Main Page
From Power Render Wiki
Welcome to the Power Render Wiki.
Introduction
Power Render is a general purpose software development kit for games and 3D graphics. In addition to providing an API for developers, several tools are provided for artists for building content and previewing models in realtime from Autodesk's 3D Studio Max, Alias Wavefront's Maya, and Newtek's Lightwave. The new version can also preview content using High dynamic range imaging and supports the OpenEXR file format. The personal edition is a free download and contains all of the tools, API, documentation and sample content found in the standard version. Over 50 working C++ examples of varying difficulty are provided to demonstrate various aspects of the product and get you started right away.
Power Render provides a wide range of graphics algorithms in a higher level API which can be used instead of DirectX or OpenGL, while still providing low level access to the hardware if needed. Key functionality includes shader support up to SM 3.0, Cg programming language,HLSL, or assembly, a variety of shadow methods including stencil, shadow maps, and projected, texture formats, terrain and Binary space partitioning rendering, full screen graphical user interface design, C++ like scripting language, collision detection, audio and input device support including force feedback from companies such as Logitech and ActLabs, character animation using skinning, tweening, or keyframing.
Power Render 6 now has built in physics capabilities for simulating objects with real world properties. Simple or compound objects with multiple rigid bodies and joints can be created. Ragdoll support for characters is provided along with an editor for adjusting skeletal geometry and physics properties. PR6 uses Newton for physics, while PR7 uses PhysX.
While game development is the main use for Power Render, it has been used in many other fields such as theme park rides, military simulations, museum exhibits, screensavers, music visualizers, commercial and architectural visualizations. It is also used in a number of educational institutions for teaching students in the computer graphics field.
Table of Contents
Power Render 6 Main page Power Render 7 Main page Encyclopedia - A collection of frequently used terms Useful Links - A collection of links to external resources Tutorials, Articles, and Examples - A collection of useful articles that will help you develop with PR PR Projects and Blogs - A list of projects being developed by PR users, and developer blogs Version History
[edit] Getting started
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
