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Renderers
Content
Software
People
Galleries
News
VRML
Usenet
Linux
Other
Renderers
The POV-Ray (Persistence of Vision raytracer) site
POV-Ray is a free raytracing renderer whose source code is also publically available (with certain restrictions). Leveller was originally developed to provide heightfield modeling/editing for POV-Ray, and although exports for other systems have been added, POV-Ray remains one of the best supported.
The OpenGL Patch for POV-Ray
Information and downloads for the neat (or blasphemous, depending on your point of view) OpenGL patch for the POV-Ray raytracer.
Ray's More-or-Less Excellent Rendering Experiment
Information about Daylon Graphics' rendering technologies and related projects.
Pixar, makers of Renderman
They also provide related tools, and even produced the Disney motion pictures Toy Story and A Bug's Life. Leveller can export heightfields as Renderman PatchMesh objects in RIB format.
Aqsis
GPL open source Renderman-compliant REYES renderer.
Terragen
Terragen is Matt Fairclough's amazing landscape generator/renderer. It currently occupies the high spot on the price/performance chart in its category -- people routinely have trouble distinguishing Terragen output from actual photographs! Leveller (via a plug-in) imports from and exports to Terragen.
Byosphere
A raytracing landscape renderer similar to Terragen.
Polyray
Polyray is Alexander Enzmann's flexible raytracing renderer. It supports several kinds of heightfield object mappings, and also handles procedural shape and surface definitions. Leveller 1.2 added export support for Polyray.
Rayshade
Rayshade is Stanford University's student-built raytracing renderer. A Rayshade export plug-in is available for Leveller.
Tachyon multiprocessor/multithreaded raytracer
A raytracer built to be as fast as possible.
Lightflow
Give a brilliant Italian youngster four years to work quietly on a souped-up renderer, and what do you get? Possibly the next big thing in digital graphics. Words don't really do it justice; just run, don't walk, to this guy's site. If you like what radiosity can do, you'll like Lightflow more.
Content
A site offering DEMs and other GIS-related files.
The Virtual Terrain Project
The VTP project promotes the creation of tools for modeling and simulating the real world. Leveller reads and writes VTP's Binary Terrain format.
NOAA GLOBE Data
Global Land One-km Base Elevation DEMS, courtesy of the US government.
The Grime Site
A repository of GIS-related information and links.
Wikipedia
The big free Internet encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to.
Software
The Software Developer's Kit for Daylon Leveller. Used for making Leveller plug-ins, file translators, etc.
DEM2RWX Converter by Andras Sarkozy
DEM2RWX is a program that converts terrain files (including Leveller documents) into a format usable by the Active Worlds virtual reality Internet chat system.
DMesh Organic Modeler
Bruce Lamming's modeler for organic forms. It uses a multilayered UV displacement mapping technique that shows promise in making organic shapes easier to model.
Genscape
Lucas Ackerman's terrain component for the Genesis3D/Jet3D gaming engine. His goal is to bring big, cool landscapes into public gaming projects.
Graphics Gems Repository
The on-line comprehensive collection of 2D and 3D graphics source code.
GRASS GIS Site
An unbelievably massive collection of GPL'd open source software related to GIS.
HF-Lab
Way before Leveller, John Beale of Hewlett-Packard wrote a command-line based heightfield generator/modifier. HF-Lab is also available as a Leveller plug-in.
JASC, makers of the PaintShop Pro bitmap editor.
PaintShop Pro is amazingly powerful for its low price, and supports just about every bitmap format one is likely to encounter in normal production. PaintShop Pro is ideal to use alongside Leveller, because it readily handles the TGA bitmap format Leveller uses.
MAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
Because we all have to have fun sometime.
MicroDEM
Peter Guth's comprehensive terrain visualization/analysis/management program, for those who are really into GIS. Leveller has a plug-in to let it import native MicroDEM files.
Off Broadway
Off Broadway is the largest Rhino products reseller in North America. They list all manner of Rhino and Rhino-related third-party products in one convenient place.
Pandromeda, makers of Mojoworld
Ken Musgrave's vision of infinite level-of-detail fractal planetary terrain finally realized.
Pixia Bitmap Editor
A free Photoshop clone for Windows, from Japan.
POV-Ray Include Files
Chris Colefax's popular collection of include files for the Persistence of Vision raytracer, which add all sorts of practical and amazing abilities. Where Chris gets the energy, we don't know, but if you're serious about POV-Ray, you have to run, not walk, to this site.
RAD Game Tools
Makers of the Smacker and Bink video formats. We made some Bink-format video clips with Leveller; you can see them in the gallery. Although AVI and QuickTime are more standard, Bink does an amazing job, and its currently free.
Rhinoceros 3D modeler site
Rhino is a superb 3D NURBS modeler that costs significantly less than competing products. Leveller heightfields can be exported to Rhino via the Rhino Export plug-in.
Transgaming
Former Corel developer Gavriel State helps game programmers port DirectX-based titles to Linux.
The Virtual Terrain Project
The VTP project promotes the creation of tools for modeling and simulating the real world. Leveller reads and writes VTP's Binary Terrain format.
World Construction Set
The site for 3DNature's World Construction Set, which is a high-end landscape rendering/visualization system. Leveller has an import/export plug-in which exchanges elevation data with WCS.
World Machine
This is Steve Schmitt's cool Windows app that uses visually connectable modules to build sophisticated heightfield filters. Can copy heightfields to Leveller via the clipboard.
XaoS Realtime Fractal Viewer
This is one outstanding fractal image viewer. Lots of platforms supported, very fast zooming, extensive options, etc. Ray worked on the Macintosh port a few years ago when his free time used to be more abundant. Daylon Graphics also has its own version called Daylon XaoS which is Leveller-friendly.
People
Author of HF-Lab, a command-line based heightfield generator/modifier.
Pat Beirne
Fellow Canadian Mr. Beirne developed the original Corel Draw program.
Paul Bourke
Mr. Bourke is a very smart guy with a lot of information on 3D graphics, color, etc.
Alessandro Falappa
Alessandro wrote the first third-party plug-in for Leveller, and develops other free 3D tools.
Ray Gardener
Musings, both factual and fictional, from Leveller's author. If he's not writing source code, he's writing something else...
Rodolphe Gelaude's POV-Ray Site
A new site for all things POV-Ray, in French and English. Un nouveau place pour toutes choses POV-Ray, en francais et englais.
Brian Greene
Physicist and author of The Elegant Universe, a popular explanation of contemporary physics centering on string theory.
Alan Guth
A leading physicist; Dr. Guth's theories on cosmic inflation are pivotal to the Big Bang model of creation.
Marvin Minsky
The noted MIT AI researcher.
Kenton Musgrave
After MetaCreations dropped Bryce, Ken Musgrave left to work on his own terrain system, which he calls Fractal Worlds (now MojoWorld). He's also made his seminal 300-page dissertation on computer graphics available.
Alexei Puzikov
Alex is developing a Renderman-compliant render farming application that works with the TCP/IP protocol. It's currently a rough diamond in beta, but the thought of quickly rendering high-quality images is intoxicating. You can contact him personally at kidd@mmdata.kharkov.ua.
John Ratcliff
Mr. Ratcliff is a video game developer who has helped author some leading titles such as Verant's (now Sony's) Everquest. He also wrote the Perlin4 and TMesh plug-ins for Leveller.
Ken Tyler
Ken has compiled what has to be the most comprehensive list of graphics resources anywhere. If you can't find it on his page, it may not exist!
Galleries
Images created by Ray with Leveller.
Steve Young's Middle Earth Site
Using computer graphics tools, Steve Young shows us what Tolkien's Middle Earth looks like. You can also try this link if your browser security doesn't allow ActiveX controls.
Mick Hazelgrove's Web Site
Mr. Hazelgrove has a flair for producing landscape artistry and other images.
The IRTC Group Image Project
Ray Benjamin is heading a cool project where images are created collectively by Internet Raytracing Competition participants. A combination of awesome modeling and rendering talent, guaranteed to result in some mind-blowing imagery.
Terraforma: Tim O'Donoghue's Terragen Gallery
Tim does some excellent work with the Terragen scenery renderer.
The Persistence of Ignorance Site by Jaime Vives Piqueres
If you've ever wondered how far POV-Ray can be pushed, check this site out. One of the best POV galleries we've ever seen.
Mandi Blais' Gallery
Ms. Blais has several galleries showing various landscape scenes, including a Leveller image gallery. Her mixture of compositing and other post-rendering techniques lend some of her work an interesting surrealism without betraying their digital production.
Walter Myers' Possible Worlds Site
Cool pictures of astronomical vistas, assisted by Leveller.
Eric Wenger's Artmatic Voyager
Former Bryce developer shows off incredible landscapes.
News
A trade journal specifically for 3D graphic artists. Published about five times a year, and strong on tutorials.
ABC News
The world gets its news from... well, you know.
Computer Graphics World Magazine
The CG industry journal. Good articles, objective reviews.
Daylon Graphics Worklog
The latest news about what's happening with Leveller and other Daylon products and projects.
Digital Producer Magazine
All about the latest hard and soft tools for making computer graphics, and more.
InfoWorld Electric
One of the longest-running computer industry journals, online.
KurzweilAI.net
Big thoughts by the big thinkers. For example, when chatting about the weather no longer does it for you.
PC Week Online
Ziff-Davis' online version of PC Week magazine.
Povray.co.uk - POV-Ray News & Resources
A nice site on the latest goings-on with the POV-Ray raytracer.
Scientific American Magazine
The world of leading-edge science, professionally edited and presented.
Slashdot
News for nerds. Stuff that matters.
Wired News
News about computers, the Net, and the rest of the wired lifestyle.
VRML
The VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) site
VRML is a language for creating portable and animatable 3D scene descriptions with the Web strongly in mind. Leveller can export heightfields as VRML 2.0 ElevationGrid objects.
The VRML Repository
One of the largest collections of information on the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, and numerous links to all things VRML.
Usenet
Discusses artificial intelligence, the approaches and the implications.
comp.graphics.algorithms
One of the most popular newsgroups ever created. Who hasn't wanted to ask someone how to intersect a sphere or rotate an object in three dimensions? Not only is the FAQ very long, questioners will often be pointed to the massive Graphics Gems series of books or downloadable texts.
comp.graphics.api.opengl
Provides information about the OpenGL 3D rendering API and available libraries.
comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing
Discusses the creation of computer images using raytracing algorithms. Most of the posts relate to the free POV-Ray raytracing renderer and the utilities that support it, but information on other raytracers and related items can also be found. Important information on Leveller is primarily disseminated in this newsgroup, and many Leveller users subscribe to c.g.r.r.
comp.graphics.visualization
It's about using computers to visualize all manner of data, usually scientific but not necessarily. Information on obscure or niche data visualization software can be found there.
comp.lang.vrml
About VRML, the standard 3D imaging and interaction platform for the Web. VRML hasn't caught on as much as people had hoped, but it looks to be gaining momentum. Leveller 1.3 added a much improved VRML export.
rec.games.programmer
Talks about all sorts of things related to the computer gaming industry and how to create games. A vote went through to move most of the traffic to other newsgroups, but there should still be a lot of useful information in r.g.p.
Linux
Where new Linux projects get listed, looking for developers to help them get written.
The GTK Site
Home of the free open source Gnome Toolkit GUI library, which simplifies using X Windows to write Linux/UNIX applications (there's a Windows version as well, if you want to write graphics apps that port easily between UNIX and Windows). GTK was originally developed for the Gimp, the GNU Image Manipulation Program.
The KDE Site
KDE is the Linux graphical shell based on the Qt graphics/GUI library. It's only free for non-commercial use, but it's more C++ based.
The KDevelop Site
KDevelop is a visual IDE very similar to Microsoft's Developer Studio. If you prefer graphical development environments, but develop under Linux, this is worth checking out.
The Linux Documentation Project
Yeah, yeah, yeah... nobody likes to write documentation. But if you're ever in the mood, pay these folks a visit. Software is so much better when it's more accessible.
The PHP Hypertext Processor
PHP is a free, open source procedural HTML generator. You embed script code into an HTML page, let your Linux server interpret it with PHP, and voila -- custom web pages are served to your site visitors. You can also use it to automate repetitive HTML coding tasks, by separating content from its appearance. It's the same idea as Microsoft's ASP, but at a better price.
Slashdot
The de facto news source for Linux enthusiasts. Complete with self-moderated reader feedback, which has been getting pretty random lately, but still useful in places.
Transgaming
Former Corel developer Gavriel State helps game programmers port DirectX-based titles to Linux.
Trolltech
Makers of the Qt graphics/GUI library for Linux.
Wine Headquarters
Wine is the free, open source Windows API host for UNIX systems. You don't need Windows to use it; you just feed your Windows applications into it, and they think they're running under Windows. It's still not quite at version 1.0, but when it does run, it's very cool.
XFree86
XFree86 is an open source, public domain version of the X Windows graphical dislay subsystem. Linux and other UNIX-based operating systems use XFree86 to support X Windows applications.
Other
If the current debate over software/music/etc. piracy is driving you nuts, then check this out.
The USGS SDTS Site
The official site for the US Geological Survey's SDTS elevation data format.
A Tour of Middle Earth
Rob Aaldijk's website for Tolkien fans. Leveller is one of the tools he uses for the landscapes.
Bryce Info and Newsletter
apaul@smartt.com has a site about Bryce and Photoshop, with a regular newsletter.
The OpenGL site
OpenGL is a platform-independant 3D rendering API from Silicon Graphics. Leveller uses OpenGL for its 3D rendering, and Leveller plug-ins that use Leveller's rendering features need to use OpenGL.
Iverson Software
A directory of software consultants/developers and products, for just about every computer platform in existence.
The Internet Archive
Need to look up a website from the past? This site will do it because it remembers things the way they were.
Eliezer Yudkowsky's FAQ about the Meaning of Life
This FAQ is superbly done, even if you don't agree with everything the author says.