Mirage Coupled Optics Engine (Python)

Mirage is a GPU-accelerated coupled optics and curing physics engine. It can model additive manufacturing workflows, but is not limited to additive manufacturing applications.

Mirage can be used as a foundational physics engine to build vat photopolymerization workflows, including Digital Light Processing (DLP) and Tomographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (TVAM) simulations.

This package distributes the compiled Python bindings for Mirage Optics and its built-in curing submodules.

• Distribution name: mirage-optics-engine
• Import namespace: mirage

Capabilities

Standard ray tracers are usually not built to couple natively with multi-physics (finite element) solvers. Mirage Optics is designed exactly for that workflow.

Core capabilities:

• GPU-accelerated finite-element ray tracing
• Volumetric light transport and absorption in gradient-index and gradient-absorptivity media
• Boundary-condition-based interface modeling:
  • reflection
  • refraction
  • rough-surface scattering
• Coupling-friendly architecture for external physics modules
• Proprietary ASCII ray collection format (.ry) for custom ray generators
• Built-in accelerated curing submodules:
  • energythreshold
  • reactiondiffusion
• Designed to serve as a reusable simulation engine for process-level toolchains

Coupling Picture

The figure below highlights the coupling interface between optics and other modules.

Install

pip install mirage-optics-engine

Quick import check:

from mirage import optics_engine, energythreshold, reactiondiffusion
print("MIRAGE import OK")

Attribution and Citation

If you use MIRAGE in academic work, please provide attribution and cite the relevant paper(s).

Optics module:

@article{aarab2026fert,
    title = "Fast Hessian-free finite element ray tracing method for light transport in gradient-index media",
    author = "Marwan Aarab and Geers, \{Marc G.D.\} and Remmers, \{Joris J.C.\}",
    year = "2026",
    doi = "10.1364/OE.582633",
    volume = "34",
    pages = "10749--10769",
    journal = "Optics Express",
    publisher = "Optica Publishing Group",
    number = "6",
}

Reaction-diffusion module:

@inproceedings{aarab2026optochem,  
    title = "High performance coupled opto-chemical simulation of gradient-index light transport in vat photopolymerization",
    author = "M. Aarab and Geers, \{Marc G.D.\} and J.J.C. Remmers",
    year = "2026",
    doi = "10.1117/12.3100381",
    series = "Proceedings of SPIE",
    publisher = "SPIE",
    editor = "Herkommer, \{Alois M.\} and \{von Freymann\}, Georg and Manuel Flury",
    booktitle = "3D Printed Optics and Additive Photonic Manufacturing V",
    address = "United States",
}

System and Version Requirements (Summary)

• Linux x86_64
• Python >= 3.10 and < 3.13
• NVIDIA GPU with compute capability >= SM60
• CUDA runtime compatibility for wheel build/runtime expectations
• NumPy >= 1.23

License

This package is released under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0.

It is intended for non-commercial use.