ARRIS to RADIANCE file translator

Copyleft Jean Brange 1995-1997

Hello and welcome to the wonderfull world of Radiance synthetic imaging system under Arris.

RELEASE NOTES:

This is version 2.0 of the Ray utilities for Arris by Jean Brange on November 1997

The latest release can be found at http://aleph.afuu.fr/radiance/arris2rad.html

The Radiance ftp site also has a copy ftp://radsite.lbl.gov/pub/translators/arris2rad.tar.gz

This set of utilities is a one way link from Arris to Radiance.

I have implemented many new features comming from film productions and light studies for high tech projects the last 2 years using Arris as a modeller and radiance as my main renderer.

You will be able to produce high quality images and videos from your Arris database, and study as far as you want the lighting atmospheres of your projects.

Features:

*Assign materials to arris entities.

*Preview any Arris viewpoint and layer style using Radiance Rendering engine.

*Completely control the Radiance rendering parameters from the Arris

*Quick picture and filters interface

*Define and preview animations in Arris in real time

*Compute Radiance Animation rendering using all your avaible Unix machines.

Arris to Radiance conversions:

lines converted to small cylinders

repeated items converted to xforms or instances

triangles converted to polygons.

Xhatches converted to polygons.

Implementation of radiance specific elements:

cylinder, tube, cone, cup, sphere and buble

WHAT'S NEW:

New Dialog Menus for material settings and picture production.

More materials.

Show and display utilies avaible for primitives.

Export by color, layers or material definition

dir.etna has been changed to dir.ray. the application is vn.jb/ap.ray

Animation tool which produce radiance makefiles for Networked

rendering

Arris colors to radiance material conversion

DOWNLOAD:

http://aleph.afuu.fr/radiance/arris2rad.tar.gz

ftp://radsite.lbl.gov/pub/translators/arris2rad.tar.gz

INSTALLATION:

Uncompress and untar the distribution archive in $ARRIS/ap

This will produce a vn.jb/ap.ray directory. You can tailor this to your specific needs.

then in Arris,

:smf;jb.ray:ray <cr>

:mnl;jb.ray:ray <cr>

ray;init <cr>

It should be there... Easier than the last time ?

This Distribution has been made for 604 derivatives versions of Arris if you need to have it work on ARRIS70 or higher you will need to recompile some files and change the name of the vn.jb/ap.ray directory to jb.vn/ray.ap, beside this the program is fully compatible for both systems.

HOW TO USE IT:

Once ray as been loaded, just type:

:ray;init <cr>

at Arris prompt. You will then have to specify the arris2rad Default directory, the Radiance working directory and the Radiance Distribution directory.

AVAIBLE FUNCTIONS:

If you want the arris2rad interface to fit in the usual arris menu there is a custom user bar provided with the application,

just load from the user bar menu, jb.ray:ray

MANUAL:

As of today I just made a Quick Start html page

There is no manual yet but the new interface should be self explanatory...

Each menu is described in the arris2rad menus file

the easiest way to use arris2rad is to work with colors.

If you want to use old features of the arris2rad interface you can refer to the previous README file called README_1.3

NEEDS:

radiance configuration files stands in the $ARRIS/ap/vn.jb/ap.ray directory.

wich includes default files: ctm.default, ctm.empty, default.mod, skyground.rad

You need to define your materials as usual with radiance, I suggest in a model.mod file located in the Radiance working directory. If you want to edit the default.mod file, do it in the vn.jb/ap.ray directory as this file is automaticaly copied from this place to the currnet working directory

TIPS:

For lights use RI's

Jean has collected a few notes which might help. ftp://radsite.lbl.gov/pub/translators/arris2rad.txt

FILES TYPES:

ctm files contains color to material link.

skyground,rad is the default sky and ground definition.

COMMENTS:

This is not a commercial software. It is used as a research tool for, and its getting better every month

TO DO:

A lot...

Next Release:

merging of colors and material export type using radiance mod file in arris

material and objects preview

CREDITS:

Thank's to Greg Ward and successors for maintaining a great soft and HMNS for their good ideas...

COPYRIGHTS

arris2rad is a free software, you can copy it and redistribute it as you want as long as you copy or redistribute the whole application files, including source files and COPYRIGHT notice.

You can modify the code as long as you transmit the modifications to the author, Jean Brange, E-mail: [email protected]

CAUTION:

You should be aware of the Radiance licence , Radiance is a registered copyright of The Regents of the University of California. You should mention the The Regents of the University of California, the Secretary of Conservation and Renewable Energy, Office of Building Energy Research and Development, Buildings Equipment Division of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Laboratoire d'Energie Solaire (LESO Group) at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL University) in Lausanne, Switzerland, if you publish any work with this interface.

You should refer to the Radiance documentation for more informations.

Good luck!

I will answer any question if you contact me at:

Jean Brange - 22 rue Barrault - 75013 Paris - France - Tel:(33)-1-48048674 Fax:(33)-1-48048604 - E-mail: [email protected]

-JB-