Could someone explain what Renderman compliant means? I'm asking because that's a feature that's supposed to be in Poser 5 when it gets here. If Renderman is another program is it expensive?

It sounds pretty sexist to me. ;=]

Attached Link: http://www.exluna.com/products/bmrt/index.html

Also Poser 4 is already Renderman compliant. You can export your scene into the RIB format. The sad thing is that you have to manually hack this file because the lights are not included and the textures don't work right.

But if P5 has a nice GUI for Renderman it is a big step forward.

You can use a renderman compliant renderer with Poser 4 ;) Renderman compliant renderers are render engines that meet a standard outlined with the Renderman render engine developed by Pixar. Download a copy of BMRT ( http://www.bmrt.org ), export your Poser scene as a .RIB file, then import it into BMRT. It is worth reading the instructions and learning the command lines, becuase you do end up with a professional quality renderer for Poser for free. Hope that helps. Cheers

LOL MadYuri, you just beat me to it ;D Cheers

Is Renderman expensive? May be THE most expensive, not quite sure but, take a look at this price list... RenderMan Artist Tools 4.5 (Includes Toolkit, MTOR, Alfred, Slim & it) $ 8,000 RenderMan Toolkit 3.9.2 $ 5,000 RenderMan Toolkit Upgrade 3.8 to 3.9.2 $ 1,500 RenderMan Toolkit Upgrade 3.7 or lower to 3.9.2 $ 2,500 Cross Platform Fee $ 1,000 RenderMan Maintenance (per license) $ 750 RenderMan Artist Tools Maintenance (per license) $ 1,000 MTOR 3.0 (Includes Alfred, Slim, & it) $ 3,000 MTOR 3.0 Upgrade $ 450 MTOR 3.0 Maintenance (per license) $ 450 Slim 2.0 $1,500 Alfred 4.5 $ 1,500 Alfred Stand-Alone 4.1 Upgrade $ 225 Alfserver $ 350 Looks CD (single user license) $ 1,000 Looks CD (multi-user license) $ 5,000 Classic Textures CD, Vol. I (Pixar 128) $ 199 Classic Textures CD, Vol. I (multi-user license) $ 1,000 Classic Textures CD, Vol. II (single user license) $ 199 Classic Textures CD, Vol. II (multi-user license) $ 1,000 Lol...anyway, go get BMRT, and study it. Agent Smith

[Roy Falls backwards out of his chair.]

Well it looks like BMRT is the way to go. :)

Poser 5 is also supposed to have a new Ray Trace Renderer, so BMRT may not be that advantageous. Time will tell I guess.

Hey Roy, where are you hearing about all these Poser 5 features? I thought CL was being so tight lipped that they risk suffication. :) Hope you are right on these two points. Would be cool. jon

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=561445

That's the link.

I downloaded BMRT, but so far I can't do a thing with it. The interface (if you could call it that) is right out of the Stone Age. If anyone knows of a good tutorial for Idiots that might get me started I would be grateful.

I also stumbled across a thing called PovRay, which also looks very interesting. Considering the quality of the renders I'm surprised there isn't more interest here at Renderosity.

Attached Link: http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/

RoyG, if you use or have access to Rhino3d, there is a good plugin (Rhinoman) that will export a model in Rhino to the BMRT renderer. Kind of a round about way to see the capabilities of BMRT, but it isolates you from the rib file and coded shaders :)

BMRT allows use of a network as a render farm. There is also a GUI rendermanager called B.O.R.G. that will allow BMRT renders to use a network as a render farm.

Wow. How'd I miss that one? Thanks. Sounds like a nice feature list. I'm not in any hurry, since I've got more time than money, so I hope they take the time they need to get it right. You probably don't have to learn to do BMRT, if you don't want to. I think he just means that the render engine they package with Poser will be Renderman based, but surely not as obtuse as BMRT. But if you stick it out BMRT is a great renderer. And PovRay is terrific. Also a little difficult to pick up on, but well worth it. jon

Thanks for all of the response. I do have Rhino so I'm going to have to go and check out RhinoMan, Thanks Smerc.
The Pose Ray thing MadYuri mentioned also sounds like something I could handle. In fact I'm going to look into that first.

A quick note- the renderman compliant renderer referred to in my post will be included in P5, you won't need to use an external rendering engine such as the very powerful BMRT. kupa

Thanks for the clarification Kupa.

It would sure be nice if Poser could also make use of a network render farm. A lot of households are networked now and I'm sure it will be even more common in the future. I know you can't say to much, but I hope your considering it. Even if we need to get a site license it would be cool if the option were available.