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Transform
> Puppy Ray Raytracer (Filter)
Puppy Ray is a ray
tracing filter. It comes in two versions: one runs on
the CPU like the rest of the software. Another, faster
version runs on the GPU. You won't be able to use that
version on WIndows XP, and it probably also will have
difficulty on Windows Vista. If you're on Windows XP,
even running the CPU-based version needs a special dll.
Get it from the downlaods area. For the GPU version to
run well, you need a good graphics card or graphics
chip, and drivers that use it ell. It is likely that you
can find these for Windows 7, 8 or above.
The GPU version and the
CPU version have essentially the same or almost same
functionality, but the CPU version will run it usually
fast enough that you can use it in real time,
interactively rendering the full frames, not just the
small preview.
What can you use Puppy ray for?
It is basically using
your current image as an elevation map, and renders a
landscape from it that is tiled endlessly, or at least
far enough that it disppears in the distant fog. You can
adjust the fog distance, but essentially, you're looking
at endless terrain.
Of course, to make it
look good, you'll want that elevation map, i.e. your
current image, to be seamless.
While the elevation map is generated
from your current main image, there is also coloration of
the terrain, coming from the Swap image. If the swap image
is blank (white), then of course you won't have a visible
colration added - it wll be colorized by other items, such
as the color of the light source, the color of the
surrounding skies if enabled, the color of fog etc...
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Puppy Ray from Howler 9.0 - First
there was the CPU version
The first release of Howler that
included Puppy Ray was version 9.0. That version only
came with the GPU-based implementation. It may have
evolved some more since then, so here is what it looks
like when you launch the GPU version in v9.6:
Your nitial interface may look a bit like this, for the
GPU version:
- Preview with interactive
interface: At the top, you see a preview area of the
current 3D scene. It is interactive. Use the mouse
with the left button in there, to drag and move the
position of the camera. The right button may also have
an effect, such as to move the camera up into the air
or down low to the ground and below.
- There are a few icons below the
preview that let you switch to other controls. The
second one from the left controls the camera angle.
Try that and drag the mouse again inside the
interactive preview. There is also an icon to switch
to controlling the position of the light source. And
two more icons for changing the position and scale of
the world, instead of the camera.
- The menu belowthese icons is for
setting the rendering quality. Note that it has
minimal effect on the preview. This is for the final
rendering, as seen in item 6
- Several colored boxes can be used
to change the color of the light, the shadowsand the
sky.
- To the right of that you'll also
see a 'Skies' menu. It only affects the scene'
rendering if Global Illumination is enabled. There are
a few presets for skies, and you can also select one
that is the curret Custom Brush image. You can change
the amount of global illumination as well, essentially
its intensity.
- When you're ready to render the
image, click Raytrace. Warning: this can take a long
time with slow computers or very high rendering
quality. We recommend that you do a quick test at one
of the preview settings (menu in item 3). A final
render can take minutes, depending on the situation.
Even hours in extreme cases.
- One of the very interesting
controls is the amount of Prefiltering. When
pushed to the max (1.0), you tend to et very smooth
surfaces. When you bring it down to zero, each pixel
from the elevation map remains visible as a block
square in the rendered scene.
- There are other options and
controls. Click the More... button to see
them.
Here are a few examples.
Rendering with Global illumination enabled: using
'High' rendering qualuty, but not Final rendering. Note
that there is final rendering level and one that's even
beyond. In the GPU version it is 'final final'. In the CPU
version, it is called 'hours would seem like days'.
When you re-enter the Puppy ray module, it remembers the
most recently used parameters. So you can try alternate
settings. But of course, it works from whatever the
current image is, so be sure to have the original image
stored and restore it before re-entering Puppy Ray.
Here is one with no light source (Intensity = 0) but just
a little more Global Illumination. The image used for the
G.I. is that of a sunset scene, so there is a lot of red
tonality showing in the terrain too. the terrain scale is
enhanced too, and the fog is closer, so you don't see too
far.
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Notice in this case that we have already created an image
in the current main Image buffer, and it is seamless. It
is a simple plasma noise from the filter: Render >
Plasma noise
In the example below, the Prefilter level is at zero. We
also disabled Interpolation, which is accessible in the
addition controls when clicking 'More...'.
This results in a sharp, crisp blocky appearance.
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Puppy Ray on GPU - much faster!
As mentioned earlier, there are two versions of Puppy Ray.
The GPU-bsed version was added in Howler 9.1. It will
easily be the preferred one to use if you have a good
graphics card. In rare cases, the CPU version may be
recommended though, such as when you try to render
something with such high quality settings like level of
antialiasing and ray tracing counts that the GPU appears
to be locked up too long, in which case WIndows may decide
that it appears dead and stuck, and it may reset your
driver. Bummer. It was just taking too long to render. Be
careful with high end settings, if they are too high end
for your system.
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