http://wiki.aqsis.org/ 2010-09-10T01:35:34+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/ http://wiki.aqsis.org/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/ao?rev=1263804296 Description Ambient Occlusion is a lighting technique used to achieve a global illumination style lighting effect. It can be either raytraced or depth map based. Aqsis currently has no raytracing feature, but the shadow mapped variant of ambient occlusion is implemented. It is a rather complex algorithm, and therefore it is not fast, but it can give very good results. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aov?rev=1263804296 Description Arbitrary Output Variables are user-definable variables which can contain any data calculated by the shader. This is useful for example when doing multipass rendering. Using AOV's you can render specular, diffuse, SSS or any other data you can think of directly into a file (similar to using 'rgba' to write an image with an alpha channel). text/html 2009-09-27T22:56:35+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsis?rev=1254092195 Renderer: aqsis Overview The aqsis executable is a command-line renderer which accepts RenderMan(tm) scene descriptions in the form of sequences of requests, known as the RenderMan(tm) Interface. These requests are passed to the aqsis executable as a character stream known as the RenderMan Interface Bytestream (RIB). When launched, aqsis processes the requests in the passed RIB stream, which in turn can force processing of other external assets such as compiled shaders and texture maps, to … text/html 2008-04-28T06:51:50+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsis_commands?rev=1209365510 deprecated. see aqsis text/html 2008-04-28T06:10:59+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsis_overview?rev=1209363059 deprecated. See aqsis text/html 2008-05-15T09:31:33+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsl?rev=1210843893 Shader Compiler: aqsl Overview aqsl (“axel”) is the Aqsis shader compiler. One of the central features of the RenderMan Interface is the ability to describe materials, light sources and even the shapes of objects in terms of separate, user-defined shaders. A shader is a small program written in the RenderMan Shading Language, RSL or SL for short. The fact that shaders are arbitrary programs gives an extreme versatility which has been a major contributing factor in the popularity of RenderM… text/html 2008-04-28T06:59:26+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsl_commands?rev=1209365966 deprecated. see aqsl text/html 2008-04-28T07:00:06+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsl_overview?rev=1209366006 deprecated. see aqsl text/html 2008-11-12T23:31:13+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsltell?rev=1226532673 Shader Inspector: aqsltell Overview Aqsltell (pronounced “Axle-tell”) is a small tool to extract information about compiled shaders. Passing the name of a compiled shader to aqsltell will present a formatted list of arguments, their types, and the default values. For example... text/html 2008-04-28T07:02:38+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsltell_commands?rev=1209366158 deprecated. see aqsltell text/html 2008-04-28T07:02:11+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/aqsltell_overview?rev=1209366131 deprecated. see aqsltell. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/autoshadow?rev=1263804296 Description In the original RenderMan architecture, shadow maps are generated in an explicit, separate rendering pass, either by a separate RIB file or by a separate frame specification in a multi-frame RIB file. It can be quite tricky to get the shadow maps right, so Aqsis has an autoshadows feature, whereby the shadow maps for a shadow mapped light source can be created automatically. The actual result is still a multipass rendering, but the shadow passes are generated automatically, without… text/html 2008-02-18T12:47:53+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/book?rev=1203338873 Books Related to RenderMan The following is a short list of publications which some of us happen to have read. Another good source of information is the list of books and other publications at renderman.org. Beginner Essential RenderMan Fast Ian Stephenson text/html 2008-04-24T05:27:28+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/bug?rev=1209014848 deprecated. see reporting_bugs. text/html 2008-06-16T08:10:49+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/cgkit?rev=1213603849 deprecated. See external_pipeline. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/cli?rev=1263804296 Description A Command-Line Interface is the name for the “old style”, text-based execution of programs. A CLI program has no graphical user interface. Instead, all required data is specified as parameters to the program at startup, in the form of file names for input and output data, and options to control the interpretation and processing of that data. Once the program is started, it runs to completion without any user interaction. text/html 2008-04-28T05:31:48+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/config_aqsis?rev=1209360708 deprecated. See Configuration files and environment variables. text/html 2008-05-01T08:38:04+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/configuration?rev=1209631084 deprecated. see Configuration files and environment variables. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/contributing?rev=1263804296 The Aqsis documentation is authored as part of this very wiki site. There is a separate section of the wiki, here that forms the official Aqsis documentation. The documentation section of the wiki is also converted periodically to PDF form to be delivered with the various binary packages and made available to those users who prefer printable documentation. The process of converting the wiki content to PDF is automatically handled by the wiki system, and as such is subject to some restrictions an… text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/depthmap?rev=1263804296 Description Depth Maps are images that do not encode the intensity and color of light from a scene, but instead store a depth value for each pixel. That depth value is the distance from the point of view to the closest surface in that direction. Depth maps can be rendered from any viewpoint, and they can be used for several purposes. The most common use of depth maps in Aqsis is shadow maps. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dev?rev=1263804296 this page can be deleted (never contained any content). see index text/html 2008-05-11T08:47:11+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dev_build?rev=1210495631 this page can be deleted (never contained any content). see build text/html 2008-05-11T22:21:38+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dev_display?rev=1210544498 deprecated. See display. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/displacement?rev=1263804296 Description Displacement Shaders are... Requirements Examples text/html 2009-08-11T20:54:33+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/display?rev=1250024073 Display Drivers A display driver is a shared library which accepts the final pixel data from the renderer. Displays are loaded by the renderer at runtime and may perform tasks such as saving the image to a file, or displaying it graphically to the user. It is possible to have several displays connected and recieving image data at once. Aqsis supports the common display interface defined by Pixar's PRMan, and supported by most RenderMan compliant renderers. As such, many standard displays sh… text/html 2008-07-01T04:38:45+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/display_drivers?rev=1214887125 deprecated. See display. text/html 2008-05-01T09:45:20+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/display_file?rev=1209635120 deprecated. see display text/html 2008-05-01T09:46:53+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/display_param?rev=1209635213 deprecated - duplicate of display_drivers text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dof?rev=1263804296 Description Depth of Field is the description for the range that appears 'in' and 'out of focus'. In photography this can be influenced by changing the shutter time, focal length, and camera-to-subject distance. Shorter shutter times, smaller focal lengths or smaller distances result in smaller 'in focus' areas. text/html 2007-10-15T17:36:00+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dsm?rev=1192469760 Description Regular shadow maps store a single depth value per pixel, to determine whether a certain point in the scene is either illuminated by the light source or completely in shadow. Deep shadow maps instead store one function per pixel to compute a partial visibility value for every possible depth in its corresponding frustum in the scene. This makes it possible to generate fast, shadow-map based shadows for scenes with semi-transparent volumes like fog or smoke, or layers of semitranspar… text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/dso?rev=1263804296 Description Dynamic Shade Ops (DSO) is a way of extending the RenderMan(r) shading language (RSL) with new functions. A DSO is written in C or C++ and compiled to a separate platform-specific library file using a standard compiler. The library file is then loaded dynamically by Aqsis during rendering. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/eqsl?rev=1263804296 Eqsl Eqsl (“excel”) is a graphical user interface which allows easy/fast access to the most commonly-used tools within the Aqsis suite. Designed to be small and efficient it currently allows: aqsisaqslpiqsl This list may grow as the tool evolves, possibly including commonly-used operations (like texture optimisation). text/html 2008-05-01T09:07:46+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/error_reporting?rev=1209632866 deprecated. see reporting bugs text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/external?rev=1263804296 text/html 2008-06-16T08:05:20+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/external_modelling?rev=1213603520 Content Creation MakeHuman MakeHuman is an open source parametric human modeling application, suited to character creation, available for Windows and Linux. Aqsis is used as the default renderer for MakeHuman. K-3D K-3D is an open source modeling, animation and rendering application, available for Windows, Linux and OS X. text/html 2008-07-02T22:41:44+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/external_pipeline?rev=1215038504 Pipeline LiquidMaya LiquidMaya is an open source RenderMan plugin for Maya, available for Windows, Linux and OS X. RIB files can be exported and rendered via LiquidMaya's user interface, among others. CGKit CGKit is an open source Python-based 3D data processing application, available for Windows, Linux and OS X. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/external_renderfarm?rev=1263804296 Renderfarm text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/fb?rev=1263804296 Description Framebuffer is... Requirements Examples text/html 2008-05-28T20:00:27+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/features?rev=1212004827 Features The Aqsis tools provide a comprehensive list of features that are considered necessary for production use, the following list details some of the important high level capabilities. Programmable ShadingRenderManRSLdisplacementimagingHigh Level Primitive SupportREYESNURBSNURBSREYESSub-Pixel DisplacementREYESprimitiveMotion Blur (MB)motion blurDepth of Field (DoF)Shadow Mapped Ambient Occlusionshadow mapArbitrary Output Variables (AOV)RSLSubdivision Surfaces (SDS)Catmull-Clarksubdivisio… text/html 2009-10-21T09:36:13+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/getting_started?rev=1256117773 Aqsis icons To help users identify with the Aqsis toolsuite we have two icons, which are used to signify either graphical-based applications (such as eqsl and piqsl) or supported file types (such as RIB and SL): Graphical Applications Supported File Types Designed with high-definition displays in mind, these should sit nicely on modern desktops while also providing a clean, consistent, look across all supported platforms. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/gi?rev=1263804296 Description Global Illumination is the collective name for a number of rendering algorithms that in at least some respect take the entire scene into consideration when doing lighting computations. There are also local illumination methods. Aqsis 1.0 is strictly a local illumination renderer, but global illumination effects can be simulated with very good results. text/html 2006-11-27T15:22:11+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/glossary?rev=1164640931 Below is a glossary of terms referenced within varying pages, in alphabetical order for convenience. A Ambient Occlusion (AO)Arbitrary Output Variables (AOV) B C See Sub Division Surfaces (SDS)Command-Line Interface (CLI) D Deep Shadow Maps (DSM)Depth MapsDepth of Field (DoF)Displacement ShadersDynamic Shade Ops (DSO) E See High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) F Framebuffer G Global Illumination (GI)Graphical User Interface (GUI) H See High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI)High Dynamic Range Imaging (… text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/gui?rev=1263804296 Description Graphical User Interface is... Requirements Examples text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/hdri?rev=1263804296 Description High Dynamic Range Imaging is a name for the embarrassingly recent observation that 8 bits and a limited range of values like [0..1] is not enough to represent illumination data for a scene. Lighting in the real world varies wildly across a scene, but for a very long time since its inception, computer graphics was narrowly focused on the range of representable output values for a computer screen. Other output devices like film have a higher dynamic range, making 8 bits and the 256 … text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/ibl?rev=1263804296 Description Image Based Lighting refers to the method of using a high dynamic range (HDR) environment map as lighting information for a scene. If such environment maps are acquired from real world scenes, it is possible to achieve very high levels of realism for synthetically rendered images, and to composite synthetically rendered objects into images of real scenes so that the CG content blends extremely well into the scene. text/html 2009-10-21T09:54:39+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/imagershaders?rev=1256118879 Description Imager shaders take as their input the pixel values from the rendering, and give as their output the final color and opacity values to write to the output file or framebuffer. They are useful for a number of different purposes, including but not limited to tone mapping, color correction, multispectral rendering, overlays and compositing. text/html 2009-11-03T14:33:08+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/index?rev=1257258788 AboutIndex Contents Part I: The Aqsis Tools Getting StartedWhat's NewFeaturesLegalInstallationLinuxFIXMEWindowsOS XSourceEnvironment VariablesSupportCommunity (web/IRC)Troubleshooting (FAQ)FIXMEReporting BugsUsing the Aqsis Tool SuiteRenderer: aqsisShader Compiler: aqslShader Inspector: aqsltellTexture Optimizer: teqserRIB Processor: miqserAdvanced Framebuffer: piqslGraphical Interface: eqslPlugin: neqsusAqsis and the RI Standard: Implemented Features and ExtensionsRenderMan InterfaceRI Sta… text/html 2009-11-03T14:41:25+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/install?rev=1257259285 Installation Windows Aqsis is available as an executable installation package from SourceForge. During installation you will be presented with a series of options as detailed below: [Windows Installation Screen 1 ] The intro page welcomes you to the installation process, select Next to move onto the next stage of installation. text/html 2007-08-18T23:42:03+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/introduction?rev=1187480523 Aqsis is an open source command-line based 3D rendering solution, built around the Pixar RenderMan standard - Allowing for high-quality, photorealistic imagery to be produced for both animations and stills. Please note the words command-line and rendering solution in the sentence above. Aqsis is only a renderer, not a full-fledged 3D modeling and animation package. You will need more software than just Aqsis to perform 3D modeling and animation. However, when you get to the rendering part, Aqsi… text/html 2008-06-16T08:04:15+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/k3d?rev=1213603455 deprecated. See k-3d. text/html 2008-07-02T22:41:44+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/legal?rev=1215038504 Legal Information Software License The Aqsis suite is Copyright (c) 2000 Paul C. Gregory. This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTI… text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/license?rev=1263804296 Aqsis License The Aqsis suite is Copyright (c) 2000 Paul C. Gregory. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/linux_installation?rev=1263804296 Installing software on Linux systems is always interesting as there in no uniform package management system. To help make life a little easier, instructions for the most common package management systems are listed below. RPM-Based Packages (Like Fedora, Red Hat & SUSE) Open a console window and type the following command as root... text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/linux_package?rev=1263804296 If possible use your package management system (like Apt or Yum) to retrieve the relevant Aqsis installer, as this will help to resolve missing files/dependencies on your system. Failing that, Aqsis can be obtained by either... DownloadsSourceForge text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/linux_system?rev=1263804296 Aqsis has been designed to be as platform-independent as possible, and requires the following criteria to be met before installation (ideally)... Workstation Operating SystemCPUDisk 3D graphics rendering in general is a computationally intensive process, so Aqsis runs faster if you have a fast CPU and generous amounts of memory. Disk space and graphics hardware will not affect the speed of Aqsis rendering. text/html 2008-06-16T08:10:47+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/liquidmaya?rev=1213603847 deprecated. See external_pipeline. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/local_illumination?rev=1263804296 Description Local Illumination is the collective name for a number of rendering algorithms that take a simplistic approach to lighting computations: only the direct light sources and the point on the surface that is being shaded are considered. There are also global illumination methods. Aqsis 1.0 is strictly a local illumination renderer, but global illumination effects can be simulated with very good results. text/html 2008-06-16T08:04:13+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/makehuman?rev=1213603453 deprecated. See makehuman. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/mb?rev=1263804296 Description Motion Blur is the blurring of an image or object caused by movement while the shutter is open. There are basicly three reasons for motion blur... Requirements Examples text/html 2008-11-12T23:27:37+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/miqser?rev=1226532457 RIB Processor: miqser Overview miqser (“mixer”) is a tool for processing RIB streams. Its primary purpose is to alter the encoding of a RIB stream, it can convert ASCII encoded RIB to binary and vice versa, as well as applying/removing gzip compression. In addition, it can alter the indentation of an ASCII RIB stream, to make it more readable - a useful tool for tracking down problems with RIB files. text/html 2008-05-01T08:50:40+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/miqser_commands?rev=1209631840 deprecated. see options text/html 2008-05-01T08:50:57+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/miqser_overview?rev=1209631857 deprecated. see miqser text/html 2008-06-16T08:10:51+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/mosaic?rev=1213603851 deprecated. See external_pipeline. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/multipass?rev=1263804296 Description Multipass Rendering is... Requirements Examples text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/neqsus?rev=1263804296 Neqsus Neqsus (“nexus”) is a collection of plugins which allow access to the Aqsis toolsuite from different applications. Installation instructions vary, depending on the external application, with further information found within the README.txt distributed with Neqsus: text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/nurbs?rev=1263804296 Description NURBS are... Requirements Examples text/html 2009-09-17T02:18:17+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/options?rev=1253153897 Options & Attributes The operation of a RenderMan renderer is mostly controlled by the Options and Attributes mechanisms, both of which associate named values with the various stages of the rendering pipeline. Options are associated with the scene as a whole. Once the RiWorldBegin directive has been reached, the options are fixed, it is then illegal to call any Ri directives that can modify the options state. Attributes are associated with the attribute stack, and as such are assigned to li… text/html 2008-05-01T08:42:10+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/options_and_attributes?rev=1209631330 deprecated. See options. Note however that this page probably has a better name... text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/oss?rev=1263804296 Description Open Source Software is... Requirements Examples 2D The GIMPInkscape 3D BlenderK-3DCGKit Other Python text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/osx_installation?rev=1263804296 Once downloaded, double-click the aqsis-*.*.*.dmg (where *.*.* represents a version number) file to mount the disk image. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/osx_package?rev=1263804296 Aqsis can be obtained by either... DownloadsSourceForge text/html 2008-05-27T13:51:40+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/piqsl?rev=1211896300 Piqsl Overview piqsl (“pixel”) is the aqsis project's advanced framebuffer and image viewer. It's currently in an early stage of development, so feedback and constructive criticism are most welcome. The primary purpose of piqsl is to serve as the visible frontend to display images as they are rendered (that is, to serve as a framebuffer). Because piqsl is multi-threaded and uses sockets for inter-process communication, it is able to display rendering images from multiple concurrent aqsis r… text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/primitive?rev=1263804296 Description Primitives are... Requirements Examples text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/publication?rev=1263804296 text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/renderman?rev=1263804296 Description The name “RenderMan” refers to a scene description interface created by Pixar to provide a clear, precise mechanism for communicating between modelling/animation software and renderers. The RenderMan Interface specification (RI spec) has been made openly available by Pixar to make it possible for other vendors to share a common platform for rendering software. Several renderers, including Aqsis, are compatible with Pixar's RenderMan Interface. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/reyes?rev=1263804296 Description Reyes is a rendering algorithm originally developed during the mid-80's and published in 1987 . In short, it works by subdividing high-level primitives during rendering into micropolygons about the size of one pixel. This might seem inefficient, but in fact it's not, and it provides a simple, fast and efficient, yet powerful framework for advanced rendering features. Reyes remains a popular and very useful rendering architecture to this day. text/html 2009-10-21T09:59:05+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/ri_api?rev=1256119145 RenderMan Interface FIXME - The page layout needs review. RI Standard Conformance Required Features Aqsis 1.2 and above implements all the required features of the RenderMan Interface Specification: It is worth mentioning that Aqsis allows all shader types, including imager shaders to be written in SL, a feature that is still unsupported by most commercial renderers, including Pixar's PRMan. text/html 2008-02-18T12:43:31+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/ri_standard?rev=1203338611 Placeholder text/html 2007-05-29T06:25:36+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/rib?rev=1180419936 Description RenderMan Interface Bytestream (RIB) is the most common input format for scene data to a RenderMan-compliant renderer. A RIB file is plain text with a sequence of commands, so called RIB requests, in a fairly simple and straightforward syntax. RIB files can be written and read by humans, but the file format is primarily meant for automatic generation by modeling and animation software, not for manual editing. text/html 2008-06-16T08:10:53+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/ribkit?rev=1213603853 deprecated. See external_pipeline. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/rsl?rev=1263804296 Description The RenderMan Shading Language is a programming language created specifically for the purpose of procedural shading, a rendering approach where surface appearance and other properties of a scene are described in terms of small programs. text/html 2009-11-11T01:33:38+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/rsl_api?rev=1257903218 Shading Language Aqsis supports shaders written in the RenderMan Shading Language, RSL or simply SL for short. Shaders written for most other RenderMan implementations are compatible with Aqsis, and vice versa. Shaders written in SL are compiled by aqsl to an intermediate text-based format for efficient shader execution. The compiled shader format is unique to Aqsis, and not compatible with other renderers. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/rt?rev=1263804296 Description Ray Tracing is... Requirements Examples text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/sds?rev=1263804296 Description Subdivision Surfaces is a kind of high-level free-form primitive. It is similar to other kinds of parametric surface primitives like NURBS and Béziér patches, but an SDS surface is based on a strictly polygonal control hull, which makes it considerably easier to create, edit and animate even with fairly simple tools. An SDS surface is subdivided into micropolygons at rendering time like any other primitive in Aqsis. text/html 2008-06-16T08:10:39+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/shaderman?rev=1213603839 deprecated. See external_pipeline. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/shadowmap?rev=1263804296 Description Shadow Maps are depth maps (i.e. textures that store depth, or z-values) taken from the point of view of a light source, from one map for a spotlight or directional light, up to 6 maps for a point-light. During rendering (to be exact, when calling shadow () inside a shader) the depth value of the point being shaded is compared to the depth value stored in the shadow map. If the depth is greater than the stored depth, the point is in shadow, otherwise it is illuminated by the light … text/html 2008-06-16T08:04:17+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/silo?rev=1213603457 deprecated. See silo. text/html 2008-05-01T08:46:00+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/special_options?rev=1209631560 deprecated. see aqsis text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/sss?rev=1263804296 Description In real world Sub Surface Scattering happens when light hits the surface of an object, lets say a grape. The light travels through the flesh directly underneath the skin, bounces around and exits in an unpredictable angle. This makes the grape look much smoother lit. text/html 2008-08-30T20:53:15+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/support?rev=1220129595 Support Community Web/IRC Aqsis is a volunteer project, and the software comes without warranty or formal support. However, you will mostly find interested people available if you need help. There are forums at www.aqsis.org where you can post questions, and there are usually developers hanging out in the #aqsis IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. text/html 2008-11-12T23:28:46+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/teqser?rev=1226532526 Texture Optimizer: teqser Overview Teqser (pronounced “Texer”) is a tool that prepares texture images for use by the renderer, a “texture compiler” if you like. Even though procedural shading is a very powerful tool for defining surface appearance, there is still a large number of applications where a texture image is the best solution. A texture image can be used by itself to define the colour, transparency or bumps of a surface, but it can also be used as one part of a complicated procedura… text/html 2008-05-01T10:14:07+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/teqser_commands?rev=1209636847 deprecated. see teqser text/html 2008-05-01T10:14:22+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/teqser_overview?rev=1209636862 deprecated. see teqser text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/tiff?rev=1263804296 Description TIF/TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is an old but fairly flexible and useful file format for image files. It allows for multi-channel files with color and alpha channels and an optional lossless compression. Aqsis uses the TIFF format for its output files, and teqser uses TIFF input data to make texture files. text/html 2009-11-09T00:10:26+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/todo?rev=1257725426 This page lists changes that need to be made to the documentation, and sometimes contains some sections that are under construction. Things that need better documentation Shadow map creation The description of shadow map creation is a bit too shallow to be really useful. At least we should add some images, and an example RIB file demonstrating the use of shadowspot. Now that the autoshadows feature is finished, we should have that documented here as well. text/html 2008-04-28T06:50:44+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/tools?rev=1209365444 The aqsis tool suite consists of a collection of command line and graphical tools. Final images are created from input scene description files, shaders and textures by the renderer, aqsis. The other tools are used for manipulating the input data to aqsis: Shader programs describing surface properties and microgeometry should be compiled using the shader compiler, aqsl. The texture optimizer teqser needs to be used for preprocessing image files before they are used in a scene. miqser is a to… text/html 2008-01-18T23:53:50+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/welcome?rev=1200700430 Welcome to Aqsis, the free and open source renderer! Our motto is “freedom to dream”, and we hope that Aqsis will serve your rendering needs. Aqsis is an open source command-line based 3D rendering solution, built around the Pixar RenderMan standard - providing tools to produce high-quality, photorealistic imagery for both animations and stills. The software is released under GNU GPL. text/html 2009-10-21T09:51:34+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/whats_new?rev=1256118694 What's New (Aqsis 1.4 and 1.6) Aqsistex Library The old texture-handling code within Aqsis was rewritten for 1.4 and broken-out into a separate library. Improvements include faster texturing operations, EWA filtering, correct anisotropic filtering and intelligent mipmap-level interpolation... the latter of which seems a missing functionality even within most commercial renderers (to date): text/html 2006-11-27T15:22:11+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/win_installation?rev=1164640931 Once downloaded, double-click the aqsis_setup-*.*.*.exe file (where *.*.* represents a version number) then follow the on-screen instructions presented by the installation wizard. After the installation, continue with testing Aqsis. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/win_package?rev=1263804296 Aqsis can be obtained by either... DownloadsSourceForge text/html 2006-11-27T15:22:11+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/win_rendering_basic?rev=1164640931 Now we're more familiar with how Aqsis works, we can render the 'vase.rib' example scene that is bundled with Aqsis. In this example, Aqsis should be inside the PATH so you can run it by simply typing in aqsis. Open a command shell, and go into the root installation directory (by default, C:\Program Files\Aqsis). Now type cd content\ribs\scenes\vase, then run render.bat. text/html 2010-01-18T08:44:56+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/win_system?rev=1263804296 Aqsis has been designed to be as platform-independent as possible, and requires the following criteria to be met before installation (ideally)... Workstation Operating SystemCPUIntelDisk 3D graphics rendering in general is a computationally intensive process, so Aqsis runs faster if you have a fast CPU and generous amounts of memory. Disk space and graphics hardware will not affect the speed of Aqsis rendering. text/html 2007-10-05T23:18:36+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/win_test?rev=1191626316 Aqsis is a command-line application, so you need to open a command prompt first (usually, Start, Run, cmd.exe is sufficent). If you have run the default setup, Aqsis has registered itself in the PATH environment variable and can be used from any folder. Otherwise, use cd C:\Program Files\Aqsis\bin followed by pressing Enter. text/html 2008-06-16T08:04:20+00:00 http://wiki.aqsis.org/doc/xfrog?rev=1213603460 deprecated. See xfrog.