mitsuba/doc/plugins.tex

\section{Plugin reference}
\vspace{-2mm}
The following subsections describe the available Mitsuba plugins, usually along
with example renderings and a description of what each parameter does.
They are separated into subsections covering textures, surface scattering
models, etc.

Each subsection begins with a brief general description.
The documentation of a plugin always starts on a new page and is preceded
by a table similar to the one below:
\parameters{
    \parameter{softRays}{\Boolean}{
        Try not to damage objects in the scene by shooting softer rays
        \default{\code{false}}
    }
    \parameter{darkMatter}{\Float}{
         Controls the proportionate amount of dark matter present in the scene.
         \default{0.83}
    }
}

Suppose this hypothetical plugin is an \emph{integrator} named \code{amazing}. Then, based on
this description, it can be instantiated from an XML scene file using a custom configuration such as:
\begin{xml}
<integrator type="amazing">
    <boolean name="softerRays" value="true"/>
    <float name="darkMatter" value="0.4"/>
</integrator>
\end{xml}
In some cases\footnote{Note that obvious parameters are generally omitted.
For instance, all shape plugins accept a surface scattering plugin, but this
is left out from the documentation for brevity.}, plugins also indicate that they accept nested plugins
as input arguments. These can either be \emph{named} or \emph{unnamed}. If
the \code{amazing} integrator also accepted the following two parameters\vspace{-2mm}
\parameters{
    \parameter{\Unnamed}{\Integrator}{A nested integrator which does the actual hard work}
    \parameter{puppies}{\Texture}{This must be used to supply a \mbox{cute picture of puppies}}
}
\vspace{-1mm}

then it can be instantiated e.g. as follows
\begin{xml}
<integrator type="amazing">
    <boolean name="softerRays" value="true"/>
    <float name="darkMatter" value="0.4"/>
    <integrator type="path"/>
    <texture name="puppies" type="bitmap">
        <string name="filename" value="cute.jpg"/>
    </texture>
</integrator>
\end{xml}
or, if these were already instantiated previously and are now
bound to the \emph{identifiers} (\secref{format}) \code{myPathTracer} and
\code{myTexture}, the following also works:
\begin{xml}
<integrator type="amazing">
    <boolean name="softerRays" value="true"/>
    <float name="darkMatter" value="0.4"/>
    <ref id="myPathTracer"/>
    <ref name="puppies" id="myTexture"/>
</integrator>
\end{xml}

\IfFileExists{plugins_generated.tex}{\input{plugins_generated}}{}