Thanks to a hint by Morpheus Dreamlord There now is a Windows Executable available for download. It was generated with the help of Freewrap from the original TkMatman source code. I haven't checked it personally in all configurations, but at first sight it seems to work just fine. So if you're planning to use TkMatman under Win95/98, but don't want to install Tcl/TK, just Download TKMatman 1.7 for Windows 95/98 here and let me know if you are encountering any problems!

What is TKMatman ?

TKMatman is a tool that lets you interactively set and adjust parameters to RenderMan shaders and preview images with the given parameters. It can handle surface, displacement, interior, exterior, atmosphere, light and imager shaders and their combinations. The original idea for the program stems from Sam Samai, who wrote the very useful IRIX version. With the availability of the Blue Moon Rendering Tools for different platforms I thought that a lot more people will use the RenderMan interface and need ways to select their shaders. That's why I published my private LINUX version of MatMan here. The program was initially only meant for my own use, but at some point I decided it was stable enough to be distributed. I appreciate all feedback I can get and will put my newest versions here whenever there are some ;-)

Where can I get the newest version (1.7) of TKMatman ?

For all flavors of UNIX, Download the TKMatman script here. On any Unix system (with TCL-TK installed) save it as 'tkmatman', make it executable, run it and be happy. On Windows 95/98/NT first try to download TKMatman 1.7 for Windows here, save it some place and try it (with BMRT installed, of course). If this doesn't work out, download the Unix script and see the installation section below. This version (1.7) is updated to work with BMRT 2.4.0beta and TK 4.2 - 8.0. For those of you running BMRT 2.3.5 or older, here's the old version 1.2.

I'd be especially happy if someone with access to PRman could send me the necessary modifications to make it work with this package. I personally do only have access to a very old PRman version which doesn't seem to have a command line interface and hence cannot make the port ;-(.

What else do I need to run TKMatman ?

well, a computer, first ;-) with a kind of UNIX (I've tested it on Linux, SunOS, Solaris and IRIX so far) or Windows 95/98/NT as well as the following software packages:

- Blue Moon Rendering Tools, especially the program rendrib

- The TCL-TK package (Unix versions from every well-sorted FTP server), wish 4.2 or up. Here's the Windows version of TCL-TK, presuming Windows users are not THAT familiar with the concept of well-sorted FTP servers ;-))).

- some shaders to test it (they come with BMRT)...

Since the BMRT run on such a wide variety of platforms, I decided to implement my version of MatMan platform-independent in TCL-TK which is available for even more systems.

How do I use TKMatman ?

- UNIX: After saving tkmatman, say chmod +x tkmatman and ./tkmatman. Make sure rendrib and slctell are in your path and SHADERS is set properly.

- UNIX: In case you get something like 'tkmatman: command not found' you should check if a program named wish is in your path and if your sh is in /bin/sh or change the first few lines of the script.

- Windows 95/98/NT: After saving tkmatman in a permanent place, create a shortcut on the desktop or in the start menue, that calls the TK shell wish (e.g. c:\tcl\bin\wish42) with the pathname of your saved file (e.g. c:\something\tkmatman) as the argument.

- Windows 95/98/NT: You can also start it from the command line in a dos shell window by saying 'wish42 tkmatman', provided the programs wish42, rendrib and slctell are in your PATH and tkmatman is in your current directory.

- if the shader window stays empty, set your SHADERS environment variable to the appropriate directories.

- if you've made it this far, select a shader from the listbox at the left side. Its parameters should appear in a panel to the right. The button RIB writes the corresponding RIB code into a window, from where you can cut and paste it, Test renders a test frame using 'rendrib -d 8' and Quit quits.

- You can select combinations of shaders by selecting several, e.g. a surface and a displacement shader. Try dented metal, for instance.

- I know, that's not much, but play with the program and have a look at its help screen.. Some day I'll write a better help text and a FAQ.

What else can I render with TKMatman, other than sphere, cylinder etc. ?

I've also got some sample include files here to use instead of the sphere, cone, cube... They work as include files, containing only geometry and camera positioning and you will see how to use them when you work with the program.

The good old Utah Teapot as a polygon mesh with normals and colors

The sameTeapot without colors

A female Torso as a polygon mesh with normals

How can I thank you for TKMatman ?

Very simple: I like chocolate cookies. Ask me for the current mailing address and send me a packet!

Credits

Bug fixes were provided by Florian Hars and Drew Perttula, Thanks! If all bugs will be fixed in this way in the future, I'm lucky!

Ok, that's all for now. I also invite you to have a look at the rest of my home page and wish you good luck with your shaders.