Recovering Eric Graham’s 1987 Juggler raytracer source code AlphaPixel often gets involved with modernizing and updating old performance and graphics code. Sometimes that means client work under NDA. But sometimes it means a fun side quest in the mystical realms of curiosity, preservation, and the practical problem of getting old data into a form that[…]
In part 5 of our raytracing port, we clean up the code a bit and then add camera/viewport animation and a checkerboard ground texture.
In part 4 of our raytracer porting blog, we fix the SDL event pump, add a PNG saver with libspng, remove the preset resolution limits and add a unit test using CTest.
The article explores adding a modern SDL-based UI to a legacy Amiga raytracer. It covers integrating SDL with CMake, updating UI code from Amiga OS, and resolving rendering performance issues. By using SDL’s cross-platform libraries, the article demonstrates how to modernize graphical functionality while preserving the original program logic.
This article details the process of compiling and running legacy Amiga-based raytracer code in Visual Studio Code. It covers updating old C code, handling missing libraries, and adapting the original environment using modern tools like CMake. The step-by-step guide ensures the code works on current systems with minimal changes.
The article explores how AlphaPixel tackles the challenges of forward porting legacy media and code, including recovering data from 1980s and 1990s hardware. Through a real-life example involving an Amiga-based raytracer project, it highlights the complexities of resurrecting old code, using modern tools to extract and convert outdated formats for modern use.
