I have a programming idea to give away. Because I know that this business idea won't last very long and its not worth my time. "Layers with Displacement/Normal Map" (L.D.N.M.) Benefits: It would save alot of rams and speeds up the renderer. The lights and colors will reflects the LDNM and its intsenity along with the texture map. No 3D poly or matrix calculation would be required for this. LDNM is for animator who just want to put mutiple layers in the scene. It lacks the real 3D calculation and may not be needed for some scenes or projects.

updated with additional information about LDNM renderer system http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12368&Form.ShowMessage=1971428 With mass of 3D poly can be CPU resources hog. 2D image of normal/displacement map uses less 3D poly and use less CPU resources in 3D matrix calculation. 3D poly should be only used as guided poly in 3D space for textures/layers. They always can convert mass poly into fewer poly as long as if the models look ok. With LDNM, when the renderer get to a pixel; it picks up the poly face and then it work on all layers within the poly area. Displacement/Normal map is very detail and faster than a model with mass 3D polys. Displacement/Normal map is only peak pointers with intensity and the light sources hits it and convert it into 2D image process as texture map. A model with mass 3D polys is wasteful resources and drain on CPU because of matrix renderer scripts have to deal with all the complex numbers in 3D space to determine which color it should make for a single pixel. LDNM is basically a scissors script like post-production video editor but still with some 3D polys. LDNM Renderer calculates differently on 3D poly and used it as for light sources for the displacement/normal map in 2d image process. It may cut down poly when not needed because the displacement map can cover it.

Attached Link: http://julien.chaplier.free.fr/Main.html

Yeah that is about the same but the objects in the scene can be baked into displacenment/normal map and cut down unnecessary polys for the renderer to go faster. I want to point that when renderer start to process, the entire scene is all 2D completely to the image for animation. Models with low polys is ok but not the same as renderer because LDNM cuts down the hidden polygons and also cut down unnecessary polys that displacement/normal map can cover. This can preserve the resolution of model shape, all the objects that show in screen is captured into displacement/normal map. That is why I call it Layers Displacement/Normal Map renderer.

By the way I am buying his stuff :)

I thought you would just drop him an email as he would be a good candidate to make your idea happen.

We're seeing some really great plug-ins for Carrara 3 this past year.