Rayman User Interface

Extended DOS/Watcom C.

This was sparetime work which explains the years. Rayman was the first 3D Studio raytracer ever and
is still being developed today under the name Raymax.

Rayman used the VESA graphics standard. Graphics access was done through a toolbox - it was MetaWindows
if I remember correctly. It came with its own windowing functions but the windows were a bit ugly
which is why a completely new window interface has been developed for Rayman.

I can still run it today and compute images with it - only display resolution is limited to 640x480
and 16 scales of gray which makes some of the screenshots hard to read.

Some of the (interface) functions were:

- User-programmable interface with C-like function calls
- Extensive context sensitive help with index compiler
- Movable windows (except main)
- Programmable toolboxes described by simple text files
- Menus also described by simple text files
- Icon editor for toolbox icons

Main interface:

All buttons would sink in when clicked. This is the icon editor with its own menu:

Material editor. As 3D Studio DOS offered no possibility to store the additional values
required for raytracing, something was needed here. Materials/values could be stored in a
Database (accessable through the toolbox). Templates would supply the same overrides to
every material containing the template name string. Like in the following example a scene
material called 'red glass' would also have a refraction index of 1.2 .

Context sensitive help, here for index of refraction:

Options editor. This would of course look much better at a higher resolution.