Ray Tracing from the Ground Up

Chapter 11

Nonlinear Projections

Clouds image courtesy of Phillipe Hurbain

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should:

• understand how angular fisheye projection works;
• have implemented a fisheye camera;
• understand how spherical panoramic projection works;
• have implemented a spherical panoramic camera;
• have the tools to produce interesting images using nonlinear projections.

This chapter highlights one of the many advantages that ray tracing has over other graphics algorithms: it’s simple to implement projections that are different from the orthographic and perspective projections discussed in previous chapters. In these projections, ...