Metatrace is a C++ compile time ray tracer (as of the initial release, it is a whitted style one).

It is mostly inane stuff. except, maybe, that it's a nice gadget to test compiler performance and conformance, especially but not exclusively in the Template and Metaprogramming corner of C++.

It requires basic C++0x support; with g++, make sure to have at least 4.4 installed.

Features (graphics viewpoint):

• linear object list
• recursive ray tracing (whitted style)
• mirror reflections
• spheres, axis aligned planes
• quite easily extensible (considering the circumstances)
• rgb colors
• scalar type is fixed point
• not fast

Features (c++ viewpoint):

• uses variadic templates in some contexts (e.g. scene, some math-operations)
• fairly heavy compile time number crunching (brings back the "slow" in "ray tracing")
• strongly typed enums, to avoid ugly enum hacks like "FORCE_DWORD=0xEFFFFFFF" and the like

Features (bash viewpoint):

• contains a bash script to compile on multiple cores

... more to come.

Example