Kerkythea

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Kerkythea
Kerkythea logo
CrystalKT.jpg
Kerkythea is capable of rendering photorealistic caustics and global illumination.
Developer(s) Ioannis Pantazopoulos
Stable release Kerkythea 2008 Echo / October 18, 2008 (2008-10-18)
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Type 3D Graphics Software
License Freeware
Website www.kerkythea.net

Kerkythea is a standalone rendering system that supports raytracing and Metropolis light transport, uses physically accurate materials and lighting, and is distributed as freeware. Currently[when?], the program can be integrated with any software that can export files in obj and 3ds formats, including 3ds Max, Blender, LightWave 3D, SketchUp, Silo and Wings3D.

The developer ceased developing Kerkythea to focus on the development of a commercial renderer named Thea Render.[citation needed]

Contents

History [edit]

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[when?] also available for Mac OS X. In May 2009 it was announced that the development team started a new commercial renderer, although Kerkythea will be updated and it will stay free.

Exporters [edit]

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 [edit]

Supported 3D File Formats

  • 3DS Format
  • OBJ Format
  • XML (internal) Format
  • SIA (Silo) Format (partially supported)

Supported Image Formats

  • All supported by FreeImage library (JPEG, BMP, PNG, TGA and 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

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

Supported Camera Types

Supported Rendering Techniques

Application Environment

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

See also [edit]

  • YafaRay, a free, open source ray tracing program that uses an XML scene description language.
  • POV-Ray, another popular, free ray tracer.
  • LuxRender, an unbiased rendering system

External links [edit]

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