ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File | Root Listing
root/radiance/ray/doc/ray.1
Revision: 1.47
Committed: Mon Dec 9 19:21:38 2024 UTC (4 months, 3 weeks ago) by greg
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: HEAD
Changes since 1.46: +61 -3 lines
Log Message:
docs: Added description of new WGMDfunc material

File Contents

# Content
1 .\" RCSid "$Id: ray.1,v 1.46 2023/12/13 23:26:16 greg Exp $"
2 .\" Print using the -ms macro package
3 .DA 12/09/2024
4 .LP
5 .tl """Copyright \(co 2024 Regents, University of California
6 .sp 2
7 .TL
8 The
9 .so ../src/rt/VERSION
10 .br
11 Synthetic Imaging System
12 .AU
13 Building Technologies Department
14 .br
15 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
16 .br
17 1 Cyclotron Rd., MS 90-3111
18 .br
19 Berkeley, CA 94720
20 .NH 1
21 Introduction
22 .PP
23 RADIANCE was developed as a research tool
24 for predicting the distribution of visible radiation in
25 illuminated spaces.
26 It takes as input a three-dimensional geometric model of
27 the physical environment, and produces a map of
28 spectral radiance values in a color image.
29 The technique of ray-tracing follows light backwards
30 from the image plane to the source(s).
31 Because it can produce realistic images from a simple description,
32 RADIANCE has a wide range of applications in graphic arts,
33 lighting design, computer-aided engineering and architecture.
34 .KF
35 .sp 25
36 .ce
37 .B "Figure 1."
38 .sp
39 .KE
40 .PP
41 The diagram in Figure 1 shows the flow between programs (boxes) and
42 data (ovals).
43 The central program is
44 .I rpict,
45 which produces a picture from a scene description.
46 .I Rview
47 is a variation of
48 .I rpict
49 that computes and displays images interactively.
50 Other programs (not shown) connect many of these elements together,
51 such as the executive programs
52 .I rad
53 and
54 .I ranimate,
55 the interactive rendering program
56 .I rholo,
57 and the animation program
58 .I ranimove.
59 The program
60 .I obj2mesh
61 acts as both a converter and scene compiler, converting a Wavefront .OBJ
62 file into a compiled mesh octree for efficient rendering.
63 .PP
64 A scene description file lists the surfaces and materials
65 that make up a specific environment.
66 The current surface types are spheres, polygons, cones, and cylinders.
67 There is also a composite surface type, called mesh, and a pseudosurface
68 type, called instance, which facilitates very complex geometries.
69 Surfaces can be made from materials such as plastic, metal, and glass.
70 Light sources can be distant disks as well as local spheres, disks
71 and polygons.
72 .PP
73 From a three-dimensional scene description and a specified view,
74 .I rpict
75 produces a two-dimensional image.
76 A picture file is a compressed binary representation of the
77 pixels in the image.
78 This picture can be scaled in size and
79 brightness, anti-aliased, and sent to a graphics output device.
80 .PP
81 A header in each picture file lists the program(s) and
82 parameters that produced it.
83 This is useful for identifying a picture
84 without having to display it.
85 The information can be read by the program
86 .I getinfo.
87 .NH 1
88 Scene Description
89 .PP
90 A scene description file represents a
91 three-dimensional physical environment
92 in Cartesian (rectilinear) world coordinates.
93 It is stored as ASCII text, with the following basic format:
94 .DS
95 # comment
96
97 modifier type identifier
98 n S1 S2 "S 3" .. Sn
99 0
100 m R1 R2 R3 .. Rm
101
102 modifier alias identifier reference
103
104 ! command
105
106 ...
107 .DE
108 .PP
109 A comment line begins with a pound sign, `#'.
110 .PP
111 The scene description
112 .I primitives
113 all have the same general format, and can
114 be either surfaces or modifiers.
115 A primitive has a modifier, a type, and an identifier.
116 A modifier is either the identifier of a
117 .I "previously defined"
118 primitive, or "void"\(dg.
119 .FS
120 \(dgThe most recent definition of a modifier is the one used,
121 and later definitions do not cause relinking of loaded
122 primitives.
123 Thus, the same identifier may be used repeatedly, and each new
124 definition will apply to the primitives following it.
125 .FE
126 An identifier can be any string (i.e., any sequence of non-white characters).
127 The
128 .I arguments
129 associated with a primitive can be strings or real numbers.
130 The first integer following the identifier is the number
131 of string arguments, and it is followed by the arguments themselves
132 (separated by white space or enclosed in quotes).
133 The next integer is the number of integer arguments, and is followed
134 by the integer arguments.
135 (There are currently no primitives that use them, however.)
136 The next integer is the real argument count, and it is followed
137 by the real arguments.
138 .PP
139 An alias gets its type and arguments from a previously defined primitive.
140 This is useful when the same material is used with a different
141 modifier, or as a convenient naming mechanism.
142 The reserved modifier name "inherit" may be used to specificy that
143 an alias will inherit its modifier from the original.
144 Surfaces cannot be aliased.
145 .PP
146 A line beginning with an exclamation point, `!',
147 is interpreted as a command.
148 It is executed by the shell, and its output is read as input to
149 the program.
150 The command must not try to read from its standard input, or
151 confusion will result.
152 A command may be continued over multiple lines using a backslash, `\\',
153 to escape the newline.
154 .PP
155 White space is generally ignored, except as a separator.
156 The exception is the newline character after a command or comment.
157 Commands, comments and primitives may appear in any combination, so long
158 as they are not intermingled.
159 .NH 2
160 Primitive Types
161 .PP
162 Primitives can be surfaces, materials, textures or patterns.
163 Modifiers can be materials, mixtures, textures or patterns.
164 Simple surfaces must have one material in their modifier list.
165 .NH 3
166 Surfaces
167 .PP
168 A scene description will consist mostly of surfaces.
169 The basic types are given below.
170 .LP
171 .UL Source
172 .PP
173 A source is not really a surface, but a solid angle.
174 It is used for specifying light sources that are very distant.
175 The direction to the center of the source and the number of degrees
176 subtended by its disk are given as follows:
177 .DS
178 mod source id
179 0
180 0
181 4 xdir ydir zdir angle
182 .DE
183 .LP
184 .UL Sphere
185 .PP
186 A sphere is given by its center and radius:
187 .DS
188 mod sphere id
189 0
190 0
191 4 xcent ycent zcent radius
192 .DE
193 .LP
194 .UL Bubble
195 .PP
196 A bubble is simply a sphere whose surface normal points inward.
197 .LP
198 .UL Polygon
199 .PP
200 A polygon is given by a list of three-dimensional vertices,
201 which are ordered counter-clockwise as viewed from
202 the front side (into the surface normal).
203 The last vertex is automatically connected to the first.
204 Holes are represented in polygons as interior vertices connected to
205 the outer perimeter by coincident edges (seams).
206 .DS
207 mod polygon id
208 0
209 0
210 3n
211 x1 y1 z1
212 x2 y2 z2
213 ...
214 xn yn zn
215 .DE
216 .LP
217 .UL Cone
218 .PP
219 A cone is a megaphone-shaped object.
220 It is truncated by two planes perpendicular to its axis,
221 and one of its ends may come to a point.
222 It is given as two axis endpoints, and the starting
223 and ending radii:
224 .DS
225 mod cone id
226 0
227 0
228 8
229 x0 y0 z0
230 x1 y1 z1
231 r0 r1
232 .DE
233 .LP
234 .UL Cup
235 .PP
236 A cup is an inverted cone (i.e., has an inward surface normal).
237 .LP
238 .UL Cylinder
239 .PP
240 A cylinder is like a cone, but its starting and ending radii are
241 equal.
242 .DS
243 mod cylinder id
244 0
245 0
246 7
247 x0 y0 z0
248 x1 y1 z1
249 rad
250 .DE
251 .LP
252 .UL Tube
253 .PP
254 A tube is an inverted cylinder.
255 .LP
256 .UL Ring
257 .PP
258 A ring is a circular disk given by its center, surface
259 normal, and inner and outer radii:
260 .DS
261 mod ring id
262 0
263 0
264 8
265 xcent ycent zcent
266 xdir ydir zdir
267 r0 r1
268 .DE
269 .LP
270 .UL Mesh
271 .PP
272 A mesh is a compound surface, made up of many triangles and
273 an octree data structure to accelerate ray intersection.
274 It is typically converted from a Wavefront .OBJ file using the
275 .I obj2mesh
276 program.
277 .DS
278 mod mesh id
279 1+ meshfile transform
280 0
281 0
282 .DE
283 If the modifier is "void", then surfaces will use the modifiers given
284 in the original mesh description.
285 Otherwise, the modifier specified is used in their place.
286 The transform moves the mesh to the desired location in the scene.
287 Multiple instances using the same meshfile take little extra memory,
288 and the compiled mesh itself takes much less space than individual
289 polygons would.
290 In the case of an unsmoothed mesh, using the mesh primitive reduces
291 memory requirements by a factor of 30 relative to individual triangles.
292 If a mesh has smoothed surfaces, we save a factor of 50 or more,
293 permitting very detailed geometries that would otherwise exhaust the
294 available memory.
295 In addition, the mesh primitive can have associated (u,v) coordinates
296 for pattern and texture mapping.
297 These are made available to function files via the Lu and Lv variables.
298 .LP
299 .UL Instance
300 .PP
301 An instance is a compound surface, given by the contents of an
302 octree file (created by oconv).
303 .DS
304 mod instance id
305 1+ octree transform
306 0
307 0
308 .DE
309 If the modifier is "void", then surfaces will use the modifiers given
310 in the original description.
311 Otherwise, the modifier specified is used in their place.
312 The transform moves the octree to the desired location in the scene.
313 Multiple instances using the same octree take little extra memory,
314 hence very complex descriptions can be rendered using this primitive.
315 .PP
316 There are a number of important limitations to be aware of when using
317 instances.
318 First, the scene description used to generate the octree must stand on
319 its own, without referring to modifiers in the parent description.
320 This is necessary for oconv to create the octree.
321 Second, light sources in the octree will not be incorporated correctly
322 in the calculation, and they are not recommended.
323 Finally, there is no advantage (other than convenience) to
324 using a single instance of an octree, or an octree containing only a
325 few surfaces.
326 An xform command on the subordinate description is prefered in such cases.
327 .NH 3
328 Materials
329 .PP
330 A material defines the way light interacts with a surface.
331 The basic types are given below.
332 .LP
333 .UL Light
334 .PP
335 Light is the basic material for self-luminous surfaces (i.e., light
336 sources).
337 In addition to the source surface type, spheres, discs (rings with zero
338 inner radius), cylinders (provided they are long enough), and
339 polygons can act as light sources.
340 Polygons work best when they are rectangular.
341 Cones cannot be used at this time.
342 A pattern may be used to specify a light output distribution.
343 Light is defined simply as a RGB radiance value (watts/steradian/m2):
344 .DS
345 mod light id
346 0
347 0
348 3 red green blue
349 .DE
350 .LP
351 .UL Illum
352 .PP
353 Illum is used for secondary light sources with broad distributions.
354 A secondary light source is treated like any other
355 light source, except when viewed directly.
356 It then acts like it is made of a different material (indicated by
357 the string argument), or becomes invisible (if no string argument is given,
358 or the argument is "void").
359 Secondary sources are useful when modeling windows or
360 brightly illuminated surfaces.
361 .DS
362 mod illum id
363 1 material
364 0
365 3 red green blue
366 .DE
367 .LP
368 .UL Glow
369 .PP
370 Glow is used for surfaces that are self-luminous, but limited
371 in their effect.
372 In addition to the radiance value, a maximum radius for
373 shadow testing is given:
374 .DS
375 mod glow id
376 0
377 0
378 4 red green blue maxrad
379 .DE
380 If maxrad is zero, then the surface will never be tested
381 for shadow, although it may participate in an interreflection calculation.
382 If maxrad is negative, then the surface will never contribute to scene
383 illumination.
384 Glow sources will never illuminate objects on the other side of an
385 illum surface.
386 This provides a convenient way to illuminate local light fixture
387 geometry without overlighting nearby objects.
388 .LP
389 .UL Spotlight
390 .PP
391 Spotlight is used for self-luminous surfaces having directed output.
392 As well as radiance, the full cone angle (in degrees)
393 and orientation (output direction) vector are given.
394 The length of the orientation vector is the distance
395 of the effective focus behind the source center (i.e., the focal length).
396 .DS
397 mod spotlight id
398 0
399 0
400 7 red green blue angle xdir ydir zdir
401 .DE
402 .LP
403 .UL Mirror
404 .PP
405 Mirror is used for planar surfaces that produce virtual
406 source reflections.
407 This material should be used sparingly, as it may cause the light
408 source calculation to blow up if it is applied to many small surfaces.
409 This material is only supported for flat surfaces such as polygons
410 and rings.
411 The arguments are simply the RGB reflectance values, which should be
412 between 0 and 1.
413 An optional string argument may be used like the illum type to specify a
414 different material to be used for shading non-source rays.
415 If this alternate material is given as "void", then the mirror surface
416 will be invisible.
417 This is only appropriate if the surface hides other (more detailed)
418 geometry with the same overall reflectance.
419 .DS
420 mod mirror id
421 1 material
422 0
423 3 red green blue
424 .DE
425 .LP
426 .UL Prism1
427 .PP
428 The prism1 material is for general light redirection from prismatic
429 glazings, generating virtual light sources.
430 It can only be used to modify a planar surface (i.e., a polygon or disk)
431 and should not result in either light concentration or scattering.
432 The new direction of the ray can be on either side of the material,
433 and the definitions must have the correct bidirectional properties
434 to work properly with virtual light sources.
435 The arguments give the coefficient for the redirected light
436 and its direction.
437 .DS
438 mod prism1 id
439 5+ coef dx dy dz funcfile transform
440 0
441 n A1 A2 .. An
442 .DE
443 The new direction variables
444 .I "dx, dy"
445 and
446 .I dz
447 need not produce a normalized vector.
448 For convenience, the variables
449 .I "DxA, DyA"
450 and
451 .I DzA
452 are defined as the normalized direction to the target light source.
453 See section 2.2.1 on function files for further information.
454 .LP
455 .UL Prism2
456 .PP
457 The material prism2 is identical to prism1 except that
458 it provides for two ray redirections rather than one.
459 .DS
460 mod prism2 id
461 9+ coef1 dx1 dy1 dz1 coef2 dx2 dy2 dz2 funcfile transform
462 0
463 n A1 A2 .. An
464 .DE
465 .LP
466 .UL Mist
467 .PP
468 Mist is a virtual material used to delineate a volume
469 of participating atmosphere.
470 A list of important light sources may be given, along with an
471 extinction coefficient, scattering albedo and scattering eccentricity
472 parameter.
473 The light sources named by the string argument list
474 will be tested for scattering within the volume.
475 Sources are identified by name, and virtual light sources may be indicated
476 by giving the relaying object followed by '>' followed by the source, i.e:
477 .DS
478 3 source1 mirror1>source10 mirror2>mirror1>source3
479 .DE
480 Normally, only one source is given per mist material, and there is an
481 upper limit of 32 to the total number of active scattering sources.
482 The extinction coefficient, if given, is added to the global
483 coefficient set on the command line.
484 Extinction is in units of 1/distance (distance based on the world coordinates),
485 and indicates the proportional loss of radiance over one unit distance.
486 The scattering albedo, if present, will override the global setting within
487 the volume.
488 An albedo of 0\00\00 means a perfectly absorbing medium, and an albedo of
489 1\01\01\0 means
490 a perfectly scattering medium (no absorption).
491 The scattering eccentricity parameter will likewise override the global
492 setting if it is present.
493 Scattering eccentricity indicates how much scattered light favors the
494 forward direction, as fit by the Henyey-Greenstein function:
495 .DS
496 P(theta) = (1 - g*g) / (1 + g*g - 2*g*cos(theta))^1.5
497 .DE
498 A perfectly isotropic scattering medium has a g parameter of 0, and
499 a highly directional material has a g parameter close to 1.
500 Fits to the g parameter may be found along with typical extinction
501 coefficients and scattering albedos for various atmospheres and
502 cloud types in USGS meteorological tables.
503 (A pattern will be applied to the extinction values.)\0
504 .DS
505 mod mist id
506 N src1 src2 .. srcN
507 0
508 0|3|6|7 [ rext gext bext [ ralb galb balb [ g ] ] ]
509 .DE
510 There are two usual uses of the mist type.
511 One is to surround a beam from a spotlight or laser so that it is
512 visible during rendering.
513 For this application, it is important to use a cone (or cylinder) that
514 is long enough and wide enough to contain the important visible portion.
515 Light source photometry and intervening objects will have the desired
516 effect, and crossing beams will result in additive scattering.
517 For this application, it is best to leave off the real arguments, and
518 use the global rendering parameters to control the atmosphere.
519 The second application is to model clouds or other localized media.
520 Complex boundary geometry may be used to give shape to a uniform medium,
521 so long as the boundary encloses a proper volume.
522 Alternatively, a pattern may be used to set the line integral value
523 through the cloud for a ray entering or exiting a point in a given
524 direction.
525 For this application, it is best if cloud volumes do not overlap each other,
526 and opaque objects contained within them may not be illuminated correctly
527 unless the line integrals consider enclosed geometry.
528 .LP
529 .UL Plastic
530 .PP
531 Plastic is a material with uncolored highlights.
532 It is given by its RGB reflectance, its fraction of specularity,
533 and its roughness value.
534 Roughness is specified as the rms slope of surface facets.
535 A value of 0 corresponds to a perfectly smooth surface, and
536 a value of 1 would be a very rough surface.
537 Specularity fractions greater than 0.1 and
538 roughness values greater than 0.2 are not very
539 realistic.
540 (A pattern modifying plastic will affect the material color.)
541 .DS
542 mod plastic id
543 0
544 0
545 5 red green blue spec rough
546 .DE
547 .LP
548 .UL Metal
549 .PP
550 Metal is similar to plastic, but specular highlights
551 are modified by the material color.
552 Specularity of metals is usually .9 or greater.
553 As for plastic, roughness values above .2 are uncommon.
554 .LP
555 .UL Trans
556 .PP
557 Trans is a translucent material, similar to plastic.
558 The transmissivity is the fraction of penetrating light that
559 travels all the way through the material.
560 The transmitted specular component is the fraction of transmitted
561 light that is not diffusely scattered.
562 Transmitted and diffusely reflected light is modified by the material color.
563 Translucent objects are infinitely thin.
564 .DS
565 mod trans id
566 0
567 0
568 7 red green blue spec rough trans tspec
569 .DE
570 .LP
571 .UL Plastic2
572 .PP
573 Plastic2 is similar to plastic, but with anisotropic
574 roughness.
575 This means that highlights in the surface will appear elliptical rather
576 than round.
577 The orientation of the anisotropy is determined by the unnormalized
578 direction vector
579 .I "ux uy uz".
580 These three expressions (separated by white space) are evaluated in
581 the context of the function file
582 .I funcfile.
583 If no function file is required (i.e., no special variables or
584 functions are required), a period (`.') may be given in its
585 place.
586 (See the discussion of Function Files in the Auxiliary Files section).
587 The
588 .I urough
589 value defines the roughness along the
590 .B u
591 vector given projected onto the surface.
592 The
593 .I vrough
594 value defines the roughness perpendicular to this vector.
595 Note that the highlight will be narrower in the direction of the
596 smaller roughness value.
597 Roughness values of zero are not allowed for efficiency reasons
598 since the behavior would be the same as regular plastic in that
599 case.
600 .DS
601 mod plastic2 id
602 4+ ux uy uz funcfile transform
603 0
604 6 red green blue spec urough vrough
605 .DE
606 .LP
607 .UL Metal2
608 .PP
609 Metal2 is the same as plastic2, except that the highlights are
610 modified by the material color.
611 .LP
612 .UL Trans2
613 .PP
614 Trans2 is the anisotropic version of trans.
615 The string arguments are the same as for plastic2, and the real
616 arguments are the same as for trans but with an additional roughness
617 value.
618 .DS
619 mod trans2 id
620 4+ ux uy uz funcfile transform
621 0
622 8 red green blue spec urough vrough trans tspec
623 .DE
624 .LP
625 .UL Ashik2
626 .PP
627 Ashik2 is the anisotropic reflectance model by Ashikhmin & Shirley.
628 The string arguments are the same as for plastic2, but the real
629 arguments have additional flexibility to specify the specular color.
630 Also, rather than roughness, specular power is used, which has no
631 physical meaning other than larger numbers are equivalent to a smoother
632 surface.
633 Unlike other material types, total reflectance is the sum of
634 diffuse and specular colors, and should be adjusted accordingly.
635 .DS
636 mod ashik2 id
637 4+ ux uy uz funcfile transform
638 0
639 8 dred dgrn dblu sred sgrn sblu u-power v-power
640 .DE
641 .LP
642 .UL WGMDfunc
643 .PP
644 WGMDfunc is a more programmable version of trans2,
645 with separate modifier paths and variables to control each component.
646 (WGMD stands for Ward-Geisler-Moroder-Duer, which is the basis for
647 this empirical model, similar to the previous ones beside Ashik2.)\0
648 The specification of this material is given below.
649 .DS
650 mod WGMDfunc id
651 13+ rs_mod rs rs_urough rs_vrough
652 ts_mod ts ts_urough ts_vrough
653 td_mod
654 ux uy uz funcfile transform
655 0
656 9+ rfdif gfdif bfdif
657 rbdif gbdif bbdif
658 rtdif gtdif btdif
659 A10 ..
660 .DE
661 The sum of specular reflectance (
662 .I rs
663 ), specular transmittance (
664 .I ts
665 ), diffuse reflectance (
666 .I "rfdif gfdif bfdif"
667 for front and
668 .I "rbdif gbdif bbdif"
669 for back)
670 and diffuse transmittance (
671 .I "rtdif gtdif btdif"
672 ) should be less than 1 for each
673 channel.
674 .PP
675 Unique to this material, separate modifier channels are
676 provided for each component.
677 The main modifier is used on the diffuse reflectance, both
678 front and back.
679 The
680 .I rs_mod
681 modifier is used for specular reflectance.
682 If "void" is given for
683 .I rs_mod,
684 then the specular reflection color will be white.
685 The special "inherit" keyword may also be given, in which case
686 specular reflectance will share the main modifier.
687 This behavior is replicated for the specular transmittance modifier
688 .I ts_mod,
689 which has its own independent roughness expressions.
690 Finally, the diffuse transmittance modifier is given as
691 .I td_mod,
692 which may also be "void" or "inherit".
693 Note that any spectra or color for specular components must be
694 carried by the named modifier(s).
695 .PP
696 The main advantage to this material over BRTDfunc and
697 other programmable types described below is that the specular sampling is
698 well-defined, so that all components are fully computed.
699 .LP
700 .UL Dielectric
701 .PP
702 A dielectric material is transparent, and it refracts light
703 as well as reflecting it.
704 Its behavior is determined by the index of refraction and
705 transmission coefficient in each wavelength band per unit length.
706 Common glass has a index of refraction (n) around 1.5,
707 and a transmission coefficient of roughly 0.92 over an inch.
708 An additional number, the Hartmann constant, describes how
709 the index of refraction changes as a function of wavelength.
710 It is usually zero.
711 (A pattern modifies only the refracted value.)
712 .DS
713 mod dielectric id
714 0
715 0
716 5 rtn gtn btn n hc
717 .DE
718 .LP
719 .UL Interface
720 .PP
721 An interface is a boundary between two dielectrics.
722 The first transmission coefficient and refractive index are for the inside;
723 the second ones are for the outside.
724 Ordinary dielectrics are surrounded by a vacuum (1 1 1 1).
725 .DS
726 mod interface id
727 0
728 0
729 8 rtn1 gtn1 btn1 n1 rtn2 gtn2 btn2 n2
730 .DE
731 .LP
732 .UL Glass
733 .PP
734 Glass is similar to dielectric, but it is optimized for thin glass
735 surfaces (n = 1.52).
736 One transmitted ray and one reflected ray is produced.
737 By using a single surface is in place of two, internal reflections
738 are avoided.
739 The surface orientation is irrelevant, as it is for plastic,
740 metal, and trans.
741 The only specification required is the transmissivity at normal
742 incidence.
743 (Transmissivity is the amount of light not absorbed in one traversal
744 of the material.
745 Transmittance -- the value usually measured -- is the total light
746 transmitted through the pane including multiple reflections.)\0
747 To compute transmissivity (tn) from transmittance (Tn) use:
748 .DS
749 tn = (sqrt(.8402528435+.0072522239*Tn*Tn)-.9166530661)/.0036261119/Tn
750 .DE
751 Standard 88% transmittance glass has a transmissivity of 0.96.
752 (A pattern modifying glass will affect the transmissivity.)
753 If a fourth real argument is given, it is interpreted as the index of
754 refraction to use instead of 1.52.
755 .DS
756 mod glass id
757 0
758 0
759 3 rtn gtn btn
760 .DE
761 .LP
762 .UL Plasfunc
763 .PP
764 Plasfunc in used for the procedural definition of plastic-like
765 materials with arbitrary bidirectional reflectance distribution
766 functions (BRDF's).
767 The arguments to this material include the color and specularity,
768 as well as the function defining the specular distribution and the
769 auxiliary file where it may be found.
770 .DS
771 mod plasfunc id
772 2+ refl funcfile transform
773 0
774 4+ red green blue spec A5 ..
775 .DE
776 The function
777 .I refl
778 takes four arguments, the x, y and z
779 direction towards the incident light, and the solid angle
780 subtended by the source.
781 The solid angle is provided to facilitate averaging, and is usually
782 ignored.
783 The
784 .I refl
785 function should integrate to 1 over
786 the projected hemisphere to maintain energy balance.
787 At least four real arguments must be given, and these are made
788 available along with any additional values to the reflectance
789 function.
790 Currently, only the contribution from direct light sources is
791 considered in the specular calculation.
792 As in most material types, the surface normal is always
793 altered to face the incoming ray.
794 .LP
795 .UL Metfunc
796 .PP
797 Metfunc is identical to plasfunc and takes the same arguments, but
798 the specular component is multiplied also by the material color.
799 .LP
800 .UL Transfunc
801 .PP
802 Transfunc is similar to plasfunc but with an arbitrary bidirectional
803 transmittance distribution as well as a reflectance distribution.
804 Both reflectance and transmittance are specified with the same function.
805 .DS
806 mod transfunc id
807 2+ brtd funcfile transform
808 0
809 6+ red green blue rspec trans tspec A7 ..
810 .DE
811 Where
812 .I trans
813 is the total light transmitted and
814 .I tspec
815 is the non-Lambertian fraction of transmitted light.
816 The function
817 .I brtd
818 should integrate to 1 over each projected hemisphere.
819 .LP
820 .UL BRTDfunc
821 .PP
822 The material BRTDfunc gives the maximum flexibility over surface
823 reflectance and transmittance, providing for spectrally-dependent
824 specular rays and reflectance and transmittance distribution functions.
825 .DS
826 mod BRTDfunc id
827 10+ rrefl grefl brefl
828 rtrns gtrns btrns
829 rbrtd gbrtd bbrtd
830 funcfile transform
831 0
832 9+ rfdif gfdif bfdif
833 rbdif gbdif bbdif
834 rtdif gtdif btdif
835 A10 ..
836 .DE
837 The variables
838 .I "rrefl, grefl"
839 and
840 .I brefl
841 specify the color coefficients for
842 the ideal specular (mirror) reflection of the surface.
843 The variables
844 .I "rtrns, gtrns"
845 and
846 .I btrns
847 specify the color coefficients for the ideal specular transmission.
848 The functions
849 .I "rbrtd, gbrtd"
850 and
851 .I bbrtd
852 take the direction to the incident light (and its solid angle)
853 and compute the color coefficients for the directional diffuse part of
854 reflection and transmission.
855 As a special case, three identical values of '0' may be given in place of
856 these function names to indicate no directional diffuse component.
857 .PP
858 Unlike most other material types, the surface normal is not altered to
859 face the incoming ray.
860 Thus, functions and variables must pay attention to the orientation of
861 the surface and make adjustments appropriately.
862 However, the special variables for the perturbed dot product and surface
863 normal,
864 .I "RdotP, NxP, NyP"
865 and
866 .I NzP
867 are reoriented as if the ray hit the front surface for convenience.
868 .PP
869 A diffuse reflection component may be given for the front side with
870 .I "rfdif, gfdif"
871 and
872 .I bfdif
873 for the front side of the surface or
874 .I "rbdif, gbdif"
875 and
876 .I bbdif
877 for the back side.
878 The diffuse transmittance (must be the same for both sides by physical law)
879 is given by
880 .I "rtdif, gtdif"
881 and
882 .I btdif.
883 A pattern will modify these diffuse scattering values,
884 and will be available through the special variables
885 .I "CrP, CgP"
886 and
887 .I CbP.
888 .PP
889 Care must be taken when using this material type to produce a physically
890 valid reflection model.
891 The reflectance functions should be bidirectional, and under no circumstances
892 should the sum of reflected diffuse, transmitted diffuse, reflected specular,
893 transmitted specular and the integrated directional diffuse component be
894 greater than one.
895 .LP
896 .UL Plasdata
897 .PP
898 Plasdata is used for arbitrary BRDF's that are most conveniently
899 given as interpolated data.
900 The arguments to this material are the data file and coordinate index
901 functions, as well as a function to optionally modify the data
902 values.
903 .DS
904 mod plasdata id
905 3+n+
906 func datafile
907 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
908 0
909 4+ red green blue spec A5 ..
910 .DE
911 The coordinate indices
912 .I "(x1, x2,"
913 etc.) are themselves functions of
914 the x, y and z direction to the incident light, plus the solid angle
915 subtended by the light source (usually ignored).
916 The data function
917 .I (func)
918 takes five variables, the
919 interpolated value from the n-dimensional data file, followed by the
920 x, y and z direction to the incident light and the solid angle of the source.
921 The light source direction and size may of course be ignored by the function.
922 .LP
923 .UL Metdata
924 .PP
925 As metfunc is to plasfunc, metdata is to plasdata.
926 Metdata takes the same arguments as plasdata, but the specular
927 component is modified by the given material color.
928 .LP
929 .UL Transdata
930 .PP
931 Transdata is like plasdata but the specification includes transmittance
932 as well as reflectance.
933 The parameters are as follows.
934 .DS
935 mod transdata id
936 3+n+
937 func datafile
938 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
939 0
940 6+ red green blue rspec trans tspec A7 ..
941 .DE
942 .LP
943 .UL BSDF
944 .PP
945 The BSDF material type loads an XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
946 file describing a bidirectional scattering distribution function.
947 Real arguments to this material may define additional
948 diffuse components that augment the BSDF data.
949 String arguments are used to define thickness for proxied
950 surfaces and the "up" orientation for the material.
951 .DS
952 mod BSDF id
953 6+ thick BSDFfile ux uy uz funcfile transform
954 0
955 0|3|6|9
956 rfdif gfdif bfdif
957 rbdif gbdif bbdif
958 rtdif gtdif btdif
959 .DE
960 The first string argument is a "thickness" parameter that may be used
961 to hide detail geometry being proxied by an aggregate BSDF material.
962 If a view or shadow ray hits a BSDF proxy with non-zero thickness,
963 it will pass directly through as if the surface were not there.
964 Similar to the illum type, this permits direct viewing and
965 shadow testing of complex geometry.
966 The BSDF is used when a scattered (indirect) ray hits the surface,
967 and any transmitted sample rays will be offset by the thickness amount
968 to avoid the hidden geometry and gather samples from the other side.
969 In this manner, BSDF surfaces can improve the results for indirect
970 scattering from complex systems without sacrificing appearance or
971 shadow accuracy.
972 If the BSDF has transmission and back-side reflection data,
973 a parallel BSDF surface may be
974 placed slightly less than the given thickness away from the front surface
975 to enclose the complex geometry on both sides.
976 The sign of the thickness is important, as it indicates whether the
977 proxied geometry is behind the BSDF surface (when thickness is positive)
978 or in front (when thickness is negative).
979 .LP
980 The second string argument is the name of the BSDF file, which is
981 found in the usual auxiliary locations.
982 The following three string parameters name variables for an "up" vector,
983 which together with the surface normal, define the
984 local coordinate system that orients the BSDF.
985 These variables, along with the thickness, are defined in a function
986 file given as the next string argument.
987 An optional transform is used to scale the thickness and reorient the up vector.
988 .LP
989 If no real arguments are given, the BSDF is used by itself to determine
990 reflection and transmission.
991 If there are at least 3 real arguments, the first triplet is an
992 additional diffuse reflectance for the front side.
993 At least 6 real arguments adds diffuse reflectance to the rear side of the surface.
994 If there are 9 real arguments, the final triplet will be taken as an additional
995 diffuse transmittance.
996 All diffuse components as well as the non-diffuse transmission are
997 modified by patterns applied to this material.
998 The non-diffuse reflection from either side are unaffected.
999 Textures perturb the effective surface normal in the usual way.
1000 .LP
1001 The surface normal of this type is not altered to face the incoming ray,
1002 so the front and back BSDF reflections may differ.
1003 (Transmission is identical front-to-back by physical law.)\0
1004 If back visibility is turned off during rendering and there is no
1005 transmission or back-side reflection, only then the surface will be
1006 invisible from behind.
1007 Unlike other data-driven material types, the BSDF type is fully
1008 supported and all parts of the distribution are properly sampled.
1009 .LP
1010 .UL aBSDF
1011 .PP
1012 The aBSDF material is identical to the BSDF type with two important
1013 differences.
1014 First, proxy geometry is not supported, so there is no thickness parameter.
1015 Second, an aBSDF is assumed to have some specular through component
1016 (the 'a' stands for "aperture"), which
1017 is treated specially during the direct calculation and when viewing the
1018 material.
1019 Based on the BSDF data, the coefficient of specular transmission is
1020 determined and used for modifying unscattered shadow and view rays.
1021 .DS
1022 mod aBSDF id
1023 5+ BSDFfile ux uy uz funcfile transform
1024 0
1025 0|3|6|9
1026 rfdif gfdif bfdif
1027 rbdif gbdif bbdif
1028 rtdif gtdif btdif
1029 .DE
1030 .LP
1031 If a material has no specular transmitted component, it is much better
1032 to use the BSDF type with a zero thickness than to use aBSDF.
1033 .LP
1034 .UL Antimatter
1035 .PP
1036 Antimatter is a material that can "subtract" volumes from other volumes.
1037 A ray passing into an antimatter object becomes blind to all the specified
1038 modifiers:
1039 .DS
1040 mod antimatter id
1041 N mod1 mod2 .. modN
1042 0
1043 0
1044 .DE
1045 The first modifier will also be used to shade the area leaving the
1046 antimatter volume and entering the regular volume.
1047 If mod1 is void, the antimatter volume is completely invisible.
1048 If shading is desired at antimatter surfaces, it is important
1049 that the related volumes are closed with outward-facing normals.
1050 Antimatter surfaces should not intersect with other antimatter boundaries,
1051 and it is unwise to use the same modifier in nested antimatter volumes.
1052 The viewpoint must be outside all volumes concerned for a correct
1053 rendering.
1054 .NH 3
1055 Textures
1056 .PP
1057 A texture is a perturbation of the surface normal, and
1058 is given by either a function or data.
1059 .LP
1060 .UL Texfunc
1061 .PP
1062 A texfunc uses an auxiliary function file
1063 to specify a procedural texture:
1064 .DS
1065 mod texfunc id
1066 4+ xpert ypert zpert funcfile transform
1067 0
1068 n A1 A2 .. An
1069 .DE
1070 .LP
1071 .UL Texdata
1072 .PP
1073 A texdata texture uses three data files to get the surface
1074 normal perturbations.
1075 The variables
1076 .I xfunc,
1077 .I yfunc
1078 and
1079 .I zfunc
1080 take three arguments
1081 each from the interpolated values in
1082 .I xdfname,
1083 .I ydfname
1084 and
1085 .I zdfname.
1086 .DS
1087 mod texdata id
1088 8+ xfunc yfunc zfunc xdfname ydfname zdfname vfname x0 x1 .. xf
1089 0
1090 n A1 A2 .. An
1091 .DE
1092 .NH 3
1093 Patterns
1094 .PP
1095 Patterns are used to modify the reflectance of materials.
1096 The basic types are given below.
1097 .LP
1098 .UL Colorfunc
1099 .PP
1100 A colorfunc is a procedurally defined color pattern.
1101 It is specified as follows:
1102 .DS
1103 mod colorfunc id
1104 4+ red green blue funcfile transform
1105 0
1106 n A1 A2 .. An
1107 .DE
1108 .LP
1109 .UL Brightfunc
1110 .PP
1111 A brightfunc is the same as a colorfunc, except it is monochromatic.
1112 .DS
1113 mod brightfunc id
1114 2+ refl funcfile transform
1115 0
1116 n A1 A2 .. An
1117 .DE
1118 .LP
1119 .UL Colordata
1120 .PP
1121 Colordata uses an interpolated data map to modify a material's color.
1122 The map is n-dimensional, and is stored in three
1123 auxiliary files, one for each color.
1124 The coordinates used to look up and interpolate the data are
1125 defined in another auxiliary file.
1126 The interpolated data values are modified by functions of
1127 one or three variables.
1128 If the functions are of one variable, then they are passed the
1129 corresponding color component (red or green or blue).
1130 If the functions are of three variables, then they are passed the
1131 original red, green, and blue values as parameters.
1132 .DS
1133 mod colordata id
1134 7+n+
1135 rfunc gfunc bfunc rdatafile gdatafile bdatafile
1136 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
1137 0
1138 m A1 A2 .. Am
1139 .DE
1140 .LP
1141 .UL Brightdata
1142 .PP
1143 Brightdata is like colordata, except monochromatic.
1144 .DS
1145 mod brightdata id
1146 3+n+
1147 func datafile
1148 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
1149 0
1150 m A1 A2 .. Am
1151 .DE
1152 .LP
1153 .UL Colorpict
1154 .PP
1155 Colorpict is a special case of colordata, where the pattern is
1156 a two-dimensional image stored in the RADIANCE picture format.
1157 The dimensions of the image data are determined by the picture
1158 such that the smaller dimension is always 1, and the other
1159 is the ratio between the larger and the smaller.
1160 For example, a 500x338 picture would have coordinates (u,v)
1161 in the rectangle between (0,0) and (1.48,1).
1162 .DS
1163 mod colorpict id
1164 7+
1165 rfunc gfunc bfunc pictfile
1166 funcfile u v transform
1167 0
1168 m A1 A2 .. Am
1169 .DE
1170 .LP
1171 .UL Colortext
1172 .PP
1173 Colortext is dichromatic writing in a polygonal font.
1174 The font is defined in an auxiliary file, such as
1175 .I helvet.fnt.
1176 The text itself is also specified in a separate file, or
1177 can be part of the material arguments.
1178 The character size, orientation, aspect ratio and slant is
1179 determined by right and down motion vectors.
1180 The upper left origin for the text block as well as
1181 the foreground and background colors
1182 must also be given.
1183 .DS
1184 mod colortext id
1185 2 fontfile textfile
1186 0
1187 15+
1188 Ox Oy Oz
1189 Rx Ry Rz
1190 Dx Dy Dz
1191 rfore gfore bfore
1192 rback gback bback
1193 [spacing]
1194 .DE
1195 or:
1196 .DS
1197 mod colortext id
1198 2+N fontfile . This is a line with N words ...
1199 0
1200 15+
1201 Ox Oy Oz
1202 Rx Ry Rz
1203 Dx Dy Dz
1204 rfore gfore bfore
1205 rback gback bback
1206 [spacing]
1207 .DE
1208 .LP
1209 .UL Brighttext
1210 .PP
1211 Brighttext is like colortext, but the writing is monochromatic.
1212 .DS
1213 mod brighttext id
1214 2 fontfile textfile
1215 0
1216 11+
1217 Ox Oy Oz
1218 Rx Ry Rz
1219 Dx Dy Dz
1220 foreground background
1221 [spacing]
1222 .DE
1223 or:
1224 .DS
1225 mod brighttext id
1226 2+N fontfile . This is a line with N words ...
1227 0
1228 11+
1229 Ox Oy Oz
1230 Rx Ry Rz
1231 Dx Dy Dz
1232 foreground background
1233 [spacing]
1234 .DE
1235 .LP
1236 By default, a uniform spacing algorithm is used that guarantees
1237 every character will appear in a precisely determined position.
1238 Unfortunately, such a scheme results in rather unattractive and difficult to
1239 read text with most fonts.
1240 The optional
1241 .I spacing
1242 value defines the distance between characters for proportional spacing.
1243 A positive value selects a spacing algorithm that preserves right margins and
1244 indentation, but does not provide the ultimate in proportionally spaced text.
1245 A negative value insures that characters are properly spaced, but the
1246 placement of words then varies unpredictably.
1247 The choice depends on the relative importance of spacing versus formatting.
1248 When presenting a section of formatted text, a positive spacing value is
1249 usually preferred.
1250 A single line of text will often be accompanied by a negative spacing value.
1251 A section of text meant to depict a picture, perhaps using a special purpose
1252 font such as hexbit4x1.fnt, calls for uniform spacing.
1253 Reasonable magnitudes for proportional spacing are
1254 between 0.1 (for tightly spaced characters) and 0.3 (for wide spacing).
1255 .LP
1256 .UL Spectrum
1257 .PP
1258 The spectrum primitive is the most basic type for introducing spectral
1259 color to a material.
1260 Since materials only provide RGB parameters, spectral patterns
1261 are the only way to superimpose wavelength-dependent behavior.
1262 .DS
1263 mod spectrum id
1264 0
1265 0
1266 5+ nmA nmB s1 s2 .. sN
1267 .DE
1268 The first two real arguments indicate the extrema of the
1269 spectral range in nanometers.
1270 Subsequent real values correspond to multipliers at each wavelength.
1271 The nmA wavelength may be greater or less than nmB,
1272 but they may not be equal, and their ordering matches
1273 the order of the spectral values.
1274 A minimum of 3 values must be given, which would act
1275 more or less the same as a constant RGB multiplier.
1276 As with RGB values, spectral quantities normally range between 0
1277 and 1 at each wavelength, or average to 1.0 against a standard
1278 sensitivity functions such as V(lambda).
1279 The best results obtain when the spectral range and number
1280 of samples match rendering options, though resampling will handle
1281 any differences, zero-filling wavelenths outside the nmA to nmB
1282 range.
1283 A warning will be issued if the given wavelength range does not
1284 adequately cover the visible spectrum.
1285 .LP
1286 .UL Specfile
1287 .PP
1288 The specfile primitive is equivalent to the spectrum type, but
1289 the wavelength range and values are contained in a 1-dimensional
1290 data file.
1291 This may be a more convenient way to specify a spectral color,
1292 especially one corresponding to a standard illuminant such as D65
1293 or a library of measured spectra.
1294 .DS
1295 mod specfile id
1296 1 datafile
1297 0
1298 0
1299 .DE
1300 As with the spectrum type, rendering wavelengths outside the defined
1301 range will be zero-filled.
1302 Unlike the spectrum type, the file may contain non-uniform samples.
1303 .LP
1304 .UL Specfunc
1305 .PP
1306 The specfunc primitive offers dynamic control over a spectral
1307 pattern, similar to the colorfunc type.
1308 .DS
1309 mod specfunc id
1310 2+ sfunc funcfile transform
1311 0
1312 2+ nmA nmB A3 ..
1313 .DE
1314 Like the spectrum primitive, the wavelength range is specified
1315 in the first two real arguments, and additional real values are
1316 set in the evaluation context.
1317 This function is fed a wavelenth sample
1318 between nmA and nmB as its only argument,
1319 and it returns the corresponding spectral intensity.
1320 .LP
1321 .UL Specdata
1322 .PP
1323 Specdata is like brightdata and colordata, but with more
1324 than 3 specular samples.
1325 .DS
1326 mod specdata id
1327 3+n+
1328 func datafile
1329 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
1330 0
1331 m A1 A2 .. Am
1332 .DE
1333 The data file must have one more dimension than the coordinate
1334 variable count, as this final dimension corresponds to the covered
1335 spectrum.
1336 The starting and ending wavelengths are specified in "datafile"
1337 as well as the number of spectral samples.
1338 The function "func" will be called with two parameters, the
1339 interpolated spectral value for the current coordinate and the
1340 associated wavelength.
1341 If the spectrum is broken into 12 components, then 12 calls
1342 will be made to "func" for the relevant ray evaluation.
1343 .LP
1344 .UL Specpict
1345 .PP
1346 Specpict is a special case of specdata, where the pattern is
1347 a hyperspectral image stored in the common-exponent file format.
1348 The dimensions of the image data are determined by the picture
1349 just as with the colorpict primitive.
1350 .DS
1351 mod specpict id
1352 5+
1353 func specfile
1354 funcfile u v transform
1355 0
1356 m A1 A2 .. Am
1357 .DE
1358 The function "func" is called with the interpolated pixel value
1359 and the wavelength sample in nanometers, the same as specdata,
1360 with as many calls made as there are components in "specfile".
1361 .NH 3
1362 Mixtures
1363 .PP
1364 A mixture is a blend of one or more materials or textures and patterns.
1365 Blended materials should not be light source types or virtual source types.
1366 The basic types are given below.
1367 .LP
1368 .UL Mixfunc
1369 .PP
1370 A mixfunc mixes two modifiers procedurally.
1371 It is specified as follows:
1372 .DS
1373 mod mixfunc id
1374 4+ foreground background vname funcfile transform
1375 0
1376 n A1 A2 .. An
1377 .DE
1378 Foreground and background are modifier names that must be
1379 defined earlier in the scene description.
1380 If one of these is a material, then
1381 the modifier of the mixfunc must be "void".
1382 (Either the foreground or background modifier may be "void",
1383 which serves as a form of opacity control when used with a material.)\0
1384 Vname is the coefficient defined in funcfile that determines the influence
1385 of foreground.
1386 The background coefficient is always (1-vname).
1387 .LP
1388 .UL Mixdata
1389 .PP
1390 Mixdata combines two modifiers using an auxiliary data file:
1391 .DS
1392 mod mixdata id
1393 5+n+
1394 foreground background func datafile
1395 funcfile x1 x2 .. xn transform
1396 0
1397 m A1 A2 .. Am
1398 .DE
1399 .LP
1400 .UL Mixpict
1401 .PP
1402 Mixpict combines two modifiers based on a picture:
1403 .DS
1404 mod mixpict id
1405 7+
1406 foreground background func pictfile
1407 funcfile u v transform
1408 0
1409 m A1 A2 .. Am
1410 .DE
1411 The mixing coefficient function "func" takes three
1412 arguments, the red, green and blue values
1413 corresponding to the pixel at (u,v).
1414 .LP
1415 .UL Mixtext
1416 .PP
1417 Mixtext uses one modifier for the text foreground, and one for the
1418 background:
1419 .DS
1420 mod mixtext id
1421 4 foreground background fontfile textfile
1422 0
1423 9+
1424 Ox Oy Oz
1425 Rx Ry Rz
1426 Dx Dy Dz
1427 [spacing]
1428 .DE
1429 or:
1430 .DS
1431 mod mixtext id
1432 4+N
1433 foreground background fontfile .
1434 This is a line with N words ...
1435 0
1436 9+
1437 Ox Oy Oz
1438 Rx Ry Rz
1439 Dx Dy Dz
1440 [spacing]
1441 .DE
1442 .NH 2
1443 Auxiliary Files
1444 .PP
1445 Auxiliary files used in textures and patterns
1446 are accessed by the programs during image generation.
1447 These files may be located in the working directory, or in
1448 a library directory.
1449 The environment variable
1450 .I RAYPATH
1451 can be assigned an alternate set of search directories.
1452 Following is a brief description of some common file types.
1453 .NH 3
1454 Function Files
1455 .PP
1456 A function file contains the definitions of variables, functions
1457 and constants used by a primitive.
1458 The transformation that accompanies the file name contains the necessary
1459 rotations, translations and scalings to bring the coordinates of
1460 the function file into agreement with the world coordinates.
1461 The transformation specification is the same as for the
1462 .I xform
1463 command.
1464 An example function file is given below:
1465 .DS
1466 {
1467 This is a comment, enclosed in curly braces.
1468 {Comments can be nested.}
1469 }
1470 { standard expressions use +,-,*,/,^,(,) }
1471 vname = Ny * func(A1) ;
1472 { constants are defined with a colon }
1473 const : sqrt(PI/2) ;
1474 { user-defined functions add to library }
1475 func(x) = 5 + A1*sin(x/3) ;
1476 { functions may be passed and recursive }
1477 rfunc(f,x) = if(x,f(x),f(-x)*rfunc(f,x+1)) ;
1478 { constant functions may also be defined }
1479 cfunc(x) : 10*x / sqrt(x) ;
1480 .DE
1481 Many variables and functions are already defined by the program,
1482 and they are listed in the file
1483 .I rayinit.cal.
1484 The following variables are particularly important:
1485 .DS
1486 Dx, Dy, Dz - incident ray direction
1487 Nx, Ny, Nz - surface normal at intersection point
1488 Px, Py, Pz - intersection point
1489 T - distance from start
1490 Ts - single ray (shadow) distance
1491 Rdot - cosine between ray and normal
1492 arg(0) - number of real arguments
1493 arg(i) - i'th real argument
1494 .DE
1495 For mesh objects, the local surface coordinates are available:
1496 .DS
1497 Lu, Lv - local (u,v) coordinates
1498 .DE
1499 For BRDF types, the following variables are defined as well:
1500 .DS
1501 NxP, NyP, NzP - perturbed surface normal
1502 RdotP - perturbed dot product
1503 CrP, CgP, CbP - perturbed material color
1504 .DE
1505 A unique context is set up for each file so that the same variable
1506 may appear in different function files without conflict.
1507 The variables listed above and any others defined in
1508 rayinit.cal are available globally.
1509 If no file is needed by a given primitive because all the required
1510 variables are global, a period (`.') can be given in
1511 place of the file name.
1512 It is also possible to give an expression instead of a straight
1513 variable name in a scene file.
1514 Functions (requiring parameters)
1515 must be given as names and not as expressions.
1516 .PP
1517 Constant expressions are used as an optimization in function
1518 files.
1519 They are replaced wherever they occur in an expression by their
1520 value.
1521 Constant expressions are evaluated only once, so they must not
1522 contain any variables or values that can change, such as the ray
1523 variables Px and Ny or the primitive argument function arg().
1524 All the math library functions such as sqrt() and cos() have the
1525 constant attribute, so they will be replaced by immediate values
1526 whenever they are given constant arguments.
1527 Thus, the subexpression cos(PI*sqrt(2)) is immediately replaced
1528 by its value, -.266255342, and does not cause any additional overhead
1529 in the calculation.
1530 .PP
1531 It is generally a good idea to define constants and variables before
1532 they are referred to in a function file.
1533 Although evaluation does not take place until later, the interpreter
1534 does variable scoping and constant subexpression evaluation based on
1535 what it has compiled already.
1536 For example, a variable that is defined globally in rayinit.cal then
1537 referenced in the local context of a function file cannot
1538 subsequently be redefined in the same file because the compiler
1539 has already determined the scope of the referenced variable as global.
1540 To avoid such conflicts, one can state the scope of a variable explicitly
1541 by preceding the variable name with a context mark (a back-quote) for
1542 a local variable, or following the name with a context mark for a global
1543 variable.
1544 .NH 3
1545 Data Files
1546 .PP
1547 Data files contain n-dimensional arrays of real numbers used
1548 for interpolation.
1549 Typically, definitions in a function file determine how
1550 to index and use interpolated data values.
1551 The basic data file format is as follows:
1552 .DS
1553 N
1554 beg1 end1 m1
1555 0 0 m2 x2.1 x2.2 x2.3 x2.4 .. x2.m2
1556 ...
1557 begN endN mN
1558 DATA, later dimensions changing faster.
1559 .DE
1560 N is the number of dimensions.
1561 For each dimension, the beginning and ending coordinate
1562 values and the dimension size is given.
1563 Alternatively, individual coordinate values can be given when
1564 the points are not evenly spaced.
1565 These values must either be increasing or decreasing monotonically.
1566 The data is m1*m2*...*mN real numbers in ASCII form.
1567 Comments may appear anywhere in the file, beginning with a pound
1568 sign ('#') and continuing to the end of line.
1569 .NH 3
1570 Font Files
1571 .PP
1572 A font file lists the polygons which make up a character set.
1573 Comments may appear anywhere in the file, beginning with a pound
1574 sign ('#') and continuing to the end of line.
1575 All numbers are decimal integers:
1576 .DS
1577 code n
1578 x0 y0
1579 x1 y1
1580 ...
1581 xn yn
1582 ...
1583 .DE
1584 The ASCII codes can appear in any order.
1585 N is the number of vertices, and the last is automatically
1586 connected to the first.
1587 Separate polygonal sections are joined by coincident sides.
1588 The character coordinate system is a square with lower left corner at
1589 (0,0), lower right at (255,0) and upper right at (255,255).
1590 .NH 2
1591 Generators
1592 .PP
1593 A generator is any program that produces a scene description
1594 as its output.
1595 They usually appear as commands in a scene description file.
1596 An example of a simple generator is
1597 .I genbox.
1598 .I Genbox
1599 takes the arguments of width, height and depth to produce
1600 a parallelepiped description.
1601 .I Genprism
1602 takes a list of 2-dimensional coordinates and extrudes them along a vector to
1603 produce a 3-dimensional prism.
1604 .I Genrev
1605 is a more sophisticated generator
1606 that produces an object of rotation from parametric functions
1607 for radius and axis position.
1608 .I Gensurf
1609 tessellates a surface defined by the
1610 parametric functions x(s,t), y(s,t), and z(s,t).
1611 .I Genworm
1612 links cylinders and spheres along a curve.
1613 .I Gensky
1614 produces a sun and sky distribution corresponding
1615 to a given time and date.
1616 .PP
1617 .I Xform
1618 is a program that transforms a scene description from one
1619 coordinate space to another.
1620 .I Xform
1621 does rotation, translation, scaling, and mirroring.
1622 .NH 1
1623 Image Generation
1624 .PP
1625 Once the scene has been described in three-dimensions, it
1626 is possible to generate a two-dimensional image from a
1627 given perspective.
1628 .PP
1629 The image generating programs use an
1630 .I octree
1631 to efficiently trace rays through the scene.
1632 An octree subdivides space into nested octants which
1633 contain sets of surfaces.
1634 In RADIANCE, an octree is created from a scene description by
1635 .I oconv.
1636 The details of this process are not important,
1637 but the octree will serve as input to the ray-tracing
1638 programs and directs the use of a scene description.
1639 .PP
1640 .I Rview
1641 is ray-tracing program for viewing a scene interactively.
1642 When the user specifies a new perspective,
1643 .I rview
1644 quickly displays a rough
1645 image on the terminal, then progressively
1646 increases the resolution as the user looks on.
1647 He can select a particular section of the image to improve,
1648 or move to a different view and start over.
1649 This mode of interaction is useful for debugging scenes
1650 as well as determining the best view for a final image.
1651 .PP
1652 .I Rpict
1653 produces a high-resolution picture of a scene from
1654 a particular perspective.
1655 This program features adaptive sampling, crash
1656 recovery and progress reporting, all of which are important
1657 for time-consuming images.
1658 .PP
1659 A number of filters are available for manipulating picture files.
1660 .I Pfilt
1661 sets the exposure and performs anti-aliasing.
1662 .I Pcompos
1663 composites (cuts and pastes) pictures.
1664 .I Pcond
1665 conditions a picture for a specific display device.
1666 .I Pcomb
1667 performs arbitrary math on one or more pictures.
1668 .I Protate
1669 rotates a picture 90 degrees clockwise.
1670 .I Pflip
1671 flips a picture horizontally, vertically, or both (180 degree rotation).
1672 .I Pvalue
1673 converts a picture to and from simpler formats.
1674 .PP
1675 Pictures may be displayed directly under X11 using the program
1676 .I ximage,
1677 or converted a standard image format.
1678 .I Ra_bmp
1679 converts to and from Microsoft Bitmap images.
1680 .I Ra_ppm
1681 converts to and from Poskanzer Portable Pixmap formats.
1682 .I Ra_ps
1683 converts to PostScript color and greyscale formats.
1684 .I Ra_rgbe
1685 converts to and from Radiance uncompressed picture format.
1686 .I Ra_t16
1687 converts to and from Targa 16 and 24-bit image formats.
1688 .I Ra_t8
1689 converts to and from Targa 8-bit image format.
1690 .I Ra_tiff
1691 converts to and from TIFF.
1692 .I Ra_xyze
1693 converts to and from Radiance CIE picture format.
1694 .NH 1
1695 License
1696 .PP
1697 .DS
1698 The Radiance Software License, Version 1.0
1699
1700 Copyright (c) 1990 - 2008 The Regents of the University of California,
1701 through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. All rights reserved.
1702
1703 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
1704 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
1705 are met:
1706
1707 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
1708 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
1709
1710 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
1711 notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
1712 the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
1713 distribution.
1714
1715 3. The end-user documentation included with the redistribution,
1716 if any, must include the following acknowledgment:
1717 "This product includes Radiance software
1718 (http://radsite.lbl.gov/)
1719 developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1720 (http://www.lbl.gov/)."
1721 Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the software itself,
1722 if and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear.
1723
1724 4. The names "Radiance," "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory"
1725 and "The Regents of the University of California" must
1726 not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
1727 software without prior written permission. For written
1728 permission, please contact [email protected].
1729
1730 5. Products derived from this software may not be called "Radiance",
1731 nor may "Radiance" appear in their name, without prior written
1732 permission of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
1733
1734 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED
1735 WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
1736 OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
1737 DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory OR
1738 ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
1739 SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
1740 LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
1741 USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
1742 ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
1743 OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
1744 OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
1745 SUCH DAMAGE.
1746 .DE
1747 .NH 1
1748 Acknowledgements
1749 .PP
1750 This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary of Conservation
1751 and Renewable Energy, Office of Building Energy Research and
1752 Development, Buildings Equipment Division of the U.S. Department of
1753 Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.
1754 .PP
1755 Additional work was sponsored by the Swiss federal government
1756 under the Swiss LUMEN Project and was
1757 carried out in the Laboratoire d'Energie Solaire (LESO Group) at
1758 the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL University)
1759 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
1760 .NH 1
1761 References
1762 .LP
1763 Ward, Gregory J., Bruno Bueno, David Geisler-Moroder,
1764 Lars O. Grobe, Jacob C. Jonsson, Eleanor
1765 S. Lee, Taoning Wang, Helen Rose Wilson,
1766 ``Daylight Simulation Workflows Incorporating
1767 Measured Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Functions,''
1768 .I "Energy & Buildings",
1769 Vol. 259, No. 111890, 2022.
1770 .LP
1771 Wang, Taoning, Gregory Ward, Eleanor Lee,
1772 ``Efficient modeling of optically-complex, non-coplanar
1773 exterior shading: Validation of matrix algebraic methods,''
1774 .I "Energy & Buildings",
1775 vol. 174, pp. 464-83, Sept. 2018.
1776 .LP
1777 Lee, Eleanor S., David Geisler-Moroder, Gregory Ward,
1778 ``Modeling the direct sun component in buildings using matrix
1779 algebraic approaches: Methods and validation,''
1780 .I Solar Energy,
1781 vol. 160, 15 January 2018, pp 380-395.
1782 .LP
1783 Ward, G., M. Kurt & N. Bonneel,
1784 ``Reducing Anisotropic BSDF Measurement to Common Practice,''
1785 .I Workshop on Material Appearance Modeling,
1786 2014.
1787 .LP
1788 McNeil, A., C.J. Jonsson, D. Appelfeld, G. Ward, E.S. Lee,
1789 ``A validation of a ray-tracing tool used to generate
1790 bi-directional scattering distribution functions for
1791 complex fenestration systems,''
1792 .I "Solar Energy",
1793 98, 404-14, November 2013.
1794 .LP
1795 Ward, G., R. Mistrick, E.S. Lee, A. McNeil, J. Jonsson,
1796 ``Simulating the Daylight Performance of Complex Fenestration Systems
1797 Using Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Functions within Radiance,''
1798 .I "Leukos",
1799 7(4),
1800 April 2011.
1801 .LP
1802 Cater, K., A. Chalmers, G. Ward,
1803 ``Detail to Attention: Exploiting Visual Tasks for Selective Rendering,''
1804 .I "Eurograhics Symposium on Rendering",
1805 June 2003.
1806 .LP
1807 Ward, G., Elena Eydelberg-Vileshin,
1808 ``Picture Perfect RGB Rendering Using Spectral Prefiltering and
1809 Sharp Color Primaries,''
1810 13th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering, P. Debevec and
1811 S. Gibson (Editors), June 2002.
1812 .LP
1813 Ward, G. and M. Simmons,
1814 ``The Holodeck Ray Cache: An Interactive Rendering System for Global
1815 Illumination in Nondiffuse Environments,''
1816 .I "ACM Transactions on Graphics,"
1817 18(4):361-98, October 1999.
1818 .LP
1819 Larson, G.W., H. Rushmeier, C. Piatko,
1820 ``A Visibility Matching Tone Reproduction Operator for High Dynamic
1821 Range Scenes,''
1822 .I "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
1823 3(4), 291-306, December 1997.
1824 .LP
1825 Ward, G.,
1826 ``Making Global Illumination User Friendly,''
1827 .I "Sixth Eurographics Workshop on Rendering",
1828 proceedings to be published by Springer-Verlag,
1829 Dublin, Ireland, June 1995.
1830 .LP
1831 Rushmeier, H., G. Ward, C. Piatko, P. Sanders, B. Rust,
1832 ``Comparing Real and Synthetic Images: Some Ideas about Metrics,''
1833 .I "Sixth Eurographics Workshop on Rendering",
1834 proceedings to be published by Springer-Verlag,
1835 Dublin, Ireland, June 1995.
1836 .LP
1837 Ward, G.,
1838 ``The Radiance Lighting Simulation and Rendering System,''
1839 .I "Computer Graphics",
1840 Orlando, July 1994.
1841 .LP
1842 Rushmeier, H., G. Ward,
1843 ``Energy-Preserving Non-Linear Filters,''
1844 .I "Computer Graphics",
1845 Orlando, July 1994.
1846 .LP
1847 Ward, G.,
1848 ``A Contrast-Based Scalefactor for Luminance Display,''
1849 .I "Graphics Gems IV",
1850 Edited by Paul Heckbert,
1851 Academic Press 1994.
1852 .LP
1853 Ward, G.,
1854 ``Measuring and Modeling Anisotropic Reflection,''
1855 .I "Computer Graphics",
1856 Chicago, July 1992.
1857 .LP
1858 Ward, G., P. Heckbert,
1859 ``Irradiance Gradients,''
1860 .I "Third Annual Eurographics Workshop on Rendering",
1861 to be published by Springer-Verlag, held in Bristol, UK, May 1992.
1862 .LP
1863 Ward, G.,
1864 ``Adaptive Shadow Testing for Ray Tracing,''
1865 .I "Second Annual Eurographics Workshop on Rendering",
1866 to be published by Springer-Verlag, held in Barcelona, SPAIN, May 1991.
1867 .LP
1868 Ward, G.,
1869 ``Visualization,''
1870 .I "Lighting Design and Application",
1871 Vol. 20, No. 6, June 1990.
1872 .LP
1873 Ward, G., F. Rubinstein, R. Clear,
1874 ``A Ray Tracing Solution for Diffuse Interreflection,''
1875 .I "Computer Graphics",
1876 Vol. 22, No. 4, August 1988.
1877 .LP
1878 Ward, G., F. Rubinstein,
1879 ``A New Technique for Computer Simulation of Illuminated Spaces,''
1880 .I "Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society",
1881 Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter 1988.