CompuServe Thread

#The Truth

9 messages in this thread
#164914From: krazy imagesApr 15, 1995 12:44 PM
I am just starting to play with it and it is a nightmare sometimes. Maybe it is because I am too much into the simplicity of the "3DS way of 3D" <g> but I agree that the quality of renderman or, better said, the "style" of Renderman, the final appareance of the whole image, the way it treats surfaces and atmosphere, etc. is pretty unique. It has "something" but that something seems to come at the price of speed (althought I was expecting slower performance). Anyway, I am not happy to see Rman still holds the #1. I was expecting a "nope, I like R5 better now" 🙂 ana /krazy images
#164958From: Yost GroupApr 15, 1995 6:49 PM
Yup… Rman requires that you undergo the complete mutation… but it's worth it if you're going for the absolute ultimate end result…. that top .01% of quality. – G
#164972From: krazy imagesApr 15, 1995 8:37 PM
So your 3D book only require a .01% quality over the rest to put a renderer at the top of the list? <g> I think it is not a matter of quality, but of perception and personal judgement. The finished art from Renderman just looks different, the same each renderer in the market have a different "feeling" from the others. It just happens that I really like the final quality of Renderman. ana /krazy images
#164995From: Yost GroupApr 15, 1995 11:00 PM
I didn't make my point clear enough in that last message. What I meant was that there is a very small percentage of rendering jobs that actually requires the things that renderman is best at. For the vast majority of rendering jobs, it's overkill. – G
#164974From: Tim c BrananApr 15, 1995 8:40 PM
From a technical standpoint, what does renderman do, that others don't? I have seen a fair amount of stuff done with renderman, but I've never used it. I am curious.
#164996From: Yost GroupApr 15, 1995 11:01 PM
Basically, since it's a renderer description _language_, rather than a close-ended renderer, it can do anything you care to tell it to — as long as you're a C programmer. It's basically the Postscript of renderers. – G
#164999From: Tim c BrananApr 15, 1995 11:15 PM
>>Basically, since it's a renderer description _language_, rather than a close-ended renderer, it can do anything you care to tell it to — as long as you're a C programmer. It's basically the Postscript of renderers. – G<<< I heard it was difficult to use, I guess that is why. Thanks for the info.
#165013From: bruce gorenApr 16, 1995 4:08 AM
Gary, Yep, Renderman has that "look" . It's a real shame that the pricey licensing structure, CPU snobbishness, and moving target of core code prevented it from becoming more widespread. Pixar's original evangelism was to make the Renderman language as ubiquitous as Postscript . . . <heavy sigh> . Bruce
#165093From: Yost GroupApr 16, 1995 11:14 PM
The fact that it was architected for parallel processing hardware certainly didn't help either. <g> – G