schwarze@isaak.uucp (Jochen Schwarze) (09/06/89)
What I want to do is to turn a path consisting of line and arc
segments around an axis and then ray-trace the generated
turning part. The rotated line segments produce cylinders or
cones that are easy to intersect with a ray, whereas the arcs
produce tori. To evaluate the intersection of the ray with a
torus I'd have to numerically solve a polynomial equation of
fourth degree.
Does anybody know a way that avoids solving a general fourth-
degree equation? Perhaps something that respects torus geometry
and allows to split the equation into two quadric ones? Any
other fast way to do it?
Thanks very much.
Jochen Schwarze Domain: schwarze@isaak.isa.de
ISA GmbH, Stuttgart, West Germany UUCP: schwarze@isaak.uucp
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