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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Years ago (we're talking decades) I ran into a small program that randomly generated raytraced images (think transparent orbs, lens flares, reflection etc), suitable for saving as wallpapers. It was a C/C++ program that ran on Linux. I've long since lost the name and the source code, and I wonder if there's anything like that out there now?

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

POV-Ray, perhaps? You give it a scene description text file and it will render a raytraced image of the scene for you. You'd need to find or write an appropriate scene description though for what you want to randomize.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've wasted so much time writing scenes for that thing and rendering them on my mighty 486...

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Still got any fun renders from back then?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Nope, it's all gone to the great bit bucket in the sky...

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

No, I wish I did, but they disappeared many computers ago.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not the one.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Looks interesting, but that's also not what I'm looking for. Thanks though!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I also thought it would be povray as this is what I was using on linux over two decades ago. Maybe this list could help you:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ray_tracing_software

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

No, this was (from memory) a console application only. You specified output size, maybe a couple seed values, and the process after that was random.

this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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