3Delight
Encyclopedia
3Delight is a proprietary, photorealistic, RenderMan
-compliant offline renderer.
It is developed by DNA Research, or DNA in short, a subsidiary of Taarna Studios.
algorithm but is also well capable of doing ray tracing and global illumination
. The renderer is fully multi-threaded and also supports distributed rendering. This allows for accelerated rendering on multi-CPU hosts or environments where a large number of computers are joined into a grid
.
It implements all required capabilities for a RenderMan-compliant renderer and also the following optional ones:
3Delight also supports the following capabilities, which are not part of any capabilities list:
Another module, called 'Sabretooth', is used for ray-tracing and also supports global illumination calculations through certain shadeop
s.
3Delight supports explicit ray tracing of camera rays by selecting a different hider, essentially turning the renderer from a hybrid REYES/ray tracing one into a full ray-tracer.
Other features include:
3Delight was the first RenderMan-compliant renderer combining the REYES algorithm with on-demand ray-tracing. The only other RenderMan-compliant renderer capable of ray tracing at the time was BMRT. BMRT was not a REYES renderer though.
3Delight was meant to be a commercial product from the beginning. However, DNA decided to make it available free of charge from August 2000 to March 2005 in order to build a user base.
During this time, customers using a large number of licenses on their sites or requiring extensive support were asked to kindly work out an agreement with DNA that specified some form of fiscal compensation for this.
In March 2005, the license was changed. The first license is still free. From the second license onwards, the renderer used to be 1,000 USD
per two thread node resp. 1,500 USD per four thread node.
The current licensing scheme, effective from December 2009, is still based on number of threads. An unlimited threads license is 2,150 USD. A four thread node is 1,400 USD and a two thread node is 900 USD. Annual support fees vary, too, depending on number of threads.
and 64-bit
versions. The latter allowing the processing of very large scene datasets.
work on many films. Some notable examples are:
It was also used to render the following full CG features:
RenderMan Interface Specification
The RenderMan Interface Specification, or RISpec in short, is an open API developed by Pixar Animation Studios to describe three-dimensional scenes and turn them into digital photorealistic images...
-compliant offline renderer.
It is developed by DNA Research, or DNA in short, a subsidiary of Taarna Studios.
Features
3Delight primarily uses the REYESReyes rendering
Reyes rendering is a computer software architecture used in 3D computer graphics to render photo-realistic images. It was developed in the mid-1980s by Loren Carpenter and Robert L. Cook at Lucasfilm's Computer Graphics Research Group, which is now Pixar. It was first used in 1982 to render images...
algorithm but is also well capable of doing ray tracing and global illumination
Global illumination
Global illumination is a general name for a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes...
. The renderer is fully multi-threaded and also supports distributed rendering. This allows for accelerated rendering on multi-CPU hosts or environments where a large number of computers are joined into a grid
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
.
It implements all required capabilities for a RenderMan-compliant renderer and also the following optional ones:
- Area light sources
- Depth of fieldDepth of fieldIn optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
- Displacement mappingDisplacement mappingDisplacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to bump mapping, normal mapping, and parallax mapping, using a texture- or height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are displaced, often along the local...
- Environment mappingReflection mappingIn computer graphics, environment mapping, or reflection mapping, is an efficient Image-based lighting technique for approximating the appearance of a reflective surface by means of a precomputed texture image. The texture is used to store the image of the distant environment surrounding the...
- Global illuminationGlobal illuminationGlobal illumination is a general name for a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes...
- Level of detailLevel of detailIn computer graphics, accounting for level of detail involves decreasing the complexity of a 3D object representation as it moves away from the viewer or according other metrics such as object importance, eye-space speed or position....
- Motion blurMotion blurMotion blur is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image or a sequence of images such as a movie or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single frame, either due to rapid movement or long exposure.- Photography :When a camera...
- Programmable shadingShading languageA shading language is a special programming language adapted to map on shader programming. Those kind of languages usually have special data types like color and normal...
- Special camera projections (through the "ray trace hider")
- Ray tracing
- Shadow depth mapping
- Solid modelingSolid modelingSolid modeling is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three dimensional solids. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of Geometric modeling and Computer graphics by its emphasis on physical fidelity...
- Texture mappingTexture mappingTexture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
- Volume shading
3Delight also supports the following capabilities, which are not part of any capabilities list:
- Photon mappingPhoton mappingIn computer graphics, photon mapping is a two-pass global illumination algorithm developed by Henrik Wann Jensen that solves the rendering equation. Rays from the light source and rays from the camera are traced independently until some termination criterion is met, then they are connected in a...
- Point cloudPoint cloudA point cloud is a set of vertices in a three-dimensional coordinate system. These vertices are usually defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates, and typically are intended to be representative of the external surface of an object....
s - Hierarchical subdivision surfaces
- NURB curves
- Brick maps (3 dimensional, mip-mapped textures)
- (RIB) Conditionals
- Class-based shaders
- Co-shadersCoroutineCoroutines are computer program components that generalize subroutines to allow multiple entry points for suspending and resuming execution at certain locations...
Modules
3Delight is based on modules. The primary module is the REYES module which implements a REYES-based renderer.Another module, called 'Sabretooth', is used for ray-tracing and also supports global illumination calculations through certain shadeop
Shadeop
Shadeop is a term used in computer graphics rendering to refer to an atomic, built-in function used in a shader.It is a portmanteau that blends the terms shading and operation.-Meaning in the RenderMan context:...
s.
3Delight supports explicit ray tracing of camera rays by selecting a different hider, essentially turning the renderer from a hybrid REYES/ray tracing one into a full ray-tracer.
Other features include:
- Extended display subset functionality to allow rendering of geometric primitives, writing to the same display variable, to different images.
For example, display subsets could be used to render the skin and fur of a creature to two separate images at once without the fur mattingMatte (filmmaking)Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
the skin passes. - Memory efficient point clouds. Like brick maps, point clouds are organized in a spatial data structure and are loaded lazily, keeping the memory requirements as low as possible.
- Procedural geometry is instanced lazily even during ray tracing, keeping the memory requirements as low as possible.
- Displacement shaders can be stacked.
- Displacement shaders can (additionally) be run on the vertices of a geometric primitive, before that primitive is even shaded.
- The gather shadeop can be used on point clouds and to generate sample distributions from (high dynamic rangeHigh dynamic range imagingIn image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...
) images, e.g. for easily combining photon mapping with image based lightingImage based lightingImage-based lighting is a 3D rendering technique which involves plotting an image onto a dome or sphere that contains the primary subject. The lighting characteristics of the surrounding surface are then taken into account when rendering the scene, using the modeling techniques of global...
. - First order ray differentialsCone tracingCone tracing is a derivative of the ray tracing algorithm that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with cones. Cone tracing is related to beam tracing, but uses circular rather than polygonal cross sections....
on any ray fired from within a shaderShaderIn the field of computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that is used primarily to calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with a high degree of flexibility...
. - A read/write disk cache that allows the renderer to take strain off the network, when heavy scene data needs to be repeatedly distributed to clients on a render farmRender farmA render farm is a computer cluster built to render computer-generated imagery , typically for film and television visual effects, using off-line batch processing. This is different from a render wall, which is a networked, tiled display used for real-time rendering...
or image data sent back from such clients to a central storage server. - A C API that allows running RenderMan Shading LanguageRenderMan Shading LanguageRenderman Shading Language is a component of the RenderMan Interface Specification, and is used to define shaders. The language syntax is C-like....
(RSL) code on arbitrary data, e.g. inside a modelling3D modelingIn 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
application.
History
Work on 3Delight started in 1999. The renderer became first publicly available in 2000.3Delight was the first RenderMan-compliant renderer combining the REYES algorithm with on-demand ray-tracing. The only other RenderMan-compliant renderer capable of ray tracing at the time was BMRT. BMRT was not a REYES renderer though.
3Delight was meant to be a commercial product from the beginning. However, DNA decided to make it available free of charge from August 2000 to March 2005 in order to build a user base.
During this time, customers using a large number of licenses on their sites or requiring extensive support were asked to kindly work out an agreement with DNA that specified some form of fiscal compensation for this.
In March 2005, the license was changed. The first license is still free. From the second license onwards, the renderer used to be 1,000 USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
per two thread node resp. 1,500 USD per four thread node.
The current licensing scheme, effective from December 2009, is still based on number of threads. An unlimited threads license is 2,150 USD. A four thread node is 1,400 USD and a two thread node is 900 USD. Annual support fees vary, too, depending on number of threads.
Version Release History
- 3Delight 9.0.0 "AntonioniMichelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
": December 2009 - 3Delight 8.5.0 "Bronson": May 2009
- 3Delight 8.0.0 "Midnight Express": October 2008
- 3Delight 7.0.0 "DjangoDjango (film)Django is a 1966 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the eponymous role. The film earned a reputation as being one of the most violent films ever made up to that point and was subsequently refused a certificate in Britain until 1993, when it was...
": November 2007 - 3Delight 6.5.0 "EnnioEnnio MorriconeEnnio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
": February 2007 - 3Delight 6.0.1 "ArgentoDario ArgentoDario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
": November 2006 - 3Delight 5.0.0 "MoroderGiorgio MoroderHansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
": February 2006 - 3Delight 4.5.0 "Lucio FulciLucio FulciLucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
": August 2005 - 3Delight 4.0.0 "IndianaIndiana JonesColonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
": March 2005 - 3Delight 3.0.0
- 3Delight 2.1.0: June 2004
- 3Delight 2.0.0: January 2004
- 3Delight 1.0.6beta
- 3Delight 1.0.0beta: January 2003
- 3Delight 0.9.6: August 2002
- 3Delight 0.9.4: June 2002
- 3Delight 0.9.2: December 2001
- 3Delight 0.9.0: August 2001
- 3Delight 0.8.0: March 2001
- 3Delight 0.6.0: September 2000
- 3Delight 0.5.1: August 2000
Supported platforms
- Apple Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
on the PowerPCPowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
and x86 architectures - GNU/LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
on the x86, x86-64X86-64x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
and CellCell microprocessorCell is a microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an alliance known as "STI". The architectural design and first implementation were carried out at the STI Design Center in Austin, Texas over a four-year period beginning March 2001 on a...
architectures - MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
on the x86 and x86-64 architectures
Operating environments
The renderer comes in both 32-bit32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
and 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
versions. The latter allowing the processing of very large scene datasets.
Discontinued platforms
Platforms supported in the past included:- Digital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
Digital UNIX on the AlphaDEC AlphaAlpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation , designed to replace the 32-bit VAX complex instruction set computer ISA and its implementations. Alpha was implemented in microprocessors...
architecture - Silicon GraphicsSilicon GraphicsSilicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
IRIXIRIXIRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
on the MIPSMIPS architectureMIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
architecture (might still be supported, on request) - Sun MicrosystemsSun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
Solaris on the SPARCSPARCSPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
architecture
Film credits
3Delight has been used for visual effectsVisual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
work on many films. Some notable examples are:
- Assault on Precinct 13Assault on Precinct 13 (2005 film)Assault on Precinct 13 is a 2005 action thriller film directed by Jean-François Richet, starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. The cast also includes John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Ja Rule and Drea de Matteo...
- Bailey's Billions
- Black ChristmasBlack Christmas (2006 film)Black Christmas is 2006 American Slasher film and a remake of the 1974 horror slasher film of the same name. It was written and directed by Glen Morgan and stars Katie Cassidy, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert, Crystal Lowe, Michelle Trachtenberg , Oliver Hudson, Kristen Cloke, and Andrea...
- Blades of GloryBlades of GloryBlades of Glory is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, and starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. The movie was released on March 29, 2007 by DreamWorks and MTV Films...
- The Blood Diamond
- Charlotte's WebCharlotte's Web (2006 film)Charlotte's Web is a 2006 American live-action/computer-animated feature film, based on the popular book of the same name by E. B. White. It is directed by Gary Winick and produced by Paramount Pictures, Walden Media, The K Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies...
- CJ7 / Cheung Gong 7 houCJ7CJ7 is a 2008 Hong Kong science fiction/comedy film co-written, co-produced and directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the film. It was released on 31 January 2008 in Hong Kong. It was also released on 14 March 2008 in the United States....
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published and second chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's children's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of...
- The Chronicles of RiddickThe Chronicles of RiddickThe Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction film which follows the adventures of Richard B. Riddick, as he attempts to elude capture after the events depicted in the 2000 film Pitch Black, and details his meeting with Jack and Imam, his escape from the prison planet Crematoria, and...
- Cube ZeroCube ZeroCube Zero is a 2004 Canadian psychological thriller/horror film, written and directed by Ernie Barbarash. It is the third film in the Cube film series, but is a prequel to the first film...
- District 9District 9District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
- Fantastic FourFantastic Four (film)Fantastic Four is a 2005 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four. It was directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. It is the second live-action Fantastic Four film to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman only for the...
- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver SurferFantastic Four: Rise of the Silver SurferFantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a 2007 American superhero film, and the sequel to the 2005 film Fantastic Four. Both films are based on the Fantastic Four comic book and were directed by Tim Story...
- Final Destination 3Final Destination 3Final Destination 3 is a 2006 supernatural slasher film, and the third film in the Final Destination series. The film was directed and written by James Wong, who co-wrote and directed the first film, and was produced by Craig Perry. It was released in North America on February 10, 2006...
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film directed by David Yates and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman and David Barron...
- Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixHarry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada...
- HulkHulk (film)Hulk is a 2003 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name. Ang Lee directed the film, which stars Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner, as well as Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas, and Nick Nolte...
- The Incredible HulkThe Incredible Hulk (film)The Incredible Hulk is a 2008 superhero action film based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. It is directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner. It is the second film to be released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
- The Last MimzyThe Last MimzyThe Last Mimzy is a 2007 science fiction family film directed by Bob Shaye and loosely adapted from the acclaimed 1943 science fiction short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett...
- The RuinsThe Ruins (film)The Ruins is a 2008 Australian-American horror film directed by Carter Smith and starring Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Scott Smith, who also wrote the screenplay...
- The Seeker: The Dark is RisingThe Seeker (film)The Seeker, titled The Dark Is Rising in the United Kingdom and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising in Canada, is a 2007 American film adaptation of the second book in the five-book young adult fantasy series The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. The film is directed by David L...
- Terminator SalvationTerminator SalvationTerminator Salvation is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by McG and starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. The fourth installment in the Terminator series, the film is set in 2018 and focuses on the war between Skynet and humanity, with the human Resistance fighting...
- Superman ReturnsSuperman ReturnsSuperman Returns is a 2006 superhero film directed by Bryan Singer. It is the fifth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as a alternate sequel to Superman and Superman II by ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace .The film stars...
- The Woods
- X-Men: The Last StandX-Men: The Last StandX-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 superhero film and the third in the X-Men series. It was directed by Brett Ratner and stars an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Kelsey Grammer, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones,...
- X-Men Origins: WolverineX-Men Origins: WolverineX-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 American action film based on the Marvel Comics' fictional character Wolverine. The fourth installment in the X-Men film series, it was released worldwide on May 1, 2009...
It was also used to render the following full CG features:
- Adventures in Animation (ImaxIMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
3D featuretteFeaturetteFeaturette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
) - Free JimmyFree JimmyFree Jimmy is a Norwegian/British computer animated feature film first released in Norwegian language in 2006, and later in English language in 2008. The film was written and directed by acclaimed Norwegian subculture comic book artist Christopher Nielsen...