Following the tutorial https://raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingInOneWeekend.html
- the tutorial lean heavy on inheritance which is not in zig. Learned how to implement a custom interface in low level language with
- faced problems with float-point errors and overcame them by either using asserts to validate the assumptions (e.g vec.unit returns a unit vector or assert normal vector is a unit one tigerstyle) or ignore them completely by avoiding close distance interactions
- Wasted effort trying to use simd without measuring first and turns out I targeted the wrong section. Always measure before optimizing and Don't optimize debug build.
- arena allocator are great. Use them to simplify memory model (Thank you Casey for the advice)
- Found it hard to inspect visual defects and the effect of parameters like max number of bounces and sampling rate per pixel. So I created a visualization tool in raylib and it took alot of time but not as much as trying to learn scripting in gimp. I now understand the power of lisp and the leverage a repl has.
- visual studio code is great for viewing markdown before publishing to github ;)
to get the final image install zig version 0.14 and run
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast run -- --vfov 20 --focus-dist 10 --defocus-angle 0.6 --from 13 2 3 --at 0 0 0 --width 1200 --samples 500 --depth 50 > image.ppm
or just use the binary ./raytracing with the above options