The libraries have an elegant conceptual design throughout and are, as far as possible, platform independent. In brief, they provide functions and data structures relevant to the following areas:
BRender is a combination of the most recent research in 3D graphics techniques and algorithms, and painstaking efforts to translate those algorithms into streamlined, lean, mean and highly optimised C code. Efficiency notwithstanding, BRender has always been designed with cross-platform portability, a wide range of useful features, and general purpose application, firmly in mind.
BRender takes the form of a C library, a set of C headers and library files that you build into your application. This lets you concentrate solely upon the task of describing scenes, modelling them and presenting them to the user. BRender takes care of all the hard work involved in positioning items in a scene, lighting them, applying special effects, and from a given camera specification, working out what's in the image, and rendering it (clipping, hidden surface removal, transparency, reflection, etc.).
The BRender C Library not only provides access to the rendering engine, but also facilities at each end of the process: describing a scene and processing the resulting image.
Actors may perform a variety of different functions. There are three primary types of actor: model actors, which define shapes and their surface properties; light actors, which provide light with which models can be seen; and camera actors, which determine the viewpoint from which a scene is rendered into a 2D image.
It is the application's task to describe the scene in terms of an actor hierarchy, and BRender's task to turn this description into a 2D image, i.e. rendering it. However, although BRender is responsible for performing such rendering as efficiently as possible, the application is just as responsible for describing the scene as efficiently as possible. Both application and renderer must be optimised if high performance is to be achieved. BRender cannot compensate for a poorly written application. So, let's work in harmony to help produce extreme, jaw dropping applications.
Intense research and development over the last few years has culminated in what we believe is the best portable, all-round 3D rendering system available.
BRender turns a description of a scene into an image
Scenes in 3D worlds are described to BRender in terms of components called actors. Each actor represents a frame of reference in which geometric models (objects, shapes, polyhedra, etc.) and other actors can be positioned and oriented. This scene description often builds up to a fairly sizable hierarchical structure. Why is BRender so good?
The development team behind BRender includes experts with considerable experience in various fields including: 3D scene description and modelling, 3D algorithms, 3D graphics hardware, video games development, advanced mathematics, compiler and microprocessor design.
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