Rend2

<insert ascii art here>

Rend2 is an alternate renderer for ioquake3. It aims to implement modern
features and technologies into the id tech 3 engine, but without sacrificing
compatibility with existing Quake 3 mods.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------FEATURES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compatible with most vanilla Quake 3 mods.

HDR Rendering, and support for HDR lightmaps
Tone mapping and auto-exposure.
Cascaded shadow maps.
Multisample anti-aliasing.
Texture upsampling.
Advanced materials support.
Advanced shading and specular methods.
sRGB support.
LATC and BPTC texture compression support.
Screen-space ambient occlusion.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------INSTALLATION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------For *nix:
1. This should be identical to installing ioq3. Check their README for more
details.
For Win32:
1. Have a Quake 3 install, fully patched.
2. Copy the following files into Quake 3's install directory:
ioquake3.x86.exe
renderer_opengl1_x86.dll
renderer_opengl2_x86.dll
These can be found in build/release-mingw32-x86 after compiling, or bug
someone to release binaries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------RUNNING
------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Start ioquake3. (ioquake3.x86.exe on Win32)
2. Open the console (default key ~) and type '/cl_renderer opengl2; vid_restart'
3. Enjoy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------CVARS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cvars for simple rendering features:
r_ext_compressed_textures
- Automatically compress textures.
0 - No texture compression. (default)
1 - DXT/LATC texture compression if
supported.
2 - BPTC texture compression if supported.
r_ext_framebuffer_multisample - Multisample Anti-aliasing.
0
- None. (default)
1-16 - Some.
17+ - Too much!
r_ssao

- Enable screen-space ambient occlusion.

Currently eats framerate and has some
visible artifacts.
0 - No. (default)
1 - Yes.

r_softOverbright

- Enable software overbrighting. This enables

overbrighting even in a window. Is disabled
when r_toneMap 1 and r_hdr 1.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

Cvars for HDR and tonemapping:

r_hdr

- Do scene rendering in a framebuffer with

high dynamic range. (Less banding, and
exposure changes look much better)
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_cameraExposure

- Cheat.
-2 0 0.5 2 -

Alter brightness, in powers of two.

4x as dark.
Normal. (default)
Sqrt(2)x as bright.
4x as bright.

r_postProcess

- Enable post-processing.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_toneMap

- Enable tone mapping. Requires

r_hdr and r_postProcess.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_forceToneMap

- Cheat. Override built-in and map tonemap

settings and use cvars r_forceToneMapAvg,
r_forceToneMapMin, and r_forceToneMapMax.
0 - No. (default)
1 - Yes.

r_forceToneMapAvg

- Cheat. Map average scene luminance to this

value, in powers of two. Requires
r_forceToneMap.
-2.0 - Dark.

-1.0 - Kinda dark. (default).

2.0 - Too bright.
r_forceToneMapMin

- Cheat. After mapping average, luminance

below this level is mapped to black.
Requires r_forceToneMap.
-5
- Not noticeable.
-3.25 - Normal. (default)
0.0 - Too dark.

r_forceToneMapMin

- Cheat. After mapping average, luminance

above this level is mapped to white.
Requires r_forceToneMap.
0.0 - Too bright.
1.0 - Normal. (default).
2.0 - Washed out.

r_autoExposure

- Do automatic exposure based on scene

brightness. Hardcoded to -2 to 2 on maps
that don't specify otherwise. Requires
r_hdr, r_postprocess, and r_toneMap.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_forceAutoExposure

- Cheat. Override built-in and map auto

exposure settings and use cvars
r_forceAutoExposureMin and
r_forceAutoExposureMax.
0 - No. (default)
1 - Yes.

r_forceAutoExposureMin

- Cheat. Set minimum exposure to this value,

in powers of two. Requires
r_forceAutoExpsure.
-3.0 - Dimmer.
-2.0 - Normal. (default)
-1.0 - Brighter.

r_forceAutoExposureMax

- Cheat. Set maximum exposure to this value,

in powers of two. Requires
r_forceAutoExpsure.
1.0 - Dimmer.
2.0 - Normal. (default)
3.0 - Brighter.

r_srgb

- Treat all input textures as sRGB, and do

final rendering in a sRGB framebuffer. Only
required if assets were created with it in
mind.
0 - No. (default)
1 - Yes.

Cvars for advanced material usage:

r_normalMapping
- Enable normal mapping for materials that
support it, and also specify advanced
shading techniques.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)
2 - Yes, and use Oren-Nayar reflectance
model.

3 - Yes, and use tri-Ace's Oren-Nayar

reflectance model.
r_specularMapping

- Enable specular mapping for materials that

support it, and also specify advanced
specular techniques.
0 - No.
1 - Yes, and use tri-Ace. (default)
2 - Yes, and use Blinn-Phong.
3 - Yes, and use Cook-Torrance.
4 - Yes, and use Torrance-Sparrow.

r_deluxeMapping

- Enable deluxe mapping. (Map is compiled

with light directions.) Even if the map
doesn't have deluxe mapping compiled in,
an approximation based on the lightgrid
will be used.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_parallaxMapping

- Enable parallax mapping for materials that

support it.
0 - No. (default)
1 - Yes.

Cvars for image interpolation and generation:

r_imageUpsample
- Use interpolation to artifically increase
the resolution of all textures. Looks good
in certain circumstances.
0 - No. (default)
1 - 2x size.
2 - 4x size.
3 - 8x size, etc
r_imageUpsampleMaxSize

- Maximum texture size when upsampling

textures.
1024 - Default.
2048 - Really nice.
4096 - Really slow.
8192 - Crash.

r_imageUpsampleType

- Type of interpolation when upsampling

textures.
0 - None. (probably broken)
1 - Bad but fast (default,
FCBI without second derivatives)
2 - Okay but slow (normal FCBI)

r_genNormalMaps

- Naively generate normal maps for all

textures.
0 - Don't. (default)
1 - Do.

Cvars for the sunlight and cascaded shadow maps:

r_forceSun
- Force sunlight and shadows, using sun
position from sky material.
0 - Don't. (default)
1 - Do.
2 - Sunrise, sunset.

r_forceSunMapLightScale

- Cheat. Scale map brightness by this factor

when r_forceSun 1.
1.0 - Default

r_forceSunLightScale

- Cheat. Scale sun brightness by this factor

when r_forceSun 1.
1.0 - Default

r_forceSunAmbientScale

- Cheat. Scale sun ambient brightness by this

factor when r_forceSun 1.
0.5 - Default

r_sunShadows

- Enable sunlight and cascaded shadow maps for

it on maps that support it.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_sunlightMode

- Specify the method used to add sunlight to

the scene.
0 - No.
1 - Multiply lit areas by light scale, and
shadowed areas by ambient scale.
(default)
2 - Add light. Looks better, but is slower
and doesn't integrate well with existin

g
maps.
r_shadowFilter

- Enable filtering shadows for a smoother

look.
0 - No.
1 - Some. (default)
2 - Much.

r_shadowMapSize

- Size of each cascaded shadow map.

256 - 256x256, ugly, probably shouldn't
go below this.
512 - 512x512, passable.
1024 - 1024x1024, good. (default)
2048 - 2048x2048, extreme.
4096 - 4096x4096, indistinguishable from
2048.

Cvars that you probably don't care about or shouldn't mess with:
r_mergeMultidraws
- Optimize number of calls to
glMultiDrawElements().
0 - Don't.
1 - Do some. (default)
2 - Do more than necessary (eats CPU).
r_mergeLeafSurfaces

- Merge
and a
0 1 -

surfaces that share common materials

common leaf. Speeds up rendering.
Don't.
Do. (default)

r_recalcMD3Normals

- Recalculate the normals when loading an MD3.

Fixes normal maps in some cases but looks
ugly in others.
0 - Don't. (default)
1 - Do.

r_depthPrepass

- Do a depth-only pass before rendering.

Speeds up rendering in cases where advanced
features are used. Required for
r_sunShadows.
0 - No.
1 - Yes. (default)

r_normalAmbient

- Split map light into ambient and directed

portions when doing deluxe mapping. Not
very useful.
0 - Don't. (default).
0.3 - 30% ambient, 70% directed.
1.0 - 100% ambient.

r_mergeLightmaps

- Merge the small (128x128) lightmaps into

2 or fewer giant (4096x4096) lightmaps.
Easy speedup.
0 - Don't.
1 - Do. (default)

r_shadowCascadeZNear

- Near plane for shadow cascade frustums.

4 - Default.

r_shadowCascadeZFar

- Far plane for shadow cascade frustums.

3072 - Default.

r_shadowCascadeZBias

- Z-bias for shadow cascade frustums.

-256 - Default.

Cvars that have broken bits:

r_dlightMode

- Change how dynamic lights look.

0 - Quake 3 style dlights, fake
brightening. (default)
1 - Actual lighting, no shadows.
2 - Light and shadows. (broken)

r_pshadowDist

- Virtual camera distance when creating shadow

maps for projected shadows. Deprecated.

cg_shadows

- Old shadow code. Deprecated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------MATERIALS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rend2 supports .mtr files, which are basically the same as .shader files, and
are located in the same place, but override existing .shader files if they
exist. This is to allow maps and mods to use the new material features without
breaking the map when using the old renderer.
Here's an example of a material stored in one, showing off some new features:
textures/abandon/grass
{
qer_editorimage textures/abandon/grass.jpg
{
map textures/abandon/grass3_256_d.jpg

rgbgen identity
}
{
stage normalparallaxmap
map textures/abandon/grass3_1024_n.png
}
{
stage specularmap
map textures/abandon/grass3_256_s.png
specularReflectance 0.12
specularExponent 16
}
{
map $lightmap
blendfunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
}
}
The first thing to notice is that this is basically the same as old Quake 3
shader files. The next thing to notice are the new keywords. Here is what
they mean:
stage <type>
- State how this imagemap will be used by Rend2:
diffuseMap
- Standard, same as no stage entry
normalMap
- Image will be used as a normal map
normalParallaxMap - Image will be used as a normal map with
alpha treated as height for parallax mapping
specularMap
- Image will be used as a specular map with
alpha treated as shininess.
specularReflectance <value>
- State how metallic this material is. Metals typically have a high
specular and a low diffuse, so this is typically high for them, and low
for other materials, such as plastic. For typical values for various
materials, see http://refractiveindex.info , pick a material, then scroll
down to the reflection calculator and look up its reflectance. Default
is 0.04, since most materials aren't metallic.
specularExponent <value>
- State how shiny this material is. Note that this is modulated by the
alpha channel of the specular map, so if it were set to 16, and the alpha
channel of the specular map was set to 0.5, then the shininess would be
set to 8. Default 256.
An important note is that normal and specular maps influence the diffuse map
declared before them, so materials like this are possible:
textures/terrain/grass
{
qer_editorimage textures/terrain/grass.jpg
{
map textures/terrain/rock.jpg
}
{
stage normalparallaxmap
map textures/terrain/rock_n.png
}
{

stage specularmap
map textures/terrain/rock_s.jpg
}
{
map textures/terrain/grass.jpg
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
alphaGen vertex
}
{
stage normalparallaxmap
map textures/terrain/grass_n.png
}
{
stage specularmap
map textures/terrain/grass_s.png
specularReflectance 0.12
}
{
map $lightmap
blendfunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
}
}
Though note due to the complexity of lighting, dynamic light (including
sunlight with cascaded shadow maps) currently only works 100% on materials like
this, where the second diffuse map doesn't have its own alpha, and only
uses vertex alpha. YMMV.
Another addition to materials is working normal/specular maps on vertex lit
surfaces. To enable this, make your material look like this:
textures/vehicles/car
{
qer_editorimage textures/vehicles/car.jpg
{
map textures/vehicles/car.jpg
rgbGen vertexLit
}
{
stage normalparallaxmap
map textures/vehicles/car_n.jpg
}
{
stage specularmap
map textures/vehicles/car_s.jpg
}
}
Note the new keyword, 'vertexLit' after rgbGen. This is analogous to
'rgbGen vertex', except a light direction will be determined from the lightgrid
and used with the normal and specular maps. 'exactVertexLit' exists as well,
and is the equivalent for 'exactVertex'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------DYNAMIC SUNLIGHT AND CASCADED SHADOW MAPS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------This adds a new keyword to sky materials, q3gl2_sun. The syntax is:

q3gl2_sun <red> <green> <blue> <intensity> <degrees> <elevation>

<mapLightScale> <ambientLightScale>
Note the first six parameters are the same as in q3map_sun or q3map_sunExt,
and the last two indicate scaling factors for the map brightness and an ambient
light of the same color as the sun.
There are currently two ways to use this in your own (and other people's) maps.
1. Create your map as normal, set r_sunlightMode to 1, and add a
'q3gl2_sun' line after your 'q3map_sun' line in your sky material, like
so:
textures/skies/bluesky
{
qer_editorimage textures/skies/bluesky.jpg
surfaceparm nomarks
surfaceparm noimpact
surfaceparm nolightmap
surfaceparm sky
q3map_sunExt 240 238 200 100 195 35 3 16
q3gl2_sun 240 238 200 50 195 35 3 1.0 0.2
q3map_skylight 50 16
q3map_lightimage $whiteimage
skyparms env/bluesky - }
The advantages with this method are that your map will continue to work
with the old renderer with the sunlight baked into the lightmap, and it
can be used with existing maps without recompilation. The downside is
artifacts like doubled shadows and uneven shadow edges.
2. Set r_sunlightMode to 2 and use 'q3gl2_sun' instead of 'q3map_sun' or
'q3map_sunExt', like so:
textures/skies/bluesky
{
qer_editorimage textures/skies/bluesky.jpg
surfaceparm nomarks
surfaceparm noimpact
surfaceparm nolightmap
surfaceparm sky
q3gl2_sun 240 238 200 50 195 35 3 0.5 0.2
q3map_skylight 50 16
q3map_lightimage $whiteimage
skyparms env/bluesky - }
The advantages with this method are that you don't get the artifacts that
characterize the other method, and your map compiles a lot faster without
the sunlight bouncing calculations. The downsides are that your map will
not display properly with the old renderer, and you lose the bounced light
that compiling the map with q3map_sun* in it would have.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------TONE MAPPING AND AUTO EXPOSURE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------This adds a new keyword to sky materials, q3gl2_tonemap. The syntax is:
q3gl2_tonemap <toneMapMin> <toneMapAvg> <toneMapMax <autoExposureMin>
<autoExposureMax>
Each of these settings corresponds to a matching cvar, so you can view and
adjust the effect before settling on fixed settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------THANKS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'd like to take this part of the readme to thank the numerous people who
contributed thoughts, ideas, and whole swaths of code to this project.
- Id Software, for creating Quake 3 and releasing its source code under a
GPL license, without which this project would not be possible.
- Zachary 'Zakk' Slater, Thilo Schulz, Tim Angus, and the rest of the
ioquake3 team and contributors, for improving massively upon the raw Quake
3 source, and accepting my and gimhael's modular renderer patch.
- Robert 'Tr3B' Beckebans and the other contributors to XReaL, for letting me
liberally copy code from you. :)
- Andrew 'Black Monk' Prosnik, Andrei 'Makro' Drexler, Tomi 'T.T.I.' Isoaho,
Richard 'JBravo' Allen, Walter 'Johnny Rocket' Somol, and the rest of the
Boomstick Studios, for contributing code, feature requests, and testing.
- Yoshiharu Gotanda, Tatsuya Shoji, and the rest of tri-Ace's R&D Department,
for creating the tri-Ace shading equations and posting their derivations in
simple English.
- Matthias 'gimhael' Bentrup, for random ideas and bits of code.
- Evan 'megatog615' Goers, for testing, ideas, and bugging me just enough
that I'd write documentation. :)
- The folks at #ioquake3, who don't seem to mind when I suddenly drop a
screenshot and insist on talking about it. :)
- And lots of various other random people, who posted on forums, blogs, and
Wikipedia, who helped in small but numerous ways.
If I missed you in this section, feel free to drop me a line and I'll add you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------CONTACT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------My name is James Canete, and I wrote most of this readme. Also, a renderer.
If you wish to get in touch with me, try my GMail at use.less01 (you should be
able to solve this), or look for SmileTheory in #ioquake3 on irc.freenode.net.