MARTI is finally outputting circle-light images, and this is good. Unfortunately, the time it takes to render these images is enormous! A sequence of ten images on my computer (the first renderings) that came out grainy - using 100 rays per pixel - and with just two spheres took over 36 hours to render on my Pentium 200! This is a huge problem - when we add more spheres and try to get rid of the grainyness, it will be near impossible!

Thus, I'd like to propose something. We need more computing power, and maybe you can help. If we could have several computers rendering images, we'd have a gallery of pictures and a lot more knowledge about the circle-light universe in no time! I'd like to ask anyone out there who's willing to donate 10 hours or so of computer time (depending on how fast your machine is) to render some images (at 500 rpp). Be warned that this is no small task: it requires you leave your computer on and running non-stop for those hours. Ideally, just let it run at night (you can turn off the monitor, speakers, printer, and any other peripherals). If you're willing, please let me know! E-mail Dan Zaharopol at bc20338@binghamton.edu and I can send you an .exe file (Linux and Unix versions coming soon!) that you can run. All you need to do is unzip the program, and double-click it. It will leave a file, "output.ppm" in that directory. Zip this file, and send it to me - it'll then be posted on the web page, and credit will be given. If you don't understand some of the above steps, don't worry, I'll explain. Thanks a lot for your help!

Hits as of September 11, 1999, 10:13PM, when the circle images were added: