Overview: Startup / Shutdown
To start the neuray system, you create a neuray object using a factory function. This object is your only access point to the system. It will be used to configure the system, start it up and shut it down. Only one instance of this object can exist at any time.
The factory function is a C function which returns an interface pointer to the neuray object. This C function is the only exported global function of the neuray library. This allows you to easily use neuray both as a static library and as a shared library which can be loaded on demand without requiring to statically link an interface library to the application.
After you have obtained the neuray object, you configure the system using this object. When the configuration is finished, you start the system using the neuray object. When startup is completed, you can build scenes and initiate renderings. Before you can shut down the neuray system using the neuray object, all render jobs must be finished and all transactions must be closed.