Are there simple, free C ++ ray tracing libraries?

Question

I have a project for pets related to ray tracing. I need to generate ray traced images, but the actual ray tracing is not the focus here. Thus, I would like to be able to freely use the library to do this for me.

I know POVray, but I'm a little afraid of it for two reasons:

• it is quite large, there are millions of lines of code and many, many functions that I don’t even dream about, so it can be difficult for me to control the rendering from the code;
• it does not compile with visual studio 2010 express, which I use and I hate project configuration. As Melvin Udal would say: "I use the word" hate "here about project configuration."

I’ve been going for a few days already and haven’t found anything suitable except POV.

Question...

Should I overcome this and use POVray, or are there simple (but not simplified), smaller, hidden ray tracing libraries that are freely available, as in free speech?

Answer 1

If your target platform is modern Intel processors, Embree is a good option: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/embree-photo-realistic-ray-tracing-kernels/

Answer 2

Caustic graphics creates an OpenGL-based ray tracing API called OpenRL. It is freely available on their website: http://caustic.com/register.php

Answer 3

POVray is good.

You can also check this out: http://libtrace.sourceforge.net/