RenderMan related Utilities

What's on this page?

brender -- batch rendering
houdini_part2blob -- Particle to Blobby converter (more production savvy)
mscl -- compiles multiple shader files for BMRT
mktmap -- makes texture-maps for prman
objxpand -- expand object instances
part2blob -- Particle to Blobby converter (improved)
rib-intention
RenderCron -- set of Unix scripts for overnight renders
RIBexport -- Maya to RIB exporter
ribvrt -- MacroModel RIB converter
rmVertex.mel--add MTOR vertex variables
sl2slim -- builds .slim files
softrman -- a Softimage plugin
- rsl2gsl -- Translates RenderMan shader source into Gelato shaders.
- Ribelato -- Gelato Plugin for reading RIB files.

NOTE: DUE to how this site's server is set up, the server will try to execute files ending in .pl (Perl scripts). For this reason these Perl scripts have the suffix .perl so they can be downloaded. Most likely you will want to rename the file to have the .pl suffix. Also, if you are using a Unix based machine you will want to check the first line to make sure that it matches with where Perl is located on your machine.

mslc

As great as BMRT is, its shader compiler (slc) can only accept one file at a time. I have created a little Perl script mslc.perl, that will take a filelist in order to compile a batch of shaders. Be aware that you may need to change the first line to match the location of perl on your system.

MAKE TEXTURES for PRMAN

This script is for anyone who doesn't have access to Pixar's txmake, but have access to prman.

mktmap.perl This Perl script will create texture maps to be used with Pixar's prman. NOTE: The script actually calls prman and uses MakeTexture. So you will need to have it in your path for it to work.

Usage: mktmap original Image textureMap [wrap function width]

The parameters are really the same as found for the MakeTexture call found on page 256 of the RC, with the exception that "wrap" is used for both swrap and twrap and "width" is used for both swidth and twidth.

RIB intention

A little Perl script to indent RIB files ribindent.perl.

(Another) Particle to Blobby Converter

houdini_part2blob.filter
Another particle to blobby convter for Houdini. However this version is much more refined than my original converter. Very kindly provided by jason iversen.

      usage: cat in.rib | perl houdini_part2blob.filter > out.rib
or
             cat in.rib | perl houdini_part2blob.filter | render

The script still uses the same convention of looking for objects starting with a prefix of bl_.

Particle to Blobby Converter

Update: Jan 17, 2001
jason iversen has made some tweeks to this script. For one, it will now work better with Houdini4.

part2blob.perl This script is a quick hack to that takes a series of RiSpheres or RiCurves and converts them to RiBlobby. The script isn't very smart and it assumes that the RIB was generated through Houdini (AND NO INSTANCED GEOMETRY).

What this means is that the script expects to see the

   # Object: OBJECT_NAME_HERE

setup. The script will try to blob up any objects it finds with a bl_ prefix. In Houdini at the Object-editor, prefix any OPs that are to be converted with bl_. This OP is assumed to be a particle emiter and that it is either emiting the particles as RiSpheres or RiCurves.

RiSpheres will be emitted as 1001 (ellipsoid) blobbys
RiCurves will be emitted as 1002 (segment) blobbys

An example of what this script expects to see is in this compressed RIB file.

Script Usage:

part2blb.pl PREFIX RIB_FILES

PREFIX -- what to prefix to the name of the converted RIB files.
RIB_FILES -- the src RIB files to convert.

Again this is a really dumb and simple script. Unless I have done something really stupid, I probably won't be doing too much more with this script. It is meant as a starting ground. If you make improvements let me know and I will add it to the RMR.

A Houdini example can be found at: rmHoudini.

RenderCron

rendercron.tar is a set of Unix shell scripts for rendering frames overnight as cron jobs. You will need to customize these scripts for your environment before they will work. Contact Gavin Donaldson-Selby for help or suggestions.

Maya RIBexport

ribexport.zip contains a modified version of the Maya RIB exporter. This version tries to add support for poly UVs. Click here to read more background information. This was contributed by: Olivier Renouard.

MacroModel RIB Converter

ribvrt2.zip A DOS program to clean the RIB files from MacroModel to into something a little prettier. ribvrt2.txt is a description of the program.

Object Instancing Expanders

bobjxpand.perl is a rip-off of Larry Grit'z objxpand script. The difference is that this one works on a batch of RIB files. However, it has the side-effect of overwriting the original.

Simple Batch Rendering Script

brender.perl a simple batch rendering script for rendering a sequence of files, that are organized like: FILENAME.dddd.rib. Where ddd is leading 0s. Usage:

  brender.pl 13 55 myanim

will render the files myanim.0013.rib to myanim.0055.rib. You may need to edit the script to match your renderer and any options you wish to use.

sl2slim

Has its own page.

rmVertex

rmVertex.mel is a Mel script which adds Vertex variables for Mtor to be exported to RIB.

addConnVertexAttr ("particleShape1", "rmanFidPP", "doubleArray", "particleId");

Will add float vertex variable idPP to the geometry particleShape1 using the value from attribute particleID.

SoftRman

softRman.tgz is a plugin, by Chris Rogers, for Softimage. The source is included.