Why Existing Renderers Fell Short

What we needed

Extremely large point counts
High-resolution output
Reliable anti-aliasing
Matte objects and clipping planes
Practical animation workflows

What the available tools did poorly

Instancing-based approaches hit scaling limits
Some SPORE images reached billions of points
Traditional renderers were not designed for point clouds at that size
We needed a purpose-built renderer, not a workaround

Building the First Version

Early Krakatoa-related emails

Doc Bailey provided the core procedural algorithm as a Windows DLL that could stream points incrementally.
I adapted an older OpenGL and C# renderer I already had and turned it into a custom point renderer in just a few days.
The early version already supported matte objects, volume clipping, lens effects, and depth of field.
Mark Wiebe contributed important feedback, file I/O work, and depth-of-field support.