rshow - an interactive previewer for the Radiance system

 description:

rshow is an interactive previewer for the Radiance synthetic image system. It uses hardware-accelerated graphics-cards to render a scene with Open-GL, rather than the raytracing of rpict and rvu. Its primary use is to fine-tune camera positions, check geometry, plan for rendering by raytracing and visualise results.
rshow has been written by Peter Apian-Bennewitz, first at Fraunhofer ISE in 1993, then, after 1999, at pab-opto. In 2004 it was brought up to the then current Radiance standard.
It had been released as publicly available software, distributed as binary code free of charge, copyrighted by the author and useable by anyone for non-commercial and commercial work.

Example screen-dumps:

mechanical CAD model light distribution in Freiburg's Streets
mechanical part
screen dump on an SGI Onyx workstation
Freiburg downtown
illumination levels on horizontal surface, displayed as false-colour along vertically cutting planes

Advantages (see also publications below):

situtation in 2022:

 free beta versions: (outdated, see above)

Please read the disclaimer below before downloading. Downloading the software indicates your acceptance of the disclaimer.
Beta-versions of rshow are publicly available free of charge:

To install rshow on your machine follow these steps:

  1. select a distribution file for downloading from the table below. For Netscape/Mozilla, press right mouse button over rshow.XXX.tar.gz file and choose 'save to file'
  2. unpack the distribution files with
    tar xfv rshow.XXX.tar.gz
  3. Depending on our system, you may need to install other libraries, as mentioned below.
  4. The executable rshow is located in bin, auxiliary files are in the lib subdirectory.
    Set the environment variable RSHOW_PATH to point to the absolute path of the lib subdirectory, like:
    RSHOW_PATH=/usr/local/rshow/lib; export RSHOW_PATH
  5. You may have to set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to your tcl/tk library if it's not installed in a standard place. Update Oct 2014: tcl/tk shared libs are no longer needed.
  6. You're all set and ready to go. Choose an octree and start rshow xyz.oct
  7. Notes: Beta releases are no longer fitted with a best-before-date.
  8. list of commandline options, technical notes, small FAQ
supported hardware configurations:
vendor operating system
release info
rshow version distribution file other software needed
(see table below)
supported input devices
Linux Linux 2.6.x/3.x
0.73 + rshow.Linux.V0.73c.tar.gz
some X11 libs, on 64bit systems the 32bit compatibility libs are needed. Tcl/Tk libs are statically linked, hence no shared libs for Tcl/Tk needed joystick
Silicon Graphics IRIX5.3 on MIPS machines (VGX & Co)
-development closed-
0.70f rshow.IRIX_5.3.tar.gz
Tcl/Tk 8.0 Spaceball, SpaceMouse
software packages needed:
package what for where to find it
Tcl/Tk graphical user interface Sriptics update Oct 2014: rshow has the Tcl/Tk libs linked statically
MESA or Open-GL Mesa: Open-GL look-like on top of X11 (mostly not needed with newer Linux distributions and XFree-4.x) Mesa 3d

 revisions:

known nasties history
0.73c - 5.1.2015
0.73 - 15.10.2014, new compile
0.72e - 19.12.2007, new compile
0.72d - 12.4.2005, bug fixes
0.72c - 5.2.2005, bug fixes
0.72b - 9.1.2005, bug fixes
0.72a - 29.11.2004, updated libs
0.71b, 15.2.2003
0.71a, 13.1.2003
0.70h, 27.10.2002
0.70g, 30.6.2002
0.70f, 11.12.2001
0.70e, 18.6.2001
0.70e, 19.5.2001
0.70e, 5.3.2001
0.70e, 2.3.2000
0.70d, 15.2.2000
0.70c, 22.11.1999
0.70b, 22.9.1999
0.70, 1.9.1999 - first release after moving to pab-opto -

 publications:


For feedback, please contact rshow@pab-opto.de

DISCLAIMER

PETER APIAN-BENNEWITZ, PAB-OPTO DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.