In this paper, we’ll attempt to provide a “vertical slice” of general relativity providing the re... more In this paper, we’ll attempt to provide a “vertical slice” of general relativity providing the reader with the bare minimum needed to get from classical mechanics to a fully-featured real-time black hole renderer. We’ll assume the reader has some semi-intuitive familiarity with some general aspects of relativity for instance, that gravity curves the path of light rays, or that unusual things happen around black hole singularities. While we won’t shy away from going into the underlying mathematics that allows the computation of relativistic phenomena, we’ll also attempt to motivate the mathematics with physical or theoretical examples as much as possible. The final raytracer implementation is largely based on James, Tunzelmann, Franklin, and Thorne’s description of the Double Negative Gravitational Renderer built to deliver 12K imagery for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (James et al., 2015). Our final source is about 1/470th as long as that of DNGR; as such, there are many real-wor...
Modern graphics APIs offer performant, low-level access to accelerated ray tracing. With this con... more Modern graphics APIs offer performant, low-level access to accelerated ray tracing. With this control and flexibility come complexity and nuance that can present challenges that are difficult for developers to navigate. This chapter will serve as an introduction to one method of harnessing the power of hardware-accelerated ray tracing: Vulkan and the Vulkan Ray Tracing extensions.
In this paper, we’ll attempt to provide a “vertical slice” of general relativity providing the re... more In this paper, we’ll attempt to provide a “vertical slice” of general relativity providing the reader with the bare minimum needed to get from classical mechanics to a fully-featured real-time black hole renderer. We’ll assume the reader has some semi-intuitive familiarity with some general aspects of relativity for instance, that gravity curves the path of light rays, or that unusual things happen around black hole singularities. While we won’t shy away from going into the underlying mathematics that allows the computation of relativistic phenomena, we’ll also attempt to motivate the mathematics with physical or theoretical examples as much as possible. The final raytracer implementation is largely based on James, Tunzelmann, Franklin, and Thorne’s description of the Double Negative Gravitational Renderer built to deliver 12K imagery for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (James et al., 2015). Our final source is about 1/470th as long as that of DNGR; as such, there are many real-wor...
Modern graphics APIs offer performant, low-level access to accelerated ray tracing. With this con... more Modern graphics APIs offer performant, low-level access to accelerated ray tracing. With this control and flexibility come complexity and nuance that can present challenges that are difficult for developers to navigate. This chapter will serve as an introduction to one method of harnessing the power of hardware-accelerated ray tracing: Vulkan and the Vulkan Ray Tracing extensions.
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Papers by Neil Bickford