Questions about Standalone VRay

[ngrava]

Hi Vlado,

I came here to the forms to ask if there was going to be a standalone version of VRay. I read the announcement forum and there it was! In not so many words. I use Maya and Lightwave but not Max and I've been drooling over VRay for a long time now. I've been dreaming about a situation where I could pick and choose my renderer based on what I wanted to use and not on what the particular software has.

Lately I've been checking out the RenderMan interface. It's pretty cool. they seem to have thought of just about everything. But what do you expect from a technology that's been evolving for 25 years. There are also a couple of free REYES renderers based on the Renderman format that I've been using.

Anyway, I wanted to ask a few questions.

1) First is, will VRay have a shading language?
2) If so, have you considered the renderman standard?
3) is it just a command line executable that can be called by other programs or an NT service or something like that? Of will it have some kind of GUI interface?
4) how are you going to handle the data from other apps? Will there be some common interface or do we have to convert our scenes to Max format?
5) I'm interested in knowing about the file format. Will we have to declare our geometry on every frame like in RIB or will there be some kind of built in interpolation?

Thanks for any information you can give,

-=GB=-
Animator/Technical Director
Bent Image Lab
www.bentimagelab.com

[vlado]

Hello,

Here are some answers:

1) Initially, only c++ plugin interface. A shading language and a compiler is somewhat of a daunting task.
2) I doubt that VRay will be renderman-compliant at any time, simply because of the huge amount of work required to support the standard renderman features.
3) VRay itself will be a dynamically linked module. This may be called from a command line wrapper, or from another 3d app like Max or Maya.
4) The data for the rendering may come from a variety of sources, this depends on the particular VRay connection. Converting to a specific format is not necessary.
5) You can either generate a new file for each frame, or use keyframes to define the animation.

Hope this clears some things up.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ngrava]

Excellent! I hope you don't mind but have a few further questions:

Hello,
3) VRay itself will be a dynamically linked module. This may be called from a command line wrapper, or from another 3d app like Max or Maya.

So, in order to render from the application a wrapper plug in needs to be written that calls the DLL? I'm thinking specifically about LightWave. I don't know how to make plugins for that app yet. I’ve only worked in LScrpt (Lightwave scripting) Python and MEL. The whole .dll thing is a bit past my knowledge right now. I'm sure I can learn it if I have to though.
I was planning on just writing a translator that saves the scene or frame from LightWave into VRay format, sends it to VRay, and then shows the results. How feasible is this?

4) The data for the rendering may come from a variety of sources, this depends on the particular VRay connection. Converting to a specific format is not necessary.

But VRay will be expecting a particular format though if there's no connector for the App right? I guess I'm confused.

5) You can either generate a new file for each frame, or use keyframes to define the animation.

How will VRay know what the interpolation will be? I'm thinking specifically in the case of LightWave where there is no direct connection.

Thanks again for the details Vlado! I'm really excited about the potential here. VRay is definitely my favorite renderer. By the way, since I'm going have to write a translator, let me know as soon as it’s ready: galenb@bentimagelab.com

[Mudvin]

I don't know how to make plugins for that app yet. I’ve only worked in LScrpt (Lightwave scripting) Python and MEL

I think Vlado know Something like MayaMan or RAT....
Although it's pity that no renderman compatibility will be implemented

How will VRay know what the interpolation will be? I'm thinking specifically in the case of LightWave where there is no direct connection.

This connection doesn't have to know about any application-specific data(anim curves interpolation or such i mean). It's like MayaMan: rewind to next frame, dump current scene state into some file for rendering, next frame....and so on...