DAFT: Raytracer Engine

DAFT is a powerful and flexible raytracer engine developed as part of a project at EPITA engineer school. It allows you to generate stunning 3D images by simulating the behavior of light in a virtual scene. Whether you're a computer graphics enthusiast, a student, or a professional, DAFT provides a solid foundation for creating realistic renderings.

Website

You can find more information about the engine on the official website.

Features

• Raytracing: DAFT uses the raytracing technique to trace the path of light rays, simulating their interactions with virtual objects and calculating the final color of each pixel in the image.
• Shading Models: The engine supports various shading models, including Lambertian, Phong, and Blinn-Phong, to give objects different material appearances and lighting effects.
• Reflection and Refraction: DAFT accurately handles reflection and refraction of light rays, enabling the rendering of reflective surfaces, transparent materials, and complex optical effects.
• Shadows: The engine calculates shadows by casting rays from each point towards the light sources, providing realistic and accurate shadowing in the rendered images.
• Object Primitives: DAFT supports basic geometric primitives such as spheres, planes, and triangles, allowing you to create and arrange objects in your scenes easily.
• Texture Mapping: You can apply textures to objects using UV mapping, providing detailed and realistic surface appearances.
• Scene Description: Scenes are described using a simple text-based scene file format, allowing you to define camera positions, light sources, objects, and their materials easily.

Usage

Requirements

Linux

Ubuntu

Consider simply executing the following command:

# apt-get install make gcc libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libgtk-3-dev ffmpeg

ArchLinux

Consider simply executing the following command:

# pacman -Sy make gcc sdl2 sdl2_image gtk3 ffmpeg

Windows:

• Install MinGW and all the packages required (dont forget to include mingw32-pthreads-w32 under "All packages section")
• Install SDL and copy the content of i686-w64-mingw32 inside of the MinGW installation
• Install SDL_Image and copy the content of i686-w64-mingw32 inside of the MinGW installation

Download

You can download the engine here. The archive contains the source code, the documentation, and sample scenes.

Compile

You can also compile the engine from source.

First, clone the repository using the following command:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Frayzen/DAFT.git

Please make sure you have the required dependecies installed on your system.

sudo apt-get install make gcc libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libgtk-3-dev

You can now compile the source code using the following commands:

cd ./DAFT/main && make

If any problem occurs, you can try to clean the project and recompile it:

make clean && make

Once the compilation is done, you can run the engine using the following command:

./bin/DAFT <scene_file path>

If needed, you can find sample scenes here.

Keys

Please find below the list of keys used to interact with the engine:

• WASD: Move the camera
• Mouse: Rotate the camera
• P: Render and save the image to a PNG file named out.png. If you want to change the quality of the render, feel free to edit the include/constant.h.
• V: Place a camera point in the scene
• B: Render a video based on the camera points placed in the scene (the order of the placement is important) and save it to a MP4 file named out.mp4. The video is rendered at 30 FPS. If you want to change the quality of the render, feel free to edit the include/constant.h.
• I: Activate or deactivate the shading
• R: When shading is on Activate or deactivate the ambient shading
• T: When shading is on Activate or deactivate the diffuse shading
• Y: When shading is on Activate or deactivate the specular shading