How to draw 2D array or raw data to screen?

[whynotme]

Hi,

I am trying to do ray tracing. I need to create a 2D array of pixels, then do the math of ray tracing. After that I need to draw it to screen. What is the best method to draw 2D array of points?

Regards.

[Moschops]

Use one of the many existing libraries. I usually point people at CImg first, because it's so easy to get started with. Here's drawing an image to screen. It's just a block of coloured pixels.

#include "CImg.h"
#include <iostream>
  using namespace cimg_library;

  int main() {
    // create image size 500x400x1,3 channels (RGB) default colour white
    CImg<unsigned char>  theImage(500,400,1,3,1);
    for (int i=10; i<50; i++)
      {
	for (int j = 10; j<70; j++)
	  {
              theImage(i,j,1) = 255; // different colour on a pixel - green to max
	  }
      }
    CImgDisplay main_disp(theImage); // display it
    theImage.save_bmp("output.bmp"); // write it
    std::cin.ignore();
  }