uint obj_index = -1;
float t = 50000.0;

// find the closest hit
for(uint i=0; i<_objects.size(); i++) {
    // check if ray hits the object
    float dist = _objects.at(i)->intersection(*r);

    // check the closest collision
    if(dist >= 0.0 && dist < t) {
        t = dist;
        obj_index = i;
    }
}

// if nothing was hit
if(t == 50000.0)
    return 0;

// get the point on the sphere that was hit, and initialize some variables for calculating lighting
Vector hit = *r->getStart() + r->getDirection()->getUnitVector() * t;
float lambert = 0, shadow_coeff = 1.0, pct = float(1.0/_lightsources.size());

// go through each lightsource
for(uint li=0; li<_lightsources.size(); li++) {
    // set lighting on the point
    Ray lightray = Ray(hit, *_lightsources.at(li)-hit);

    float tmp = lightray.getDirection()->getUnitVector() *
                _objects.at(obj_index)->getNormal(hit);

    if(tmp > lambert && tmp > 0.0) lambert = tmp;

    // after the lighting is decided, check if the spot is shadowed
    for(uint oi=0; oi<_objects.size(); oi++) {

        // checks if other objects is casting shadows on the spot (and of course dont check on itself)
        if(_objects.at(oi)->intersection(lightray) > 0.0 && oi != obj_index) {
            shadow_coeff -= pct;
            break;
        }
    }

}

// shadow_coeff is a value between 0 and 1 that tells how many lightsources the pixel is hit by
lambert *= shadow_coeff;

// dont let the lambert coeff go < 0.1
if(lambert < 0.1)
    lambert = 0.1;


// looks more complicated than it is;
// just extract color channel, normalise and factor in the lambert coefficient
float red = ((int((_objects.at(obj_index)->getColor() >> 16) & 0xFF) / 255.0) *lambert)*255;
float green = ((int((_objects.at(obj_index)->getColor() >> 8) & 0xFF) / 255.0) *lambert)*255;
float blue = ((int(_objects.at(obj_index)->getColor() & 0xFF) / 255.0) *lambert)*255;

return ((Uint8)red << 16) + ((Uint8)green << 8) + (Uint8)blue;