Requirements

In order to run the render cache you must have the following requirements. Please do not send me mail complaining that it doesn't run if you don't have all of these (e.g., if you have a Pentium III or an Athlon, the render cache will not work). For other systems, the brave and/or foolish can download the full source code (under GPL) and adapt it. Regardless you can still look at the sample images on the activities pages to get some idea of what the system looks like, even if you can't run the render cache yourself.

Pentium 4 processor or better. Because the render cache uses SIMD instructions including the SSE 2 SIMD extension, you must have a processor that supports these. Currently that means you must have a Pentium 4 or equivalent. I wrestled with this decision for a while but, the SIMD extensions do make the code run faster, and essentially all future x86 processor (including AMD) have announced support for the SSE 2 extension.
Microsoft Windows OS. I have no great fondness for Microsoft or Windows, but it happens that my desktop machine and most of the machines that I have access to run Windows. I'd like to make other versions available (e.g., linux, Mac OS X), but it would require port the code (synchronization primitives and SIMD rewrite for non X86 processors). The code has been tested under Windows 2000, but should run under most versions of Windows.
Java Web Start. This is a free download from Sun's Java Web Start page. While the render cache itself is written in C++ and included as a dll (dynamic linked library), the demo program (GUI) and ray tracer are written in Java. This just made it easier for me to create and deploy the sample application. You must have Java version 1.3 or later (can be installed as part of the web start installation).
A willingness to run potentially unsafe code. Although I have had no problems with this render cache implementation and it seems to be quite stable, use at your own risk. The installer will warn you that you are running unsafe code. Because the render cache is implemented in a dll, it potentially has access to your full machine and could theoretically cause problems. As I said, I have had no problems, and render cache is not programmed to access anything on your computer or hard drive, except those files included in the download. But you should use the same caution that you would for any executable that you download from the web.

The downloadable software consists of three components;

The Render Cache library. This library implements the render cache as described by the references in the bibliography. This is highly optimized implementation written in C++. This is the heart of the system and the reason this web site exists. The rest is just enough of a wrapping around this library to allow you to try out the render cache quickly. I also encourage people to try connecting their own rendering systems (must be ray based) to the render cache library. This release does not include the source code to the render cache library, as I do not currently have permission to release that, but does include source for the GUI and demo application (in Java).
A Simple Java Ray Tracer. Since the render cache is designed to work with an underlying renderer, I put together a rather minimalist ray tracer to use for the sample application. It contains just enough code to be functional, but it is neither particularly optimized (just a standard regular grid acceleration structure) nor fully-featured (for example, it does not support textures). It is intended to be just enough to demonstrate the basic abilities of the render cache. If you like what you see (as I hope), then I encourage you to try configuring your own rendering software to work with the render cache. Note: the current license does not allow commercial use or redistribution of the render cache library, but you can use it for evaluation purposes. Source code is included for the ray tracer.
A Sample Java Application with user interface. Just an interface for configuring and manipulating the render cache and demonstrating how easy it is to connect the render cache to any ray-based renderer. It provides: key and mouse controls for manipulating the camera, ability to configure various render cache options including disabling several of the recent extensions, and three simple environments for you can walk around in. Source code is included for the sample application.

Java Source Code and Render Cache library - This file contains the Java source code for the example application and ray tracer as well as the compiled native library (dll) for the Render Cache (plus new C bindings). You can use it to modify the application or to learn how to connect the Render Cache to your own rendering system. You can expand this file using the command "jar xf rendercachejavasource.jar" or any program that knows how to expand jar files (this is not an executable jar, just an archive of source files).

C++ Source Code - We have now also released the C++ source code for the render cache library under the GNU Public License. You can use this to get and modify the render cache and adapt it to run on other systems.

Bibliography

Bruce Walter, George Drettakis, Steven Parker, Interactive Rendering Using the Render Cache, in Rendering Techniques '99, G. Larson, D. Lichinski (eds), Springer-Verlag, (Proc. 10th Eurographics workshop on Rendering, Granada, Spain.)
Bruce Walter, George Drettakis, Donald P. Greenberg, Enhancing and Optimizing the Render Cache, in Rendering Techniques 2002, (13th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering. Pisa, Italy), Springer-Verlag, pp. 37-42, 2002.

Requirements

Contents

Bibliography