Redender

Redender is a fictional term used in discussions of computer graphics and digital media. It denotes the practice of re-generating a rendered image or scene after initial rendering to incorporate updates, corrections, or enhancements without restarting the entire pipeline. The term blends re- with render and is used as both a noun (a redender) and a verb (to redender).

Etymology and usage

Redender appears as a neologism in conversations about real-time rendering, progressive refinement, and cloud-based workflows. It is not part of established graphics terminology, but is employed in speculative or exploratory contexts to describe iterative rendering passes.

Concept and mechanisms

Redender typically involves selectively re-rendering bounded regions of a frame or performing a delta render where only changed data is recomputed. In progressive redender, image quality improves as more samples are computed; in full redender, an entire frame is regenerated to reflect significant scene changes. Because it can require data synchronization across processors or network streams, redender can trade increased compute for reduced latency in some configurations.

Applications and implications

In streaming games and cloud-rendered workflows, redender can adapt outputs to fluctuating bandwidth or to reflect user-driven scene edits without a full re-encode. In film and visual effects pipelines, it may be used to apply late-stage corrections or revisions with lower project downtime, offering a conceptual approach rather than a standardized method.

See also

Related concepts include render, re-render, progressive refinement, and remaster.