Chapter 17
Next Steps

Here you are at the end. What a ride, eh? From tuples and matrices, you’ve proceeded all the way through ray-sphere intersections, shading and shadows, patterns, reflections and refractions, and on up to constructive solid geometry. You’ve built something to be proud of.

As with any good project, though, the “end” is just a line drawn in the sand. The book ends here, but you can add so much more to your ray tracer, and the path you take is entirely up to you. New features are limited only by your imagination (and, maybe, your perseverance in the face of a bit more math). Here are some ideas that you might use as jumping-off points for your own experimentation and research.

Let’s start by casting light on some light source variations.