The VERA Raytracer

VERA (Very Efficient Raytracing Algorithm) can produce realistic and non-realistic images. The algorithm gets its efficiency from a preprocessing step (using a regular grid method) in connection with a subscene technique. Besides the usual features of a raytracer it can be used for rendering copper plates and SIRDS.

VERA was developed at Univ- Karlsruhe, Institut für Betriebs- und Dialogsysteme. The first implementation was done by Prof.Dr. A.Schmitt in 1984; further development by Prof.Dr. H.Müller. Integration from different versions by Markus Linsenmann in 1986 to the Vera-I raytracer. After 1989 two branches were developed with focus on different topics: Vera-II and Vera-IV.

Vera-II is maintained by Univ. Karlsruhe, Institut für Betriebs- und Dialogsysteme, Abt. Graphische DV. Vera-II has a general texture mapping feature. Several projects at IBD, Univ. Karlsruhe have Vera-II as their predecessor: e.g. XRay, Portray.

Vera-IV is the other main line. It is maintained by W. Leister and M. Linsenmann. The current version is Vera-IV 2.12. The preprocessing step is implemented in a separate program, while the raytracer works on preprocessed pagefiles. In addition to a spacial texture mapping concept and many features from XRay (by Achim Stößer ), Vera-IV contains SIRDS- and copper plate rendering modes.

Many details of the Vera project are described in a book, published by Springer Verlag.
Leister, Müller, Stößer: Fotorealistische Computeranimation (in german)

For general information about raytracing take a look at the Raytracing Pages or the Raytracing FAQ.

Oppidum is the image library used in the VERA projects. It was designed by W. Leister as a general purpose image library back in 1984. The current version is Oppidum 2.8. Some multi-purpose filter programs are bundled with the library, that are also used for copper plate generation.

While the versions 1.x had their own file format, the versions 2.x are compatible with the pbmplus library. However, there are some compatibility modes and converters available.

The Netq - Network Queue - is a computation scheme to distribute the load of calculating a raytraced animation sequence on a network of Unix workstations. While the Occursus cum novo project was ongoing, Burkhard Neidecker developed the Network Queue in 1987.

The photorealistic computer animation Occursus cum novo was presented to the public on september, 19th, 1987 during the computer art exposition the Ars Electronica in Linz (Austria). It was produced at IBD Universität Karlsruhe.. In those days it was one of the first computer animation sequences rendered with the raytracing method with a total length of more than five minutes.
The animation sequence consists of 7550 single frames with a resolution of 768 x 576 Pixel with a total data volume of nine Gigabyte (ca. contents of one thousand bibles). In total about 24000 hours computing time are used for the project (2 years and 9 months).

The project and the technology used is described in a book, published by Springer Verlag. Leister, Müller, Stößer: Fotorealistische Computeranimation (in german)

More information (in german)

The second animation by Achim Stößer is called Illusion. It was produced at IBD, Univ. Karlsruhe between November 1988 and November 1990. It was presented to the public in December 1990.
Also this computer animation is produced with the raytracing method. In both projects the raytracer VERA was used.

More information (in german).