TL;DR: I want to make visualizations and simulations of objects using raytracing or something similar, but I don't know what path I should take. I only know the very basics of C++.

I am planning on pursuing astronomy and astrophysics, and I am particularly interested in creating simulations using raytracing. Realtime raytracing is something that would be absolutely amazing, but I doubt that is realistic for things that aren't computationally simple. I have zero experience with raytracing and I only know some basic fundamentals of C++. I've used OpenGL but I don't have much experience.

I'm not expecting to be able to make simulations in a month or even a year, but I want to know where I should start. One particular project I have in mind is a Kerr-Newman Black Hole. I want to first simulate a Newtonian black hole, then a Karl Schwarzschild black hole, then I want to add a flat accretion disk, then I want to calculate doppler shifting (I know that will be difficult), make the disk volumetric, and then eventually Kerr-Newman physics. Another project I have in mind would be gravity simulations based on general-relativity physics.

I just want to know how I should approach learning these things. I have heard of "raytracing in a weekend" but I haven't begun reading it due to not being fluent in C++. Also, I am very young. I'm only 14 right now and I know it is a VERY big project. I'm probably underestimating how long this would take me, but I want to learn to code because I really think that the result will be rewarding.

A couple of notes: Mathematics will probably not be a problem. I'm taking Calculus II as of now and I plan to take physics classes sometime later. Also, "fundementals" in reference to C++ means console output, basic flow (if, else, for, do, while), classes (private, public, constructors, deconstructors, functions + overloaded fncs, basics of "this" keyword, objects), logical operators, and a familiarity with but not a complete understanding of pointers.

So I have mocap data which consists of local joint transforms relative to the rest pose pose transforms which define the skeleton. This mocap data is of a human. And I have created the kinematic model using the rest pose transforms. For the time being I have made all the joints as ball joints so I can directly apply the poses in the local joint transforms. It is working as expected as the ball joints are oriented using quaternions which I can easily extract using the matrix to quaternion conversion. However to make the model more realistic I would like to model the knees and the elbow joints as hinge joins with a fixed hinge axis. I would now like to know how to transfer the animation in this case, where the hinge joints would just expect a scalar value. I have tried converting the transforms to axis angle however the elbow joints don't really seem to have a fixed axis along which they rotate. I first though that it would be some amount of noise that was changing the axis. But when I checked the variance it was close to 90 degrees so I'm not really sure how I should proceed with this problem. Any help is appreciated. Im using a library called MuJoCo for the same. Here's a Google collab code for the issue. https://colab.research.google.com/drive/154YTdflNrLCGHZ98jPSt_TZeafrYqFR-?usp=sharing#scrollTo=NFxtQ6G12r8S

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a project that requires generating multiple 3D models of tomato plants, each representing different stages of growth. I need to create a wide range of models at various ages and not just a few.

I've done quite a bit of research, including reading academic papers, but I haven't found a clear or straightforward method to achieve this.

Does anyone have any experience or know of any tools that could simplify this process? For example, there are programs that can easily generate trees in various growth stages. I’m looking for something similar but for tomato plants.

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I am seeking for a cpp library, must work on linux and windows, to load a glb with all data, specifically animations. And give me a structure or iterator. If you know one that read gltf and images and its binary to give an iterator, It would be the same. I just need pointers to the right place. I could not find a satisfying one on Google. Thanks👍

I’m currently a senior studying 3D animation at the Rhode Island School of Design. During my time here I became very interested in procedural algorithmic animation. RISD has a cross-registration program with Brown University so I’ve been taking advantage that and enrolling in as many CS courses as possible. Right now I’m doing Intro to Computer Graphics and I love it so much. It’s made me want to pivot into graphics completely. But I’m just not really sure where to go from here. I’m assuming going to grad school would make the most sense that way I can get an actual degree in the field (which I can’t get through cross-registration). Just wondering if anyone has any advice on what schools I should be looking at. In the class I’m taking now, we built a ray-tracer and are now working on real time rendering. Next semester there’s an advanced course I want to take where we go more in depth with computing realistic lighting, setting up physics sims, etc. Apparently we’re also supposed to look into a graphics paper and try to implement its techniques into our final. I think I’m mostly interested in doing something with physics simulations. Also really curious about how ML is going to be integrated into the field and maybe doing something with that. I don’t really know. Would appreciate any advice.

So, I am not very educated on linear math, and am trying to create a low-quality ray tracer in Java. This doesn't need to be anything fancy, just simple rendering that could be used in a 3D game. I have made sort of a ray tracer, but it is slow and the graphics are pretty bad. I know that using another language like C++ or C# would be way better, but I want to see if I can do it in Java.

The way I am raytracing right now is by creating the variables for camera position, camera angle, the "map" (a 2d array of integers to determine if there should be emptiness or a block), the field of view, and the graphics quality. Then, I calculate for each ray that I shoot out - the number of rays is determined by the fov and graphics quality - the direction it's going. I then create an x, y, and z variable and move it in that direction a little bit at a time until it intersects with a block or it was moved 50 times.

I know this approach is really bad, and can 100% be improved apon, but I don't know how. I want to try to use vectors for the rays, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

Sorry if what I'm asking for is unclear (I'm not the best writer), but any help is appreciated.

One year after challenging myself to create a medieval town, I'm back to push my skills even further.

Which version is your favorite and why?

Full Creation Process: https://youtu.be/Ax9PIMHXkp4

Hello! I’ve been working on a game as a hobby for a little over two years now. I’ve come to want to revise my triangulation and polygon clipping system- I have a background in low-level programming (OS internals) but I’m still relatively fresh to graphics programming.

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction towards the current “standard” (if there is one) for both polygon triangulation algorithms and polygon clipping algorithms- whether that be an implementation, a paper, etc. I’m doing some procedural generation, so my current system has a fairly basic sweep-line based algorithm for doing constrained Delaunay triangulation, and another sweep-line based implementation of Boolean set operations for polygon clipping (Union, intersection, difference, XOR).

Through some research already on searching the web, I’ve found a bunch of varying papers from different publishing dates, and was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of what algorithms are more common in production/industry.

Thanks for your advice, time, and help!

1975 Porsche 911 reimagined as a modern GT3RS