Rendering
Once scenes have been created within the world blocking construct in AL,
RenderMan can be invoked to render the environment. The simplest means
of doing this is by invoking the function "render".
ox --> (render)
One thing to always remember is to never, ever call (render) from
within the world construct. This is because render, when called, reevaluates
everything contained inside world. This results in an infinite loop...
Below are examples of how the most commonly used rendering options are
set. See The AL Reference Manual for more specific and complete
details.
A specific camera can be specified as an argument to "render":
ox --> (render "camera1")
Wireframe rendering can be accomplished by calling:
ox --> ((render 'set-renderer!) "render -vector")
By default, rendering is done to the screen. Rendered images can be sent
to a specific file with:
ox --> ((render 'to-file) "myfile.rle")
The size of the rendered image can be controlled by providing the
width and height of the desired image to "render". Here is how
you would request a standard video rez of 640x484:
ox --> ((render 'set-option!) '(ri-format 640 484 1))
The background color can be set when rendering by giving a color to
the "ri-background" option. A red background would be specified with:
ox --> ((render 'set-option!) '(ri-background '(1 0 0)))
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