muttimarcello/tiny_renderer

How muttimarcello/tiny_renderer works

Tiny Renderer is a compact C++ ray-tracing application. Its workflow is defined in src/main.cpp: configure a camera, objects, materials, scene, image, and directional light; call the renderer; then write a PPM image. The rendering and shading implementation is concentrated in src/tools.cpp, with types and interfaces declared in src/tools.hpp. The README documents sampling, recursive light transport, tone mapping, and multithreading; omitted source excerpts limit verification of some internal calls, so those links are documented rather than inferred from module names.

Main entry points: main.cpp Render Setup · tools.cpp Recursive Ray Shading

Components 17

Application

Render Setup src/main.cpp

Scene Model

Pinhole Camera src/tools.cpp
Sphere Geometry src/tools.cpp
Hittable Scene src/tools.cpp
Lambertian Material src/tools.cpp
Metal Material src/tools.cpp
Directional Light src/tools.cpp

Rendering

Render Scheduler src/tools.cpp
Pixel Sampling src/tools.cpp
Recursive Ray Shading src/tools.cpp
Shadow Testing src/tools.cpp
Thread Workers src/tools.cpp
Ray and Math Types src/tools.hpp

Image Output

Image Buffer src/tools.cpp
Tone Mapping src/tools.cpp
PPM Writer src/tools.cpp

Other components

Renderer User

Connections 27

Renderer User → Render Setup: runs README.md
Render Setup → Pinhole Camera: configures src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Sphere Geometry: creates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Lambertian Material: creates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Metal Material: creates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Hittable Scene: populates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Directional Light: creates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Image Buffer: allocates src/main.cpp
Render Setup → Render Scheduler: calls src/main.cpp
Render Scheduler → Pixel Sampling: uses README.md
Render Scheduler → Thread Workers: dispatches src/tools.cpp
Thread Workers → Pixel Sampling: renders pixels README.md
Pixel Sampling → Pinhole Camera: generates rays README.md
Pixel Sampling → Recursive Ray Shading: evaluates rays README.md
Recursive Ray Shading → Hittable Scene: intersects src/tools.cpp
Hittable Scene → Sphere Geometry: queries objects src/tools.cpp
Recursive Ray Shading → Directional Light: uses illumination src/tools.cpp
Recursive Ray Shading → Shadow Testing: tests visibility src/tools.cpp
Shadow Testing → Hittable Scene: casts shadow ray src/tools.cpp
Recursive Ray Shading → Lambertian Material: scatters via README.md
Recursive Ray Shading → Metal Material: scatters via README.md
Recursive Ray Shading → Recursive Ray Shading: recurses src/tools.cpp
Pixel Sampling → Image Buffer: stores pixels README.md
Pixel Sampling → Tone Mapping: converts radiance README.md
Tone Mapping → Image Buffer: encodes pixels README.md
Render Setup → PPM Writer: writes image src/main.cpp
PPM Writer → Image Buffer: reads buffer src/tools.cpp

Drawn by GitDiagram on November 9, 2026 from the repository's file tree, README and source files. Read as Markdown ·