raycaster

About

This project is the 42 project cub3d. The goal of this project is to build a raycasting engine inspired by Wolfenstein 3D, rendering a first-person view of a maze from a 2D map. The program reads a .cub configuration file defining textures, colors, and the map layout, then uses DDA raycasting to project textured 3D walls in real-time.

Features

• Raycasting with DDA (Digital Differential Analyzer) algorithm for grid intersection detection
• Textured walls (4 directional textures: NO, SO, WE, EA)
• Graphics via MLX42
• Configurable floor & ceiling colors (RGB)
• Smooth movement (WASD) and rotation (arrow keys)
• Collision system with configurable hitbox
• Distance-based shading for depth effectPlan
• Real-time minimap
• Robust .cub file parsing with descriptive error messages

Algorithm

Raycasting is a pipeline of trigonometry problems solved for each of the 1024 vertical screen columns for each frame:

1. DDA: find the closest ray intersection with a wall
2. Fish-eye correction: compute the actual distance to remove the spherical distortion
3. Wall-height scaling: compute the wall height based on the distance of the wall
4. Texture selection: select the correct texture (N/S/E/W) based on the intersection and the viewing angle
5. Texture slicing: scale the texture to fill the wall
6. Shading: darken rgba of computed pixel based on the distance

Utilization

1. Cloning:

   git clone https://github.com/michmos/raycaster.git && cd raycaster && make

2. Running: Run the executable with a .cub map file as argument:

   ./cub3d maps/all_walls.cub
   

   Choose any map from the maps/ directory or create your own.

3. Controls:

   Key	Action
   W/A/S/D	Move forward / strafe left / backward / strafe right
   ← →	Rotate view left / right
   ESC	Quit the game