User:DenisPavlov/GSoC18/Log

• Community Bonding Period
  • Read a few mged tutorials and documentation.
  • Set up an Eclipse project for BRLCAD, tested debug and release builds.
  • Looked through 'librt', 'libged', 'mged' source code.

• Week 1
  • Looked how ged commands are implemented in mged. Created dummy 'apprt' command ( = added it to 'mged_cmdtab') and tested it in mged.
  • Figured out how to get database filename and view data.
  • Have been trying to handle Appleseed dependencies and solve some problems with c -> c++ calls.
  • Finally solved the problem and fixed a coresponding CMakeLists.txt.
  • Created a separate binary executable file (like other applications in brlcad) for the Appleseed plugin c++ code. Called it 'rtapprt', since it's in the 'rt' package for now.

• Week 2
  • Managed to call the binary file from "apprt" callback function and get back the output (a naive approach with system() for now, will change it to brlcad's pipeline later).
  • Added a few parameters (like the database filename and names of the objects to draw) to the call. Created a small parsing routine for it.
  • Rendered the first image with default materials using Appleseed. Image is being saved in the filesystem (current directory).
  • Separated the plugin's logic into several files, changed a bit the intersection function so that it allows to assign materials.
  • Looked through the rt source code, especially structures related to ray intersections and operations with database, like "application/partition/region/e.t.c.".

• Week 3
  • Figured out how to properly assign materials using the "mater_info" (partition -> region -> mater_info) structure from intersections.
  • Wrote a small routine that checks the shader name, color of the region and assigns some Appleseed material.
  • Tested it on tank_car model using different brdfs: Lambertian, Oren-Nayar, Ashikhmin-Shirley, e.t.c.
  • Have been looking for an efficient way to parse all the materials from the database file beforehand and experimenting with Appleseed materials trying to figure out the best way to translate brlcad's materials to Appleseed's ones.