by OpenGL and Renderman are both API's, they are aimed at different sectors of
the 3D graphics market.
OpenGL is designed mainly for realtime interactive 3D, that is 3D scenes
updating at a framerate which can be considered realtime (the actual cutoff
point at which graphics are deemed realtime is a point of constant debate).
Whereas Renderman is designed as an API for communicating scenes between a
modeller and a renderer. It is mostly (but not always) used to pass a scene
to a photorealistic renderer, i.e. non-realtime.
It is quite common for both OpenGL and Renderman to coexist within an
application, the OpenGL layer would be used to preview the scene being
modelled and to aid in the modelling process itself, and then Renderman
would be used as a mechanism for communicating the scene to a third party
photorealistic renderer such as prman, BMRT or Aqsis for production quality
rendering.
A good source of information about what makes Renderman is the renderman
repository http://www.renderman.org here you will find a pointer to the
renderman spec. on Pixar's site. This document has and introductory chapter
which goes into much more detail.
Hope this helps.
PaulG
Quote:> I'm an NEWBIE!!!
> Please NO FLAMES!!!!!!!!!
> I'm a newbie here....
> Can OpenGL and Renderman be complementary ??
> or even coexists within an application ???
> What are the differences between OpenGL and Renderman??
> technically and visually..
> Are they directly competing or complementary??
> If you are going to start a FLAMES WAR, I want no part of it...
> And sorry that I asked then....
> I just want to know more about Renderman..
> No shouting, yelling, or fighting.... Please.. Really...