The Pure Perl RayCaster

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The Pure Perl RayCaster is a small simple Ray casting software application written completely in Perl without using OpenGL or any other 3D API library. For the GUI, Pure Perl RayCaster uses wxPerl (WxWindows port to Perl). Pure Perl RayCaster is open source software.

Pure Perl RayCaster can load a 3D object from a file (RAW format), display the object in wireframe perspective view, allow you to orbit and zoom your camera and produce a user defined sized ray casting image of the current wireframe view in a predefined color theme with or without smooth shading.

Pure Perl RayCaster is not a professional production tool for 3D image generation. It is well suited for educational purposes, in order to study, understand, tweak and try well known fundamental 3D Computer Graphics techniques in a scripting language. For more information please have a look at the F.A.Q. section.

Requirements, Installation and Use

Pure Perl RayCaster is distributed in 2 different ways:

• Perl Package for Win32
  An executable (.exe) file for Win32 containing everything you need to run the application without installing Perl or anything else (created with PAR).
  Just download the executable and the default RAW file (or you can use your own RAW files), put them in the same directory and execute the .exe. This file is relatively big to download, because it contains everything needed (eg. Perl interpreter and WxWindows DLLs)
• Perl source
  If you already have Perl installed or if you want to study and tweak the source (that's the main idea) I would suggest downloading this one. You will need Perl and wxPerl already installed. For more information look at the Installation and Usage page.

You can download Pure Perl RayCaster from the Download page.

Bugs

Of course there might be bugs. This is not thoroughly tested after all. Report any bugs found at: geconomou gmail.com

Author

Giannis Economou <geconomou gmail.com>

Acknowledgements

• Marilena Kote for her extensive support and assistance and her considerable time and effort spent while studing the 3D techniques in use for the initial version back in 2004.
• George Papaioannou teaching 3D CG for the postgraduate class "Graphics, Visualization, Fractals" in Dept. of Informatics and Telecommunications of University of Athens (look the 'How did Pure Perl RayCaster start?' question on the F.A.Q. page) for the motivation, the encouragement and all the knowledge sharing (and for the default "gadget.raw" object currently in use as the default software object!).
• Andreas Andreou for his interest at the initial stages of this software back in 2004.

License

Pure Perl RayCaster is free / open source software available under the Artistic License.

DISCLAIMER

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either expressed or implied, INCLUDING, without limitation, the implied warranties of MERCHANTABILITY and FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The ENTIRE RISK as to the quality and performance of the software IS WITH YOU (the holder of the software). Should the software prove defective, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY CREATE, MODIFY, OR DISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE OR RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR TO ANY OTHER ENTITY FOR ANY KIND OF DAMAGES (no matter how awful - not even if they arise from known or unknown flaws in the software).