8

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?

top 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] e0qdk@kbin.social 6 points 10 months 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.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

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

[-] e0qdk@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

Still got any fun renders from back then?

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] pja@awful.systems 4 points 10 months ago
[-] gerikson@awful.systems 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] Uberflussig@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago
[-] gerikson@awful.systems 3 points 10 months 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.

[-] CryptoKitten@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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

this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
8 points (100.0% liked)

NotAwfulTech

357 readers
1 users here now

a community for posting cool tech news you don’t want to sneer at

non-awfulness of tech is not required or else we wouldn’t have any posts

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS