Seeking Source Code for PEARLE Ray Tracing Program

[800_Rocks]

I'm looking for the source code for the PEARLE.PRG ray tracing program by Allen King.  The MSA can be found many places including on Atarimania but so far I've found no source code:  http://www.atarimania.com/demo-atari-st-pearle_27106.html

 

To my recent enjoyment I found that it runs on my Falcon030 when in Compatability-> ST Low Res Video mode.  The Falcon renders each image in about 1hour and 15 minutes which (if memory serves) is much faster than on my original 1040ST.  I'd like to see if the program could be improved on the Falcon and TT by using the FPU instruction set and/or more modern algorithms.

 

Bonus Question:  Are there other Ray Tracing programs for the ST/Falcon/TT that you might recommend?  Especially if the source code is also available.  I am familiar with the one that TOM HUDSON wrote for START magazine (referenced below).

 

FYI - For context I am including the first few lines of info found in PEARLE.DOK  the text/documentation file that is found with the .PRG

 

Quote

PEARLE.PRG renders 3-dimensional scenes in a world of reflective and refractive spheres, using ray tracing techniques. Movies formed from sequences of frames can be generated, showing reflective balls linked and bouncing in a gravitational field. They resemble a string of bouncing pearles -- hence the name.

  

The amount of computation required to produce one ray traced image on an ST is enormous -- it is measured in hours. To display animated movies, images must be precomputed in (overnight) batch runs. PEARLE provides the ability generate sequences of images on disk in Degas PI1 format, for later replay by BLASTRAM.TTP (also included).

 

PEARLE.PRG generates a low resolution approximation of each picture first, followed by refinement to successively higher resolutions. In this way, a rough image is seen quickly for (somewhat) interactive debug. The size, position, velocity and optical properties of the balls in the scenes are specified numerically in the initialization file PEARLE.IN. Scenes can be changed without recompilation of PEARL.PRG.

 

==============

 

FYI - Another ST Ray Tracing program

START VOL. 1 NO. 4 / SPRING 1987
The START Ray-Trace Construction Set
Awesome do-it-yourself graphics!
By TOM HUDSON    CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv1n4/raytrace.html

 

 

[Zogging Hell]

The big one I remember was POV (Persistance of Vision) Ray. You can get that here https://websites.umich.edu/~archive/atari/Graphics/Raytrace/Pov/ and it looks from a quick scan of the archive that the src is available. A lot more advanced than Pearle, although also a lot slower to render as well due to the complexity..