1. The Command Line Options - To start with ....

The command line for PCTrace is something like :

pctrace [-l] [-b] [-?] -w <width> -h <height> -i <scene_file_name> -o <output_image_filename>

The flags in [ ] are optional, the others are not so. The [-?] flag does not effect the trace, it merely prints the usage information for PCtrace.


  1. Image Width & Height -
    Image width and height are the dimensions of the output image. These are to be specified in pixels using the ` -w ' and ` -h ' command line options.
    These should match in ratio to the the horizontal and vertical field of views given as camera parameters in the scene file, or else the rendered image
    will look distorted.

  2. Film Type -
    This is specified using the ` -b ' command line option. The default is a color film, which produces a 24-bit truecolor raw PPM image. When this option
    is specified however, the film changes to a black and white film producing a 8-bit grayscale raw PGM image.

  3. The Render Log -
    This is specified using the ` -l ' command line option. This produces a detailed log of the render in a file called ` render.log.' A sample of a render log
    is given below -

    PCTrace Log File

    Scene File : scenes/csg2.scn
    -------------------------------------------------------

    Global scene parameters -
    Image resolution : 1
    Maximum recursion depth : 5
    Minimum weight : 0.01
    Anti-aliasing samples : 1
    Number of Shadow feelers : 1
    Ambient light color : 1 1 1
    Ambient light coefficient : 0.02
    -------------------------------------------------------

    Camera -
    View Coordinate Center : -100 100 150 1
    Eye : 0 0 -20 1
    Up Vector : 0 1 0 1
    Look At : 50 50 0 1
    View Direction : 0.688247 -0.229416 -0.688247
    View Plane Distance : 20
    Far Plane Distance : 1000
    View Plane Width : 40
    View Plane Height : 40
    -------------------------------------------------------

    Lights -
    Number of lights = 4
    Light #0 ->
    Point Light :-
    Light position : 200 300 100 1
    Light color : 1 1 1
    ....
    -------------------------------------------------------

    Objects -
    Paralleogram ->
    Plane :-
    Direction vector : 0 -1 0 1
    Distance from origin : -0
    Vertices :-
    Vertex A : -400 0 400 1
    Vertex B : 400 0 400 1
    Vertex C : 400 0 -400 1
    Vertex D : -400 0 -400 1
    Surface Charecteristics :-
    Diffuse coefficient : 1
    Specular coefficient : 0.2
    n (Specular) : 10
    Tranparency coefficient : 0
    Reflection coefficient : 0.2
    Color : 0.5 0.6 0.7
    Refractive Index : 1
    ....


  4. The Input File/Output File -
    The input file is a `scene file', specified after the ` -i ' option. The detailed scene file format may be found here. The scene file typically has a ` .scn ' extension.
    The output file name is specified after the ` -o ' option. The type of image generated depends on the film type selected.


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Page last updated on 04 October, 2005. pialpharhoalphagammaAT cse.iitd.ac.in © Parag Chaudhuri , 2009
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