Aqsis Development Guide

This section contains links to pages covering all developement topics, from obtaining and building the source, to the papers describing the internal workings of Aqsis itself. It's also intended to be a place for discussing implementation of features.

Before editing/submitting any content be sure to read the information on the Index page first.

These pages are intended to help prospective developers get up to speed with the tools and processes employed in Aqsis developement.

• Building Aqsis - Instructions on how to build Aqsis using the CMake environment
• Source tree - A guide to the aqsis source tree layout.
• Doxygen Documentation - Automatically generated source documentation.
• General Guidelines - Tips on creating patches, branching sources and so on.
• Coding Guidelines - Coding standards/styles and related information.
• Regression Testing - Using the regression testing suite and writing new test cases.
• Performance Testing - Guidelines for testing aqsis performance.
• How to Contribute - How to contribute code to the Aqsis project.

• Release Procedure - Instructions for primary developers on the process of officially preparing an Aqsis update/release.

These pages describe the existing, implemented features of aqsis, and the techniques they are based on

• Pipeline - The internal Aqsis pipeline.
• Boost Shared Pointers - How to work with the Boost libraries shared pointers system.
• Micropolygon Dumps - This page describes the process and format for dumping micro polygon grid data.
• Code Review - A full, module by module, review of the Aqsis code.
• Sampling - How does the micropolygon sampling work in Aqsis? Covers static, motion blurred and focus blurred sampling.
• API Coverage - List of what RI API calls are implemented and to what level.
• Template Tricks - A list of neat template tricks which have been used somewhere in the Aqsis source.

• Aqsis File Format - Aqsis file format specification.
• Grid Crack Solutions - Discussion of the nature of the grid crack problem, and possible solutions.
• Primitive Visibility During Auto Passes - Provide fine control over primitive visibility to auto passes, such as autoshadows.
• Object Allocation Tracking - Propose a system to allow easy tracking of object allocation to determine memory and performance hotspots.
• Instrumentation - What performance and other statistics information do we need and how do we best gather and present it?
• Exceptions Specification - Aqsis exception heirarchy and how to use it.
• Network Distributed Parallel Processing - A new method for natively processing aqsis renders over a network.

• Aqsis Core Rewrite - A complete overhaul of the main sampling and data transfer part of the core, with performance and feature support in mind.

  This new project encapsultes much of the planned changes listed in the following earlier discussion documents.

  • Sampling Rewrite - Designs for a new micropolygon sampling strategy.
  • Refactored data storage - A new data storage mechanism for the pipeline.
  • Surface Parameter Rewrite An alternative strategy for managing and accessing surface parameters.

• Project Guidelines
• Beaker - Global optimisation project
• Animal - Aqsis innovation project

• Papaya - Official Aqsis/RenderMan Maya Plugin.
• Mango - Official Aqsis/RenderMan 3DSMax Plugin.
• Kiwi - Official Aqsis/RenderMan Softimage XSI Plugin.

• RIB parser rewrite - Design requirements for a new RIB parser to replace the current yacc/lex based system.
• SCons Build System - Implementation of the SCons build system.
• Source Tree Refactor - Proposed refactor of the source tree.
• New Texture Library - Design document for the new texture library
• New Framebuffer Tool - Design and ideas for Aqsis' new advanced framebuffer/image processing tool.

• Multi-threading (WiP) - Designs and discussion of Multi-threading issues (work in progress).
• Ray Tracing (WiP) - Design and discussion of RT and GI issues and techniques (work in progress).
• BtoR - Official Aqsis/RenderMan Blender Plugin (possible name change to either 'Mandarin' or 'Guava' ???).