This is one of the 100 recipes of the IPython Cookbook, the definitive guide to high-performance scientific computing and data science in Python.
In this example, we will render a sphere with a diffuse and specular material. The principle is to model a scene with a light source and a camera, and use the physical properties of light propagation to calculate the light intensity and color of every pixel of the screen.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline
w, h = 200, 200 # Size of the screen in pixels.
def normalize(x):
# This function normalizes a vector.
x /= np.linalg.norm(x)
return x
def intersect_sphere(O, D, S, R):
# Return the distance from O to the intersection
# of the ray (O, D) with the sphere (S, R), or
# +inf if there is no intersection.
# O and S are 3D points, D (direction) is a
# normalized vector, R is a scalar.
a = np.dot(D, D)
OS = O - S
b = 2 * np.dot(D, OS)
c = np.dot(OS, OS) - R*R
disc = b*b - 4*a*c
if disc > 0:
distSqrt = np.sqrt(disc)
q = (-b - distSqrt) / 2.0 if b < 0 \
else (-b + distSqrt) / 2.0
t0 = q / a
t1 = c / q
t0, t1 = min(t0, t1), max(t0, t1)
if t1 >= 0:
return t1 if t0 < 0 else t0
return np.inf
def trace_ray(O, D):
# Find first point of intersection with the scene.
t = intersect_sphere(O, D, position, radius)
# No intersection?
if t == np.inf:
return
# Find the point of intersection on the object.
M = O + D * t
N = normalize(M - position)
toL = normalize(L - M)
toO = normalize(O - M)
# Ambient light.
col = ambient
# Lambert shading (diffuse).
col += diffuse * max(np.dot(N, toL), 0) * color
# Blinn-Phong shading (specular).
col += specular_c * color_light * \
max(np.dot(N, normalize(toL + toO)), 0) \
** specular_k
return col
def run():
img = np.zeros((h, w, 3))
# Loop through all pixels.
for i, x in enumerate(np.linspace(-1., 1., w)):
for j, y in enumerate(np.linspace(-1., 1., h)):
# Position of the pixel.
Q[0], Q[1] = x, y
# Direction of the ray going through the optical center.
D = normalize(Q - O)
# Launch the ray and get the color of the pixel.
col = trace_ray(O, D)
if col is None:
continue
img[h - j - 1, i, :] = np.clip(col, 0, 1)
return img
# Sphere properties.
position = np.array([0., 0., 1.])
radius = 1.
color = np.array([0., 0., 1.])
diffuse = 1.
specular_c = 1.
specular_k = 50
# Light position and color.
L = np.array([5., 5., -10.])
color_light = np.ones(3)
ambient = .05
# Camera.
O = np.array([0., 0., -1.]) # Position.
Q = np.array([0., 0., 0.]) # Pointing to.
img = run()
plt.imshow(img);
plt.xticks([]); plt.yticks([]);
%timeit run()
You'll find all the explanations, figures, references, and much more in the book (to be released later this summer).
IPython Cookbook, by Cyrille Rossant, Packt Publishing, 2014 (500 pages).