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https://github.com/dabeaz-course/rusty_raytracer

Ray Tracing in One Weekend in Rust (AMA)
https://github.com/dabeaz-course/rusty_raytracer

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Ray Tracing in One Weekend in Rust (AMA)

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README 

          
Ray Tracer in Rust : AMA

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



Author: David Beazley (http://www.dabeaz.com)  

June 27, 2025  



Welcome!

--------



If you're looking for a good "nuts and bolts" project for learning

some Rust basics, Peter Shirley's excellent Ray

Tracing in One Weekend project might fit the bill.  Not only do

you get to make some pretty pictures, you'll get to scratch your head

as you ponder how to port various parts of the associated C++ code.

Plus, there is a lot of math!



![](images/image.png)



About This Repository

--------------------



I have coded the Ray Tracer project from scratch about six times in

the context of teaching.  What you'll find here is my latest "best

effort" human-written solution to the Ray Tracer project. Every line

of this code has been written with purposeful intent and can be

explained further (by me).  No LLMs or other coding assistants were

used.  In addition, no line of code was written by blindly accepting 

a suggestion from the Rust compiler without conducting further

research.



I thought about writing a blog post about all of this, but then I

decided I'd flip the script around.  Instead of doing that, I present

all of this code without commentary and await YOUR questions.  In

fact, I'd love to answer questions about this code or Rust in

general!



Thus, view this repository as a kind of "Ask Me Anything" project.

If you want to ask a question, please direct your attention to

GitHub discussions.  I will make a best effort to respond. 



How to Proceed

--------------



If you've never attempted the Ray Tracer project, I highly recommend

that you go to the [above

link](https://raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingInOneWeekend.html)

and try to independently come up with your own Rust solution first.

In doing that, I wouldn't even look at the code here--if you're

serious about learning, I think it's important for you to fumble

around, make mistakes, and scratch your head.  When you're done, come

back here, compare code, and ask questions.



A Bit More About the Code

-------------------------



In writing this code, my goal was to do more than simply port the

existing C++ code to Rust.  I wanted to write the code in an idiomatic

manner that was faithful to both Rust and some principles generally

associated with well written software such as making proper use of

abstraction and encapsulation.  There is also an ergonomic aspect to

the whole affair--I wanted the final code to look reasonably nice

without getting get too bogged down by low-level details.

Although I didn't make any effort to optimize the code, it runs faster

than the original C++ code when I time it.



The code does not cover every possible Rust concept, but it does

contain practical examples of the following:



* Mathematical operations and conversions.

* Operator overloading.

* User-defined structs and traits.

* Programming in an object-oriented style.

* Dynamic dispatch via `dyn` attributes.

* Use of `Option` and `Box`.

* Lifetimes (especially as applied to traits).

* Macros.



The code has been formatted using `rustfmt` and should compile

without warning messages.  There is a third-party dependency on

the "fastrand" crate.   Ray tracing is slow--everything will run

a lot faster if you run things using release mode. 



Contributing

------------



I don't accept pull requests, but if you think you've found a bug or

have a suggestion for improvement, please submit a GitHub issue for

discussion.



Take a Course!

--------------



I teach courses related to a variety of advanced programming and

computer science related topics.  If this sounds interesting, please go

[here](https://dabeaz.com/courses.html).



Cheers,  

David Beazley (http://dabeaz.com)