Entropy 3.1: advanced rendering from Exluna.(Evaluation)

EXLUNA IS A NEW COMPANY on the graphics scene, but many of its principals have a long history in the industry. Some of Exluna's engineers are from Pixar, including Larry Gritz, who also developed BMRT (Blue Moon Rendering Tools), a popular, free raytracing program. It's no wonder that the company's first product is a renderer. (There has in fact been legal action between Pixar and Exluna. See pg. 12.) Entropy is a RenderMan-compliant program that offers high quality and a number of advanced features. And, Exluna has gone out of its way to make the program easy to use.

The software is licensed on a per-machine basis. It runs on a number of platforms, including Linux, SGI/Irix, and Windows NT/2000. On Irix and Linux, it operates as a standalone renderer, and can be run from a command line, which allows it to be integrated with existing rendering pipelines without too much hassle. On Windows NT/2000, the software can be run from the command line, but also from within Discreet's 3ds max modeling and animation program. Plug-ins for other major 3D applications are planned.

When I first began testing the software with 3ds max and the Exluna ping-in, my instinct was to play around without looking at the manual. I immediately noticed that Entropy adds a new material that lets you use RenderMan shaders directly within max, and that Exluna bundles a number of sample shaders along with the software. The ability to develop your own shaders adds a lot of power and flexibility, but writing RenderMan shaders from scratch is not for the timid.

A quick browse of fire help files revealed a much simpler way to use Entropy, which is to create materials directly within max's materials editor. Entropy automatically compiles the stock max materials into RIB files whenever a render is run. This essentially eliminates the learning curve, and allows max users to create and apply textures exactly the way they always have. When Entropy is set as the renderer, max's standard lights, cameras, and materials also get a few extra rollouts containing those Entropy parameters not supported by the standard max interface.

The software supports all the max shaders and materials, with a few minor exceptions (such as Combustion, Perlin Marble, and Particle Age.) Exluna has announced its intention to provide support for all native max materials as well as all third party materials in a future release. I'd love to see some of the popular ...