Subject: Re: LW to RenderMan...
From: John Foust - Syndesis Corporation <[email-masked]>
To: LightWave <[email-masked]>
Date: 04 Aug 94 12:29:59 EDT

To: Lightwave

INTERNET:[email-masked] () writes:
> I am thinking about starting a project writing either a plug-in (if
> it suits this kind of thing) or separate program to convert LightWave
> scenes to be rendered with Pixar's RenderMan software.  Basically, it

I've got Showplace and the Renderman Developer Kit here, and we've
often been asked to add RIB support to InterChange, our commercial
program that translates between many different 3D file formats.

The problem is, Renderman doesn't like zillions of polygons.  It
certainly won't render as fast as it does with simpler
spline-and-patch based objects.  If you aren't gaining speed, then
you're fighting an uphill battle.  If you want to access
Renderman-specific features that aren't in LightWave, you'll resort
to hand-editing your scenes like every other power-user of
Renderman.  I find it amazing that so many users of Renderman are
tweaking their scenes and shaders by hand.

Still, we plan to add "RIB entity file" export to InterChange, and
theoretically, we can add import someday, too.