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The project started with some experimentation of the object oriented
features of the C++ programming language. Virtual functions and
the inheritance mechanism are be perfectly suitable for mapping
the real structure into the digital world.
But Raytracing is more than simple computer programming,
since the aim to create images of maximal realism requires
to think about how this is done in nature and to find laws
and methods which allow the recreation of natural effects
in a virtual laboratory. Therefore the work on raytracing
algorithms involves a wide range of fields, like
numerical mathematics, fractals, General Relativity,
scattering theory, electrodynamics, astronomy.
Even ideas from geography, meteorology and botany
may be of use.
Any additional part of physics which is implemented
leads to more natural results, and this is what
causes the fascination of raytracing.
Improving the rendering and creating even more natural
virtual sceneries as close to the nature as possible
leads to a better understanding and insight of the
nature itself and may open the personal view for
details within the nature which might have been
overseen otherwise.
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