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# Custom Renderers

A rendering engine is a mechanism that provides rendering processes to Softimage. Custom (3rd party) rendering engines work within the same framework as the built-in rendering engines, mental ray and hardware rendering. Lke mental ray and hardware rendering, these custom rendering engines are available for pass rendering, region rendering and shaderballs.

#### Topics in this section

- What is a Custom Renderer?
- Registering a Rendering Engine
- Rendering Images
- Exporting Archives
- Rendering a Subset of the Scene