif such that, if ROBUST is defined, the bounds-checking code will be compiled. It is recommended that this flag be always set, although SLIGHTLY faster execution is possible with it reset. QRT Ray Tracer Page 4 Technical Reference CODE DESCRIPTION The function of each section of code will be described in more detail here. BBOX.C Contains code for each object type that will determine the size of the bounding box for that object. Bounding boxes are logical objects that contain other objects. If a ray does not strike a bounding box, it cannot possibly strike any object inside the box. This can increase execution speed if used correctly. Routines in BBOX.C are of the form: BboxSphere(v1,v2,obj) VECT_PTR v1,v2; OBJ_PTR obj; where v1 and v2 are vectors for the two corners of the bounding box, and obj is a pointer to an object. The functions are called based upon their pointer in the ObjData structure. ERROR.C This is a simple file that contains just two routines. The first one is the Err() routine that fills empty places in the ObjData structure. The second routine is the actual error reporting routine. It takes two arguments: an error number, and an error code. The error number is a #define such as 'SYNTAX_ERROR' or 'INTERNAL_ERROR'. The error code is an integer used to find the routine in which the error occurred. The error code number is arbitrary but should be unique throughout the program. A convention has been set up that all routines within one C file return an error code with the same first digit (501, 502, 503...). If the error occurred while parsing the input file, the offending line number is printed. Execution is always terminated after calling this routine. INOUT.C This is a recursive decent parser for the input language. The parser was hand coded, since YACC or a similar compiler tool was not available. The input routines perform syntax QRT Ray Tracer Page 5 Technical Reference checking, and some bounds checking. The bounds checking will catch some errors; however, it has not been idiot-proofed. It is up to the user to not make strange entries (radius=0, etc). Most of these illogical errors will be caught in the run-time bounds checking. INOUT has one routine for each non-terminal in the grammar. The routine accepts parameters, in any order, and branches to another routine, or inputs a value. This is the largest individual file, at over 1000 lines. INSTANCE.C This contains the routines to input instance definitions, create a copy of a sub-tree, offset the subtree, and scale the subtree. INTERSECT.C This file contains routines to perform line/object intersection tests. Each routine is of the form: int LineSphere(line, sphere, t) OBJ_PTR line, sphere; float *t; where line and sphere are inputs, and t is an output. Line is always a line object, but the second parameter may be a pointer a different object for a different intersection routine. The routine must compute the parameter T for the intersection point on the line, if any, and return TRUE if the line hits the object, or FALSE if it does not. The functions are called based upon their pointer in the ObjData structure. LEXER.C This is a simple tokenizer for the input language. In this implementation, #include directives for the input language are not implemented, but they belong in this routine. This module also contains some bounds checking code, and code to map values of the range 0..1 to 0..CNUM. The light characteristics are stored as an integer from 0 to CNUM, but the input values are a floating point value from 0 to 1, so these routines perform the conversion. QRT Ray Tracer Page 6 Technical Reference MTH.C MTH contains support routines for vector math, such as vector addition, subtraction, and cross product. NORM.C These routines find the normal vector to an object at a given location in space. They are called based upon the pointer in the ObjData structure. A typical entry is: SphereNorm(norm, object, position) VECT_PTR norm, position; OBJ_PTR object; where object and position are input, and norm is output. Often, several objects share one routine. This happens, for example, with planar objects, since the code to find the normal to a plane is the same regardless of the shape of the planar object. OFFSET.C These routines are called by the object_data structure. One routine exists per primitive type, and they offset the primitive by the given amount. PATTERN.C When a ray/object intersection is found, the pattern function is called. If the objects pattern pointer is NULL, the default color info for that object is returned. If it is not NULL, the the relative position on the surface of that object is found, and the color info for the pattern at that location is returned. If the relative location is not inside any sub-pattern, then the object's default color info is returned. To determine if a given point is inside a sub-pattern, a similar strategy to the object intersection routines is used. There are several sub-pattern types (RECTANGLE, CIRCLE, etc), and there is a table listing pointers to containment test routines for each type. This makes it easy to add sub-pattern types. QRT Ray Tracer Page 7 Technical Reference PATTERNIO.C An auxiliary parser for patterns, created because INOUT was getting too large to comfortably edit. This file also contains routines to copy subtrees, as well as to offset and scale subtrees by calling routines from offset.c and resize.c PRECOMP.C Contains routines to stuff the 'precomp' structure for objects. See the documentation for the qrt.h file for more details. This structure saves time by computing some expressions that do not change with each line/object intersection test. QRT.C This module contains initialization code, and the main routine that loads the 'world' and performs the ray tracing. It is quite short. RAY.C All of the ray tracing logic is in this module. The basic routine is Ray_Trace. Ray_Trace looks for a ray/object intersection. If it finds one, various color routines are called to compute the color of the object at this point. Some of these color routines may call Ray_Trace recursively (for reflection or transmission). Another important routine, called by Ray_Trace, is Ray_Hit. This actually tests to see if the ray hits an object by walking through the object tree. If the 'first' flag is set, the routine will quit after it finds one object intersection (used to see if a surface is in the shadow of another object). Otherwise, all intersections are sorted in order of increasing parameter T, and the first such intersection returned. RELPOS.C Routines in RELPOS are called by the entry in the ObjData array. A typical routine is: SpherePos(obj,loc,pos1,pos2) OBJ_PTR obj; VECT_PTR loc; QRT Ray Tracer Page 8 Technical Reference float *pos1, *pos2; where obj and loc are input, and the routine must compute the coordinates pos1 and pos2 on the surface of the object. This is used to map patterns onto the surface of arbitrary objects. It is straightforward for planar surfaces. For other surfaces, a mapping of the form: 3-tuple(x,y,z) --> 2-tuple(x,y) must be created for the object. RESIZE.C These routines resize objects, and scale the location vector. One routine exists per object. They are used by the instance routines (as are routines from offset.c). STACK.C This file contains support code for object tree and list manipulations. The name "STACK" is partially historical; the initial implementation of the program did not permit arbitrary object trees, only linear lists. STACK also contains an object creation routine, and a routine to print world statistics at the end of the ray tracing session. Note that in the files that contain object manipulation routines (indexed by the object_data structure array), there is often a common routine for several similar objects. For example, all planar objects (PARALLELOGRAM, RING, TRIANGLE) share a common normal finding routine. If one of them should suddenly need a different routine, just create it, and change the object_data pointer for that object. Patterns are dealt with in the same manner as objects. There are currently three types of pattern primitives (RECTANGLE, CIRCLE, and POLYGON). There is a structure (like the object_data structure) for patterns. This structure currently contains only one entry: a pointer to a collision function. Future capabilities may be added later, along with more primitive types. QRT Ray Tracer Page 9 Technical Reference