Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!well!shf
From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: RenderMan Standard
Summary: Calm down.
Keywords: RenderMan
Message-ID: <11274@well.UUCP>
Date: 8 Apr 89 08:05:34 GMT
References: <488@orange6.qtp.ufl.edu>
Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Blue Planet
Lines: 36

It's always fun to be excited about things, but I don't think
RenderMan will unite the Amiga 3D commumity real soon.  If I
understand it correctly, it has no associated RenderMan file
format.  Instead it is a specification of how a rendering engine
will talk to the outside world -- specified in the document as
function calls though I suppose they could be anything.  The
interface is real low level, so rendering your scene will require
programming in some language or other.  In fact, part of the 
document is a spec for the RenderMan "shader" language, a 'C'-like
language with privatives for computing lighting and reflection
models and a whole lot more.  (The things that Pixar does with
custom shaders boggles the mind.)  So at the very least, a
RenderMan rendering system will need a shader compiler.

RenderMan might go a long way towards unifying alot of the 
varied jargon that comes with each renderer, though.  Each 3D 
program seems to have its own idea about what a color is, what
index of refraction is and so on.  If developers followed the
RenderMan conventions for these terms, then users might start to
see some correlation between the parameters in the requesters 
and some sort of "reality" (the Renderality).

The other aspect of RenderMan that's rather off-putting for 
a viable Amiga standard is that it's so *COMPLEX*.  The minimum
renderer is far beyond what we have on the Amiga today.  Just
coming up to that minimum level will be hard enough, let alone
trying to be RenderMan compatible.

These were my impressions after browsing the RenderMan doc and
having some extended discussions with Those Who Know More Than I
About RenderMan, so I may have it all backwards.

RenderMan is a registered trademark of Pixar.
-- 
		Stuart Ferguson		(shf@well.UUCP)
		Action by HAVOC