README

SCCSid "@(#)README 2.10 4/30/97 LBL" Hello and welcome to the Radiance synthetic imaging system. This is the eleventh release, Version 3.1, and it includes all source files and a graphical user interface based on Tcl/Tk. (If you do not have this package installed, we recommend you do so before building the system. It is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.smli.com in the /pub/tcl directory or in the /pub/programs directory on radsite.lbl.gov or the second tar file on your tape if you got the distribution in the mail.) Radiance is free, copyrighted software developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and EPFL in Switzerland. By downloading and installing this software, you are effectively agreeing to the license appended to this README file. Please read it carefully before proceeding. Please read this entire file before sending e-mail asking how to install this software or what to do with it. Some frequently asked questions are answered here and also on our web site at: http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/HOME.html To find out what's new in this release, check the text file "doc/notes/ReleaseNotes". IMPORTANT: Be sure to get whatever is in the pub/patch directory on the anonymous ftp account of radsite.lbl.gov or the second file on your tar tape and follow the instructions in the README file therein. We have attempted to make it easier for you (and for us) to install the software on differently configured systems using a global make script. To install the software, just type: makeall install You can clean up the .o files and so forth with: makeall clean Or, if you are confident you can do both at the same time with: makeall install clean You can give other make options at the end of the command as well. For example, the -n option will tell you what makeall is going to do without actually doing it. The makeall script asks you questions about your system and where you want to install the executables and library files. The pathnames you give should be relative to root for the programs to work properly. You may also use the tilde ('~') character to give paths starting with someone's home directory. If you do NOT have X11 support, please read the note "noX11.help" in this directory. It explains what to change to make things work. If you get errors about "don't know how to make this and that", you may have some problem with symbolic links on your system. The distribution tar file installs several important symbolic links in the various source directories, and these really need to be there. Although it is set automatically by makeall, individuals may want to set the RAYPATH environment variable manually. This variable tells Radiance where to look for auxiliary files, and usually includes the current directory as well as the system library (ray/lib in this distribution). As you develop auxiliary files yourself, it is often useful to add in your own library directory before the system directory. An example setting such as this would go in a user's .login file: setenv RAYPATH .:${HOME}/mylib:/usr/local/lib/ray After installing the software, you may want to start by scanning the input documentation contained in "doc/ray.1". Use troff with the "-ms" macro package. This should be used as a guide while running through the tutorial called "doc/tutorial.1". Unfortunately, the figures for these two documents were done on a Macintosh and cannot be transferred to a troff file. The figures can be found in the file "doc/mac.sit.hqx". Included therein is also an early draft of a more comprehensive manual on Radiance which is currently being rewritten as a book. A PostScript version of the manual is contained in "doc/ps/usman1.ps". Individual manual pages may be found in the subdirectory "doc/man". You may want to copy these to the system manual directory, or add this directory to your MANPATH environment variable in your shell initialization file. A good starting place is to print the text file ray/doc/man/whatis, which gives a one line description of each program in the Radiance package. To print out the manual pages, use the "-man" macro package. The most important program to learn about if you are a new user of Radiance (or have not used this program before) is "rad". It controls Radiance lighting parameters, and automates much of the rendering process. To get started, change directory to obj/misc and try running: % rad -o x11 daf.rif This works if you are running X11. If you are not, you can still generate an image with: % rad daf.rif & When the picture is done, you can convert it to another format for display with any of the ra_* programs listed in the doc/whatis database. If you have a question, you might start by looking in the Radiance Digest back issues, included in the doc/digest directory. Start with the most recent, and work your way backwards. Good luck, and if you have any questions or comments, please contact us at: Radiance-request Lawrence Berkeley National Lab 1 Cyclotron Rd., 90-3111 Berkeley, CA 94720 tel: (510) 486-7916 fax: (510) 486-4089 [email protected]