OS/2 Spezial/SPEZIAL2_97.zip/SPEZIAL2_97.iso/ANWEND/MULTIMED/POVFRT02/povfront.hlp

OS/2 Help File | 1997-08-06 | 19KB | 375 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Help


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Disclaimer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This software is provided without any guarantee for its usefulness for any
purpose. I will not take responsibility for any damage that its use, invalid or
not, may cause. No liability for consequential damages. In no event shall I be
liable for consequential, incidental or indirect damages of any kind arising
out of the delivery, performance or use of the software, even if I have been
advised of the possibility of such damages.

IF YOU CAN NOT ACCEPT THESE CONDITIONS,DELETE THIS SOFTWARE IMMEDIATELY.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. What is this program for ? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

A GUI to POV-Ray 3.0 .


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Just play around to see the limits....

There is less help text up to now, i will change this in ?possible? future
versions.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Configuration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The first thing to do, is the path configuration. Then you can start to play
around and see what is possible and what not.

The toolbar can be customized. It allows you to define the ordering of menu
items and visual representation of menu items. Just click with the right
mousebutton on the toolbar!

The parameter field of the toolbar allows you to enter additional parameters
for the program that you want to call. There are some substitution variables
that you can set:

%O - Substitute with the output filename,e.g. C  POVRAY SHAPES.TGA
%I - Substitute with the input filename,e.g. C  POVRAY SHAPES.POV
%S - Substitute with the scene filename, e.g. SHAPES
%W - Substitute with the picture width, e.g. 320
%H - Substitute with the picture height, e.g. 200


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. License ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This version of the program is FREEWARE.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Problems ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

A lot of, please report bugs and problems to:  [e-mail]


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Copyright ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This program is copyrighted (C) 1997 by Martin Schulz


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Version ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

- Version 0.2
 * Added some POV Ray parameter e.g. Internal Animation.
 * Added an Animation option to view the result of the Internal Animation.
 * Added a project file support.
 * Added an internal picture viewer with some basic editing functions.
 * Added Pre- and Postscene Commands.
 * Some bugfixes.
 * And more....

- Version 0.1


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Thanks to... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Andy Key, for providing GBM, the Generalised Bitmap Module.

OS/2 Developer magazine Jan/Feb 1995, for the UCMenu.

POV-Team(tm) for providing Persistence of Vision(tm) Ray-Tracer


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Path's ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

POV Ray exe - this is the full path and filename of povray.exe

Editor - this is the full path and filename of your favorite editor

Picture viewer - this is the full path and filename of your favorite picture
viewer

Include path - library directories which  you  specify

Scene path - this is the full path to your scene files

Output path - this is the full path to the image files. The picture is created
in the PovFrame directory, and after finishing it is copied to the output path.
If you do not provide an output path, the final picture is copied to the root
directory of the current drive.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. Resize picture ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Select the new size for the picture.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. Pre-  Post commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

PreScene Command - Set command before entire scene

PreFrame Command - Set command before each frame

PostScene Command - Set command after entire scene

PostFrame Command - Set command after each frame

Here is the sequence of events in an animation loop. Non-animated scenes work
the exact same way except there is no loop.


 1)  Process all switches just once.
 2)  Execute PreScene Command if any.
 3)  Loop through frames (or just do once on non-animation).
   a)  Execute PreFrame Command if any.
   b)  Parse entire scene file, open output file and read settings,
     render the frame, destroy all objects,textures etc.,
     close output file.
   c)  Copy the output file to output directory
   d)  Execute PostFrame Command if any.
   e)  Go back to 3a until all frames are done.
 4)  Execute PostScene Command if any.
 5)  Exit POV-Ray.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14. The menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 File
 View
 Options
 Help


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 15. File ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

New scene - Create a new scene file. The configuration is recalled from the
default configuration file.

Open scene - Open an existing scene file. The current configuration is used.

Open project - Open a project file. All the configuration values are recalled
from this file. The file extention is *.ppj

Save project - Save a project file. The current configuration and the name of
the scene file are stored to a project file.  WARNING: THE STRUCTURE OF THE
PROJECT FILES WILL CHANGE IN FUTURE RELEASES. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE OLD
PROJECT FILES WITH A NEW VERSION!

Exit - Save the current configuration either to the last opened project file or
to the default configuration file and exit the program.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 16. View ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The View menu

Animation

Picture Viewer

Command Bar


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 17. Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Add own parameter

Antialias

Field render

Internal animation

Partial output

Path's

Pre  Post commands


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 18. Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Well, show this help...


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 19. Animation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The animation option is enabled after a successful render of an internal
animation loop. All the pictures are shown one after the other. This works fine
for small pictures. If the pictures are too large, the animation will be very
slow.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 20. Internal Animation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Chapter 6.2.1.2 of the POV Ray documentation

  Initial_Frame=n  Sets initial frame number to n
 Final_Frame=n   Sets final frame number
 Initial_Clock=n.n Sets initial clock value
 Final_Clock=n.n  Sets final clock value
 +KFIn       Same as Initial_Frame=n
 +KFFn       Same as Final_Frame=n
 +KIn.n       Same as Initial_Clock=n.n
 +KFn.n       Same as Final_Clock=n.n

The internal animation loop new to POV-Ray 3.0 relieves the user of the  task
of generating complicated sets of batch  files  to  invoke  POV-Ray  multiple
times with different settings.  While  the  multitude  of  options  may  look
intimidating, the clever set of default values means that you  will  probably
only need to specify the Final_Frame =n or the +KFF n option to  specify  the
number of frames. All other values may remain at their defaults.

Any Final_Frame  setting  other  than  -1  will  trigger  POV-Ray's  internal
animation loop. For example Final_Frame =10 or  +KFF  10  causes  POV-Ray  to
render your scene 10 times. If you specified Output_File_Name = file.tga then
each frame would be output as file01.tga , file02.tga , file03.tga  etc.  The
number of zero-padded digits in the file name depends upon  the  final  frame
number. For example +KFF 100 would generate file001.tga through file100.tga .
The frame number may encroach upon the file name. On  MS-Dos  with  an  eight
character  limit,  myscene.pov  would  render  to  mysce001.tga  through
mysce100.tga .

The default Initial_Frame =1 will probably never  have  to  be  changed.  You
would only change it if you were assembling  a  long  animation  sequence  in
pieces. One scene might run from frame 1 to 50 and the next from 51  to  100.
The Initial_Frame =n or +KFI n option is for this purpose.

Note that if you wish to render a subset of frames such as 30 through 40  out
of a 1 to 100 animation, you should not change Frame_Initial or Frame_Final .
Instead you should use the subset commands described in section  "Subsets  of
Animation Frames" .

Unlike some animation packages, the action in POV-Ray  animated  scenes  does
not depend upon the integer frame numbers.  Rather  you  should  design  your
scenes based upon the float identifier clock. By default, the clock value  is
0.0 for the initial frame and 1.0 for the final frame. All other  frames  are
interpolated between these values. For example if your object is supposed  to
rotate one full turn over the course of  the  animation,  you  could  specify
rotate 360*clock*y . Then as clock runs from 0.0 to 1.0, the  object  rotates
about the y-axis from 0 to 360 degrees.

The major advantage of this  system  is  that  you  can  render  a  10  frame
animation or a 100 frame or 500 frame or 329 frame animation  yet  you  still
get one full 360 degree rotation. Test renders of a few frames  work  exactly
like final renders of many frames.

In effect you define the motion over a continuous float valued parameter (the
clock) and you take discrete samples at some fixed intervals (the frames). If
you take a movie or video tape of a real scene it  works  the  same  way.  An
object's actual motion depends only on time. It does not depend on the  frame
rate of your camera.

Many users have already created scenes for POV-Ray 2 that expect clock values
over a range other than the default 0.0 to 1.0. For this  reason  we  provide
the Initial_Clock =n.n or +KI n.n and Final_Clock =n.n or  +KF  n.n  options.
For  example  to  run  the  clock  from  25.0  to  75.0  you  would  specify
Initial_Clock =25.0 and Final_Clock =75.0. Then the clock  would  be  set  to
25.0 for the initial frame and 75.0 for the  final  frame.  Inbetween  frames
would have clock values interpolated from 25.0 through 75.0 proportionally.

Users who are accustomed to using frame  numbers  rather  than  clock  values
could specify Initial_Clock =1.0 and Final_Clock =10.0  and  Frame_Final  =10
for a 10 frame animation.

For new  scenes,  we  recommend  you  do  not  change  the  Initial_Clock  or
Final_Clock from their default 0.0 to 1.0 values. If you want  the  clock  to
vary over a different range than the default 0.0 to  1.0,  we  recommend  you
handle this inside your scene file as follows...

 #declare Start   = 25.0
 #declare End    = 75.0
 #declare My_Clock = Start+(End-Start)*clock

Then use My_Clock in the scene description. This keeps  the  critical  values
25.0 and 75.0 in your .pov file.

Note that more details concerning the inner workings of  the  animation  loop
are in  the  section  on  shell-out  operating  system  commands  in  section
"Shell-out to Operating System" .


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 21. Partial Output ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Chapter 6.2.2.1.2 of the POV Ray documentation

 Start_Column=n  Set first column to n
 Start_Column=0.n Set first column to n percent of width
 +SCn or +SC0.n  Same as Start_Column
 Start_Row=n    Set first row to n pixels
 Start_Row=0.n   Set first row to n percent of height
 +SRn or +Sn    Same as Start_Row=n
 +SR0.n or +S0.n  Same as Start_Row=0.n
 End_Column=n   Set last column to n pixels
 End_Column=0.n  Set last column to n percent of width
 +ECn or +EC0.n  Same as End_Column
 End_Row=n     Set last row to n pixels
 End_Row=0.n    Set last row to n percent of height
 +ERn or +En    Same as End_Row=n
 +ER0.n or +E0.n  Same as End_Row=0.n

When doing  test  rendering  it  is  often  convenient  to  define  a  small,
rectangular sub-section of the whole screen so you can quickly check out  one
area of the image. The Start_Row ,  End_Row  ,  Start_Column  and  End_Column
options allow you to define the subset  area  to  be  rendered.  The  default
values are the full size of the image from (1,1) which is the upper  left  to
(w,h) on the lower right where w and h are the Width =n and Height =n  values
you have set.

Note if the number specified is greater than 1 then it is interpreted  as  an
absolute row or column number in pixels. If it is a decimal value between 0.0
and 1.0 then it is interpreted as a percent of the total width or  height  of
the image. For example: Start_Row =0.75 and Start_Column =0.75  starts  on  a
row 75% down from the top at a column 75% from the left. Thus it renders only
the lower-right 25% of the  image  regardless  of  the  specified  width  and
height.

The +SR ,  +ER  ,  +SC  and  +EC  switches  work  in  the  same  way  as  the
corresponding INI-style settings for both absolute settings  or  percentages.
Early versions of POV-Ray allowed only start and end  rows  to  be  specified
with +S n and +E n so they are still supported in addition to +SR and +ER .

NOTE: Values that result in percent of the total width or height are currently
not implemented in PovFront.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 22. Texturize ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Hmmm, maybe the name does not describe this function very well so try it out:

The Texturize function allows you to append a mirrored copy of the picture to
the right or to the top of the picture. This makes it possible to use a picture
as an endless background picture.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 23. Internal Picture Viewer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The Internal Picture Viewer shows the picture in its real size and allows you
do do some basic edit functions to the picture. See the Internal Picture Viewer
Menu for all the functions.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 24. Internal Picture Viewer Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

File

Edit

Help


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 25. Greyscale ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

If you select this item, the picture is mapped to a greyscale palette.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 26. Map palettes dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

You can map the finished picture to various pixel depths and palettes.