Ray tracing deterministic 3-D fractals

  • Authors:
  • J. C. Hart;D. J. Sandin;L. H. Kauffman

  • Affiliations:
  • Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago;Dept, of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago;Dept, of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Venue:
  • SIGGRAPH '89 Proceedings of the 16th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
  • Year:
  • 1989

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Abstract

As shown in 1982, Julia sets of quadratic functions as well as many other deterministic fractals exist in spaces of higher dimensionality than the complex plane. Originally a boundary-tracking algorithm was used to view these structures but required a large amount of storage space to operate. By ray tracing these objects, the storage facilities of a graphics workstation frame buffer are sufficient. A short discussion of a specific set of 3-D deterministic fractals precedes a full description of a ray-tracing algorithm applied to these objects. A comparison with the boundary-tracking method and applications to other 3-D deterministic fractals are also included.