This image shows an example of a light shader and a
volume shader. The light shader is a spotlight with multiple rings
of circular cutouts. It has controls for light color, cone
angle, number of rings of circles, and how big the circles should
be. The volume shader is based on the "smoke.sl" shader by Larry
Gritz but with added sparkles of dust.
Here is an example of a procedural shader used to create a knot
pattern. The user can control the color inside and outside the
rings, how many times the rings are repeated on the surface, and
the opacity of the spaces between the rings. The shader also has
a control for the general shape of the object. In order for the
pattern not to get excessively squished or streched out, it needs
to be projected differently on, for example, a cube than on a torus.
This image shows a simple example of environment mappping and
shadows.