END OF AN ERA, FRACTALFORUMS.COM IS CONTINUED ON FRACTALFORUMS.ORG

Here is a C++ and GLSL based raytracer that is entirely open source that I just found by chance (a chance named Google).

http://github.com/vain/GPUTracer

It uses a fairly flexible approach with pluggable formulas for objects, such as the Mandelbulb, Quaternion Julia Sets, etc. It is really a good learning tool and a basis for your own experiments, if you intend to experiment with GPU programming using a cross-platform and C-like high level shader language.

The raymarching is a bit primitive (initial fixed step size, plus final bisection). I don't think it uses advanced mechanisms yet, such as a distance estimate.

The code uses the SCons build environment and is under GPL. It was developed by Peter Hofmann. It uses the GLUT library to manage its OpenGL window. To get the sourcecode you need a tool called "git" (TortoiseGit may work on Windows if you prefer a graphical interface)

to get the source code, this this did the trick for me:
git clone http://github.com/vain/GPUTracer
then build this software by calling scons inside the GPUTracer directory like this:
scons
and to run the program displaying a Mandelbulb
./run.sh

I tested this software under Linux only. I believe since he uses the GNU cpp preprocessor to assemble his final .glsl code, it will require the gcc compiler to be present on your target system (i.e. XCode on Mac, MinGW on Windows). The start script was written for a Unix shell, but will likely also run on MinGW.

Find a German language tutorial about this software here: http://www.uninformativ.de/?ndo=single&newsid=108

Peter Hofmann has a DeviantArt page: http://n-to-infty.deviantart.com/gallery/

Christian

works fine under OSX:
change (inside GPUTracer.cpp)
'#include <GL/glut.h>' like that '#include <GLUT/glut.h>'
remove '-march=native', '-mtune=native' from SConstruct
there's also something else to remove..(see terminal's output..can't remember it now)
and from terminal just add this at the end:
g++ -o tracer GPUTracer.o Viewport.o -L. -framework OpenGL -framework Glut -lVecMath
compile it again