[Bf-committers] Render API Design and the Gelato C++ interface

Eliot Mack eliot at cinital.com
Wed May 30 15:27:46 CEST 2007


Gelato can be used as a Renderman-compliant renderer, but this isn't its 
native operation and is done through a secondary file processor. It's 
native interface is a nice, cleanly documented C++ API 
(http://film.download.nvidia.com/techref.pdf)* *that allows direct 
control of the various scene attributes, and is optimized for driving 
all of the custom attributes needed by a modern high quality film renderer.

It might be worth looking at this API quite closely; it was put together 
by some of the former architects of Pixar's Renderman based on a couple 
of decades of lessons learned from feature film VFX work. It's designed 
to handle the high level primitives that are desired at this API level 
(Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces, curves, points, shaders, lights, 
cameras, etc.), and would be a natural fit to both RIB based renderers 
such as Aqsis, Pixie, PRMan, 3Delight, etc. and ones that need a direct 
C/DLL type interface.

Eliot


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