AddingNewVolumeRenderer.md

Adding a new volume renderer

All volume rendering algorithms are found in cppvolrend/structured. Assume we want to create a new renderer, which visualizes isosurfaces. We call it a ray-casting 1-pass isosurface renderer, or short rc1piso. These steps need to be taken to add it:

• Create a new subfolder cppvolrend/rc1piso and add some files:
• • Add the C++ files named rc1pisorenderer.cpp and rc1pisorenderer.h. Their content could come from one of the other algorithms, or be based on volrendernull.cpp/h.
• • Add a compute shader called ray_marching_1p_iso.comp.
• Edit structured/CMakeLists.txt to add the new C++ files in the call to add_executable(). Follow the structure of the existing text there.
• Run CMake. The files should now be part of your buildsystem and appear in your IDE.
• Include the new renderer in the list of renderers available to the program by adding a few lines in structured/main.cpp:

// near the beginning of main.cpp ...
#include "structured/rc1piso/rc1pisorenderer.h"

// ... and in the main function
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
    RenderingManager::Instance()->AddVolumeRenderer(new RayCasting1PassIso());
}

You can now compile and test your new renderer.