DotRaiser

Simple C++ parser for the .ray scene representation format that is often used in ray-tracing applications.

Format

We support a (hopefully sensible) subset of the .ray standard as specified here. Notable differences are as follows:

No Comments

Comments are not supported. For example

point_light {
    position = (1,3,-2);
    // yellow light.
    colour = (1,1,0);
};

is illegal.

Semicolons are Required

All lists enclosed in curley braces must end in a semicolon. For example:

camera {
    position = (0,0,-4);
    viewdir = (0,0,1);
    updir = (0,1,0);
    aspectratio = 1;
};

Supported Objects

For now, we only support polymesh objects loaded in from a .obj file.

Transforms

Transforms must be specified inside the objects instead of around them. For example:

polymesh {
    filename = "cube.obj";
    translate = (1,0,0);
};

instead of

translate(1, 0, 0, polymesh {
    filename = "cube.obj";
});

Material Declarations

Materials must be specified in the objects and we cannot reuse them by name. For example:

polymesh {
    filename = "cube.obj";
    material {
        diffuse = (0.9,0.9,0);
        specular = (1,1,0);
        emissive = (0.1,0.1,0);
        shininess = 0.92;
    };
};

must be used instead of

material {
    name = "gold";
    diffuse = (0.9,0.9,0);
    specular = (1,1,0);
    emissive = (0.1,0.1,0);
    shininess = 0.92;
};
polymesh {
    filename = "cube.obj";
    material = "gold";
};