...
* raytracing makes more realistic images than GL/CL/Cuda (are best for game, geo/mapping, accelerated) but is slower.
POVRay is supported about as well.
For a .gif animation see:
http://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1096001
see also:
https://sourceforge.net/p/rayshade
http://www.povray.org
The h5mma package provides improved support for reading HDF5 files in Mathematica. It is significantly faster, more memory efficient and crash resilient than the built-in HDF5 reading support. h5mma has moved to BitBucket: https://bitbucket.org/simulationtools/h5mma