Ray-Casting Tutorial

by F. Permadi

PREFACE

This document explores the fundamental theory behind ray-casting. In general, this document does not bother with implementation and coding detail. The discussion will be mainly about concepts, the implementation is up to the reader.  For a casual reader, the knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem and knowledge of high-school level math are assumed.  

Please note that this document was written in the year of 1996, and although ray-casting has been supplanted by newer and more powerful techniques (and hardware!), the reader can hopefully still benefit from this.  

Please be sure to read the disclaimer before proceeding.

CONTENTS

• Introduction
• A Brief History
• What is Ray-Casting
• Ray-Casting vs Ray-Tracing
• Limitations of Ray-Casting
• Creating a World
• Defining Projection Attributes
• Finding Walls
• Finding Distance to Walls
• Drawing Walls
• Texture Mapped Walls
• Drawing Floors
• Drawing Ceilings
• Walls with Variable Height
• Horizontal Motion
• Looking Up and Down
• Flying and Crouching
• Combined Effects
• Shading
• Bibliography, References and Notes
• Example in Java (with source)

© 1996-2005 F. Permadi
permadi@permadi.com

This document may be printed for personal/non-commercial/educational use, it may not be reproduced and/or distributed without permission.

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