First steps: The user interface

Render globals:

You can access to render globals by pressing NUMPAD 1 on the script panel.

Render attributes

• Pass name: you can give a name to the pass here.
• Active pass: select the active pass with this slider
• Passes: enter the number of pass you need here
• Grid size: set the grid size (see Renderman doc)
• Shading rate: set the shading rate (see Renderman doc)
• Pixel sample: set the number of samples per pixel
• Filter type: set the filter type (catmull, box, etc.)
• Jitter: the amount of jittering
• Eye split: see Renderman doc
• Bucket size: set the bucket size (see Renderman doc)
• Texture mem: (see Renderman doc)
• Motion blur: enable motion blur
• Transformation blur: enable transformation blur
• Deformation blur: enable deformation blur (shape key)
• Camera blur: enable camera blur
• Filter size: the size of the filter
• Camera: set the camera you want to use for this pass
• DDriver: set the display driver
• Output: the channels you want to output
• A: output alpha channel in a file
• Z: output depth channel in a file
• Texture path: textures search pathes (separated with :)
• Shader path: shaders search pathes (separated with :)
• Lazy compute: when enabled, don't recompute already generated shadow maps
• Lauch renderer: when enabled, lauch the renderer at the end of the translation
• Render all passes: when enabled, translate all passes, else translate active one
• Render: launch the translation
• Preview: preview mode (for speed rendering)
• Net: for future use
• Display channels: additionnals display channels (_area and _radiosity are shortcuts for pointcloud generation)
• Use group for this pass: set a group of objects for rendering the active pass
• Ins pass: insert a pass just after the active one
• Del pass: delete the current(active) pass
• Cl: cleaup the file (useful when you added/removed pass multiple times)
• Render shadow: render shadow pass
• Render hero: render hero(beauty) pass
• Full pathes: export the shader with pathes or not
• Volume shader: set the atmosphere shader for this pass

Object attributes:

You can access to object attribute by pressing NUMPAD 2 on the script panel. Just select the object in the 3D view, go to the attribute panel and change the attributes.

Notes:

• in all attributes panels you have Active pass, you can select the pass number with it.
• The pass name is displayed on the left if you gived one in the render globals.

Meshes attributes:

• Ray trace:
• Trace specular: Make object visible to specular rays
• Trace diffuse: Make object visible to diffuse rays
• Transmission hit: Set the transmission mode (Primitive (opacity), Shader or None)
• Bias: The trace bias (see Renderman doc)
• Particles:
• Hair root size: When a particle system (hair mode) is attached to this objects, sets the root size of the curve
• Hair tip size: Same as above, tip size of curve
• Others:
• Override shading rate: If you want to change the shading rate of this object
• Visible to camera: Make the object visible or not to the camera
• Binary dicing: See the renderman documentation to know more
• Raster orient: See the pointcloud generation doc
• Cull hidden: See the pointcloud generation doc
• Backface culling: See the pointcloud generation doc
• Freeze Pref: Freeze the object for texturing see Pref doc
• Geometric approx: Enbling it will speed up the renderer when motion blurring
• Cast shadow: Object cast shadow or not (for buffered shadows only)
• Exports Vertscols: Export the vertex colors
• Export UV: Export the object's UV map
• Displacement bound: See the renderman doc
• Interpolate boundary: Use for subdivision meshes only.
• Shading:
• Particle shader: The particle shader you want for this object (for sphere particles)
• Volume shaders: The volume shader you want for this object
• Displacement shader: The displacement shader you want for this object
• Surface shader: The surface shader you want for this object

Light attributes:

• Pixel filter: set the pixel filter width
• Light shader: attach a light shader to this light
• Shadow name: the name of the shadowmap (AUTOSHADOW for automatic shadow generation)
• Shadow type: "deep", "depth" or "Dont't compute"
• Shading rate: set the shading rate for shadow generation
• Pixel sample: the number of samples per pixels for shadow generation
• Jitter: the amount of jitter for pixel samples

Empty attribute:

• Coordinate system: export the empty as a coordiante system, useful for shaders

Shader compiler:

You can write your shader in a Blender text window. Just prefix its name with SHA_ to make it compile via the Compile button on the shader panel (NUMPAD 3 in the script panel).

Note: Shaders are automatically compiled before rendering.

You can load it once compiled by pressing the "Load" button on the shader panel

Goto the first tutorial