8 Best Free Linux Renderers
One of the many strengths of Linux is its good range of open
source software for artists, photographers, animators, and designers.
With inexpensive hardware, free software, and a modicum of talent and
inspiration, anyone can create professional-looking computer graphics.
If you are new to computer graphics, it may not be clear what
is meant by the term rendering. To clarify, rendering is the process of
generating an image from a model (or a collection of models, known as a
scene file) using computer software. This entails the computer
software to perform calculations to translate the scene from a
mathematical approximation to a 2D image. To generate the image, the
scene file contains objects in a defined language or data structure,
containing geometry, lighting, shading, texture, and viewpoint. This
data is processed by the rendering software to generate a raster image
file or a digital image. There are three main computational techniques
used by rendering software; scanline, raytracing, and
radiosity. Rendering is a CPU-intensive process, so some software also
makes use of the Graphics processing unit (GPU) to speed up the
process. Images can be rendered by a single computer or with a network
of computers that work on a different part of the image.
There is a large selection of open source rendering
software to download. To provide an insight into the quality that is
available, we have compiled a list of our favorite rendering software.
Of course, the hugely acclaimed Blender contains an excellent built-in
rendering engine called Cycles. It has some extremely cool features and
is worth trying in addition to the software featured below.
Now, let's explore the 8 renderers at hand.
For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description
with an in-depth analysis of its features, a screenshot of the software
in action, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Renderers |
| Aqsis |
3D rendering solution adhering to the RenderMan standard |
| LuxRender |
Physically
based and unbiased rendering engine |
| Art
of Illusion |
3D-modeler, renderer and raytracer |
| Radiance |
Suite
of tools for performing lighting simulation |
| Renderer |
Interactive 3D visualization of triangle meshes |
| appleseed |
Physically-based
renderer targeted at production rendering
|
| Sunflow |
Rendering system for photo-realistic image synthesis |
| Mitsuba |
Extensible
rendering framework written in portable C++ |
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Last Updated Saturday, June 09 2012 @ 05:52 PM EDT
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