Remote rendering

When using PBRT within the ISET framework, we assemble scenes within a directory. Suppose we call the directory sceneD. Within the directory we have a set of PBRT files that define the scene. One might be scene.pbrt, and two others would be scene_geometry.pbrt and scene_materials.pbrt. The geometry and materials files are referenced by a command that includes them in the scene.pbrt file when PBRT executes.

In addition to these text files, which contain the PBRT instructions, the sceneD includes additional subdirectories that contain the data needed to render the image. These data are the assets, textures, materials, skymaps, spds (spectral power distributions), and lenses. These directories contain the files for these properties. Finally, there is a subdirectory called 'renderings' which will contain an EXR file that is the output of the PBRT execution.

The purpose of the ISET3d software has two main functions. The first is to manage the PBRT files and the data files, allowing the user to edit the lights, textures, materials, lenses, and assets. The second is to control on which machine the rendering will take place. At Stanford we have our GPUs on machines called 'mux' and 'orange', and these are shared by all users. Often (usually) we render the PBRT files remotely on, say, 'orange' rather than on our desktop machines.

Also, we have a large collection of assets, skymaps, textures and lenses that are shared. Rather than every user having a copy on their own computer, we maintain these data files on a network attached storage ('acorn'). When users want to change a skymap or add a new asset or lens, they can access them from 'acorn'.

• assembles the PBRT scene files, including data needed to render the scenes, from remote resources.
• choosing the remote rendering docker container