Ray Tracer
The goal of this cycle is to introduce you to advanced software engineering. In your career as a Tech Lead/CTO, you will be asked to design and develop software that goes beyond a simple website or web application with a database, API and front-end.
You will need to develop a strategic vision, encompassing :
A vision of the final project you are aiming to produce
A vision of how the project is to be run
A vision of the resources (time, financial, etc.) needed
You will need to innovate :
Be confronted with difficulties and unknowns, and come up with creative solutions
Extract and anticipate client needs and propose creative solutions
You will need to drive and execute a technically difficult project
You will need to manage a technical team
Context
As a software engineer, you will often be asked to model a scientific principle, a mathematical principle, or emulate physics-based behaviors. All this with the aim of creating a useful tool for your customers. This task can often be daunting:
You will need to learn and understand mathematical, physical, or other technical concepts that are outside your comfort zone.
You will need to translate these concepts into your field: data structures, algorithms, architecture, etc.
You will need to overcome performance issues
You will need to deliver a product that is truly useful to your customer
For this project, we are throwing you in at the deep end and asking you to design complex mathematical software! This isn't because we're mean; in fact, there are a number of really important and useful skills that should result from this exercise:
The ability to translate a mathematical principle into an engineering problem
Choosing and implementing good data structures, design patterns, and adopting a clean architecture.
Adding a programming language to your toolbox (if you don't already know C++)
Facing serious optimization problems and trying to find solutions.
Striving to create a pleasant user experience.
This is a group project, and as a result, as a future Tech Lead/CTO, you will also need to practice and refine your non-technical, but nonetheless essential, skills:
Working and coordinating with other developers (planning, delegation, synchronization, conflict resolution, etc.)
Working with a centralized GIT repository
Code review among colleagues
The project : Ray Tracer
It's 2035. AI and Chat-GPT have destroyed the market for technical skills. An entire generation of "vibe-coders" has given rise to a multitude of flawed software versions. The giants of computer image rendering are on their knees. Adobe and Autodesk have gone bankrupt. Blender has become unusable.
The major 3D computer graphics studios are desperate—they need their software to produce their next film and have nowhere to turn! Fortunately, you are here to save the day!
Your mission is to create, from first principles, a ray tracer: software that renders 3D images by simulating how light bounces around a scene.
You have two weeks to develop this software. Our client, a renowned LA based film studio, requires the following features:
Render at least one sphere and one plane with full reflection (i.e., a fully metallic sphere that reflects its surroundings), and produce a single image in PNG format.
You must be able to render a high-resolution image of a scene with a large number of objects and at least 4 light bounces. You must measure the rendering time and include it in your final submission. Remember that a movie is composed of a series of static images. Your software will therefore need to render hundreds of thousands of images to create the movie. Rendering speed is therefore an important factor for the client!
If you succeed, you will receive additional credit for any of the following:
Implementing other surface models (Blinn, Phong, Gourad, Cook-Torrance).
Rendering other shapes, such as cubes, cylinders, triangles
Rendering a 3D model (in .obj, .fbx, .collada, or other format)
Rendering optimization strategies:
Space partitioning
Multi-threading or parallel processing
Use of the GPU
Multi-processing (rendering on a cluster, queues, etc.)
More advanced surface rendering techniques: texture mapping, bump mapping, environment mapping, etc.
A structured scene modeling language (an input file?) specifying the layout of the scene
Anti-aliasing
...
However, in this dystopian future, there are a few constraints! All modern programming languages such as Go, Python, Java, etc. have become completely proprietary. To use them, you have to pay huge royalties, which will make this project unfeasible. You must use the only remaining free language: C++.
Fortunately, there are a few wise elders who can pass on the almost lost knowledge about these fantastic software programs, which has been compiled in this guide. Read this information carefully!
Group project
You will work in teams of maximum 4 people.
We have assigned the teams here.
Note, we are imposing teams in order to break you out of your confort zones, and force you to work and learn from new people.
Engineering, strategy and innovation
As a future tech-lead and CTO, beyond the notion of developing a product, you will be asked more and more to think strategically and long term.
This project will force you to confront these topics too :
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