raytracer

(based on 'Raytracing in one weekend')

While researching scientific programming libraries I ended up with a bunch of different implementations of the ray tracer in Java, Python, Numpy, Cupy.

Every rendering is done on CPU except for cupy implementation.

Benchmarking

Pic1

Size: 400x225, two spheres with 50% diffusion and red gradient background, rendered with 10 samples per pixel.

Pic2

Size: 400x225, one red sphere without diffusion, rendered with 10 samples per pixel.

Pic3

Size: 1000x562, one red sphere without diffusion, rendered with 240 samples per pixel.

Hardware, OS

CPU: Xeon® E5-2620 v2

GPU: GTX 1070

RAM: 32Gb

VM running Ubuntu 22.04

python3 --version: Python 3.10.12

java -version: openjdk version "21.0.4" 2024-07-16, OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.4+7-Ubuntu-1ubuntu222.04), OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.4+7-Ubuntu-1ubuntu222.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Results

Rendering Pic1:

Implementation	Real Time	Result of time command	Command	Branch
Python	42.393s	real 0m42.393s user 0m42.371s sys 0m0.020s	time (python3 src/main.py)	main
Pypy	2.382s	real 0m2.382s user 0m2.271s sys 0m0.105s	time (./pypy3.10-v7.3.16-linux64/bin/pypy3.10 raytracer/src/main.py)	main
Java	1.016s	real 0m1.016s user 0m1.694s sys 0m0.323s	time (java -jar target/raytracer-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar)	java-impl

Rendering Pic2:

Implementation	Real Time	Result of time command	Command	Branch
Python	19.185s	real 0m19.185s user 0m20.224s sys 0m0.052s	time (python3 src/main.py)	python-simple-impl
Pypy	1.433s	real 0m1.433s user 0m1.305s sys 0m0.128s	time (./pypy3.10-v7.3.16-linux64/bin/pypy3.10 raytracer/src/main.py)	python-simple-impl
Numpy	1.331s	real 0m1.331s user 0m2.182s sys 0m0.194s	time (python3 src/main.py)	speedup
Java	0.552s	real 0m0.552s user 0m0.810s sys 0m0.167s	time (java -jar target/raytracer-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar)	java-simple-impl

Rendering Pic3:

Implementation	Real Time	Result of time command	Command	Branch
Python	2641.102s	real 44m1.102s user 44m1.853s sys 0m0.137s	time (python3 src/main.py)	python-simple-impl
Pypy	53.885s	real 0m53.885s user 0m53.670s sys 0m0.212s	time (./pypy3.10-v7.3.16-linux64/bin/pypy3.10 raytracer/src/main.py)	python-simple-impl
Numpy	48.923s	real 0m48.923s user 0m34.417s sys 0m15.646s	time (python3 src/main.py)	speedup
Java	18.256s	real 0m18.256s user 0m17.582s sys 0m1.565s	time (java -jar target/raytracer-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar)	java-simple-impl
Cupy (On GPU)	2.658s	real 0m2.658s user 0m1.723s sys 0m1.909s	time (python3 src/main.py)	cupy-speedup

Future

TODO Benchmark rendering the same picture for all implementations.