I Tried Ray-Tracing Glass and Rainbows

Explore advanced ray-tracing techniques through hands-on coding to render realistic glass materials, caustics, and rainbow effects in this 41-minute programming tutorial. Learn to implement glass rendering with proper refraction and reflection, troubleshoot common bugs including NaN (Not a Number) errors, and add light absorption for more realistic materials. Discover how to create frosted glass effects and test implementations with glass ball renders. Compare stack-based versus stochastic approaches for ray-tracing calculations, then dive into visualizing caustics including cardioid and water caustic patterns. Master rainbow rendering through spectral light simulation and conduct experiments with spectral rendering techniques. Follow along with practical coding examples that demonstrate the mathematical principles behind light behavior, refraction indices, and optical phenomena while building a functional ray-tracer capable of producing photorealistic glass and optical effects.