[opendx-dev] RenderMan/BlueMoon module available

[Richard Gillilan <richard@tc.cornell.edu>]

For the first time, I am making my RenderMan module available as open
source software.  For those of you who don't know, RenderMan is a commercial
rendering engine from Pixar that has been used in a number of films
including Toy Story. The RMan module writes "rib" files that can
be read by RenderMan. The freely-available Blue Moon Rendering Tools
(BMRT) will also read these files and produce even nicer but slower, true
ray-traced
images. This allows OpenDX users to create Hollywood-quality images with

   o shadows (BMRT)
   o true reflections  (BMRT)
   o anti-aliasing
   o texture and environment  maps
   o shaders (light bulb, refractive glass, glowing filament etc.)
   o constructive solid geometry (union, intersection, difference)
   o true sphere, cone, torus etc. primatives
   o focus and motion blur (could be added easily)
   o fancy lighting: point source, cone, area lights, radiosity
   o and more

So far, compiled only for SGI, but the code is simple and should
compile elsewhere without trouble.

You can get the code at the Cornell OpenDX repository:

  ftp.tc.cornell.edu

  pub/Data.Explorer/by_discipline/chemistry/RI.tar.gz


Enjoy

   Richard Gillilan
   Cornell Theory Center