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Posted August 3, 2002
Welcome to the POV-Ray news groups,
We encourage all new visitors to read everything in the announcements
group on this server. It details posting guidelines and how to post bug
reports. You will find links to online tutorials, general announcements
related to new version releases, lists of changes between versions, plus
anything else we can think of throwing in there that may help you use
these groups better or find resources related to using POV-Ray. Most of
all we encourage you to have fun here and contribute to the groups when
you can.
New Versions of POV-Ray - Please Don't Ask
==========================================
One of the most asked questions we hear in the news groups is -
"When will the next version of POV-Ray be released?"
The answer is that they will not tell you. The POV-Team is a group
of volunteers working on the development of the program in their free
time. They do not like deadlines and will only release a new version
when they have time to finish it. They also need time to ensure they
have the bugs worked out of it and the documentation updated before
releasing it publicly.
For this reason *PLEASE* do not ask when the next version will be released.
If they spend all of their time answering this question they will not have
time to work on the next release of the program. When it is time they will
notify you through public announcements on this server and on the POV-Ray
home page - http://www.povray.org.
We thank you for understanding our position on this matter.
POV-Ray FAQ's and Tutorials
===========================
Especially useful for both new users and new visitors is a FAQ many of
us have contributed to called POV-Ray Questions and Tips. You will find
almost all of the new user questions you might think to ask about answered
there and it is a valuable resource even for some of the more advanced users.
Although this resource is now bundled with the documentation in POV-Ray v3.5
we will be making regular new additions as the need arises. Because of this
we strongly recommend that you bookmark this site for future reference.
http://www.students.tut.fi/~warp/povQandT/
Other 3D graphics FAQ's of interest may be found by following this link -
http://www.povray.org/resources/links/3D_Magazines_Lists_and_FAQ's/FAQ's/
For a wealth of online tutorials related to POV-Ray please visit
the tutorial section of the links pages at povray.org by following
this link -
http://www.povray.org/resources/links/3D_Tutorials/POV-Ray_Tutorials/
For a list of other 3D discussion forums follow this link -
http://www.povray.org/resources/links/3D_Discussion_Forums/
Finding Resources
=================
If you want resources to use with making scenes or objects with then visit
the links pages at http://www.povray.org. We know of no online resource
anywhere that has as many goodies listed as the http://www.povray.org links
pages do and there is enough free stuff out there you can probably fill most
of your hard drive if you try hard enough. We have provided a search engine
to make finding the resources you are looking for even easier.
We are always looking for new resources so do not hesitate to contact
Ken Tyler - our official Link Master at mailto:lin### [at] povray org if
you think something should be added to the list.
Official POV-Ray links page - http://www.povray.org/resources/links/
Using The Groups
================
*Images Group
If you want opinions on an image you are working on we have a binaries
image group where you can post an image for critique and get suggestions
from other POV-Ray users. This is one of our most popular groups!
[please read the announcement on posting guidelines for this group]
*Scene-files Groups
We have a binaries scene files group and a text scene files group.
These are for sharing your source with other people if you choose to
do so. Attachments should go into the binaries groups, and a text
copy and paste into the message body should go into the text scene
files group.
[please read the announcement on posting guidelines for these groups]
*Programming, New Users, Advanced User Groups
The programming group is for talking about the programming issues involved
with the program and is not for general scene language discussions. These
should be taken to the new users group when you are new and once your skills
advance they can be moved to the advanced users group. Don't be afraid to
ask for help on something you do not understand. Many of the people that
frequent these groups are experienced users of the program and are more than
happy to share their knowledge with others. In many cases someone will provide
you with an answer in less than one day's time.
*The General Group
The general group is a catch-all group where you may announce your own web
site, for example, or maybe post a URL to a resource that you think others might
be interested in. If you cannot think of an appropriate group to ask a question
in then the general group is a good place to start. The general group is also
where all bug reports should be discussed before posting in the moderated bug
reports group.
[Please read the bug reports message in the announcement group for details.]
*Animation Groups
We have animation groups both text for discussions on the techniques
of creating animations and the binaries group for posting examples of
your animation work for critique and suggestions by others. Maximum
files sizes posted to the povray.binaries.animations group should be
1 meg or less.
[Oversize files will be removed by the News Server Admins. This is to
help preserve the news server hard drive space]
*Unofficial Patches Group
There is an unofficial patches group where discussions on using other
peoples modified versions of POV-Ray are held. Unofficial patches are
popular with some users of POV-Ray and you will find that many of the
patches may be added at some later time to the official version of the
program. You might want to keep an eye on this group just to get a
preview of what MAY come later in the official versions.
[Note: There is never a guarantee by the POV-Team that any patch will make
it into the official version so please do not assume that it will!]
*Off-Topic Discussions
Then there is the off topic group. There you may find discussions on just
about anything you can imagine. We have become a very friendly community
and are likely to drift in our conversations from time to time. When that
happens we move on over to the off topic group and let it go where it may.
Messages posted in that group expire in 2 week's time so they don't take
up too much space on this server.
*Other Groups
Besides the groups detailed above there are other groups that may be of
interest to you. You will find below a complete list of the groups on this
server and what they are to be use for.
List Of Groups On This Server
=============================
This is a list of the groups on this news server and what they are
to be used for. When posting any message in these news groups try to
pick a group that is appropriate for the message content that you are
posting. Please read the announcements group for details on posting
binary files and the proper method of posting official bug reports to
the bug reports group. Also be sure to read the News Server Acceptable
Use Policy for this server posted in the announcements group.
POV-Ray Specific Groups
=======================
povray.announce.frequently-asked-questions -- The FAQ group.
New users and new visitors: Go here first!
[Note: posting in the announcement group is not permitted.]
povray.general -- General discussions about POV-Ray
povray.windows -- Discussion of the Windows versions of POV-Ray
povray.macintosh -- Discussion of the Apple Macintosh versions of POV-Ray
povray.unix -- Discussion of the Unix versions of POV-Ray
povray.msdos -- Discussion of the MS-DOS version of POV-Ray
povray.bugreports -- Bug reporting area - Moderated
(*See bug reports notice in announcement group)
povray.newusers -- New user discussion area
povray.advanced-users -- Advanced user discussion area
povray.off-topic -- Discussion of off-topics not related to POV-Ray
povray.animations -- Discussion of animation projects and techniques.
povray.programming -- Programming with POV (incl. GUI Extensions)
povray.international -- Non-English discussions about POV-Ray
povray.international.binaries -- See above - binary files only
povray.unofficial.patches -- Discussion about unofficial patches and versions of
POV
povray.text.tutorials -- POV-Ray tutorials in text form
povray.text.scene-files -- Scene files (as long as they're human-readable)
povray.binaries.images -- Posting of rendered images here is OK
povray.binaries.scene-files -- POV-Ray scene files (plain text or zipped
attachments)
povray.binaries.utilities -- POV-Ray utilities and announcements of new programs
povray.binaries.tutorials -- POV-Ray tutorials in binary form
povray.binaries.animations -- Animations in binary form
povray.binaries.programming -- For exchanging of source code in binary form
povray.documentation.inbuilt -- Discussions about the POV-Ray documentation
povray.documentation.books -- Discussions on POV-Ray book projects
POV-Ray Beta Testing Groups
===========================
povray.beta-test -- Beta testing of new versions of POV-Ray
povray.beta-test.binaries -- Binary files associated with beta testing
Note: The beta groups are only active during public beta testing rounds.
They will be "read only" at all other times.
Third-party groups (software that works with POV-Ray)
=====================================================
moray.dos -- Discussions about the DOS version of Moray
moray.win -- Discussions about the Windows version of Moray
moray.binaries -- Moray binary files .mdl, .mtx, and others
moray.beta -- Beta testing new versions of Moray
povray.3rdparty.povlab -- A forum for POVLAB users
Groups for the Internet Raytracing Competition (IRTC)
=====================================================
irtc.general -- General IRTC discussion
irtc.stills -- Discussion about the IRTC stills competition
irtc.animations -- Discussion about the IRTC animation competition
Message Storage
===============
Unless we run out of disk space, messages posted here ought to stay
around for a long time. We have dedicated several hundred megabytes to
the groups which should keep them going for some time. The only group
on the server that automatically expires messages is in the off-topic
group. All messages in the off-topic group expire in 14 days. We did
this because discussions in that group are seldom related to POV-Ray
and were starting to take up considerable resources on this server.
The messages in all of the other groups will remain until such time
as we are forced to make room for new messages and will retire older
messages chronologically.
Posting Bug Reports
===================
There are strict procedures that we ask you to adhere to when posting
bug reports to povray.bugreports (moderated). For this reason we ask you
to carefully read the bug reports posting guidelines announcement in the
announcements group on this server.
-- POVRAY.ORG News Server Administrators
Posted August 3, 2002
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