YafaRay

YafaRay

A YafaRay rendering ofpiston engineparts modelled inBlender
Developer(s)	YafaRay developers
Stable release	3.5.1 / 13 July 2020(13 July 2020)
Repository	github.com/YafaRay/libYafaRay
Written in	C++,Python
Operating system	Windows,macOS,Linux
Type	Raytracer,plug-in
License	LGPL
Website	No current website

YafaRay(formerlyYafRay) is afree and open-sourceray tracingprogram that uses anXMLscene description language. There is a YafaRay addon forBlender2.78. The ray tracer is licensed under theGNU Lesser General Public License(LGPL).

The project is not currently under active development.

History

YafaRay's predecessor,YafRay( "Yet Another Free Raytracer" ), was written by Alejandro Conty Estévez, and was first released in July 2002. The last version of that program was 0.0.9, which was released in 2006.

Due to limitations of the original software design, the YafRayraytracerwas completely rewritten by Mathias Wein. The first stable version of the new raytracer, given the nameYafaRay0.1.0, was released in October 2008. The latest stable version is 3.5.1 released in 2020.

Features

Rendering

Global illumination

YafaRay employsglobal illuminationusingMonte Carlo-derived approximations to produce realistically lit renders of 3D scenes.

Skydome illumination

The illumination system is based mainly on light coming from anemittingsky (seeskybox), taking into accountsoft-shadowcalculations involved. The illumination can be obtained from ahigh-dynamic-range image(HDRI).

Caustics

YafaRay uses a form ofphoton mappingthat allows forcaustics(light distortion produced by reflection or refraction of a curved surface, such as through aburning glass). For simulating somewhattranslucentmaterials, there is asubsurface scatteringshader under development.

Depth of field

Depth of fieldeffects can be produced by using settings forfocal distanceandaperture.With a fixed point in the scene in focus, objects closer and farther away will be out of focus.

Blurry reflections

If the material of a surface is not a perfectreflector,distortionarises in the reflected light. This distortion will grow bigger as the reflecting object is taken farther away. YafaRay can simulate this phenomenon of blurry reflections.

Architecture

Cross-platform

YafaRay was written inC++for goodportability,and there areprecompiledbinariesfor the most common platforms:Linux,WindowsandmacOS.YafaRay can be used as a stand-alonerender engine,using its own scene description format. In this way, it can be used directly from thecommand line,it can be called by ascript,etc. There are also provisions forparalleland/ordistributedrendering.

See also

• POV-Ray,another free raytracer that is quite popular and has a longer history
• LuxRender,a freeunbiasedrendering system
• Kerkythea,a freeware rendering program that supports raytracing
• V-ray,a commercial rendering engine

External links

• Source code