Amazing answer... but i do believe that by "non-volume" he meant something similar to wireframe... I believe he was looking for something that can render graph plots and the such. Take for example, rendering a circle mesh or a curve with a constant line width in pixels, to represent the edges of the mesh

Ah hah, yes, perhaps so. I was thinking that if he mentioned faces, they can be rendered by any engine. Also, bezier curves are vectors, so I thought that would also include a huge number of objects. And, any mesh can be set to a shell (i.e. a non-volume) object and you can also have, for example, a cube missing one face, which also is technically a non-volume object. So, I thought maybe it was just a very beginner's question. You're probably right, though.

Also, the technical terms used didn't seem to fit into a coherent group based on the reasons I listed above, and so I also thought that perhaps it was a vague, uninformed question, which then led me to think that by "non-volume" OP might be referring to "non-volumetric" lighting etc. in a confused way. Anyway, I enjoyed the writing the answer.

Plus, a "surface" technically can be rendered by any engine. And, using "points" & "lines" instead of "vertices" and "edges" made me again think it was a basic question.

Like, think of how awesome an ocean modifier on a plane looks when rendered, yet it has absolutely no volume.

no worries =) i can see where the answer was coming from. like i said its an amazing answer... i feel like i should ask a relevant question just so its not wasted...and the question is pretty basic, its just very specific in its nature... an experienced user would have been more detailed and used proper terms, but then again every advanced user was once a basic user and questions like these are how one makes the transition. but i seem to have strayed from the topic at hand =/

Actually, I appreciate your comments, as I myself was also wondering the same thing later on in the day once I asked around. :) Maybe my new answer will provide another alternative.

man i really like your answers...

hey! thanks! I was about to reply when SE said "avoid extended discussions in comments...move it to a chat room" so I clicked on "move" & here we are....

I've never done that before

@Konner SE asked me to move our comments into a chat room...

finally

im really starting to hate ubuntu

it kept saying to log in... then wouldnt let me >.<

i feel the need to ask (now that i can just ask away in chat) where did you learn all you know about blender? are you self taught through trial and error? or did you actually go to a class or something?

@KonnerRasmussen hey! you might need to enable accepting 3rd party cookies in your browser preferences in order to log in...I was having similar problems with not being able to log in to Disqus.com until I allowed 3rd party cookies.

As for my blender knowledge, I've been watching a LOT of blender tutorials on Youtube. If you search youtube for "blender tutorial (thing you want to learn about) " you can find tons of great tutorials. If you're wanting to learn about something specific and can't find any good tutorials, you can ask and maybe I've seen a good one I can recommend.