Ray Tracer Challenge
by Jamis Buck · first published 2019
91% recommend9% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Language-agnostic, test-driven walkthrough for building a ray tracer from scratch, starting with matrix math. It holds your hand with little graphics theory, so it suits anyone using a project to learn a new language.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2018–2026Mazes for programmers
Jamis Buck
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 2219 recommend · 22 mention19 recommend · 2219 recommend
Ray Tracing in One Weekend
Peter Shirley, Trevor D. Black, Steve Hollasch
Recommended by 48 · mentioned by 6548 recommend · 65 mention48 recommend · 6548 recommend
2014–2023If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript
Angus Croll
Recommended by 9 · mentioned by 109 recommend · 10 mention9 recommend · 109 recommend
2010–2026Physically Based Rendering
Matt Pharr, Greg Humphreys, Wenzel Jakob
Recommended by 92 · mentioned by 10992 recommend · 109 mention92 recommend · 10992 recommend
2016–2026Writing An Interpreter In Go
Thorsten Ball
Recommended by 73 · mentioned by 9073 recommend · 90 mention73 recommend · 9073 recommend
Beautiful Racket
Matthew Butterick
Recommended by 44 · mentioned by 4744 recommend · 47 mention44 recommend · 4744 recommend
2018–2026Computer Graphics from Scratch
Gabriel Gambetta
Recommended by 12 · mentioned by 1212 recommend · 12 mention12 recommend · 1212 recommend
Building Git
James Coglan
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 2319 recommend · 23 mention19 recommend · 2319 recommend
…to learn. I also use this exercise from time-to-time to test new language features (for example C++20 ranges/coroutines recently). I also recommend this same exercise to others through the book "The Ray Tracer Challenge" [1] by Jamis Buck, because it describes an entire implementation of a raytracer in pseudocode. Beginners mostly just need to plug-in their language of choice & still end up with a satisfying visual result.…
on “Ask HN: What is the coding exercise you use to explore a new language?” ↗Another splendid resource which I've found to be in the same spirit is Jamis Buck's The Ray Tracer Challenge. It follows a language-agnostic test-driven approach to making a raytracer from scratch.
on “Computer Graphics from Scratch (2017)” ↗…natural melding of the two. Macros are a really interesting way to achieve many of the same metaprogramming properties of Ruby (although a little awkward to reason about). I used Jamis Buck's book The Ray Tracer Challenge[1] as a fun kind of way to learn the language and ended up learning a good chunk of the language as a result. My biggest complaint is just that it's not more popular - it's ecosystem is pretty web developer-centric…
on “I rewrote in Crystal my tool to quickly create Kubernetes clusters in Hetzner” ↗Jamis Buck has a new-ish book out called "The Ray Tracer Challenge" that I've been slowly working through. So far I really like the way it's written: everything is test-based, so you get a problem like: "given matrix X and vector Y, X * Y should be vector Z" and then…
on “How to Start Learning Computer Graphics Programming” ↗I've always had an interest in computer graphics, but never studied it in school. I found Jamis Buck's _The Ray Tracer Challenge_[1] and got totally hooked on creating a ray tracer. The book walks you through creating everything from scratch, starting with matrix multiplication all the way up through reflection/refraction and rendering…
on “Ask HN: What are you learning?” ↗I learned Rust while implementing a ray tracer. I followed the book _The Ray Tracer Challenge_, by Jamis Buck. It was fantastically fun, and was a great application for Rust!
on “Tour of Rust” ↗I highly recommend the two books: Ray Tracing in One Weekend: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B5AODD8/ The Ray Tracer Challenge: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680502719/ For the latter, I have made it a pretty good way through the book, implementing a functional (in the programming paradigm sense) version of the ray tracer in F#.…
on “Super simple ray tracer guide after first math semester” ↗An other Ray Tracing book I've really been enjoying recently is the Ray Tracer Challenge by Jamis Buck https://pragprog.com/titles/jbtracer/the-ray-tracer-challeng...
on “Ray Tracing Gems II available as free download” ↗I can whole-heartedly recommend "The Ray Tracer Challenge" by Jamis Buck. It's a fun project-based book without all the computer graphics theory, where you focus on building a ray tracer in small increments while Jamis holds your hand until you can walk on your…
on “How to easily read 50 books a year” ↗The Ray Tracer Challenge by Jamis Buck. It uses Cucumber tests to specify the behaviour of the code, without giving you the code. Not a single weekend project. I've been doing it in C++ to learn about the modern language, but…
on “Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024?” ↗“Mazes for Programmers” and “The Ray Tracer Challenge” by Jamis Buck.
on “Ask HN: What are some books where the reader learns by building projects?” ↗also Jamis Buck's "The Ray Tracer Challenge"
on “Ray Tracing with POV-Ray: 25 scenes in 25 days (2013)” ↗“The Ray Tracer Challenge” by Jamis Buck is really good as well
on “I canceled my book deal” ↗Can anyone recommend other books similar to this one? Having done the Nand2Tetris course and started the Ray Tracer Challenge book I find I really like these books that guide you through a pretty complex project. It helps you learn by doing while at the same time preventing you from falling into bad practices or getting overwhelmed.
on “Writing An Interpreter In Go (2016)” ↗On the topic of Ray tracing books: I'm currently at chapter 9 of The Ray Tracer Challenge and I have to say it's a wonderful book and the stellar reviews are well deserved. It handholds you all the way and that is such a breath of fresh air for someone like me, who's not a math guy, nor do…
on “Ray Tracing Essentials, Part 1: Basics of Ray Tracing” ↗