As parts of the image below are used in the blog header i thought i could inform you about the origin of it…

This image shows a refractive sphere-flake, which was rendered with my homebrew raytracer “SimRay”, which i implemented in C++ a few years ago.

Features of SimRay:

• Path Tracing (with Importance Sampling)
• Photon Mapping (separate caustic & global photon map, Final Gathering)
• Scene scripting language (Objects, Lights, Cameras, Materials, Animation)
• 3DS meshes, WoW models, custom (smooth) polygonal meshes & quadrics
• Still-Image and video rendering

A few more shots: