The RenderMan Interface - Paul Bourke

Depth of Field The ability to simulate focusing at different depths. (See the section on
Camera, p. 19.)
Special Camera Projections The ability to perform nonstandard camera projections such
as spherical or Omnimax projections. (See the section on Camera, p. 19.)
Displacements The ability to handle displacements. (See the section on Transformations,
p. 55.)
Spectral Colors The ability to calculate colors with an arbitrary number of spectral color
samples. (See the section on Additional Options, p. 34.)
Volume Shading The ability to attach and evaluate volumetric shading procedures. (See
the section on Volume shading, p. 46.)
Ray Tracing The ability to evaluate global illumination models using ray tracing. (See the
section on Shading and Lighting Functions, p. 141.)
Global Illumination The ability to evaluate indirect illumination models using radiosity
or other global illumination techniques. (See the section on Illuminance and Illuminate
Statements, p. 127.)
Area Light Sources The ability to illuminate surfaces with area light sources. (See the section
on Light Sources, p. 41.)
1.2 Structure of this Document
Part I of this document describes the scene description interface. Section 2 describes the
language binding and conventions used in this document. Section 3 provides a brief introduction
to the RenderMan Shading Language and its relationship to the RenderMan
Interface. Section 4 describes the graphics state maintained by the interface. The state is
divided into options which control the overall rendering process, and attributes which describe
the properties of individual geometric primitives. Rendering options include camera
and display options as well as the type of hidden surface algorithm being used. Rendering
attributes include shading (light sources, surface shading functions, colors, etc.) and
geometric attributes including transformations. Section 5 describes the basic geometric
surfaces and solid modeling representations used by the RenderMan Interface. Section 6
describes the specification of moving geometry and time-varying shading parameters. Finally,
Section 7 describes the process of generating texture maps from standard image files,
reporting errors, and manipulating archive files.
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