In the past, rendering systems used a range of different approaches, each compatible and able to handle certain kinds of images. However, the last few years have seen the development of practical techniques, which bring together many areas of research into stable, production ready rendering tools. Production Rendering: Design and Implementation is written by experienced graphics software developers and discusses the techniques they have used to implement feature film quality rendering engines.

Key Topics:

- A rendering framework for managing a micro polygon-oriented graphics pipeline

- Problems presented by different types of geometry showing how different surface types can be made ready for shading

- Shading and how it fits into a rendering pipeline

- How to write a good shader compiler

- Ray tracing in a production renderer

- Incorporating global illumination into a renderer

- Gathering surface samples into a final image

- Tips and tricks in rendering