Editing Shader Enhancements

BRL-CAD's shader system is custom developed for the librt raytracer.  Shaders are currently coded in C and explicitly added to the active shader list.  A question of interest is whether we can utilize work being done for other open source raytracing shader systems to improve the flexibility of BRL-CAD's shader system and take advantage of shaders developed for other systems.

A proposal should outline what changes are proposed to BRL-CAD's current shaders.  Initial stages would involve either writing the shader bridge in liboptical or designing a new approach (remember though, all existing shader functionality in the current system must be preserved, even if it is re-implemented in some fashion.  Be careful about biting off more than you can achieve in a summer.)

=References=

This task will require a fair bit of background research in order to put together a compelling proposal - interested students should study BRL-CAD's shader system to determine how it works, and then look at other open source, license compatible systems to see what they may offer.  Candidates include:

* Sony's Open Shader Language (OSL):  http://opensource.imageworks.com/?p=osl
* Pixie:  http://www.renderpixie.com/

OSL is of particular interest because it is developed specifically for raytracing systems.

Code of relevance:

* src/liboptical/sh_*.c
* include/optical.h

=Requirements=

*Familiarity with C/C++
@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 This task will require a fair bit of background research in order to put together a compelling proposal - interested students should study BRL-CAD's shader system to determine how it works, and then look at other open source, license compatible systems to see what they may offer.  Candidates include:
-* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shading
-* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader
-* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shading_language
 * Sony's Open Shader Language (OSL):  http://opensource.imageworks.com/?p=osl
 * Pixie:  http://www.renderpixie.com/
-* Yafaray: http://www.yafaray.org/
 OSL is of particular interest because it is developed specifically for raytracing systems.
@@ Line 18: / Line 14: @@
 Code of relevance:
-* src/liboptical
+* src/liboptical/sh_*.c
 * include/optical.h
-Documentation of relevance:
-* {{pdf|Introduction to MGED|Introduction to MGED}}
-** Do lessons 1-7 minimum
-* {{pdf|Principles of Effective Modeling|Principles of Effective Modeling}}
-** Read Appendix B
-* {{pdf|Optical Shaders|BRL-CAD's optical shaders}}
-** Provides a broad survey from a developer's perspective
 =Requirements=
 *Familiarity with C/C++
-=Past Efforts=
-[http://brlcad.org/wiki/User:Kunigami/GSoc2011/Proposal GSoC11]