CompuServe Messages

Mark, I probably shouldn't have mentioned raytracing since that has caused a little confusion. Renderman is the high-end renderer of choice in the high-end video/film industry. IMHO, 3ds comes pretty close in quality (although it doesn't have the shader language) and is a lot faster to boot. >> However it must not be THAT good since only recently has it been used in films. Its been a video tool. No raytracer. << In high-end broadcast and film raytracing is avoided completely _unless_ accurate reflections/refractions. It's better not to use it if you can because of the speed – it's slower than cold molasses <g>. In fact, if a client wanted raytracing MetroLight would charge a large premium for that. Much of the effect of raytracing can be faked using a great quality scan-line renderer like Renderman or 3ds. They have shadow-mapping and lots of different reflection mapping types (flat, cubic static, cubic automatic, spherical) and I doubt all of those features are supported in hardware. I suspect that renderman receives no rendering help from OPENGL hardware accelerators. To clarify: I was saying that the boardset you described won't help either high-end renderers nor raytracing (which you should avoid anyway unless you need accurate reflections/refractions). So, other than what I've clarified about raytracing, I agree with your points.