Running Blender python script outside of blender

There are two options,

  • The first which you have come across is which is to run Blender in background mode,
  • The second, which is very experimental, using Blender as a python module - BlenderAsPyModule

In both cases this should be a simple operation to import the Mathematica scene - bpy.ops.import_scene.* Then render the scene bpy.ops.render.render


As far as I remember you can run Blender from the command line without opening the interface/windowing system, which I hope works for your setup. Not only you can tell Blender to render a document, but you can also run a script that generates that document/populates the scene with geometry, lights, etc.

Alternatively you could generate content straight for a renderer (and skip a 3D Editor/Blender completely). There are quite a few free renderers out there like:

  1. Yafaray
  2. Sunflow
  3. Mitsuba
  4. LuxRender
  5. Pixie

yafaray

YAFARAY

sunflow

SUNFLOW

luxRender LUX

pixie

PIXIE