[comp.graphics] Renderman: Pixar now on net????

uad1077@dircon.uucp (Ian D. Kemmish) (01/11/91)

I've just seen a posting in comp.graphics from someone who apparently
works at Pixar.  I'm assuming he has started reading the newsgroup
since this summer.  Since Pixar don't seem to answer letters, and
their UK representative doesn't seem to return phone calls, could
he PLEASE PLEASE find some answers to the two points below.

1) What is Pixar's attitude towards licensing the technology embodied
  in its patent regarding jittered sampling/stochastic ray-tracing or
  whatever you want to call it.  I do things differently now, and in
  any case the Monte Carlo people claim to have been using the same
  technique on the same integral for many years, but when I first
  raised the question in the summer, I got a lot of worried email
  from people using this technique not knowing it was patented.  Please
  set these people's minds at rest.

2) The rubric in the Renderperson books mentions a licence that lets me
  write a compatible renderer (in my case just a file translator, in fact).
  I know of two large companies who apparently have this licence, and
  a lot of small guys whoses letters to Pixar have apparently
  disappeared.  I have been trying to get this piece of paper for
  11 months now, and quite frankly I am getting a bit fed up.  Can
  you give me a real person's name and phone extension to talk to?

Many thanks for your co-operation in this matter.

-- 
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