The renderer creates raycast or raytraced image files from Alias Scene Description Language files while in a command line. The Alias render programs create image files as follows:
Alias Renderer for Windows is a command-line tool for rendering Alias files. The rendered files produce a sequence of images that can be played back as an animation.
The functions powercaster and powertracer might not be present if they have not been purchased for your system.
All four render programs use the same arguments. The usage statement for renderer, raytracer, powercaster, or powertracer is described below.
| <command> [-a#] [-b#] [-B#] [-c <quantized_output_file>] [-C <color_map_filename>] [-d <filename>] [-e#] [-E#] [-f <script>] [-h#] [-H] [-J] [-k] [-K#] [-m <filename>] [-p <filename>] [-P] [-q#] [-Q#] [-r#] [-R#] [-s#] [-S#] [-t#] [-T#] [-w#] [-W#] [-x#] [-y#] [-Y#] [<sdl_filename>] | |
| <command> | is renderer or raytracer or powercaster or powertracer |
| -a# | sets the anti-aliasing level (aalevel) to the integer #. aalevel is the maximum anti-aliasing level per pixel. |
| -b# | sets the by frame number for animation sequences to the floating point number #. |
| -B# | sets the by extension for animation sequences to the integer #. |
| -c <quantized_output_file> | outputs the quantized image to the file <quantized_output_file> after each frame. |
| -C color_map_filename | uses the SGI image format file <color_map_filename> as the color map to refer to for quantizing after each frame.* |
| -d <filename> | uses <filename> as the depth filename. |
| -e# | sets the ending frame number for animation sequences to the floating point number #. |
| -E# | sets the size extension for animation sequences to the integer # where # indicates the number of 0 padding before the extension number. For example, -E 4 produces file extensions such as <file>.0001 indicating frame 1. |
| -f <script> | invokes the program <script> after each frame. |
| -h# | sets the image height for the partial image to be rendered to the integer # without changing the view port. However, this sub-region to be rendered always originates from the lower left hand corner of the image. The integer # moves the origin of this window around the view port. |
| -H | displays the on-line help. |
| -J | creates a depth file called ‘timing’ representing time per pixel. |
| -k | keeps depth maps in memory after reading them once.** |
| -K# | turns depth maps on disk usage to #. 0 is OFF. Any number other than zero is ON. *** |
| -m <filename> | produces a matte file and uses <filename> as the filename. |
| -n# | sets, to the integer #, the number of processors to render on. This option is only available with powertracer and powercaster. |
| -p <filename> | uses <filename> as the pix filename. |
| -P | preserves the non-glowed image unless DOF or Quantize are on. This option allows you to save both a glowed and non-glowed image on disk. The non-glowed image will have the same name as the glowed image, but will have the suffix .ng. |
| -q# | sets the quiet flag to #. # can be 0, 1, or 2. |
| -Q# | sets the resolution in the X direction and the view port to the integer #. This option is useful for overriding the resolution specified in a given SDL file. For example, it is useful for switching between rendering NTSC and 1/4 NTSC for a quick preview render. |
| -r# | sets the aspect ratio to the floating point number #. |
| -R# | sets the resolution in the Y direction and the view port to the integer #. This option is useful for overriding the resolution specified in a given SDL file. For example, it is useful for switching between rendering NTSC and 1/4 NTSC for a quick preview render. |
| -s# | sets the starting frame number for animation sequences to the floating point number #. |
| -S# | sets the start extension for animation sequences to the integer #. |
| -t# | sets the aathreshold to the integer #. aathreshold is the anti-aliasing threshold value that adaptively super-samples pixels based on color difference. The higher the value, the more sensitive the super-sampling is to color difference. |
| -T# | sets the number of Y pixels in a tile to the integer #. A tile is a row of pixels to be rendered together. The main reason to use this option is to reduce the amount of memory used by lowering the Y value. This controls the tile size the image is broken up into for rendering and has no effect on the final image or its resolution. |
| -v | render normally outside of viewport region |
| -V | render image with hidden lines |
| -w# | sets the image width for the partial image to be rendered to the integer # without changing the view port. However, this sub-region to be rendered always originates from the lower left hand corner of the image. The integer # moves the origin of this window around the view port. |
| -W# | sets the ylow for backgrounds to #. The ylow and yhigh define the region of the rendering, specified in pixels, where the background should appear. |
| -x# | sets the xleft to the integer #. xleft is the left corner of the partial image to be rendered. |
| -y# | sets the ylow to the integer #. ylow is the left corner of the partial image to be rendered. |
| -Y# | sets the yhigh for backgrounds to #. The ylow and yhigh define the region of the rendering, specified in pixels, where the background should appear. |
| sdl_filename | sets the SDL filename to a specific filename. If no filename is specified, standard input is used. |
* If required, the renderer quantizes images after rendering them. The option -C allows a previously generated color table to be used for quantizing images. However, aquant quantizes images much more quickly.
** Generally, when a depth_input file is specified for a shadowing spotlight, it is read every frame. -k forces the renderer to read the shadow map only once during the first frame of rendering.
*** Rather than editing your SDL files to add depth_input or depth_output commands to shadowing spotlights, this command line option may be used. When set to a non-zero value (for example -K 1), the renderer automatically creates depth output files named after the spotlights in your current directory, or if these files already exist, they are used.
Using any of the above options overrides any equivalent SDL keyword settings in the SDL file.
The following are examples showing the uses of the rendering utilities.
renderer testframe.sdl
renders an SDL file called testframe.sdl. All parameters and keywords set within the SDL file will be used. If any of the keywords is missing and requires a value, the default value for that parameter is used.
renderer -a0 -s1 -b2 -e20 -p testpix -q0 -h512 -w512 -x0 -y0 scene.sdl
renders an SDL file called scene.sdl. The scene to be rendered is an animation.
Anti-aliasing is turned OFF by setting the aalevelmax to 0. The animation specified in the SDL file is overridden by the specification of -s1 -b2 -e20, which renders with a frame step of 2 the first twenty frames of animation. Normal messages are output, and the test image size is 512x512 pixels square. The animation sequence is output to a series of files starting with the name testpix.
renderer -s 1.5 -e 3.5 -b .25 -S 1 -B 2 -E 3 sdl/foo
foo.001 (a snap shot of the animation at time 1.5) foo.003 (a snap shot of the animation at time 1.75) foo.005 (a snap shot of the animation at time 2.0) ... foo.019 (a snap shot of the animation at time 3.25) foo.021 (a snap shot of the animation at time 3.5)
Assuming a 512x512 image, the following command:
renderer -h 255 -w 255 -x 255 -y 255 sdl/foo
produces an image of the top right 255 x 255 pixel region of the original image.
Saved geometry is not compatible with motion blur.
You cannot stop and start a render process that uses saved geometry and retain the saved geometry.
Saved geometry uses a significant amount of memory. You should have at least 100 megabytes of swap space available before attempting to use it.
Alias backgrounds interpolate between the top and bottom of the current rendering pixel span in Y. If you are rendering only a sub-region, this might not be what you intend, because the background is repeated many times in Y. Therefore, use the options -W and -Y to specify a final resolution from which Alias can calculate background positioning.
SDL files are binary, and are compatible across platforms. To edit an SDL file, you must first convert it to text using the standalone utility bsdl. The TIFF file format is an image display format that is also compatible across platforms. All other image formats are automatically read and saved in SGI image format.
You must uncompress any texture-map files before you render.