Hi folks,

we're currently testing our build processes as we're spinning up for the 
beta phase of v3.8.0.

If you're feeling particularly bold and daring, feel free to test-drive 
this INSTALLER for us:

https://github.com/c-lipka/povray/releases/tag/v3.8.0-pre-beta.666

The software therein will identify as "v3.8.0-beta.666", but it got that 
label only for technical reasons, and is really more like a pre-beta, 
and as a matter of fact, we don't care much how that version fares per 
se: What we're really interested in is the installer.

Some things you might want to test:

- whether the software installs and runs fine on a "virgin" system that 
never had any other version of POV-Ray installed;

- whether the software installs and runs fine on a system that already 
has one or more other versions of POV-Ray installed, without interfering 
with any of them;

- whether the software uninstalls cleanly.

Also, please keep your eyes peeled for any unexpected behavior that 
might be related to the installation process.


If you're playing guinea pig on this one, please let us know a bit about 
the system you're testing this on, most notably OS version, what other 
versions of POV-Ray are installed, and of course your results. Even if 
everything works flawlessly, we'd like to hear about it.


Note that the binaries in this installer package are not XP-compatible. 
If you still use XP and are keen on seeing continued support for that 
platform, please let us know, and we'll try to get back to you with an 
XP-enabled version. It's extra effort for us though, so we won't be 
doing it unless you let us know that there's still some demand for it.


Have Fun Testing!
Christoph

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IIRC the last few installers wouldn't prompt users for admin privileges. 
You had to remember to do so manually. I think admin privileges were 
required to successfully do the full install.


Mike

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Am 18.06.2021 um 20:43 schrieb clipka:

> If you're feeling particularly bold and daring, feel free to test-drive 
> this INSTALLER for us:
> 
> https://github.com/c-lipka/povray/releases/tag/v3.8.0-pre-beta.666
> 
> The software therein will identify as "v3.8.0-beta.666", but it got that 
> label only for technical reasons, and is really more like a pre-beta, 
> and as a matter of fact, we don't care much how that version fares per 
> se: What we're really interested in is the installer.

Well, turns out the binaries will not identify as anything - nor 
actually _do_ anything at all, for not really well-explained reasons. 
Which is a bit disappointing on a couple of levels.

The binaries in the following installer should be a bit better-behaved, 
obediently identifying as "v3.8.0-beta.667" - otherwise same deal:

https://github.com/c-lipka/povray/releases/tag/v3.8.0-pre-beta.667


> Have Fun Testing!
> Christoph

Ditto.

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Am 18.06.2021 um 22:47 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> IIRC the last few installers wouldn't prompt users for admin privileges. 
> You had to remember to do so manually. I think admin privileges were 
> required to successfully do the full install.

Please first try without.
 From what I'm seeing at my end, Windows should ask nicely.

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Am 18.06.2021 um 20:43 schrieb clipka:
>
> > If you're feeling particularly bold and daring, feel free to test-drive
> > this INSTALLER for us:
 [snip]
> Well, turns out the binaries will not identify as anything - nor
> actually _do_ anything at all, for not really well-explained reasons.
> Which is a bit disappointing on a couple of levels.
>
> The binaries in the following installer should be a bit better-behaved,
> obediently identifying as "v3.8.0-beta.667" - otherwise same deal:
>
> https://github.com/c-lipka/povray/releases/tag/v3.8.0-pre-beta.667
>

Hi, Christoph! It is great to see you back on the newsgroups; you have been
missed indeed. I did read your initial/'new'  post from May 2021-- but only last
night! :-0  Welcome back!

I've been away from the newsgroups and POV-Ray for several months myself; 'real
life' got in the way, as it usually does.

ANYWAY...

I'm running Windows 10 Pro, pre-installed on my new Lenovo desktop computer (8
cores/16 threads). Windows 10.0.19041 (build 19041)

I just tried installing the 667 beta. It appears to load all of its appropriate
files into its own folders in the the correct places, both  in "Documents" and
in C:Program Files\POV-ray\  Unfortunately, although the program does start
successfully, it doesn't actually do anything. (The only thing that works is the
main HELP file.)

There seems to be a problem with the separately-downloaded  'editor' component.
At least, the beta  seems to need that, and an info box comes up asking for it
to be downloaded before the beta will start. And curiously, as soon as I clicked
the 'yes' box there to go to the 'editor'  webpage, the beta automatically
started up! Odd but interesting.

The problem *seems* to be that the beta's main installer is directing us to a
webpage with the wrong 'editor' executable-- for 3.7 rather than 3.8.  The URL
of that webpage looks to be correct:

www.povray.org/download/wineditdll/3.8.0-beta.667

.... but the only editor available there is for "version 3.7.0.0 (released 6
November 2013)"

I tried installing that one anyway, but I think  it attempted to load its DLL's
into my 3.7.0 folder (however,  its own install process said the DLL files were
'skipped', so I don't think they were installed, and didn't over-write what may
have already been in my 3.7 folders.)

So at this point, it looks like the 667 beta *installed* OK, but there's no
'editor' to make it work. (BTW, I ran into the same problem earlier this year,
when trying to download and run v3.7.1 beta 9 again; the separate editor
component didn't work this time, strangely. But maybe that's off-topic here.)

Also, for what it's worth, the 667 beta installation does not seem to mess with
my v3.7.0 version; I just fired it up (actually running one of the piggybacked
3.8xx experimental versions with it), and all seems well; no problems that I've
noticed so far.

I have not yet tried to UN-install the 667 beta; I thought I would wait to see
if the 'proper' editor download is available and hiding somewhere...  ;-)

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Am 24.06.2021 um 11:00 schrieb Kenneth:
> I just tried installing the 667 beta. It appears to load all of its appropriate
> files into its own folders in the the correct places, both  in "Documents" and
> in C:Program Files\POV-ray\  Unfortunately, although the program does start
> successfully, it doesn't actually do anything. (The only thing that works is the
> main HELP file.)
> [...]

TL;DR: You can't create or edit any scene with POV-Ray v3.8.0-beta.667.

I presume everything else works fine though - e.g. you can render an 
existing scene using "Render / Select File and Render" (if that's not 
the case, let me know).

Well, that's way better than beta-666 then, which _genuinely_ didn't 
"actually do anything". It's just perfectly normal behavior for a 
POV-Ray installation without the editor component.

Which we still need to re-build to work nicely with the v3.8.0 betas.


> Also, for what it's worth, the 667 beta installation does not seem to mess with
> my v3.7.0 version; I just fired it up (actually running one of the piggybacked
> 3.8xx experimental versions with it), and all seems well; no problems that I've
> noticed so far.

It's more the tiny things that we'd be looking for; most notably, when 
you change settings in the v3.8.0-beta, then close it and open v3.7 
instead, the settings of the latter should be entirely unaffected - and 
vice versa.

> I have not yet tried to UN-install the 667 beta; I thought I would wait to see
> if the 'proper' editor download is available and hiding somewhere...  ;-)

Not yet. And when it is, we'll probably have a proper beta.1 ready, and 
would strongly recommend uninstalling that beyond-devilish beta.667 
first before installing the beta.1

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

>
> I presume everything else works fine though - e.g. you can render an
> existing scene using "Render / Select File and Render" (if that's not
> the case, let me know).

[Kenneth]
Ah yes, that does work. (I had never used that particular feature before, ha)
> >
> > Also, for what it's worth, the 667 beta installation does not seem to
> > mess with my v3.7.0 version...
>
> It's more the tiny things that we'd be looking for; most notably, when
> you change settings in the v3.8.0-beta, then close it and open v3.7
> instead, the settings of the latter should be entirely unaffected - and
> vice versa.

So far, yes, that seems to be the case, if I understand "changing settings". For
example, under OPTIONS:SCRIPT I/O RESTRICTIONS in the 667 beta, I changed some
of the stuff there from my usual v3.7 settings and rendered a few scenes, closed
the program, then checked 3.7 to see if *its* settings had changed: nope, all
good so far. Ditto the respective quickres render settings. Is this what you
mean?

When I finish testing this beta and uninstall it, I'll check the Windows
registry to see if the process was clean and complete.

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Am 24.06.2021 um 13:56 schrieb Kenneth:

> So far, yes, that seems to be the case, if I understand "changing settings". For
> example, under OPTIONS:SCRIPT I/O RESTRICTIONS in the 667 beta, I changed some
> of the stuff there from my usual v3.7 settings and rendered a few scenes, closed
> the program, then checked 3.7 to see if *its* settings had changed: nope, all
> good so far. Ditto the respective quickres render settings. Is this what you
> mean?

Yup.

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"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>
> When I finish testing this beta and uninstall it, I'll check the Windows
> registry to see if the process was clean and complete.

Sorry for the delay.

So after uninstalling this 667 beta from my Windows 10 Pro machine, and
deleting its remaining folder from the Documents\POV-Ray main folder, there are
still some vestiges of it remaining in the registry. Rather than try to describe
these, I instead made screenshots of the various locations, which I hope are
useful. (Btw, I also deleted the 667 beta's installation .exe file from
'downloads'.) I re-booted my machine several times before starting the
registry search.

I used these search phrases:
3.8-beta
3.8.0-beta
3.8-orgn
3.8.0-orgn

Those last two are 'ROT13'-encrypted registry entries that Windows uses in
certain places (a 'feature' that I've only recently become aware of).

I am certainly no expert at understanding the workings of the registry, so I
don't know if any/all of these are problematic or not (regarding running my
v3.7.0 and/or the v3.8 'experimental' pvengin64 installations that piggyback on
it.) I'll assume that I can delete all of the found entries with no ill effects.

A few of the registry entries were so lengthy text-wise that I couldn't capture
them completely.

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