🌌 RayPulse - A Custom Ray Tracer in C with OpenGL 🌌

Welcome to RayPulse, a custom-built ray tracing engine designed in C using the OpenGL library. This project aims to deliver high-quality rendering, simulating light interactions with objects in a virtual 3D space.

📑 Table of Contents

• 🎯 Project Goals
• ✨ Features
• 🛠 Requirements
• 📥 Installation
• 🚀 Usage
• 📂 Structure
• 🔮 Future Enhancements

🎯 Project Goals

This project is developed to:

• Gain a deeper understanding of ray tracing principles.
• Implement core graphics and shading techniques.
• Explore the capabilities of OpenGL for handling graphics in C.

✨ Features

• 🌟 Realistic Lighting: Light interactions using basic Phong shading.
• 🔹 Object Rendering: Rendering of spheres, planes, and other primitives.
• 🔮 Reflection and Refraction: Basic reflection/refraction calculations for realistic effects.
• 🎥 Camera Control: Adjustable camera for perspective and view angle settings.
• 🖼 Scene Customization: Ability to add multiple objects, lights, and surfaces.

🛠 Requirements

To run and develop this ray tracer, you’ll need:

• C Compiler: GCC or Clang recommended.
• OpenGL: Ensure OpenGL is installed on your system.
• GLFW: For window and context management.
• GLM: OpenGL Mathematics library for vector and matrix calculations.
• GLEW (optional): For managing OpenGL extensions.

📥 Installation

1. 📂 Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/RayTracer.git
   cd RayTracer

2. 📦 Install dependencies:

   • For Ubuntu/Debian:

     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install libglfw3-dev libglm-dev libglew-dev

   • For macOS:

     brew install glfw glm glew

3. 🛠 Build the project:

   make

🚀 Usage

1. Run the Ray Tracer:

   ./raytracer

2. 🎮 Controls:

   • WASD: Move camera.
   • Arrow Keys: Adjust view angle.
   • +/-: Zoom in/out.

3. 🛠 Customization: Modify the scene.c file to add or adjust objects and lights in the scene.

📂 Structure

The project’s main structure is as follows:

RayTracer/
├── src/
│   ├── main.c            # Program entry point
│   ├── renderer.c        # Core rendering loop and OpenGL setup
│   ├── ray_tracer.c      # Ray tracing calculations
│   ├── scene.c           # Scene setup and object definitions
│   └── shaders/          # OpenGL shaders for lighting and effects
├── include/
│   ├── ray_tracer.h      # Ray tracing header
│   ├── renderer.h        # Renderer header
│   └── scene.h           # Scene header
├── assets/               # Textures or additional assets
└── README.md

🔮 Future Enhancements

• ✨ Additional Shading Models: Implement other shading models, such as Blinn-Phong and Lambertian shading.
• 🔍 Anti-Aliasing: Apply super-sampling to smooth jagged edges.
• ⚡ Multithreading: Improve rendering speed with parallel computation.
• 🌈 Advanced Features: Consider adding shadows, depth of field, or global illumination.

📜 License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.