ceres-raytracer 0.6a0

CERES Ray Tracer

CERES Ray Tracer (CRT)

This project was developed as part of CERES and aims to provide scientifically useful path tracing capabilities for rendering images, simulating LiDAR, and modeling radiation pressure.

• Website
• API Documentation
• Source code
• Bug Reports

Available Environments

Environment	Build Python Binding	Install from PyPI
Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04

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Installation:

It is recommended to install directly from the Python Package Index (PyPI):

pip install ceres-raytracer

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Building from Source:

git clone https://github.com/ceres-navigation/ceres-raytracer.git
pip install .

sphinx is used to build documentation for the python API. To install sphinx, simply use:

sudo apt-get install python3-sphinx
pip install sphinx-autodoc-typehints sphinx-toolbox sphinx-licenseinfo sphinx-rtd-theme

Once sphinx is installed, you can build the documentation on Linux systems by running:

cd doc
make html

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Demos:

After installing ceres-raytracer, simply clone the ceres-raytracer-demos:

git clone https://github.com/ceres-navigation/ceres-raytracer-demos.git

and run any of the included .py example files:

cornel__box.py

bunny.py

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Tasks:

• Python Interface
  • Python bindings with pybind11
  • Add support for SPICE
  • Validate vector and rotation inputs
• Rendering
  • Improve the adaptive sampling noise calculation
  • Implement normal vector render pass
  • Implement intersection/depth render pass
  • Implement instance render pass
  • Implement bidirectional path tracing
  • Implement Primary Sample Space Metropolis Light Transport
• Importance Sampling
  • Implement Malley's method for cosine importance
  • Alternative importance sampling method for planetary bodies
• Lighting
  • Add output intensity to light objects
  • Add circular area lights
  • Add emissive mesh geometries
  • Add polarized light
  • Add specific wavelength support
  • Add spectral power density
  • Implement physically based radiance tracking for paths
• Cameras
  • Add linear pushbroom camera model
  • Add calibrated camera model
• Entities
  • Add parent object pointer to triangular meshes
  • Add parsers for more mesh type (.PLY, .GLTF/.GLB)
• Materials
  • Refactor materials module to allow texturing
  • Add McEwen BRDF
  • Add PBR texture support
• Simulation
  • Add radiation pressure modeling
  • Add solar panel flux modeling

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Attributions

madmann91's Modern C++ BVH Construction and Traversal Library

This project utilizes a BVH construction and traversal library built by madmann91. While we have made some modifications to their implementation, their work forms most of the basis of the bounding volume hierarchy used in this project. Their originally source code can be found in the bvh repository

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 2020305048. NSF GRFP gave Chris Gnam the flexibility and resources required to complete his research in spacecraft navigation, and this project is meant to serve as an open source implementation of his dissertation.

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Contact

All questions, comments, and concerns should be directed to Chris Gnam: [e-mail]