The books listed below have been recently listed as out-of-print but may still be found in some bookstores or libraries (Visit http://www.dnai.com:80/waite/ for more details).

  Ray Tracing Creations, 2d Ed.
  Chris Young and Drew Wells
  ISBN 1-878739-69-7
  Waite Group Press 1994
    700 pages with color insert and POV-Ray 2.2 on 3.5" MS-DOS disk.

  Ray Tracing Worlds with POV-Ray
  Alexander Enzmann, Lutz Kretzschmar, Chris Young,
  ISBN 1-878739-64-6
  Waite Group Press 1994
    Includes Moray 1.5x modeller and POV-Ray 2.2 on 3.5" MS-DOS disks.

  Ray Tracing for the Macintosh CD
  Eduard Schwan
  ISBN 1-878739-72-7
  Waite Group Press, 1994
    Comes with a CD-ROM full of scenes, images, and QuickTime movies,
    and an interactive keyword reference. Also a floppy with POV-Ray for
    those who don't have a CD ROM drive.

[ Note that the generic word "directory" is used throughout. Your operating system may use another word (subdirectory, folder, etc.) ]

1) The messy way: Create a directory called POVRAY and copy all POV-Ray files into it. Edit and run all files and programs from this directory. This method works, but is not recommended.

Or the preferred way:

2) Create a directory called POVRAY and several subdirectories called INCLUDE, DEMO, SCENES, UTIL. The self-extracting archives used in some versions of the program will create subdirectories for you. If you create your own, the file tree for this should look something like this:

Copy the executable file and docs into the directory POVRAY. Copy the standard include files into the subdirectory INCLUDE. Copy the sample scene files into the subdirectory SCENES. And copy any POV-Ray related utility programs and their related files into the subdirectory UTIL. Your own scene files will go into the SCENES subdirectory. Also, you'll need to add the directories \POVRAY and \POVRAY\UTIL to your "search path" so the executable programs can be run from any directory.

Note that some operating systems don't have an equivalent to the multi-path search command.

The second method is a bit more difficult to set-up, but is preferred. There are many files associated with POV-Ray and they are far easier to deal with when separated into several directories.

POV-Ray's basic purpose is to read a scene description written in the POV language and to write an image file. The scene files are plain ASCII text files that you create using a text editor. Dozens of sample files are included with this package to illustrate the various features.

You invoke POV-Ray by typing a command at the MS-DOS prompt. The command is povray and it must be followed by one or more command line switches. Each switch begins with a plus or minus sign. Blanks separate the switches. The switches may be upper or lower case.

Note: The examples in this documentation assume you installed POV-Ray in the c:\povray3 directory. The installer will let you install POV-Ray anywhere and will properly configure it for the drive and directory you specified. You just substitute that drive and directory anywhere we tell you to use c:\povray3. Change to that directory now. Then type the following command line and press [ENTER]

  POVRAY +ISHAPES +D1

and press [ENTER]. This will run a batch file that invokes the tga2gif program. The program will read your shapes.tga file, create an optimal 256 color palette and write a GIF format file shapes.gif. Most image viewing programs support GIF.

If you allowed the install system to update your autoexec.bat file, then you can change to any drive or directory and can run POV-Ray from that directory. You will also be able to use the batch files and utilities that came with this package in any directory. For future reference let's call the "use-c:\povray3-in-your-path-plan" as plan one.

There are some circumstances where you may not want to put c:\povray3 in your path. There is a limit of 128 characters in your path statement and you may not have room for it. Try rendering the shapes example from a different directory. If it doesn't work, then you forgot to re-boot your system so the new path takes effect. If after re-booting it still doesn't work, it probably means your path is too full. You will have to adopt a different plan.

Chances are, you already have several directories in your path. Most systems have c:\DOS, c:\windows or some directory such as c:\utility already in the path. We have provided several small batch files that you can copy to that directory. For future reference we'll call the "put-batch-files-in-a-directory-already-on-the-path-plan" as plan two.

At any DOS prompt, type the word path and press [ENTER]. It will show you what directories are already on your path. Then copy the following files from your c:\povray3 directory to any of the directories already on your path. The files are:

  RUNPOV.BAT RERUNPOV.BAT RUNPHELP.BAT T2G.BAT

Once you have copied these files, try the following example. In this case, do not invoke the program with the command povray. Instead use runpov as follows:

  cd \POVRAY3\POV3DEMO\SHOWOFF
  RUNPOV +ISUNSET3 +D1

If your povray.exe resides on a CD-ROM then you can't edit the povray.ini on the CD. There is an alternative. You may use an environment variable to specify an alternative global default.

In your autoexec.bat file add a line similar to this:

  set POVINI=D:\DIRECT\FILE.INI

which sets the POVINI environment variable to whatever drive, directory and INI file you choose. If you specify any POVINI environment variable then povray.ini is not read. This is true even if the file you named doesn't exist. Note that you are specifying an entire path and file name. This is not a pointer to a directory containing povray.ini. It is a pointer to the actual file itself.

Note that the POVRAYOPT environment variable in previous versions of POV-Ray is no longer supported.

  RUNPOV +IMYSCENE +D1 RES120

This renders myscene.pov at 120 by 90 resolution. Note there is no such scene. This is hypothetical. After viewing it, you noticed a mistake which you fixed with your text editor. To rerun the scene type:

  RERUNPOV

and that's all. It will rerun the same scene you just ran. Suppose you want more detail on the next run. You can add more switches or INI files. For example:

  RERUNPOV RES320