School project · CS3241

Whitted Ray Tracer

Built a Whitted Ray Tracing renderer in C++/OpenGL — tracing rays through a scene to produce reflections, refractions, and shadows.

Whitted Ray Tracer preview

The problem

Implement a physically-based rendering algorithm from scratch, grounding the linear algebra and lighting models covered in the module in a working program.

What I did

Implemented the full Whitted ray tracing pipeline: ray-object intersection, recursive reflection and refraction, shadow rays, and Phong shading — built on an OpenGL/GLUT scaffolding.

Outcome

Rendered scenes with correct reflections, refractions, and shadows. Made the maths behind modern real-time rendering feel tangible.