3D GFX/3D GFX.iso/pcutils/os2/povframe/povframe.inf

OS/2 Help File | 1995-12-31 | 39.9 KB | 911 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Title Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

POVFrame 4.01 For OS/2 2.x

Users Documentation

Copyright (c) 1993, 1994  Bill Pulver


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. 1.0 Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Thank you for trying POVFrame. This program enables you to use the FreeWare
raytracing program POV-Ray from the OS/2 2.x DeskTop. Most of the functions
needed to effectively use POV-Ray in the WPS environment are available from the
POVFrame user interface.

This program is being distributed as SHAREWARE!!

 A registration fee of $20 (US) is required if the program is used beyond a 30
day trial period. THANK YOU! See ORDER.DOC, or the end of this document, for
further information. POVFrames operation is not "crippled" in any way... at the
moment anyway....... However, looking at DL counts vs registrations after 8
months on CIS **alone**... well it's running less than 1%...... Unhappy with
the program? If so, what needs changing? Just not useful?

Now may be registered online. On CIS type GO SWREG and select program POVFRAME
VERSION 3.0. Registration ID number 3208.

(The description there is still Version 3.0 but the registered 4.x is what
you'll get. The ID number, 3208, is all you really need.)

 NOTE: This program is NOT a 'product' of the POV-Ray team. I use OS/2 for
    my main machine and thought others would find a POV-Ray shell useful.
    Please don't bother others on the team with questions about this
    program! <g> See ORDER.DOC for more info.


 See README.OS2 for more info on the following paragraph:

 Also: The OS/2 compile of POV-Ray seems to be less 'tolerant' of math errors
    than the 'official' ICB compile is. It will sometimes crash on large,
    complex image files. If this happens try using the 'official' Code
    Builder compile to render your image.

    Some of the images that use higher order surfaces will occasionally end
    up with 'specs' in the image or will crash with an underflow or overflow
    error. The OS/2 compile supplied with POVFrame 3.0 was created with
    CSet/2 2.1. Most, if not all, of the math problems from Ver 1.0x and 2.0x
    compiles seem to now be corrected. (Yeah!!)

    *** PLEASE *** Run a small test image though and check it before allowing
    the machine to run for an extended period of time generating an image.
    If 'specs' show up in the image, or if it won't trace with the OS/2
    compile, the DOS ICB compile will usually work.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. 2.0 Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Installation of the program is fairly simple. The VROBJ.DLL file is the
VX-REXX function library, it may be placed in a directory in your OS/2 LIBPATH
statement (D:\OS2\DLL is good) or it may simply be left in the same directory
as the POVFrame executable file. (POVFRAME.EXE)

 A third party OS/2 support program called STARTD.EXE is required to start the
DOS sessions since a value larger than OS/2's default must be used for
DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT. STARTD will start a DOS session using the values in the
POV.INI file. They may be changed the same as if they were being set in the DOS
Session notebook setup by editing POV.INI with a text editor. DO NOT DELETE
POV.INI or the DOS version of POV-Ray will not run. For convenience the
original *BBS distribution file* of STARTD is included with POVFrame. It is
copyrighted but is freely distributable.

  ---> The POV.INI file should be kept **with** the STARTD.EXE file.

 You may now enter the PATH to STARTD.EXE in the DOS setups in the 'DEAFAULTS'
pulldown menu. This should make initial setup of the program a little easier
than previous versions.

 By default POVFrame expects the DOS executable and the OS/2 executable to be
in the same directory as POVFrame. This is the simplest and most reliable way
to use the program but different paths may be entered with POVFrames 'DEFAULTS'
pulldown as described below. STARTD may also be left in the same directory or
placed in a directory that is pointed to by your OS/2 PATH statement in your
OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. 2.1 Using POVFrame ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The following panel describes the use of POVFrames options and interface in
relation to POV-Ray and OS/2.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. 2.1.1 POVFrame and OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 If you are familiar with the options available for running POV-Ray most of the
options on the DeskTop should be 'old hat' for you. For further information on
POV-Ray, and the options available, please consult the POV-Ray documentation
distributed in POVDOC.ZIP. POVFrame also now includes a full INF format 'port'
of the POV-Ray doc file in POVDOC.INF. This file may be called and reviewed
from the POVFrame 'Help' pulldown. It is identical to the original POVDOC file
in layout.

 POVFrame will build a new POV-Ray DEF file for each POV-Ray image 'run' so
multiple images with different settings may be started. POVFrame uses a DEF
file named POVDOS.DEF for the DOS compile, POVOS2.DEF for the OS/2 compile and
POVANIM.DEF for animation runs.

 An OS/2 text mode compile of POV-Ray is included with this program. It *IS
NOT* shareware but freeware and registration of POVFrame does *not* relate to
it. It has been slightly modified from the distribution source code in that all
errors and the final image STATS are sent to STDERR in order to capture them in
the VX-REXX console handler, the regular POV-Ray run time info, credits, +v
verbose line info etc. are sent to STDOUT and will appear in the OS/2 session
window during the image run. Errors and image stats may be saved to a disk file
from the VX-REXX console using an option in the upper left 'frame' button. The
standard POV-Ray Team release DOS compile distributed as POVIBM.EXE may be used
for the DOS version under POVFrame. Watcom C32 9.5x/10 and Symantec C/C++ 6.1
compiles will also work correctly. (Avoid the use of Watcom compiles made w/
versions prior to 9.5. The dreaded 'fly specs' problem shows up there too.....)
Compiles made with DJGCC may have problems. GO32 1.11/GCC 2.5.7 compiles will
not function correctly under OS/2. Compiles using GO32 1.10 and GCC 2.4.1
-will- run, however, --NO-- graphics modes may be used. Enabling the render to
screen checkbox in POVFrame will cause the program to abend during
initialization, it should run using the text reporting.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. 2.2 POVFrame Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The following panels describe the options available in POVFrame and how they
are used.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. 2.2.1 Output Buffering ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This group box allows you to select whether you want POV-Ray to buffer the
image as it is rendered. The size of the buffer is entered in the dialog box.
The 'Disable Image Buffering' checkbox enables and disables this option for
POV-Ray image runs. Note that using an image buffer can significantly increase
rendering speed by restricting disk writes. The default is to use buffering
with a 256K buffer.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. 2.2.2 Image Run Parameters ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This group box controls the resolution of the image run and allows the use of
POV-Ray's ability to render only a portion of the complete image. The 'Do A
Partial Render' checkbox enables and disables this option. The 'Percentage
Partial' checkbox toggles between doing a partial render based on physical
starting/ending lines and columns of the image or based on a percentage of the
image width and height. Valid values for a render based on the physical
resolution of the image are 0 to Image Width and 0 to Image Height. Valid
values for percentage renders are based on 0 to 99.9%. The values for all these
options are simply entered into the dialog boxes. You may select a few preset
image resolutions from the sub window called by the 'PRESETS' button.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. 2.2.3 Current Render ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This set of buttons makes using the interface for version 4 even easier than
previous versions. The buttons are 'tied' directly to the current file name
displayed in the 'Image File Selected' information area in the upper right.
Clicking on 'Edit' will start the EPM editor using that file name. After the
image has been rendered clicking on the DOS or OS/2 viewer buttons will
directly start your viewer on that image file. Presets will allow selection of
a few common image resolutions and the output file type. Of course the GO!
buttons start the render.

Output File Type:

 This group box of Radio Buttons selects the file type to be written out by
POV-Ray during image generation. All of POV-Rays supported formats may be
selected. Just click on the one you want.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. 2.2.4 Image File Selected ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This dialog box is an informational box to tell you what image file the
program will render. The file may be selected from the 'Files' pulldown menu in
the upper left, the 'Files' button in the Image File Selected group box, or by
pointing to the entry field with the mouse cursor, clicking mouse button 1 to
move focus to that dialog box and pressing a key on the keyboard.

File names may also be entered manually by simply typing them in the Files
dialog box that opens.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5. 2.2.5 Other Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This group box contains checkboxes and radio buttons for the various commonly
used POV-Ray options. See the POV-Ray docs for specific information on what
each one does. A 'check' in a checkbox or radiobutton signifies that option is
enabled for the next image run. Note that the 'Display' option is valid ONLY
with a DOS compile. (It will work with either the 'official' POV- Ray Teams ICB
compile, a Watcom C/C++ 9.5b/10 compile or a Symantec C/C++ 6.1 compile. It
will *not* work with a DJGCC compile at present.)

 Since the OS/2 compile of POV-Ray supplied with POVFrame does not support any
render to screen options, you should use the 'Verbose' option to monitor your
images progress with it.

The +p option will cause the OS/2 compile to 'beep' before closing the CMD
Session when the trace completes. The DOS compile will 'beep' and hold the DOS
Session open till a key is pressed. (Keeps the render to screen image on the
desktop.)


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.6. 2.2.6 Image Quality and Anti-Aliasing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 These dialog boxes set the values for POV-Rays quality and anti-aliasing
features. The quality levels are selected by running thru POV-Rays valid
options using a 'spin-button'. The values for Anti-Aliasing are entered via the
dialog boxes in this area. The Disable Anti-Aliasing checkbox will disable AA
for the next image run. By default it is disabled since you will probably only
want to use it for a final, 'high quality', image run.

(Note that POV-Ray does not actually change the quality level for every 'step'
between 1 and 9. Only the currently -different- values are shown by POVFrame.)


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.7. 2.2.7 OS/2 GO! and DOS GO! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 POVFrame will start either a DOS compile of POV-Ray or an OS/2 compile of
POV-Ray. The POV-Ray teams ICB (DOS) compile of POV-Ray 2.2 has the ability to
render an image of any resolution to a WPS desktop window by using the VGA
320x200x256 mode as the display option. (+d1 POV-Ray option) The 'Display Image
While Rendering' radio button option is valid ONLY for the DOS compile at the
moment. The OS/2 compile supplied with POVFrame will display the verbose
'current line being rendered' option to the OS/2 session window during the
image run. The OS/2 compile writes errors and the image trace stats to the
VX-REXX console handler. They may be reviewed and saved from there. Saved from
the upper left button pulldown menu.

 Upon completion rendered image files will have the same name as the image
'source' and the appropriate extension for the type of file written. For
example, using the program defaults for paths and such, \POVRAY\BLOB.POV will
render to \POVRAY\BLOB.TGA, if the TGA file type is selected.

 The VX-REXX console window must be closed 'manually' after POVFrame is
terminated. You may also save the contents of the VX-REXX console to a file.
This makes for a good way to save image stats for the OS/2 compiles image runs
if desired.

Of course you must either have the DOS and/or OS/2 EXE's of POV-Ray in the same
directory as POVFrame, or have the appropriate paths defined for them, for
proper operation.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. 3.0 PullDown Menus ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The following panels describe what each of the POVFrame PullDown Menu options
do and how they are setup and configured.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. 3.0.1 Files ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The 'Files' pulldown supplies file services. Image files to be rendered may be
selected from here. Image files to be edited may also be selected as well as
deleted.

 The 'Select Image File to Render' option is identical in function to the
'Files' push-button in the 'Image File Selected' groupbox on the desktop
explained earlier. If 'Cancel' is pushed the Selected file dialog will be
cleared to NO FILE SELECTED!.

 The 'Edit POV-Ray File' option selects a POV-Ray image source file for editing
and calls OS/2s 'built in' editor, EPM.EXE (The Enhanced Editor), to actually
edit the image file. Multiple files may be opened in different windows to allow
cut 'n paste editing of entire image file sets. Due to a limitation in the file
selection dialog there can only be 1 default file mask. In this case *.POV is
used. Other masks may be entered manually in the 'Open Filename' dialog box at
the top to select INC or other POV-Ray image file extensions. If a filename
that does not exist is entered in the POVFrame dialog box EPM will open a file
by that name for editing. New image files may be created in this way.

 The 'Delete A File' dialog may be used to delete unwanted or outdated files.
By default all files are displayed in the dialog. A second dialog box will open
to -make sure- you want to delete the file selected.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. 3.0.2 Defaults ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 All of the following are stored in the POVFRAME.INI file and, after setup, are
loaded each time the program is started.

 The defaults pulldown allows initial settings for POVFrame to be set and saved
as well as POV-Ray options that are less frequently changed. Items such as your
POV-Ray image 'source' files path and POV-Ray library directories. (Up to 6)
All of these options are saved in the POVFRAME.INI file and will be loaded each
time the program is started. All path names must be fully qualified.

 The 'POV-Ray Source Path' option allows entry of the path to your POV-Ray
image 'source' files directory. This is the directory where your IMAGE SOURCE
FILES are located, NOT the POV-Ray program it's self. Enter a fully qualified
path name including a trailing backslash. All paths entered in POVFrame should
follow this format.

      EXAMPLE: D:\POVRAY\IMAGES\

 The 'Library Paths' option opens a submenu that allows entry of up to 6
library directories for POV-Ray. Again, fully qualified paths *must* be
entered. Your primary library path should also be set to your image source
files directory (same as above) if you use files that have .INC files, such as
POV-Rays 'COLORS.INC', that are stored in that directory.

 The 'DOS (and OS/2) EXE Defaults' options allow you to separate your DOS and
OS/2 EXECUTABLES by specifying a specific path to your DOS/OS2 executable file
and a directory that all your DOS/OS2 rendered images should be placed in upon
completion.

 By default the program expects both the OS/2 and DOS executables to be in the
same directory as POVFRAME.EXE. Also, by default, rendered images are placed in
the same directory as the image 'source' file they are rendered from. These
options are provided for 'house keeping' if you'd like to use them to keep
things a little more 'organized'. They also allow the use of both the OS/2 and
DOS compiles to render the same image at the same time. (If this is attempted
with the program defaults both compiles will attempt to write the image to the
SAME file!!!... Leads to some weird results sometimes.)

 By default POVFrame expects your OS/2 and DOS POV-Ray executable files to be
named POVOS2.EXE and POVRAY.EXE. The file names POVFrame will attempt to use to
render your images may now be changed using the 'DOS EXE File Name' and 'OS/2
EXE File Name' options under the 'DEFAULTS' pulldown. Enter the executable file
name ONLY! DO NOT enter any PATH information, it's pulled from the previous
PATH setup.  For this reason your DOS and OS/2 Paths should be entered FIRST!!!
For example, file names of POVDOS.EXE or POVOS2NEW.EXE may be used.  (YES! Long
file names may be used if your Hard Disk is formatted for HPFS!!)

 The 'OS/2 EXE Defaults' allows the same options to be set for the OS/2
executable.

 The 'OS/2 View Program' option allows the entry of the path too, and name of,
an *external* OS/2 image viewer and/or post processor.  A fully qualified path
and file name must be entered.

 Some options that are available for this are PMVIEW, PMJPEG and JOEVIEW, all
of which are also shareware programs and may be obtained from many BBS's and On
Line services. I've tried them all and they all work quite well. The program
selected by this option is called from a files dialog under the 'External'
pulldown menu. Just about any OS/2 program that can have the image file name
passed to it on the command line may be used here.

 The 'DOS View Program' option does the same thing as the OS/2 View Program
option but the programs used for this one may be DOS applications. Since I use
a TSENG ET4000 based HiColor/TrueColor video card in my machine here I use
TGVIEW.EXE, by John Swenson, for this option. It allows me to click on the TGA
file I'd like to look at in the files dialog presented under the 'External'
pulldown. As with the 'View Program' option above, just about any DOS program
may be used for this option. The DOS session started when the program is
invoked under the 'External' pulldown is a FULL SCREEN session. This allows use
of HiColor or TrueColor hardware and the DOS programs that support it. PICLAB
and other image processors may also be started from here. The idea between the
'View Program' and 'Post Processor Program' options is to allow as many OS/2
and DOS programs as possible to be called directly from the POVFrame desktop
and have the name of an image file passed directly to them. Again, fully
qualified path names and EXE names should be used for both of these options.

 The 'Animation Player Program' option allows entry of the name of an Animation
player to call for playing animations. Trilobytes PLAY program works quite well
for this purpose in a window with 320x200x256 FLI files. Other formats may
require switching the session to full screen in order to run if it gets
suspended due to an unsupported graphics mode. The file selection menu will
open in your DOS output directory by default since this is where DTA animations
are built and placed upon completion. Once again, a fully qualified path and
file name should be entered.

 You may also enter the paths to the POV-Ray modeling programs 'MORAY' and
'POVCAD' in this pulldown. Both are started in a FULL SCREEN DOS session when
called using the selection under the 'External' pulldown. The Windows version
of POVCAD may also be used. OS/2 will automatically start a Windows session and
load the program. Once again, enter fully qualified path names. MORAY and
POVCAD *must* be explicitly set up to be called from another directory. MORAY,
for instance, needs to have all of it's own internal path names explicitly
defined with fully qualified path names in it's configuration file. In it's
'default' setup it will be looking for model files in your POVFrame directory
(since thats where it was called from) instead of it's own. I've tested them
and they both seem to run quite well this way. POVFrame will now work with
either the 'test drive' or protected mode versions of MORAY. You *MUST* copy
the file MRAY.BAT, included with POVFrame, to your MORAY directory *AND* -EDIT-
it to match your specific system. Basicly, you need to edit it to 'point' to
the drive and directory your copy of MORAY is in. See the text in MRAY.BAT it's
self for more info.

   Thanks to Lutz Kretzschmar for the info needed to get it going!

 The 'External' pulldown menu option located on the main window menu bar
actually calls and executes the programs whose names and paths have been
entered as described above.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2.1. 3.0.2.1 SnapShot ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The 'SnapShot' option will examine the >>> CURRENT STATE <<< all of the entry
boxes, radio buttons and check boxes on the main POV-Ray options desktop (with
the exception of the Partial Image rendering parameters) and save them to a
defaults file named POVSNAP.INI. These settings will then be loaded as the
DeskTop defaults for future program start-ups. For example, say you'd like a
default image buffer of 200K, display during render with a pause at completion,
and a quality setting of +q5. Set these options up this way by entering the
appropriate values and punching the right buttons, then run the SnapShot
option. From then on, when you start the program, these items will be set up
this way. It does, however, slow down program start-up by a few seconds. To
return to the programs 'built in' defaults DELETE the file POVSNAP.INI.

The 'hints' at the bottom of the screen may also be set to default to 'off' at
program start-up by turning them off, setting your POVFrame options to what
you'd like as defaults, and then executing 'SnapShot' as described above.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. 3.0.3 External ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This set of menus actually calls and executes the DOS and OS/2 Viewer programs
defined as described in the previous 'Defaults' section.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. 3.0.4 Animation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The 'Generate Animation' option is a VERY BASIC animation 'loop' generator
that uses the POV-Ray 2.2 'clock' option to pass frame information to the
program. It's currently a very simple system. Frame and clock values may be
entered in the entry boxes. The clock increment value for the animation may be
entered manually or the program will calculate even steps for the clock
increment when the AutoCalculate checkbox is 'checked'. It *does not* check for
'logical' values, the user needs to enter numbers that make sense. For instance
if your going to >start< your clock value at 100 and >end< at -100 for 20
frames, don't enter +10 as the increment value, enter -10. Also, your
StartFrame value should always be smaller than your EndFrame value and your
Frame Increment should always be >= 1. If values other than these are entered
POVFrame will present a warning dialog before it attempts to run the animation.
You may return to the setup window to change the values by selecting the 'OK'
button. You may also continue *on* with the values entered by selecting the
'Ignore' button. If values are illogical (Startframe 30, endframe 10, Frame
increment +10 for instance) the values used for the clock may be in error or
you may end up with an empty POVANIM.BAT file. Backwards counts usually will
work with proper values though (-10 frame increment in EX. above for instance),
thats why the ignore option was included. I can't think of a reason to do it
this way off hand, but why restrict things?...... DTA will, however, compile
frames in positive order, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.

 YOU SHOULD ENTER **ONLY** NUMBERS WHEN THE AUTOCALCULATE OPTION IS 'ON'.

 The program will no longer crash if anything but numeric values or a minus
sign ('-' as the -first- character on the line) are entered but will instead
BEEP at you..... You may use backspace to erase the invalid characters and
enter the numbers you want. The Clock Increment and Frame Increment Values will
be set to 1 when an *empty field* exists so the numbers displayed may be
ambiguous.

 The program will allow a minus sign to be entered as the FIRST character in
the entry field to allow negative numbers to be entered.

 Currently ONLY the DOS compile of POV-Ray is used for animation generation.
(POVFrame writes out a DOS batch file, with a separate command line for each
frame to be generated, and then runs the batch file.) The output image files
will be numbered sequentially based on the frame values and the first 4
characters of the image file name. To facilitate simpler use of programs such
as Dave Masons 'DTA' frames numbered from 0 to 9 will have 3 leading zeros
prepended, frames numbered from 10 to 99 will have 2 zeros prepended and 100 to
999 will have 1 zero prepended.

 I.E. Frames are numbered xxxx0000, xxxx0001.. xxxx0035.. xxxx0235.. xxxx2200
etc..

 This allows for animations up to 10,000 frames in length. (0 to 9999)

 It's not much but it does make for -easy- linear animation generation. Simply
replace the value that you would like to vary in your POV-Ray 2.2 image
'source' file with the word 'clock' and the values will be passed to it.

EXAMPLE:
    Used to vary the 'z' position of the camera in this case.

         camera {
             location  <-5, 8, clock>
             direction <0, 0, 1.2071>
             look_at  <0, 0, 0>
             }

 Remember, you can use POV-Ray 2.2's math capability to alter the relative
linear motion between objects. If, for instance, you have one object that uses
< 0, 10, clock > to define it's 3D position, you can use < 0, 10, clock*0.5 >
to define the position of another object that will move 1/2 the distance of the
first in a given amount of time.  I.E. it moves 1/2 as fast when the animation
is played. Careful use of this technique can make for some quite complex
animations. It's still limited to linear values in the current POV-Ray, but
it's useful.

 --- If you have any ideas on anything to add here, or the rest of the program
for that matter, I'd like to hear them!

 The program now also provides a control panel for generating animations with
'Daves Targa Animator' (DTA) by David K. Mason. DTA is a very powerful
shareware program that will generate animation files in the 256 color FLI and
FLC format as well as 15bit FLH and 24bit FLT animations. It will also do image
color reduction, dithering and conversion to several other formats from the TGA
files POV-Ray generates, and lots more. It's available on many BBS's,
CompuServe in the Graphics Developers Forum (GO GRAPHDEV), AOL and various
other sites around the world. Many of the BBS's listed in the POVINF.DOC file
will probably also have DTA.

DTA is a shareware program, separate from POVFrame, and must be registered with
Dave Mason! (See the DTA docs for details.)  Note that the latest DTA (2.1)
writes a file slightly different from the old FLX format for HighColor (15bit)
files and now uses the FLH file extension. Also, 24bit BMP and 24bit FLT files
require DTA 2.1Beta or newer. HiColor and TrueColor animations may be played
with Daves other program, DFV.

 ******* DTA.EXE must to be placed in the same directory as POVFrame!!! *******

 The control panel is designed to operate with DTA 2.0.3 or newer. This version
comes as a single executable. Older versions were distributed as 2 executables,
a real mode one and a protected mode one. These versions may not work
correctly. (Version 2.0.7 is the one tests of POVFrame were done with.) Again,
only the BETA of and final versions of DTA 2.1 support the 24bit BMP image file
and 24bit FLT animation files as of this writing.

 The 'Files' button will, by default, open a file selection dialog in the DOS
output directory since the DOS version of POV-Ray is used to generate
animations under POVFrame. Simply select one of the files in the sequence you
want to animate. Say for instance you have generated an animation with BOX.POV.
The POVFrame output files will be numbered like this, assuming frames 0 to 10:

BOX0000.TGA
BOX0001.TGA
BOX0002.TGA
  |
BOX0009.TGA
BOX0010.TGA.

 Simply point to *any* one of these and click on it. POVFrame will strip the
last 4 characters from the end of the file name and replace them with a
wildcard '*' to be passed to DTA for compiling the animation. POVFrame expects
the frames to be numbered in it's format. I.E. the last 4 characters of the
name are the number sequence. Other names may be -manually- entered in the
files input box to generate animations from images compiled from other sources.
In this case an output file name should also be entered manually.

 If no name is entered for the Output file DTA will use it's own default name.
(ANIM.FLI in the case of .FLI animations) See DTA's docs for more detailed
information on the program and what it's options are/do. You may select the DTA
options you'd like to use by clicking on them or using the SpinButtons. For
most of the SpinButtons a value of ZERO (0) means that option is disabled since
a zero value for these items is meaningless. See the 'Hints' at the bottom of
the POVFrame Window for the specifics. (This saves some processing overhead to
not have CheckBoxes etc. for those items.) To add gamma correction to your
animation click on the 'Gamma Correction' checkbox and enter the value to be
used in the entry box next to it.

 In most cases the 'hints' at the bottom of the MAIN POVFrame WINDOW supply
basic information about each option when the mouse cursor is placed over it.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.5. 3.0.5 Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The program now includes a basic 'port' of the POVRAY DOC files to OS/2's INF
format. This file is viewed using OS/2's 'built in' VIEW program. To use the
DOCs from inside POVFrame the INF file MUST be in the same directory as
POVFrame. Your machine must also have OS/2's VIEW program in it's PATH
someplace. (This is the installed default for OS/2.) The POVDOC.INF file
included with POVFrame is the same doc file for POV-Ray that is distributed in
POVDOC.ZIP.

 POVFrames DOCs are now also an INF file (this one!) and may be accessed from
the 'Help' pulldown menu.

 The 'Hints ON/OFF' item will turn the 'hints' at the bottom of the POVFrame
main window on and off. The flickering bothers some people so they can now be
disabled. If a SNAPSHOT (see above) is done while they are set to OFF this will
become the programs default start-up mode.

 'About' is just that! This message is placed on screen at program start up. It
is NOT displayed when the program is started in the registered version of
POVFrame...... Call it my concession to nag-ware. <g>


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. 4.0 Hints and Tips ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Some people have found that having the PATH to the DOS executable of POV-Ray
defined in *both* POVFrame *and* their DOS PATH statement will cause the DOS
Session for POV-Ray to not be started. It is currently unknown why this should
happen. It works all 3 ways for me here, DOS PATH only, POVFrame defaults only,
or both at once. For everyone that has had this problem defining the DOS EXE
directory ONLY in the PATH statement of their AUTOEXEC.BAT file has cured the
problem. I.E. Include the directory that contains your DOS compile of POV-Ray
in your DOS PATH statement, DO NOT enter it in POVFrames 'defaults' pulldown.
(Entering blank space in any of the 'defaults' entry fields will clear the
entry in the INI file.)

 Others have found that deleting the POVFRAME.INI file and reentering the
values (sorry...) has cured messages such as 'could not start session'. These
type things ONLY seem to happen during INITIAL setup, once the 'working
combination' is found the program runs w/o problems from then on.

 I have been unable to duplicate either one of these conditions at this time.

 Make sure POV.INI is in a place STARTD can find it. It seems to work best when
they are both in the same directory as POVFrame although other places may be
used as explained earlier.

 POVFrame ver 3.0+ now have options to specifically set the path to STARTD.
Hopefully this will reduce or eliminate the setup problems encountered. If you
get a message in the white VX-REXX console window saying 'file could not be
found' STARTD cannot find POV.INI. Make sure it stays -with- STARTD.EXE.

 Occasionally a message will be displayed in the VX-REXX console saying the
session 'could not be started', or the session 'could not be started in the
foreground'. This usually happens when buttons are clicked and pushed too fast
for OS/2 and VX-REXX to keep up. (Remember, REXX is an interpreted language!) 9
times out of 10 the sessions that these messages are generated for actually
-have- started up correctly though!

 I have tried POVFrame under the WARP II beta here on a 486DX/33 8Megs and it
seems to work fine for the most part. The beta will, however, lock up if
several image runs are started at the same time. Just something to be aware of.
Single runs seem fine.

 This gives an intro to the program. The best way to get the feel of it is to,
of course, USE it. Experiment and have fun!!!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. 5.0 Registering ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Registering POVFrame

 POVFrame is $20. If you would like copies of the current versions of POVFrame
the latest OS/2 Compile of POV-Ray and several alternate DOS compiles of
POV-Ray, please include the appropriate shipping amount listed in the order
form.

 The shipping fee of $6 ($10 Non-USA) includes a FREE mailing of the next major
revision of POVFrame. (Or POV-Ray + POVFrame if a revision of POVFrame does not
happen before a major revision of POV-Ray.)

After receipt of your free revision all future revisions of 'POVFrame' may be
ordered for only the cost of media and shipping you the new disk(s). (Same as
the 'shipping' fee listed here.)

 Send your check and registration information on a completed ORDER.FRM, file
included with this program. The form may also be directly printed from the next
panel in this help file. Click on 'Print...', 'This Section' then 'Print'.

Mail to:

      Bill Pulver
     2916 Barrister Lane
     Bowie, MD  20715
     USA

 All funds should be drawn on U.S. banks. I currently cannot accept credit card
orders.

Thank You!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. 5.0.1 Registration Form ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

             POVFrame Version 4.01 ORDER FORM

  Name   ___________________________________________________________

  Address ___________________________________________________________

  City   __________________________ State _________ ZIP ____________

  Country (if outside US) ___________________________________________

  Phone Number (optional) __________________  Circle:  home  or  work

  Email Address (optional) __________________________________________
  Circle Type of Email Address:  Internet, CIS, Other _______________

  Where Did You Find POVFrame? (optional) ___________________________

 POVFrame for OS/2 2.x Registration Fee ($20.00 US).........  ________

 5% Sales Tax  (MD residents only) .........................  ________

 For a copy of the current compiles of POVFRAME.EXE,
 POVOS2.EXE, DOS Watcom 10 and/or DJGCC compile of
 POV-Ray add: (Optional)
              __  US residents (add $6 U.S.)....  ________
              __  Non-US residents (add $10 U.S.) ________

(Shipping includes a FREE mailing of the next major revision of POVFRAME.)
  Choose Disk Size:
           __  5.25" DS/DD (1.2 Meg) disks
           __  3.5"  DS/DD (720K) disks
           __  3.5"  DS/HD (1.44 Mb) disk

 Total Enclosed                       __________

(Payment must be in U.S. cash or U.S. funds drawn from a U.S. bank)

Mail to:
     Bill Pulver
     2916 Barrister Lane
     Bowie, MD  20715
     USA
           *** Thank you for your order! ***


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. 6.0 Legaleeze ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

LICENSE AGREEMENT =================

Use of POVFrame is subject to the following terms and conditions.

POVFrame is owned by Bill Pulver and is protected by copyright. By using this
product you agree to the terms and conditions set forth here in.

POVFrame is distributed as SHAREWARE. You may freely copy and distribute the
file PMPOVF.ZIP only AS LONG AS THIS FILE IS NOT MODIFIED IN ANY WAY. You may
NOT modify the ZIP file from it's original state.

POVFrame is distributed as shareware, you may use it for a 30 day trial period,
as long as you agree to the provisions of this license agreement. If you
continue to use POVFrame beyond the 30 day trial period, you are obligated to
register it.

POVFrame may not be used, copied, modified or transferred except as
specifically provided for in this document. You may not, modify or adapt the
software in whole or in part including but not limited to translating or
creating derivative works, disassemble, or reverse compile for the purposes of
modifying POVFrame.

LIMITED WARRANTY ================

Bill Pulver (The Author) does not warrant that POVFrame will meet your
requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. In no
event will Bill Pulver's liability for any damages to you or any other person
ever exceed the registration fee that was paid to Bill Pulver.

The author SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY BREACH OF
THESE WARRANTIES EVEN IF HE OR HIS AGENTS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of
incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may
not apply to you.

Now that thats over with, have fun with the program!!!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. 7.0 Whats New? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

4.01
----
    Altered the way MORAY is started from POVFrame so that the protected
    mode REGISTERED version may be used from the POVFrame desktop.
    POVFrame now starts MORAY using a batch file since the registered
    version needs to be started from w/in it's own directory. The
    batch file MRAY.BAT, included with POVFrame, MUST be copied to your
    MORAY directory and edited to suit your particular systems needs.
    See the comments in MRAY.BAT it's self for instructions.
    Thanks to Lutz Kretzschmar for providing the info for getting this
    going!

4.0
----
    Added buttons directly tied to the current render file to reduce the
    mousing around to get things done. <g>

3.0
----

    Compiled with VX-REXX 2.0b.


    In response to requests:

     Added 2 more POV-Ray Library Paths to the defaults for a total of
     6 now available.

     Added a subwindow that allows selection of several standard (S)VGA
     resolutions, a couple 'test' resolution sizes as well as 2 common
     resolutions supported by 'TV' video boards.

     Added the ability to change the file names for the OS/2 and DOS
     POV-Ray executable files. POVOS2.EXE (OS/2) and POVRAY.EXE (DOS)
     are the defaults.

     Added path specification to explicitly 'tell' OS/2 where to find
     STARTD.EXE and STARTD where to find POV.INI. This should eliminate,
     or at least reduce, initial setup problems.

    Fixed situation that occurred when the 'select file to be rendered'
    dialog was called  but -canceled-. This resulted in the file entry
    field still -displaying- the old file name, however the value
    read when the render buttons were pressed was corrupt for some
    reason. A 'file not found' message would be generated by POV-Ray.
    The dialog now gets reset to NO FILE SELECTED under these conditions.

    Added nicer "ABOUT" subwindow. The ICON for the program is now
    bound into the EXE. The separate POVFRAME.ICO file is NO LONGER
    required.

    Changed POVFRAME.DOC into an OS/2 INF file.

    Added yet more error trapping.


2.21
----

    This version has been compiled with Watcom VX-REXX version 2.0.
    You *MUST* use the VROBJ.DLL included here with this compile.
    Otherwise, other than a few "cosmetic" changes, the program is
    functionally the same as the released POVFrame 2.2 shareware
    version. The "ABOUT" box still says 2.2, the time stamp on the
    files ID's the 2.21 version as there were no major code changes.

2.2
----
    Added support for DTA 2.1Beta 24bit TrueColor .FLT animation file
    generation as well as 24bit .BMP file generation.

    Changed "dont"s to "don't"s. Thanks to all who pointed this
    out to me. <G>  ;-)

    Altered AutoCalculate code to prevent program crashes when non-
    numeric values are entered in the entry fields. The program will
    now BEEP when a mis-key occurs and should not crash.

    Added OS/2 standard ICONs, and support for System Sounds if
    MultiMedia is installed, to message dialog boxes.

    Altered AutoCalculate code to update ClockInc only when a change
    occurs in one of the entry fields, instead of constantly looping.

    Added more error checking and warnings for possible problem conditions.

    Updated DOC file.

    Compiled and included POV-Ray 2.2 for OS/2.

    Users of POVFrame versions *prior* to this one should replace their
    VROBJ.DLL file with the one included here!!!!



2.1
----
    Recompiled with new version of VX-REXX, fixes some internal
    bugs. (1.01 patch level C)

  ******* REPLACE your old VROBJ.DLL with the new one supplied *******
  ******* here!!!!!!!!!!!!                   *******

    Fixed some typos.

    Compiled and included POV-Ray 2.1 for OS/2.


2.0
----
    Fixed bug in animation generation paths.

    Added DTA Control Panel. Supports most common DTA options.

    Added the ability to call FLI players from the desktop.

    Added calls for Moray and POVCad for full screen DOS and WinOS/2
    sessions.

    Program will add trailing '\' to path names if the user omits them.

    Added POVDOC.INF


1.02/1.05
---------
    Fixed typo causing DOS Viewer/PostProcessor progam path to not be
    initialized at program start.

    Changed pulldown menu names for Viewers/PostProcessors to reflect
    it's more wide ranging use than just looking at images.

    All paths and program names under the defaults pulldown are checked
    for validity before saving.

    When a multiple directory setup was used the POV-Ray .DEF files were
    not being written to the same directory as the EXE being executed.


1.0
----
    Original release of POVFrame.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. 8.0 Author Info ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Thanks for your time!

 Please send bug reports and suggestions to one of the following E-MAIL
addresses. They are listed in descending order of frequency of usage, just not
enough hours in the day......

 InterNET folks, PLEASE include your 'return address' in the *body* of your
message. Deciphering the routing headers can sometimes be a difficult task! <G>
Also please note that InterNET responses from CompuServe are sometimes bounced
with 'unknown host' messages. I have full InterNET access thru Delphi but the
UI is abysmal compared to Golden Commpass on CIS. If I get a bounced message
from the CIS mailer I will attempt a response thru Delphi.

CIS   : 70405,1152          <------ Most often used!
InterNet: [e-mail]
    : [e-mail]
AOL   : BPulver
Delphi  : BILLP
Genie  : B.Pulver
Prodigy : NCCJ93A