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Change Log -- Ray Tracing in One Weekend

v4.0.0-alpha.2 (2024-04-07)

This alpha wraps up most of the major changes we expect to make to book 2 for the impending v4.0.0 release, along with a bunch of updates to the other two books. Since the alpha.1 release last August, we've been lucky to have onboarded two new contributors: Arman Uguray and Nate Rupsis. They've been helping out a ton with this release, and Arman is also developing his GPU Ray Tracing book at the same time!

This release is a bit faster, thanks to some new BVH optimizations. We've eliminated the negative radius sphere hack to model hollow spheres, instead accomplishing this with refraction indices. This eliminates a bunch of places in the code where we had to accomodate this, and probably a bunch of bugs we still haven't found. We now load texture images in linear color space, fixing a long-running bug where we were gamma-correcting our textures twice -- you'll notice object texture maps look a bit darker and less washed out. Refraction text has gotten a bit of an overhaul, and a better example of total internal reflection. Of course, this also includes a load of small fixes, tweaks, and improvements.

Our current plan is to get the final v4.0.0 release out the door by SIGGRAPH 2024, targeting July 28. With that, here are the latest changes since our alpha.1 release:

Common

  • Delete -- Removed rtw_stb_image.h header from book 1 source, as it's unused there.
  • Change -- Increase compile warning levels for MSVC, and corrected newly-flagged code.
  • Change -- Default to using post-increment everywhere
  • Change -- We've removed the few cases where we used C++ default constructors. Instead, we either require all parameters, or use operator overloading to use default values.
  • Change -- For clarity across audiences with broad programming backgrounds, we now use double(x) instead of static_cast<double>(x), and similarly for other types, for easier readability for non-C++ programmers.
  • Change -- The ray class constructors no longer use C++ default parameter values
  • Change -- Remove pixel sampling knowledge from write_color(). This simplifies write_color() to take only the desired output color, and made each phase in color computation easier to understand.
  • Change -- ray::origin() and ray::direction() getters now return const references, avoiding unnecessary copies.
  • Change -- Cleaned up the use of the hit_record class in material.h
  • Change -- All books now point to the project wiki instead of the in1weekend blog for further reading links.
  • Change -- New BVH optimization splits the bounds according to the longest bounding box dimension, yielding a 15-20% speedup (#1007)
  • Change -- Reversed the ray-sphere direction and calculations throughout equations and code for all books. This ended up simplifying equations and code in several places (#1191)
  • Change -- Pass vec3, point3, ray, and color parameters by const reference where possible (#1250)
  • Change -- Changed BVH construction (removed const qualifer for objects vector) so sorting is done in place, and copying of vector is avoided, yielding better BVH build performance (#1327, #1388, #1391)
  • Change -- Implement hollow spheres using refraction index instead of negative radii. Additionally, we now block negative radius spheres. This fixes a bunch of corner cases with inverted spheres (#1420)
  • Change -- Refactor pixel subsampling to make the sampling functions simpler and better focused in scope (#1421)
  • Change -- All constructor parameter names now match their member names if assigned directly. C++ can handle this without ambiguity, and it means we don't have to come up with alternate names for everything (#1427)
  • Change -- material::scatter() gets a trivial default implementation (#1455)
  • Fix -- Fixed section describing total internal reflection. It turns out that spheres with refraction index greater than the surrounding atmosphere cannot exhibit total internal reflection. Changed example to instead model a bubble of air in water, and updated the rendered images to match (#900)
  • Fix -- Fix references from random_in_hemisphere() to random_on_hemisphere() (#1198)
  • Fix -- The linear_to_gamma() function has been hardened against negative inputs (#1202)
  • Fix -- Fixed default camera look-from and look-at values (#1341)
  • Fix -- The quad bounding box now considers all four vertices instead of erroneously only using two (#1402)
  • New -- Added PRINTING.md to give information about how to print these books to PDF or paper. We will also be including PDFs of each book with each new GitHub release going forward.

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Update reference to "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics" to "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice". This is the name used by newer editions of the book.
  • Change -- Updated the "Next Steps" section at the end of book 1 (#1209)
  • Change -- Update rtweekend.h header introduction and use (#1473)
  • Fix -- Fix code listing ordering bug with lambertian texture support (#1258)
  • New -- Improved help for the very first build and run.
  • New -- Define albedo prior to first use (#1430)

The Next Week

  • Change -- Lots of miscellaneous edits and clarifications to book two as we encountered them. This also includes various improvements to code listings to provide better context and address discrepancies between the listings and the actual source code.
  • Change -- perlin::turb() no longer defaults the value for the depth parameter.
  • Change -- AABB automatically pads to mininmum size for any dimension; no longer requires primitives to call aabb::pad() function.
  • Change -- Switch from ray = A + tb to ray = Q + td in AABB text.
  • Change -- Update checker scale to 0.32
  • Change -- Refactor AABB class. Renamed aabb::axis() to aabb::axis_interval(). Minor refactoring of aabb::hit() function. (#927, #1270)
  • Change -- Reworked the AABB chapter. Created skippable sections for planar coordinates derivation (#1236)
  • Fix -- Updated book 2 images to match the latest code.
  • Fix -- Images loaded for texture mapping are now converted from their original gamma to linear color space for use. Rendered images are still gamma corrected to 2.0 on output (#842)
  • Fix -- Fix regression in calls to Perlin turb() functions with scaled points (these should be unscaled). (#1286)
  • New -- Add section on alternative 2D primitives such as triangle, ellipse and annulus (#1204, #1205)

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Add missing backslash for LaTeX operatorname (#1311)
  • Fix -- Fix LaTeX functions with underscore (#1330)

v4.0.0-alpha.1 (2023-08-06)

It's been quite a while since our last release of v3.2.3 at the end of 2020. For this cycle, we've tackled a load of significant backlog items, including rewrites of much of our underlying code. As always, the primary idea isn't to provide the best or most optimal implementation, but instead to put out simple, sometimes crude first approximations of the main components of writing a ray tracer.

Highlights include large rewrites and expansions of the book text, a large refactoring of our camera class, folding moving_sphere functionality into sphere, adding a new interval class for use in multiple contexts, creating a new general quad primitive to replace the old *_rect primitives, and the addressing of hundreds of issues and requested features. The line-item changes below should give you an idea of v4 includes.

In order to drive this release to resolution, we're releasing our alpha.1 version to coincide with the start of SIGGRAPH 2023. We've pretty much finished with book one, though there's a fair amount left for books two and three. Our plan is to keep crunching for a final v4.0.0 release by the end of 2023.

Since this is an alpha, we would greatly appreciate any feedback you might have. Let us know by creating issues up on the GitHub project.

Common

  • Delete -- box, xy_rect, yz_rect, xz_rect classes. These are replaced with new quad primitive (#292, #780, #681)
  • Change -- Use class instead of struct throughout for simpler C++ (#781)
  • Change -- Moved all class method definitions inside class definition (#802)
  • Change -- Class public/private access labels get consistent two-space indents (#782)
  • Change -- Updated classes to use private access for class-private variables (#869)
  • Change -- Made our code inline clean. We now use inline in all header function definitions to guard against copies in multiple C++ translation units (#803)
  • Change -- Retired the src/common/ directory. Each book now has complete source in one directory
  • Change -- Significant rewrite and expansion of the camera class
  • Change -- aabb class constructor treats two params as extreme points in any orientation (#733)
  • Change -- hittable:hit() methods use new interval class for ray-t parameter
  • Change -- interval::clamp() replaces standalone clamp utility function
  • Change -- aabb class uses intervals for each axis (#796)
  • Change -- hittable member variable ptr renamed to object
  • Change -- General rename of mat_ptr to mat (material)
  • Change -- hittable::bounding_box() signature has changed to always return a value (#859)
  • Change -- Replaced random vector in isotropic with random_unit_vector
  • Change -- Use std::clog instead of std::cerr to log scanline progress (#935)
  • Change -- Updated figures throughout for improved clarity when possible
  • Change -- Generated images are now output gamma-corrected rather than in linear space (#980, #1033)
  • Change -- The camera class now handles images with width or height of one (#682, #1040)
  • Fix -- CSS fix for cases where code listing overflows; change to fit content (#826)
  • Fix -- Enabled compiler warnings for MSVC, Clang, GNU. Cleaned up warnings as fit (#865)
  • Fix -- Remove redundant virtual keyword for methods with override (#805)
  • Fix -- rect hit returning NaNs and infinities (#681)
  • Fix -- Add \mathit to italic math variables to fix slight kerning issues in equations (#839)
  • Fix -- Fixed issues in Bib(La)TeX entries.
  • New -- Introduce new interval class used throughout codebase (#777)
  • New -- rtw_image class for easier image data loading, better texture file search (#807)
  • New -- 2D quad primitive of arbitrary orientation (#756)
  • New -- box() utility function returns hittable_list of new quad primitives (#780)

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Updated all rendered images in text
  • Change -- Significant update to the diffuse reflection section (#696, #992)
  • Change -- Updated and clarified text around ray generation and the camera model
  • New -- More commentary about the choice between double and float (#752)
  • New -- Software context around the shadow acne listing

The Next Week

  • Delete -- The moving_sphere class is deprecated, and functionality moved to sphere (#1125)
  • Change -- Rearranged the texture-mapping presentation. The three types (solid, spatial, image) are now sequenced in that order, and the checker texture presented more explicitly as an illustration of a spatial texture.
  • Change -- Broad rewrite of time management for moving objects, primarily camera and sphere, but also impacting the API for hittable::bounding_box() (#799)
  • Change -- The sphere class now includes animation capability originally in moving_sphere (#1125)
  • Fix -- Fixed bvh_node constructor definition signature (#872)
  • Fix -- Fixed scaling for final Perlin noise texture (#896).
  • New -- Add listing to use new bvh_node class in the random_spheres scene (#715).

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Added missing functionality for isotropic (#664)
  • Fix -- Variable direction was used without being defined in listing 11 (#831)
  • Fix -- Fixed uniform sampling (#934)

v3.2.3 (2020-12-07)

Common

  • Change -- Markdeep library URL updated to new location

The Next Week

  • Fix -- Correct parameter name typo for bvh_node constructor parameter src_objects

v3.2.2 (2020-10-31)

Common

  • Change -- Refactor sphere::hit() method to reuse common blocks of code.
  • Change -- Improved the explanation and calculation of sphere UV coordinates (#533)
  • Fix -- Added fmin to book text for cos_theta of refract (#732)
  • Fix -- Standardized naming for ray-t and time parameters (#746)
  • Fix -- random_unit_vector() was incorrect (#697)
  • Fix -- Synchronize text and copies of hittable.h
  • Fix -- Synchronize copies of hittable_list.h, material.h, sphere.h

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Wrote brief explanation waving away negative t values in initial normal sphere
  • Fix -- Catch cases where lambertian::scatter() yields degenerate scatter rays (#619)
  • Fix -- Syntax error in listing 58 (Dielectric material class with reflection) (#768)
  • Fix -- Correct wording for ray traversal text (#766)

The Next Week

  • Fix -- Catch cases where lambertian::scatter() yields degenerate scatter rays (#619)

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Missing override keyword for xz_rect::pdf_value() and xz_rect::random() methods (#748)
  • Fix -- Synchronize book and source for cornell_box() function.
  • Fix -- Introduction of light code was introduced out of sequence (#738, #740)
  • Fix -- ray_color() was creating a new light for every ray bounce (#759)

v3.2.1 (2020-10-03)

Common

  • Change -- Refactored dielectric class for clarity
  • Fix -- Update local Markdeep library (for offline reading) to v1.11. The prior version had incorrect content (#712)
  • Fix -- Image texture destructor should call STBI_FREE instead of delete (#734)

In One Weekend

  • Delete -- Remove premature cstdlib include; not needed until we use rand() (#687)
  • Fix -- Replace old anti-alias result image with before-and-after image (#679)
  • Fix -- Listing 29: Added missing rtweekend.h include (#691)
  • Fix -- Undefined vup variable in camera definition (#686)
  • Fix -- Listing 51: Add missing hittable.h, rtweekend.h includes (#693)
  • Fix -- Listing 59: ["Full glass material"] Diverged from source
  • Fix -- Fix error in citation section (#721)
  • Fix -- Listings 33, 39: Add consistent function signature for trilinear_interp (#722)

The Next Week

  • Delete -- Remove unused u,v,w variables in initial perlin::noise() function (#684)
  • Change -- bvh_node no longer reorders the source vector of scene objects; uses local copy instead (#701)
  • Fix -- Listing 5: Neglected to add ray time for metal and dielectric materials (#133)
  • Fix -- Listing 15: In bvh.h, add missing hittable_list.h include (#690)
  • Fix -- Listing 33, 34, 38: Change implicit casts to explicit ones (#692)
  • Fix -- Listing 40: Change perlin.h in the caption to texture.h (#698)
  • Fix -- Listing 70: Add missing bvh.h (#694)
  • Fix -- Listing 70 and main.cc: Change a fuzz value of a metal sphere to 1.0 which is the maximum value (#694)
  • Fix -- Fix error in citation section (#721)

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Fix errors in citation section (#721)
  • Fix -- Area equation in section 3.3 Constructing a PDF and nearby text (#735)
  • New -- Listing 36: Add missing updates to dielectric class for updating specular in scatter record

v3.2.0 (2020-07-18)

We're still chasing that elusive stable project state where we're mostly done with large changes, yet we keep finding more and more to tweak and improve. Besides the usual batch of corrections and small improvements, for this change we plodded through the complete code progression for both books one and two (In One Weekend and The Next Week). This caught a lot of issues (to our dismay), and allowed us to generate a complete set of new render images for both books, to catch up with all of the changes we've been making. The end result is that readers should find a significantly better agreement between the book and their code as they progress, and their renders should also generally match.

Besides the new rendered images, we also much improved the image parameters, which were frequently missing from the previous version, leaving readers to guess at their values, or go to the code to try to figure out how we created some of the images. In general, our working renders are now 400 pixels wide, usually 16:9 aspect ratio. We now use an explicit aspect ratio and deduce the image height and other camera values, so you can tweak your render size just by changing the image width (instead of updating a bunch of dependent parameters).

One interesting late change we made was adding explicit C++ override labels to subclass methods. We did this mostly to aid code readers, but were surprised to find that it actually caught a pretty significant bug hiding in our code (see entry in common changes below).

You'll also see a new citation section at the end of the books, to encourage uniform citations out in the world, making it easier for people to refer to and track these books.

As is typical, though we roughly follow semantic versioning, we're considering this release a minor change instead of a major one. It's a common reflex, because people generally have a (misguided) aversion to bumping the major version a lot. We consider it minor because most of the changes are quite local, some classes get new constructors and any variances should be quite simple and easy to fix up. Still, one might consider this more properly a major version bump.

For our next larger-than-patch release, we're beginning a large revisit of book 3, Ray Tracing: The Rest of Your Life. There's a lot of work to do, and this will likely be a significant change and improvement. We're hoping that changes to books one and two will be small, but that's never worked out for us before. Ah, dreams.

Common

  • Delete -- Vestigial vec3::write_color() method (now in color.h)
  • Change -- All images and figures renamed to follow more logical convention, using the following pattern: {fig,img}-<book>.<sequence>-<title>.<filetype> (#495)
  • Change -- main() function gets organized into image, world, camera, and render chunks
  • Change -- Added header guards to the text of all three books whenever a new header file was introduced, consistent with source code (#645)
  • Change -- Added override keywords throughout. This keyword marks a subclass method as one that is intended to override a superclass method. It makes the code a bit easier to understand, and ensures that your function is actually overriding the method you think it is. Which is good, because it already caught an existing bug in The Rest of Your Life source. This change includes commenting out the book 3 isotropic::scatter() method, which was accidentally ignored anyway. (#639, #669)
  • Fix -- Found a bug in book 3 source isotropic::scatter() method. Commented out, using default (as it was previously). (#669)
  • New -- Added constructors that take color arguments in addition to the constructors taking shared_ptr<texture> arguments, simplifying calling code. Applies to checker_texture, constant_medium, diffuse_light, lambertian, and isotropic (#516, #644)
  • New -- Each book gets a section of recommended citation examples (#500)

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Updated all rendered images except for 1.13, 1.14 (#179, #547, #548, #549, #550, #551, #552, #553, #554, #555, #556, #557, #560, #561, #562, #563, #564, #565, #566)
  • Change -- Standard working render width changed to 400 pixels
  • Change -- Image 6 is now a before-and-after pair to illustrate antialiasing
  • Change -- Listing 48: Refactored material and geometry declarations
  • Change -- Listing 52: Refactored assignment of etai_over_etat
  • Change -- Listing 56: Refactored material declarations
  • Change -- Listing 61: Refactored material and geometry declarations
  • Fix -- Corrected various missed change highlights in code listings
  • Fix -- Listing 7: Added missing color.h, vec3.h includes
  • Fix -- Listing 18: Add missing double t member of struct hit_record (#428)
  • Fix -- Listing 24: Add missing color.h include
  • Fix -- Listing 30: Add missing camera.h include
  • Fix -- Listing 42: Don't need to include ray.h when using rtweekend.h
  • Fix -- Listing 48: Add missing material.h include
  • Fix -- Listing 51: refract() function was missing fabs() on sqrt() argument (#559)
  • Fix -- Listing 61: Include updated cam declaration, show context w/highlighting
  • Fix -- Listing 62: Highlight rename of camera::get_ray() parameters to s, t (#616)
  • Fix -- Listing 63: Show reverted scene declarations
  • Fix -- Listing 68: Show final scene render parameters with highlighting
  • Fix -- Rewrote refracted ray perpendicular and parallel components for correctness (#526)
  • New -- Listing 50: Show the updated material definitions

The Next Week

  • Delete -- Deleted the section covering the old flip_face class, renumbered images as this eliminated the rendering with missing Cornell box faces (#270, #482, #661)
  • Delete -- Scenes 7 & 9 from the original (cornell_balls and cornell_final), as these were not covered in the book. Made the source and book consistent with each other. There are now a total of eight scenes for the second book (#653, #620)
  • Change -- Listing 10: Separate out world & camera definitions in main (#646)
  • Change -- Updated most rendered images for book 2: 2.01-2.03, 2.07-2.13, 2.15-2.22.
  • Change -- Scenes get custom image parameters (#650)
  • Fix -- Reduced code duplication in dielectric::scatter() function
  • Fix -- "Intance" typo in Chapter 8.1 to "Instance" (#629)
  • Fix -- Listing 7: Show reverted viewing parameters from book 1 final scene
  • Fix -- Typo in listing caption for filename moving-sphere.h

The Rest of Your Life

  • Change -- Use vup for camera, as in other two books
  • Fix -- World and camera setup in main(), and include full body in book listing (#646)
  • New -- flip_face moved to book 3, where it's needed for the light source (#661)

v3.1.2 (2020-06-03)

In One Weekend

  • Fix -- Correct typo: "Intance Translation" -> "Instance Translation"
  • Fix -- Corrected geometry type when computing distance between two points, final scene (#609)

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Missing closing parenthesis in listing 10 (#603)
  • Fix -- Tiny improvements to the lambertian::scatter() development (#604)
  • Fix -- Correct geometry type and unit vector method in ray_color(), listing 20 (#606)
  • Fix -- Listing 26: alternate random_double() switched distribution, generator (#621)
  • Fix -- Listing 28, 30: light_shape should have default material, not 0 (#607)
  • Fix -- Listing 30: mixture_pdf needs shared_ptr arguments (#608)

v3.1.1 (2020-05-16)

Common

  • Change -- Camera code improvements to make it more robust when any particular value changes. Also, the code develops in a smoother series of iterations as the book progresses. (#536)
  • Fix -- Refactoring the camera code in v3.1.0 missed updating the viewport to match, resulting in distorted renders (#536)

In One Weekend

  • Change -- The C++ <random> version of random_double() no longer depends on <functional> header.
  • Change -- Refactored random_scene(). More named intermediate values, sync'ed with source. (#489)
  • Fix -- Camera initialization with explicit up vector (#537)
  • Fix -- Changed some text around the camera model and the camera defocus blur model (#536)

The Next Week

  • Change -- Refactored random_scene(). Added more named intermediate values, sync'ed with version in In One Weekend and with source. Added highlight for update from last version in book 1. (#489)
  • Change -- The C++ <random> version of random_double() no longer depends on <functional> header.
  • Fix -- Added clarification about updating lambertian variables from color to solid_color.
  • Fix -- Corrected for-loop indices (they differed from the version in book 1) in random_scene().
  • Fix -- Introduce "Texture Coordinates for Spheres" in Chapter 4 to support (u,v) coordinates in hit_record (#496)
  • Fix -- Small correction: we now use std::sort instead of qsort (#490)

v3.1.0 (2020-05-03)

This minor upgrade adds some fixes and changes that are a bit more than just patches. The text now has subchapter headings to help readers browse content and get a bit more context. We're introducing new type aliases point3 and color for vec3 to better indicate the underlying mathematical types of parameters and variables. Overall, a bunch of small improvements that we'd recommend adopting, but may warrant comparison with any current projects.

Common

  • Change -- Minor change to use new point3 and color type aliases for vec3 (#422)
  • Change -- Renamed constant_texture to solid_color, add RGB constructor (#452)
  • Change -- Moved vec3::write_color() method to utility function in color.h header (#502)
  • Change -- Switch from ffmin/ffmax to standard fmin/fmax (#444, #491)
  • Change -- Math notation to bold uppercase points, bold lowercase no-barb vectors (#412)
  • Change -- Books use Markdeep's image class=pixel for rendered image fidelity (#498)
  • Fix -- Include cmath in vec3.h (#501)
  • Fix -- Scattered improvements to the text
  • New -- Subchapters throughout all three books (#267)
  • New -- Add explanation for padding aarect in the zero dimension (#488)

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Define image aspect ratio up front, then image height from that and the image width
  • Change -- Default image sizes changed from 200x100 to 384x216
  • Change -- First image size changed to 256x256
  • Fix -- Improve image size and aspect ratio calculation to make size changes easier
  • Fix -- Added t parameter back into hit_record at correct place
  • Fix -- Image basic vectors off by one
  • Fix -- Update image and size for first PPM image
  • Fix -- Update image and size for blue-to-white gradient image
  • Fix -- Update image and size for simple red sphere render
  • Fix -- Update image and size for sphere with normal-vector coloring
  • Fix -- Correct typo in "What's next?" list to rejoin split paragraph on "Lights." Adjust numbering in rest of list.

The Next Week

  • Change -- Large rewrite of the image_texture class. Now handles image loading too. (#434)

v3.0.2 (2020-04-11)

Common

  • Change -- Every book source now includes from a single common acknowledgments document
  • Fix -- Code styling for source code both inline and in fenced blocks (#430)

In One Weekend

  • Fix -- Correct typo: "consine" to "cosine"

The Next Week

  • Fix -- shared_ptr dereference and simplify code in hittable_list::bounding_box() (#435)
  • Fix -- Erroneous en-dash in code block. Replace –> with -> (#439)
  • Fix -- Introduce u,v surface coordinates to hit_record (#441)
  • Fix -- Add highlight to new hittable::bounding_box() method (#442)

The Rest of Your Life

  • Fix -- Unitialized variable in first version of integrate_x_sq.cc
  • Fix -- Remove unreferenced variables in several sample programs
  • Fix -- Correct program computation of the integral of x^2 (#438)

v3.0.1 (2020-03-31)

Common

  • Delete -- Delete old README files specific to each book (#410)
  • Fix -- Display rendered images as pixelated instead of smoothed (#179)

In One Weekend

  • Fix -- Remove duplicated text and reword on the camera up vector (#420)

v3.0.0 (2020-03-23)

With the migration to a web format accomplished in v2.0.0, we immediately began work on a new major release: v3.0.0. This release tackles the following key themes:

  • Establishing a common build system for the three projects. We chose CMake for its broad support for multiple platforms, as well as multiple build tools and IDEs. This change includes a reorganization of the project source files, and unifying a lot of code across projects.

  • A major upgrade of the project source code, addressing a number of large changes that we had deferred for later.

  • A number of larger changes to the book content, refining some approaches and ideas, and addressing some areas in the text that needed improvement.

Following this release, we expect to switch to a much more incremental approach, mostly with patch-level (fix) changes and some minor-level (addition) changes.

Common to All Project Source

  • Change -- Default floating-point type changed from float to double (#150)
  • Change -- Materials are now referenced with std::shared_ptr pointers
  • Change -- Complete elimination of bare pointers and new/delete
  • Change -- hittable_list uses std::vector plus std::shared_ptr pointers
  • Change -- Header cleanup across the source code (#218, #220)
  • Change -- Cleaned up standard C++ header use (#19)
  • Change -- Improved random number generator utilities
  • Change -- Replace MAXFLOAT with (portable) infinity (#195, #216)
  • Change -- A lot of code cleanup, refactoring, renaming (#192)
  • Change -- Disable compile warnings for external stb_image.h on Windows
  • Change -- Replace pi with portable version (#207)
  • Change -- ray_color() function now has max depth passed in, rather than hard-coding it (#143)
  • Change -- Added random_in_unit_sphere(), random_unit_vector(), random_in_hemisphere() to vec3.h. Fixed places where we were using one but should have been using another. (#145)
  • Change -- General rework of the vec3 header (#153, #156, #215)
  • Change -- Clarify sphere intersection code, plus slight perf improvement (#113)
  • Change -- ray::point_at_parameter() renamed to ray::at()
  • Change -- Moved ffmin(), ffmax() from aabb.h to rtweekend.h
  • Change -- Move low-level utility functions to more appropriate headers
  • Change -- squared_length() renamed to length_squared()
  • Change -- Update sphere::hit() function.
  • Change -- Refraction variables renamed to match reflection variable names
  • Change -- Simplify lambertian scatter direction calculation
  • Fix -- Diffuse PDF computation uses random point on sphere, rather than inside
  • Fix -- Improve color [0,1] -> [0,255] mapping
  • New -- CMake configuration & build
  • New -- Added progress output for main programs (#139)
  • New -- src/common directory for code shared across books
  • New -- Common project-wide header: src/common/rtweekend.h
  • New -- File constants.h with portable math constants (#151)
  • New -- vec3::write_color - provides a robust output method for color data (#93)
  • New -- degrees_to_radians() utility function (#217)
  • New -- random_int(), random_double(), and vec3::random() utility functions
  • New -- Added safety value when surface texture has null data
  • New -- Main programs now define and handle parameterized background color

Common to All Books

  • Change -- Code in source and in book reformatted to a consistent 96-column line length (#219)
  • Change -- Lots more highlighting of changed code in books to aid reading
  • Change -- Math typesetting fixes throughout the books (#13)
  • Change -- Books now use Markdeep's chapter indirection syntax
  • Change -- Updated several output images to match code updates
  • Change -- Books general styling improvements (#197)
  • Change -- Refactored acknowledgements. These are now moved to and duplicated in each book
  • Fix -- Fixed various minor problems in the text
  • New -- Added code listing captions, including source file name, for all books (#238)
  • New -- Added captions to all figures (#238)
  • New -- Local copy of markdeep.min.js for offline reading

In One Weekend

  • Change -- Reworked Lambertian reflection text (#155)
  • Change -- Revised the figure for computing a random reflection vector (#142)
  • Fix -- Update ray_color() code blocks to match current source (#391)
  • New -- Clarified text around the ideal Lambertian distribution (#155)
  • New -- Additional explanatory text to the dielectric chapter
  • New -- Image for hemispherical rendering
  • New -- Image for dealing with front and back faces (#326)

The Next Week

  • Change -- Added proper handling of front vs back face intersection (#270)
  • Fix -- Fixed bug in noise_texture::value() (#396)
  • Fix -- Correct first Perlin noise() function in "The Next Week".
  • Fix -- Fix OCR error in texture::value() function (#399)
  • Fix -- Remove premature declaration of moving_sphere::bounding_box() (#405)
  • New -- "The Next Week" main program added swtich statement for different scenes
  • New -- "The Next Week" main program now defines all image/camera parameters for each scene

The Rest of Your Life

  • Delete -- Several unused source files from src/TheRestOfYourLife
  • Change -- Improved naming of auxilliary programs in The Rest of Your Life source
  • Fix -- Delete unused variable p in main() (#317)

v2.0.0 (2019-10-07)

This major release marks an overhaul of the entire series, moving from a primarily PDF format to a web accessible format using Markdeep (https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/). This represents a huge overhaul to the contents, particularly around source code blocks in the text, mathematical typesetting and source-code cleanup.

Common

  • Delete -- Deprecated existing InOneWeekend, TheNextWeek, TheRestOfYourLife repos
  • Change -- Moved existing InOneWeekend, TheNextWeek, TheRestOfYourLife content to io repo
  • Change -- Rewrote vec3.h cross function for clarity
  • Fix -- All instances of hitable have become hittable
  • Fix -- Replaced drand48() with portable random_double number generation
  • New -- General release to web
  • New -- Created single monolithic raytracing.github.io repo
  • New -- License change to CC0 in COPYING.txt
  • New -- CHANGELOG.md
  • New -- CONTRIBUTING.md
  • New -- COPYING.txt
  • New -- README.md
  • New -- Raytracing.github.io links to all the three books
  • New -- CSS for all books
  • New -- CSS for the print variant of the books

In One Weekend

  • Delete -- Code, vec3 p = r.point_at_parameter(2.0); in main.cc
  • Change -- README files updated for top level, source, and books
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 0 Overview has become Chapter 1, all subsequent chapters incremented
  • Change -- Text, Syntax highlighting of source modifications
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 3, Reorder include files in code blocks to match src conventions
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 3, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 3, Reordered vec3 class functions to + - * /
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 4, Reorder include files in code blocks to match src conventions
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 6, Reorder include files in code blocks to match src conventions
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 6, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 7, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 9, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 9, Put function signatures and { on the same line
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 10, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 10, Put function signatures and { on the same line
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 11, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 13, Put function signatures and { on the same line
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 7, Add #include "random.h" in code blocks
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 10, Added metal fuzziness parameter for initial dielectric
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 13, Added metal fuzziness parameter
  • Fix -- Code, Removed extraneous ; from vec3::&operator[] signature
  • New -- Markdeep page created for entire body of text
  • New -- Markdeep MathJax for formulae and equations for body of text
  • New -- Raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingInOneWeekend.html

The Next Week

  • Change -- Text, Chapter 0 Overview has become Chapter 1, all subsequent chapters incremented
  • Change -- Text, Syntax highlighting of source modifications
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 2, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 3, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 4, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 5, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 5, added "texture" to "We can use that texture on some spheres"
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 7, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 7, "This is yz and xz" changed to "This is xz and yz"
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 8, Changed "And the changes to Cornell is" to "... Cornell are"
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 9, Changed short if statements to two lines for Consistency
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 10, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Code and Text, Chapter 9, cleaned up implementation of constant_medium::hit
  • Change -- Code and Text, Chapter 9, Rewrote debug functionality in constant_medium::hit
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 2, The lambertian class definition now uses vec3 instead of texture
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 7, Changed cornell_box hittable array size to 5
  • Fix -- Code and Text, Chapter 3, Changed List[0] to List[i] in hittable_list::bounding_box().
  • Fix -- Code and Text, Chapter 3, Replaced fmax and fmin with ffmax and ffmin
  • Fix -- Code, Add missing headers to constant_medium.h to fix g++ compiler error
  • New -- Raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingTheNextWeek.html
  • New -- README.md, source README.md
  • New -- Markdeep page created for entire body of text
  • New -- Markdeep MathJax created for formulae and equations for body of text
  • New -- Earth map picture for use in rendering

The Rest of Your Life

  • Change -- Text, Chapter 0 Overview has become Chapter 1, all subsequent chapters incremented
  • Change -- Text, Syntax highlighting of source modifications
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 2, Reorder include files in code blocks to match src conventions
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 3, Reorder include files in code blocks to match src conventions
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 6, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 6, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 8, Changed calculation of a axis to pseudocode
  • Change -- Text, Chapter 8, Consistent use of spaces in code blocks
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter order starting from chapter 2
  • Fix -- Text, Renamed figures and images to match new chapter numbering
  • Fix -- Text, Chapter 4, Rewrote formula for "Color" to "Color = A * color(direction"
  • Fix -- Code and Text, Chapter 6, material::scattering_pdf now returns type float
  • Fix -- Code and Text, Chapter 6, removal of factor of 2 to random_cosine_direction calculation
  • New -- Raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingTheRestOfYourLife.html
  • New -- README.md, source README.md
  • New -- Markdeep page created for entire body of text
  • New -- Markdeep MathJax created for formulae and equations for body of text

v1.123.0 (2018-08-26)

  • New -- First GitHub release of Ray Tracing: The Rest of Your Life.

v1.54.0 (2018-08-26)

  • New -- First GitHub release of Ray Tracing in One Weekend.

v1.42.0 (2018-08-26)

  • New -- First GitHub release of Ray Tracing: The Next Week.