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VisTrace - Raytracing Library

GitHub: https://github.com/Derpius/VisTrace
Discord: https://discord.gg/N4NxezCgFQ

VisTrace is a binary module that allows tracing entity visual meshes at speeds at or faster than traditional trace methods, which it achieves with bounding volume hierarchies[en.wikipedia.org] using the C++ BVH library[github.com] by madmann91 on GitHub.

While the binary module does most of the work, the addon handles versioning, provides integration with other addons like StarfallEx, and various quality of life features like the BSDF material toolgun.

The binary module allows high performance vismesh intersection with almost as much ease as using traditional trace functions, as well as providing texture and material information and various helper functions.

This doesn't automatically give you a fully fledged ray/path tracer (although it makes it very easy), just offloads the performance intensive calculations to C++.

If you've ever written a tracer in GMod, made a project requiring precise intersections with entity geometry (for instance a ranged weapon), or if you've wanted to get the UV coordinates at a hit point for whatever reason (for instance, a paintbrush, where you could set the material of an entity to a render target, and use the hit UVs to paint onto the texture at the position the player is looking), then this addon is for you.

Get the latest release build of the binary module from my GitHub repo[github.com], or clone and compile from source (if you don't know how to do this then you probably don't need to compile yourself), then place the dll in garrysmod/lua/bin.
As for the addon, you can either use the binary module by itself (no integration with other addons, and you'll need to use CS Lua to load and interface with the module), or you can subscribe to the addon here / download from the repo and mount, which handles versioning automatically, and adds compatibility with addons like StarfallEx.

Documentation for the GLua API doesn't currently exist but will be added to the repo's wiki (however the Starfall API mirrors it), as for the Starfall library, documentation is generated automatically and is available in the SF Helper.

tags: ray tracing, raytracing, path tracing, pathtracing, binary module, rtx, rendering