Sister Ray-trace

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“I couldn't hit it sideways
Ah, just like Sister Ray said” –Velvet Underground, Sister Ray

“Don’t know what I want but I know how to get it” -Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK

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I saw this image the other day in Jane and Mark Burry’s  excellent book The New Mathematics of Architecture and thought: “I can do that.  I don’t really know what it means, but let’s figure out a good story.”  Something about acoustic optimization, reverberation time, blah blah blah. 

With this solid methodology in place, and unencumbered by any real knowledge, I put together this little tool that works as a generalized one bounce raytracer.  Key to the construction of this family is this assumption of an ideal reflection of a ray.  That is, an incoming ray is perfectly reflected off a surface relative to a normal line from the surface.

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Sister Raytrace

Hammer in hand, I went looking for a nail.

Acoustics: Auditorium seating

Start

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Adjust2011-01-27_2031

Glare:  The Vdara “Death Ray” Hotel, by Vinoly Architects

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Sports:  The Alley-Oop

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Download the 2 pick raytracer and example files from here.

Comments

  1. This is awesome.

    3 or more bounces would be ideal. Either way, my acoustical engineer will love this.

    ReplyDelete

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