Announcing RayChase 2.05, a random recursive raytracer.

check it out at ;

  http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7845/

or (for just the linux/bsd versions)

  http://members.linuxstart.com/~flux/

This is a major update from RayChase-I wich was a near-realtime raytracer,
it's less realtime now but has much nicer output, there is also a RayChase-II
(e.g. RayChase 2.00) wich is almost identical to this one (RayChase 2.05), this release 
is a maintanance release for the Linux and BSD platforms wich got some additional 
features and now display the resulting image on the destop just as the Windowz version.

Current platforms supported are ;

 - DOS (watcom version)
 - DOS (djgpp version (ecgs))
 - Windows NT/95 (lcc-win32)
 - Windows NT/95 (MetroWerks, Pentium II, MMX support)
 - Linux
 libc5 (gcc) static
 - Linux
 libc5 (gcc) shared
 - Linux libc5 (egcs) static
 - Linux libc5 (egcs) shared 
 - Linux glibc (gcc) static
 - Linux glibc (gcc) shared
 - Linux glibc (egcs) static (optimized for pentium)
 - Linux glibc (egcs) shared (optimized for pentium)
 - FreeBSD (gcc) static
 - FreeBSD (gcc) shared
 - OS/2 v2
 - PowerPC

And here's a quick list of features ;

 - creates random scene's all by itself in any resolution
 - save it as .pcx, .tga, .bmp, .ps, .iff, .ppm, etc.
 - display it on a screen, window or on the desktop
 - ambient, diffuse, reflection (glossy, mirror) properties
 - refraction (translucency) and specular properties
 - true (correct) shadow casting
 - supports multiple (colored) lights
 - output in true color (24 or 32 bpp)
 - supports triangles, quads and spheres
 - fast recursive algorithm
 - lots of effects including ;

   - camera (sun) flares
   - nova bursts
   - plasma's
   - procedural textures (wood, zebra, granite, marble, etc)
   - water waves
   - whirling
   - embossing
   - sky/cloud/snow rendering
   - motion blurring
   - lots of filters (100+)
   - etc, etc. (to get a full list use -list_bitmapfx_drivers)

Each [platform] version is a bit different as far as display is concerned ;

- The Linux RayChase version 2.05 (this one) will render the bitmap to the X 
desktop,
  while the 2.00 (RayChase-II) will render to a X window.
- The Win9x/NT version will render the bitmap to the windows 
desktop.
- The FreeBSD version will render the bitmap to the X 
desktop.
- The DOS version will run full screen
- The PPC and OS/2 version will write out resulting image

Of course all versions allow you to write out the rendered images to a file
wich means you could create neat random backdrops for your web pages !
The new version (2.05) also allows you to execute a script/executable
after each trace wich means it allows you to (for example) automatically
refresh your web graphix every other minute or upload it to an ftp site
or ...

I'd love to get some feedback, so any hints, remarks or
 comments are welcome.

Enjoy.

Cheers, flux.

flux@iae.nl

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7845/
