An Introduction to Ray Tracing

by Eric Haines, Pat Hanrahan, Robert L. Cook

The creation of ever more realistic 3-D images is central to the development of computer graphics. The ray tracing technique has become one of the most popular and powerful means by which photo-realistic images can now be created. The simplicity, elegance and ease of implementation makes ray tracing an essential part of understanding and exploiting state-of-the-art computer graphics.
An Introduction to Ray Tracing develops from fundamental principles to advanced applications, providing "how-to" procedures as well as a detailed understanding of the scientific foundations of ray tracing. It is also richly illustrated with four-color and black-and-white plates. This is a book which will be welcomed by all concerned with modern computer graphics, image processing, and computer-aided design.

Genres: Technical, Textbooks

327 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1989

Reviews

[Pablo Weremczuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is heavy on math. There are theorical chapters that I really enjoyed. It’s a curated collection of Sigraph papers, from different authors, so the style changes from chapter to chapter. I enjoyed the book but is not for everyone because it is definitely not an introductory material. If you are a beginner on raytracing try “Raytracing in a weekend” (you are not going to finish it in a weekend).

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

1989 is a long time ago, but I suppose the fundamentals of ray tracing don't really change. A motivated novice with a high-school understanding of 3D geometry and a middle-school understanding of optics† could reproduce most of the concepts covered in An Introduction to Ray Tracing ad hoc (and most of the remainder is just optimisations, at least some of which are completely obsolete at this point), but there's no reason to reinvent the wheel every time you need a picture of a teapot.
Two things kept me from enjoying this book as much as I had hoped to, though:

1. Rather than a coherent book, An Introduction to Ray Tracing is a disparate collection of SIGGRAPH papers of wildly varying depth and relevance, and
2. Ray tracing is boring.

The former is probably the more reasonable charge. Though the papers have apparently been edited somewhat from their original forms, they're still very clearly separate entities, and if you approach the book hoping to find a traditional textbook that explains the basic concepts of ray tracing and walks you through writing your own in incremental, logically consecutive steps, you're going to be disappointed.

The latter is personal opinion, and I won't lower my rating for it. I just feel that when it comes to 3D graphics, Wolfenstein 3D-style ray casting probably represents the optimal balance between quality of results and fiddliness of implementation. Ray tracing is obviously tremendously more versatile and produces dramatically better results, but it's also an enormous pain in the butte to implement; it's well into the ``only if someone is paying me'' area of programming.

Still, that's just me, and if you enjoy navel-gazing algebraic solutions to boring geometrical problems, or just want to experience a piece of SIGGRAPH history, you may find An Introduction to Ray Tracing incredibly interesting. YMMV.

--------

† If you went to a particularly inadequate secondary school or chose your classes poorly, substitute ``undergrad'' for ``high-school'' and ``middle-school''. If you chose your university classes poorly, substitute ``Wikipedia''.

[Jia Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book written by Andrew Glassner is a great book.