Chris Friedl wrote:
> 
> Hi All
> 
> I was wondering about what is good form in regards to writing pov
> scripts (do you call them scripts?). With lots of objects,
> especially of type mesh, cameras, lights, textures etc, I can image
> that pov fies get really big. Any clues somewhere on how a good pov
> file could be laid out to make development and maintenance easier?

Put each model in a separate .INC file.

Put your most commonly used textures into one .INC file.

Divide each major project into functional lines.  For instance, I
am now working on my 16th Rusty animation.  I have the following
files to accomplish this:

r#16.pov -- the main file
r#16_s01.inc -- a file defining the scenery for several shots
r#16_s02.inc -- more scenery files
r#16_c01.inc -- a file containing the camera
r#16_l01.inc -- a file defining the lighting
r#16_p01.inc -- a file defining the props in each shot
r#16_r01.inc -- this file places and animates the robots
r#16_t01.inc -- a file defining the subtitling, camera fades, etc.

r#16.pov contains code that determines which shot is being rendered,
based on the clock value; the other files have switch statements
to control which scenery items get placed.

> Also, I'm working on animations, and have discovered some of the
> animation options (Final_Frame etc). It seems that I have to put
> these in my povray.ini file to work. However whenever I want to
> switch from generating all images of the animation sequence, to
> say, only one image, I have to edit this file and change the value
> of Final_Frame to 1. Same is true if I want to switch on or off
> writing of rendered image output files in a working session. Is
> there any easier way to do this than editing povray.ini?

Copy povray.ini to another file, such as test.ini, still.ini,
final.ini, etc.  Edit them to do what you want.  Run the one that's
set up to do what you want.

Regards,
John

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