
Go get 3ds-to-Pov -
convert 3DS files to POV files with surface textures intact! This utility requires
this patched version of POV (also works with the superpatch).
Features (in no particular order):
 | Photon mapping
 | render real refractive and reflective caustics! |
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 | Bug fixes |
 | Surface Mapping
 | provides a way to map textures to the surface of objects (such as bezier patches or
triangle meshes). |
|
 | Image Pattern
 | allows you to use any bitmap as a pattern. |
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 | New Mesh Syntax
 | for much smaller files when converted from other file formats |
|
 | Reset Children Warp
 | apply warps and transformations to a parent pattern while leaving the child patterns
untouched |
|
 | Double Illuminate
 | causes light sources to illuminate both sides of a surface (like a rear-projection TV) |
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 | Solid Triangle Meshes
 | can be used in CSGs!! |
|
 | Radiosity improvements |
 | Media improvements |
 | Dispersion (thanks to Daren Wilson) |

 | November 5, 1999 - alpha 6 update (6.1) - bug fixes & volumetric photons
- fixed jitter variable default initialization bug
- fixed photons on a surface with a normal bug
- fixed reflection brightness bug
- fixed antialias+radiosity bug
- incorporated smooth triangle transformed normals bugfix
- fixed method 3 attenuation bug
- fixed method 3 brightness bug
- fixed number-fo-samples bug in method 3 (took 2x too many samples)
- limited number of keywords available to "ini_option"
- changed autostop to be a percentage of the object's bounding sphere
- Added volumetric photons
- Demo scenes updated (now they include volumetric photons).
|
 | November 1, 1999 - alpha 6 update (6.05) - bugfix
- Fixed one of the media/photons attenuation bugs. Just a binary release. Source will be
released later with more features and bug fixes.
- Demo scenes available.
|
 | October 26, 1999 - alpha 6 release (6.0) - Added 3.1g, minipatch, radiosity, media,
bugfixes
- Long time between updates, huh? Well, I've got a lot of goodies here for you.
- Incorporated Povray 3.1g (including bugfixes)
- Photons get attenuated by absorbing/scattering media. (No photons are deposited in
media yet.)
- Fixed a refract bug related to dispersion. Rendering some glass scenes is much
faster now.
- Big changes to radiosity - see the radiosity section - there
may be more changes, so don't get too hooked on these. This is still experimental
(comments are welcome).
- Added sample method 2 and method 3 to media - great results.
- Incorporated the minipatch, including spherical camera
and media sample method 2.
- Incorporated colored attenuation patch.
|
 | July 10, 1999 - alpha 5 update (5.4) - Bugfixes
- I'm satisfied with the "#declare" changes now
- Use "#version 3.1;" to use old-style layered
textures (where filter acts like transmit)
- Use "#version 3.14159;" (yes, PI) to use filters in textures again in the same
scene.
- Fixed problem with automatic range_divider calculation
- Added a better error message for zero vertices in mesh2
- fix bug with spotlight
|
 | June 16, 1999 - alpha 5 update (5.3 again) - Bugfixes
- Ok. This time I really did fix the parser. (I think.)
- I also fixed a max_trace_level bug.
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 | June 12, 1999 - alpha 5 update (5.3) - Bugfixes
- Fixed some problems problems with "#declare" changes.
- note: To make the editors work, you should put uvpov.exe in the \bin directory
of the POV-Ray home directory.
|
 | June 9, 1999 - alpha 5 update (5.2) - POV 3.1e editor now works
- POV 3.1e editor now works (at least as far as I've tested it). :-)
- POV 3.1a editor still works, too.
- Automatic determination of range_divider (if you don't know what I'm talking about, then
ignore this).
- New "save_file" and "load_file" commands in global_settings{photons{
} } can save and load photon map data.
- Shortcuts ($ and %) for #declare and #local (e.g. $a=100; instead of #declare
a=100;)
- Some of the various changes in this version have not been well tested (specifically the
changes to #declare and #local), but if there are major problems I will fix them as
quickly as possible.
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 | June 2, 1999 - alpha 5 update (5.1) - area light changes
- Photon mapping treates area lights like point sources by default, use
"photons{area_light}" in light_source to force photon mapping to use area light
settings.
- Enabling area light settings for a light's photons should not cause that light to shoot
more photons.
- Enabling area light settings for a light's photons might add a regular pattern of spots
in the caustic.
|
 | May 23, 1999 - alpha 5 release - photon mapping fixes
- More documentation and a FAQ.
- Memory optimization: Uses less than half of the memory that it used to (46%).
- Syntax changes: "density" switched to "separation", other changes
(see documentation).
- Speed optimization: Probably not noticeable
- New adaptive search: New thresholds employed. Read the documentation for more
information.
- added max_trace_level for photons
- added adc_bailout for photons
- ability to turn union splitting on/off on a per-object basis (use split_union yes/no in
the union)
- no more crashes with gather greater than 300
- shouldnt crash for animation anymore
- area lights work as expected
- spot lights work as expected
- cylinder lights DO NOT work as expected - working on that
- POV 3.1e high-speed lathe code is incorporated (other POV 3.1e stuff is not in here yet)
|
 | March 9, 1999 - alpha 4 release - photon mapping
- Going backwards in versions: used to be beta, now it's alpha. Actually, it's
probably permanently stuck on alpha now. ;-) But I did increase the version
number to 4.
- Photon Mapping! Render real caustics! And yes,
it's still called UVPov, but it's got a new splash screen!
- Many (all?) of my bug fixes are now part of POV 3.1e (my custom compile does not
contain all of the fixes found in 3.1e, however)
- The POV-Team is currently working to add uv mapping to POV-Ray (version 3.5)! It
will not be exactly the same as what you see here, but Chris has been talking to me about
his changes to the implementation, and it's only going to get better. :-)
- New conversion program: Poser
OBJ to POV converter.
|
 | November 24, 1998
- Fixed a bug so memory is freed correctly and POV shouldn't crash anymore.
- I call this beta "3a" but I did not rename anything in the
ZIP files... just a new executable and a new copy of mesh.c in the sources.
|
 | November 22, 1998
- I'm working on a new feature, parallel light rays for cylinder lights.
- Change in syntax of "uv_mapping". The old rule was that you needed to
specify "uv_mapping" as the first modifer. Now the rule is that you can
only specify "uv_mapping" if the object does not yet have a texture.
- Fixed uv mapping to work with CSG objects.
- New website layout.
|
 | Old News
- My patched version of POV is ready for download. Get it here!
- Many of these changes are also part of the SuperPatch by Ron Parker, available at Twyst's PatchStation.
- The primary reason for most of these changes is to give POV-Ray the same functionality
as some high-end software packages (like 3D Studio). Thomas Baier has released a
3DS-to-POV converter that works only with this version of POV-Ray. You can find out more
about it at his page. This utility (which
is still in beta) does an excellent job of converting 3DS scenes into POV-Ray scenes, with
lights, cameras, and textures intact! It also outputs to Moray MDL/UDO formats. Note:
This was designed for the POV 3.02 version of my patch, but it should work with
the SuperPatch and with my new version.
|

Disclaimer: This is an alpha version!
Software in alpha stage of development means that not all of the features are implemented
and that it is somewhat untested. This version probably will work well, but I can't
guarantee anything. I'm not responsible if the crash causes you problems. You
should always back up your stuff before you test alpha software (or any software, for that
matter). On the other hand, I've been running it on my system almost daily for the
past few months and nothing bad has happened to me (well, maybe a few reboots during some
debugging sessions). So, it's pretty safe... but no guarantees. This
software is provided as-is with no warranty, expressed or implied (as the lawyers say).
Important: UVPov is my personal
experimental version of POV (which I'm sharing with you). Because of that, it has some
'odd' changes in it. See the misc section for more
information.
Executable (be sure to install the official
version of POV 3.1 first)
Read the disclaimer first. If you do not agree with the disclaimer,
do not download this software.
New pvengine.exe binary file (named uvpov.exe) for Win32: uvpova6.zip
(809 KB)
Unzip this into POV's bin directory (the location is important to make the editor work),
but keep your old pvengine.exe file. You will need the official POV
3.1 for Windows in order for this to work. Get the official POV-Ray at POV-Ray's web site.
Demo Scenes
Demo scenes are now available: demos.zip
Source Code (if you want to compile UVPov
yourself)
Source for generic part of POV with my changes: uvpova6s.zip (642 KB)
This is for only the platform-independent part of POV. You will need to get the
source for one of the front-ends from POV-Ray's web site. Most of the front-ends
come with the generic part, so you'll have to get them first and then overwrite those
files with the new ones provided here. You may also need to update your makefile (or
project file) for it to work. I've compiled it with both the POV 3.02 and POV 3.1a
front ends for windows, and I assume that it should work for all other systems with not
too much problem.
(Many, if not all, of my changes are tagged with a comment that begins with
"/* NK".)

This page was last updated November 05, 1999.
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If you have any comments, please email me.
My email address is Nathan at Kopp dot Com.
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