Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This video demonstrates what I've learned so far from the book "Ray Tracing - The Next Week" by Peter Shirley.
In addition to what is presented in the book, I've implemented an auto-focus feature (this is static in the book) as well as motion blur for the camera (where only objects produce motion blur). Makes for some pretty visuals!
I've fast forwarded the first segment of the video by quite a lot to demonstrate the visual quality that the engine can produce - with the normal engine speed at low quality shown in the second segment.
A long term goal will be to optimize this to the level when I don't need to reduce visual quality for speed. Much food for thought!
Acknowledgements:
The ray tracer approach and code is based on that provided in the book "Ray Tracing in One Weekend" and its sequels by Peter Shirley. Highly recommended reading!
This was made using the Chili Framework: http://wiki.planetchili.net/index.php... - thanks Chili!
Music by Eric Skiff, song "All of Us" for the intro and "HHavok-main" for the main sequence. (Available at EricSkiff.com/music)
This video demonstrates what I've learned so far from the book "Ray Tracing - The Next Week" by Peter Shirley.
In addition to what is presented in the book, I've implemented an auto-focus feature (this is static in the book) as well as motion blur for the camera (where only objects produce motion blur). Makes for some pretty visuals!
I've fast forwarded the first segment of the video by quite a lot to demonstrate the visual quality that the engine can produce - with the normal engine speed at low quality shown in the second segment.
A long term goal will be to optimize this to the level when I don't need to reduce visual quality for speed. Much food for thought!
Acknowledgements:
The ray tracer approach and code is based on that provided in the book "Ray Tracing in One Weekend" and its sequels by Peter Shirley. Highly recommended reading!
This was made using the Chili Framework: http://wiki.planetchili.net/index.php... - thanks Chili!
Music by Eric Skiff, song "All of Us" for the intro and "HHavok-main" for the main sequence. (Available at EricSkiff.com/music)
![Pseudo 3D Graphics Engine! [v1]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V9ffZtq9_VU/mqdefault.jpg "Pseudo 3D Graphics Engine! [v1]
Im pretty excited about this project! My intention here is to create a new game in a pseudo 3D setting. Im going to build up the graphics engine before working on the game, so this series will be focusing purely on the graphical side of things first before moving on to other game elements. As you can tell by the initial architectural choices, an Mayan / Aztec setting is likely.
So, what do I mean by Pseudo 3D game engine?
Well, firstly, the graphics are generated by transforming a simple 2D array of object coordinates into a fake 3D view. It doesnt use 3D mathematics at all, although some of those concepts have made their way across to how Ive implemented this design. In fact, I think this is quite a cool way to get used to thinking about 3D maths before actually diving in properly.
The obects in this world can (currently) only be rectangular walls or simple sprites. This type of design is very much the same as the ol classic Wolf 3D, which I thought added quite a nice retro vibe to the game.
The engine also fakes the sky and ground drawing using a very simple algorithm that takes up the grand total of 30 lines of code each. Very simple design.
One interesting feature of this video: Ive used the map directly from my Dungeons and Flagons game (https://youtu.be/tGRSpyUTAew) and loaded it into the application (with the pyramid being a nice additional touch). It landed up being a very interesting way to visual my 2D games - something I might use in different ways in the future.
The inspiration to create this engine came from the following videos from Javidx9:
Pseudo 3D Planes: https://youtu.be/ybLZyY655iY
Pseudo 3D FPS Engine: https://youtu.be/xW8skO7MFYw
However, Ive used quite different code to what he used - e.g. I dont raycast here at all - and have so far added a whole bunch of additional features that I think are really cool (e.g. the atmospheric effect to differentiate for distance).
A lot of the optimisations I thought of were inspired from Chilis Advanced C++ and 3D Fundamentals courses, in particular the line equations:
Advanced series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqCJpWy5Fohd6Hg5BW8eAjo5SzQQYl43S
3D Fundamentals: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqCJpWy5Fohe8ucwhksiv9hTF5sfid8lA
The approaches that I am using seem to be pretty darn efficient and have this game running at a stable 60fps with quite a large game world setting.
Next, I want to add in sprite graphics that change based on the direction the object is facing (e.g. see a side on sprite if the associated object is facing to the side from your vantage point).
And, of course, animations!
Please comment if you have any ideas that youd like to see me try and implement!")
