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mdesoto

It is pretty interesting how close the two processes are to each other, but yet how much the result differs.

FeiFeiFei

Yeah. Just by changing the order of the loop, we have two completely different pipelines.

graphic_content

I was going through the Wikipedia of Ray Tracing. I found this- "The idea of ray tracing comes from as early as the 16th century when it was described by Albrecht Dürer, who is credited for its invention.[1] In Four Books on Measurement, he described an apparatus called a Dürer's door using a thread attached to the end of a stylus that an assistant moves along the contours of the object to draw. The thread passes through the door's frame and then through a hook on the wall. The thread forms a ray and the hook acts as the center of projection and corresponds to the camera position in raytracing." I was surprised at how old the idea was.

keenan

I was surprised at how old the idea was.

@graphic_content Yes, and it's important to have some reverence for that fact. Many of the hot new ideas we see today are repackaging of ideas from long ago. Nothing new under the sun. At the same time, translating old ideas into a contemporary context is an important part of moving the discussion forward. Knowledge is what's alive, not what's sitting on a shelf collecting dust. William Thurston (who was a famous geometer) wrote a really nice little "essay" about this in his response to this question.