ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File | Root Listing
root/radiance/ray/doc/man/man1/rcontrib.1
Revision: 1.26
Committed: Wed Apr 23 15:09:03 2025 UTC (3 weeks, 4 days ago) by greg
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: HEAD
Changes since 1.25: +12 -4 lines
Log Message:
docs: Wording fixes to man pages regarding -e and -f options

File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 greg 1.26 .\" RCSid "$Id: rcontrib.1,v 1.25 2025/03/27 01:26:55 greg Exp $"
2 greg 1.2 .TH RCONTRIB 1 5/25/05 RADIANCE
3 greg 1.1 .SH NAME
4     rcontrib - compute contribution coefficients in a RADIANCE scene
5     .SH SYNOPSIS
6     .B rcontrib
7     [
8     .B "\-n nprocs"
9     ][
10     .B \-V
11     ][
12 greg 1.18 .B "\-t secs"
13     ][
14 greg 1.1 .B "\-c count"
15     ][
16     .B \-fo
17     |
18     .B \-r
19     ][
20     .B "\-e expr"
21     ][
22     .B "\-f source"
23     ][
24     .B "\-o ospec"
25     ][
26 greg 1.10 .B "\-p p1=V1,p2=V2"
27     ][
28 greg 1.1 .B "\-b binv"
29     ][
30     .B "\-bn nbins"
31     ]
32     {
33     .B "\-m mod | \-M file"
34     }
35     ..
36     [
37     .B $EVAR
38     ]
39     [
40     .B @file
41     ]
42     [
43     rtrace options
44     ]
45     .B octree
46     .br
47     .B "rcontrib [ options ] \-defaults"
48 greg 1.21 .br
49     .B "rcontrib \-features [feat1 ..]"
50 greg 1.1 .SH DESCRIPTION
51 greg 1.3 .I Rcontrib
52 greg 1.1 computes ray coefficients
53     for objects whose modifiers are named in one or more
54     .I \-m
55     settings.
56     These modifiers are usually materials associated with
57     light sources or sky domes, and must directly modify some geometric
58     primitives to be considered in the output.
59     A modifier list may also be read from a file using the
60     .I \-M
61     option.
62     The RAYPATH environment variable determines directories to search for
63     this file.
64     (No search takes place if a file name begins with a '.', '/' or '~'
65     character.)\0
66     .PP
67     If the
68     .I \-n
69     option is specified with a value greater than 1, multiple
70     processes will be used to accelerate computation on a shared
71     memory machine.
72     Note that there is no benefit to using more processes
73     than there are local CPUs available to do the work, and the
74     .I rcontrib
75     process itself may use a considerable amount of CPU time.
76     .PP
77     By setting the boolean
78     .I \-V
79     option, you may instruct
80     .I rcontrib
81     to report the contribution from each material rather than the ray
82     coefficient.
83     This is particularly useful for light sources with directional output
84     distributions, whose value would otherwise be lost in the shuffle.
85     With the default
86     .I -V-
87     setting, the output of rcontrib is a coefficient that must be multiplied
88     by the radiance of each material to arrive at a final contribution.
89     This is more convenient for computing daylight coefficeints, or cases
90     where the actual radiance is not desired.
91     Use the
92     .I -V+
93     setting when you wish to simply sum together contributions
94     (with possible adjustment factors) to obtain a final radiance value.
95     Combined with the
96     .I \-i
97     or
98     .I \-I
99     option, irradiance contributions are reported by
100     .I \-V+
101     rather than radiance, and
102     .I \-V-
103     coefficients contain an additonal factor of PI.
104     .PP
105     The
106     .I \-c
107     option tells
108     .I rcontrib
109     how many rays to accumulate for each record.
110 greg 1.6 The default value is one, meaning a full record will be produced for
111 greg 1.1 each input ray.
112 greg 1.6 For values greater than one, contributions will be averaged together
113 greg 1.1 over the given number of input rays.
114     If set to zero, only a single record will be produced at the very
115     end, corresponding to the sum of all rays given on the input
116     (rather than the average).
117     This is equivalent to passing all the output records through a program like
118     .I total(1)
119     to sum RGB values together, but is much more efficient.
120     Using this option, it is possible to reverse sampling, sending rays from
121     a parallel source such as the sun to a diffuse surface, for example.
122 greg 1.6 Note that output flushing via zero-direction rays is disabled with
123     .I \-c
124     set to zero.
125 greg 1.1 .PP
126 greg 1.19 Output flushing at fixed intervals may be enabled with the
127     .I \-x
128     option, which specifies the number of records
129     (-c accumulations) before each flush.
130     If the
131     .I \-y
132     option is also set, then periodic flushing is disabled and the
133     output size for an RGB image is the taken from the x and y dimensions.
134     In lieu of periodic flushing, a flush may be forced as mentioned above
135     by sending a sample with a zero direction vector, although you
136     must still send a full record of rays before output occurs.
137     .PP
138 greg 1.18 If progress reports are desired, the
139     .I \-t
140     option specifies a time interval in seconds for reports sent to
141     standard error.
142 greg 1.19 This requires that the number of input samples is known, meaning a
143     .I \-y
144     parameter has been specified.
145 greg 1.18 .PP
146 greg 1.1 The output of
147     .I rcontrib
148     has many potential uses.
149     Source contributions can be used as components in linear combination to
150     reproduce any desired variation, e.g., simulating lighting controls or
151     changing sky conditions via daylight coefficients.
152     More generally,
153     .I rcontrib
154     can be used to compute arbitrary input-output relationships in optical
155     systems, such as luminaires, light pipes, and shading devices.
156     .PP
157 greg 1.3 .I Rcontrib
158 greg 1.4 sends the accumulated rays tallies
159     to one or more destinations according to the given
160 greg 1.1 .I \-o
161     specification.
162     If a destination begins with an exclamation mark ('!'), then
163     a pipe is opened to a command and data is sent to its standard input.
164     Otherwise, the destination is treated as a file.
165     An existing file of the same name will not be clobbered, unless the
166     .I \-fo
167     option is given.
168     If instead the
169     .I \-r
170     option is specified, data recovery is attempted on existing files.
171     (If
172     .I "\-c 0"
173     is used together with the
174     .I \-r
175     option, existing files are read in and new ray evaluations are added
176     to the previous results, providing a convenient means for
177     progressive simulation.)\0
178     If an output specification contains a "%s" format, this will be
179     replaced by the modifier name.
180     The
181     .I \-b
182     option may be used to further define
183     a "bin number" within each object if finer resolution is needed, and
184     this will be applied to a "%d" format in the output file
185 greg 1.13 specification if present.
186     (The final integer will be offset incrementally
187     if the output is a RADIANCE picture and more than one modifier has
188     the same format specification.)\0
189 greg 1.1 The actual bin number is computed at run time based on ray direction
190     and surface intersection, as described below.
191 greg 1.5 The number of bins must be specified in advance with the
192 greg 1.1 .I \-bn
193     option, and this is critical for output files containing multiple values
194     per record.
195     A variable or constant name may be given for this parameter if
196     it has been defined via a previous
197     .I \-f
198     or
199     .I \-e
200     option.
201 greg 1.6 Since bin numbers start from zero, the bin count is always equal to
202     the last bin plus one.
203 greg 1.1 The most recent
204 greg 1.10 .I \-p,
205 greg 1.1 .I \-b,
206     .I \-bn
207     and
208     .I \-o
209     options to the left of each
210     .I \-m
211 greg 1.24 name are the ones used for that modifier.
212     Any
213     .I \-cs
214     option changing the number of spectral color
215     samples must appear before the first modifier.
216 greg 1.1 The ordering of other options is unimportant, except for
217     .I \-x
218     and
219     .I \-y
220     if the
221     .I \-c
222 greg 1.6 is zero, when they control the resolution string
223 greg 1.1 produced in the corresponding output.
224     .PP
225     If a
226     .I \-b
227     expression is defined for a particular modifier,
228     the bin number will be evaluated at run time for each
229 greg 1.4 ray contribution.
230 greg 1.1 Specifically, each ray's world intersection point will be assigned to
231     the variables Px, Py, and Pz, and the normalized ray direction
232     will be assigned to Dx, Dy, and Dz.
233     These parameters may be combined with definitions given in
234     .I \-e
235     arguments and files read using the
236     .I \-f
237     option.
238 greg 1.10 Additional parameter values that apply only to this modifier may be specified
239     with a
240     .I \-p
241     option, which contains a list of variable names and assigned values, separated
242 greg 1.17 by commas, colons, or semicolons.
243 greg 1.1 The computed bin value will be
244     rounded to the nearest whole number.
245 greg 1.9 (Negative bin values will be silently ignored.)\0
246 greg 1.8 For a single bin, you may specify
247     .I "\-b 0",
248     which is the default.
249 greg 1.1 This mechanism allows the user to define precise regions or directions
250     they wish to accumulate, such as the Tregenza sky discretization,
251     which would be otherwise impossible to specify
252     as a set of RADIANCE primitives.
253     The rules and predefined functions available for these expressions are
254     described in the
255     .I rcalc(1)
256     man page.
257 greg 1.26 Like the other rendering tools,
258 greg 1.1 .I rcontrib
259 greg 1.26 will search the
260     .I RAYPATH
261     library directories for each file given in a
262 greg 1.1 .I \-f
263     option.
264 greg 1.26 However, a special evaluation context is set for the
265     .I \-f
266     and
267     .I \-e
268     definitions, so attach a back-quote ('`') to variable and function names
269     you wish these to apply at the global evaluation level and used by all
270     materials and modifiers during rendering.
271 greg 1.1 .PP
272     If no
273     .I \-o
274     specification is given, results are written on the standard output in order
275     of modifier (as given on the command line) then bin number.
276     Concatenated data is also sent to a single destination (i.e., an initial
277     .I \-o
278     specification without formatting strings).
279     If a "%s" format appears but no "%d" in the
280     .I \-o
281     specification, then each modifier will have its own output file, with
282     multiple values per record in the case of a non-zero
283     .I \-b
284     definition.
285     If a "%d" format appears but no "%s", then each bin will get its own
286     output file, with modifiers output in order in each record.
287     For text output, each RGB coefficient triple is separated by a tab,
288     with a newline at the end of each ray record.
289     For binary output formats, there is no such delimiter to mark
290     the end of each record.
291     .PP
292     Input and output format defaults to plain text, where each ray's
293     origin and direction (6 real values) are given on input,
294     and one line is produced per output file per ray.
295     Alternative data representations may be specified by the
296     .I \-f[io]
297     option, which is described in the
298     .I rtrace
299     man page along with the associated
300     .I \-x
301     and
302     .I \-y
303     resolution settings.
304     In particular, the color ('c') output data representation
305     together with positive dimensions for
306     .I \-x
307     and
308     .I \-y
309     will produce an uncompressed RADIANCE picture,
310     suitable for manipulation with
311     .I pcomb(1)
312     and related tools.
313     .PP
314     Options may be given on the command line and/or read from the
315     environment and/or read from a file.
316     A command argument beginning with a dollar sign ('$') is immediately
317     replaced by the contents of the given environment variable.
318     A command argument beginning with an at sign ('@') is immediately
319     replaced by the contents of the given file.
320 greg 1.12 .PP
321     .I Rcontrib
322 rschregle 1.14 supports light source contributions from photon maps generated by
323 greg 1.12 .I mkpmap(1)
324     with its
325     .I -apC
326 rschregle 1.15 option. Enabling photon mapping is described in the
327     .I rtrace
328     man page along with its relevant settings. In photon mapping mode,
329 greg 1.12 .I rcontrib
330     only supports contributions from light sources, not arbitrary modifiers.
331     The
332     .I -b
333     option is supported along with its associated ray variables, as
334     discussed above. Ray coefficients are also supported via the
335     .I \-V-
336     option. Using fewer photons than there are light sources for the photon
337     density estimates results in omitted contributions, thus the bandwidth
338 rschregle 1.15 is clamped accordingly and a warning is issued.
339 greg 1.1 .SH EXAMPLES
340     To compute the proportional contributions from sources modified
341 greg 1.20 by "light1" vs. "light2" on a set of irradiance values:
342 greg 1.1 .IP "" .2i
343     rcontrib \-I+ @render.opt \-o c_%s.dat \-m light1 \-m light2 scene.oct < test.dat
344     .PP
345     To generate a pair of images corresponding to these two lights'
346     contributions:
347     .IP "" .2i
348     vwrays \-ff \-x 1024 \-y 1024 \-vf best.vf |
349     rcontrib \-ffc `vwrays \-d \-x 1024 \-y 1024 \-vf best.vf`
350     @render.opt \-o c_%s.hdr \-m light1 \-m light2 scene.oct
351     .PP
352     These images may then be recombined using the desired outputs
353     of light1 and light2:
354     .IP "" .2i
355     pcomb \-c 100 90 75 c_light1.hdr \-c 50 55 57 c_light2.hdr > combined.hdr
356     .PP
357 greg 1.20 To compute an array of irradiance contributions according to a Tregenza sky:
358 greg 1.1 .IP "" .2i
359 greg 1.7 rcontrib \-I+ \-f tregenza.cal \-b tbin \-bn Ntbins \-o sky.dat \-m skyglow
360     \-b 0 \-o ground.dat \-m groundglow @render.opt scene.oct < test.dat
361 greg 1.12 .PP
362     To perform an annual simulation of 365 daily sun positions in photon mapping
363     mode:
364     .IP "" .2i
365     rcontrib \-I+ \-h \-V \-fo \-o c_%s.dat \-M lights \-ap contrib.pm 365
366     scene.oct < test.dat,
367 greg 1.1 .SH ENVIRONMENT
368     RAYPATH path to search for \-f and \-M files
369 greg 1.16 .SH BUGS
370     We do not currently compute contributions or coefficients properly
371     in scenes with participating media.
372     A single warning will be issued if a scattering or absorbing medium
373     is detected.
374 greg 1.1 .SH AUTHOR
375     Greg Ward
376     .SH "SEE ALSO"
377 greg 1.25 cnt(1), dctimestep(1), genklemsamp(1), getinfo(1), mkpmap(1), pcomb(1), pfilt(1),
378     pvsum(1), ra_rgbe(1), rcalc(1), rcomb(1), rfluxmtx(1), rmtxop(1), rpict(1),
379 greg 1.22 rsensor(1), rtrace(1), total(1), vwrays(1), ximage(1)
380 greg 1.12