[vtkusers] VTK RIB Export

[William E. Dietz]

I'm attempting to do a volume rendering of an aircraft flowfield in a
landing configuration.  The volume is a structured grid containing a
density field that represents the exhaust plume of the aircraft.  VTK
will render the volume, the aircraft, and the ground, but doesn't cast
shadows.  I've exported the scene using vtkRIBExporter, and rendered the
resulting file with BMRT.  BMRT casts shadows of the aircraft onto the
ground, but not the plume.  I'm a fluid dynamicist, not a graphics
person, so I'm definitely a naive user of VTK and BMRT, and I may be
trying something impossible.  So my questions are:

1)  Is there any way to get VTK to cast shadows?
2)  Is BMRT capable of doing a volumetric rendering of a density field,
or is it strictly an object renderer?
3)  If BMRT will work, is there any way to get vtkRIBExporter to export
the volume?

Thanks for any help in this area.

           Bill Dietz