Kerkythea

Infobox Software
name=Kerkythea



caption=Kerkythea is capable of rendering photorealistic caustics and global illumination.
genre=3D Graphics Software
license=Freeware
developer= Ioannis Pantazopoulos
latest_release_version=Kerkythea 2008 Echo
latest_release_date=January 30, 2008
operating_system=Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
website= [http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/ Kerkythea]

Kerkythea is a freeware rendering system that supports raytracing. Currently, it can be integrated with 3ds Max, Blender, SketchUp, Silo and Wings3D (generally any software that can export files in obj and 3ds formats). Kerkythea is a standalone renderer, using physically accurate materials and lighting.

History

Kerkythea started development in 2004 and released its first version on April 2005. Initially it was only compatible with Microsoft Windows but an updated release on October 2005 made it Linux compatible. It is now also available for Mac OS X.

Exporters

There are 6 official exporters for Kerkythea.

;Blender:;*Blend2KT;*Exporter to XML format;3D Studio Max:;*3dsMax2KT 3dsMax Exporter;GMax:;*GMax2KT GMax Exporter;SketchUp:;*SU2KT SketchUp Exporter;*SU2KT Light Components

Features

Supported 3D File Formats
*3DS Format
*OBJ Format
*XML (internal) Format
*SIA (Silo) Format (partially supported)

Supported Image Formats
*All supported by FreeImage library [ JPG, BMP, PNG, TGA, HDR included]

Supported Materials
*Matte
*Perfect Reflections/Refractions
*Blurry Reflections/Refractions
*Translucency (SSS)
*Dielectric Material
*Thin Glass Material
*Phong shading Material
*Ward Anisotropic Material
*Anisotropic Ashikhmin Material
*Lafortune Material
*Layered Material [Additive Combination of the Above with use of Alpha Maps]

Supported Shapes
*Triangulated Meshes
*Sphere
*Planes

Supported Lights
*Omni Light
*Spot Light
*Projector Light
*Point Diffuse
*Area Diffuse
*Point Light Spherical Soft Shadows
*Ambient Lighting
*Sky Lighting [Physical Sky, SkySphere Bitmap (Normal or HDRI)]

Supported Textures
*Constant Colors
*Bitmaps (Normal and HDRI)
*Procedurals [Perlin Noise, Marble, Wood, Windy, Checker, Wireframe, Normal Ramp, Fresnel Ramp]
*Any Weighted or Multiplicative Combination of the Above

Supported Features
*Bump Mapping
*Normal Mapping
*Clip Mapping
*Bevel Mapping (an innovative KT feature!)
*Edge Outlining
*Depth of field
*Fog
*Isotropic Volume Scattering
*Faked Caustics
*Faced Translucency
*Dispersion
*Anti-aliasing [Texture Filtering, Edge Antialiasing]
*Selection Rendering
*Surface and Material Instancing

Supported Camera Types
*Planar Projection [ Pinhole, Thin lens ]
*Cylindrical Pinhole
*Spherical Pinhole

Supported Rendering Techniques
*Classic Ray Tracing
*Path Tracing (Kajiya)
*Bidirectional Path Tracing (Veach & Guibas)
*Metropolis Light Transport (Kelemen, Kalos et al.)
*Photon mapping (Jensen) [mesh maps, photon maps, final gathering, irradiance caching, caustics]
*Diffuse Interreflection (Ward)
*Depth Rendering
*Mask Rendering
*Clay Rendering

Application Environment
*OpenGL Real-Time Viewer [basic staging capabilities]
*Integrated Material Editor
*Easy Rendering Customization
*Sun/Sky Customization
*Script System
*Command Line Mode

External links

* [http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/ Official website]
* [http://www.kerkythea.net/phpBB2/index.php Kerkythea's Forum]
* [http://wikihost.org/wikis/kerkythea/wiki/start Kerkythea's Wiki]