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Hi! I see some changes in the way Povray beta is installed on Windows. First,
the destination is the "Document and settings", not "Program files", which is
more logical for programs.
Second, the data files are stored on "My Documents", this is a good choice, but
breaks the unofficial Povray versions such as Megapov : it tries to get the
files in "Program files". In my opinion, I don't like too much when software
has an installer and restrict the choice. And I'm sure there are other people
complaining about it. Of course, an automated installer is a good option for
beginners, a couple of clicks and the software is ready, with shortcuts and so
on...
Will it be a big difficulty to make a "portable" version of Povray? In a zip
file for example.
In the meantime, I share a trick to install a Povray beta using the MSI
installer but place the Povray beta in the "c:\program files\" directory.
I use "Sandboxie", which is a very helpful program to make tests. It allows you
to run a setup in a kind of "virtual machine" leaving the operating system
intact.
1) Run the msi package in your sandbox.
2) Browse to C:\Sandbox\<username>\DefaultBox\user\current\Application
Data\POV-Ray
3) Copy the v3.7 to C:\Program Files\POV-Ray for Windows v3.62\beta for example
4) Browse to C:\Sandbox\<username>\DefaultBox\user\current\<My
documents>\POV-Ray and copy the directory v3.7 in the same directory in your
documents.
Now, if you launch Povray from Program files, it will infer a new path and you
should be able to render correctly. You have made a semi-portable version of
beta 3.7 (semi-portable because you still need a 3.6 setup). I'm sure you can
even make a portable version of Povray 3.6 but I haven't tried this.
And for Megapov, just copy the required files in C:\program files\POV_Ray... and
it should be able to render well.
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Rocco wrote:
> In the meantime, I share a trick to install a Povray beta using the MSI
> installer but place the Povray beta in the "c:\program files\" directory.
Here's another trick: Select the "Install for all users"
option in the installer ;) This will install to program files
instead of the user space (the latter method is required to
support non-administrator installs under Vista, although
I still feel it should not be default).
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> Hi! I see some changes in the way Povray beta is installed on Windows. First,
> the destination is the "Document and settings", not "Program files", which is
> more logical for programs.
>
> Second, the data files are stored on "My Documents", this is a good choice, but
> breaks the unofficial Povray versions such as Megapov : it tries to get the
> files in "Program files". In my opinion, I don't like too much when software
> has an installer and restrict the choice. And I'm sure there are other people
> complaining about it. Of course, an automated installer is a good option for
> beginners, a couple of clicks and the software is ready, with shortcuts and so
> on...
>
> Will it be a big difficulty to make a "portable" version of Povray? In a zip
> file for example.
>
> In the meantime, I share a trick to install a Povray beta using the MSI
> installer but place the Povray beta in the "c:\program files\" directory.
It don't work if you are using Vista.
>
> I use "Sandboxie", which is a very helpful program to make tests. It allows you
> to run a setup in a kind of "virtual machine" leaving the operating system
> intact.
>
> 1) Run the msi package in your sandbox.
> 2) Browse to C:\Sandbox\<username>\DefaultBox\user\current\Application
> Data\POV-Ray
> 3) Copy the v3.7 to C:\Program Files\POV-Ray for Windows v3.62\beta for example
> 4) Browse to C:\Sandbox\<username>\DefaultBox\user\current\<My
> documents>\POV-Ray and copy the directory v3.7 in the same directory in your
> documents.
>
> Now, if you launch Povray from Program files, it will infer a new path and you
> should be able to render correctly. You have made a semi-portable version of
> beta 3.7 (semi-portable because you still need a 3.6 setup). I'm sure you can
> even make a portable version of Povray 3.6 but I haven't tried this.
>
> And for Megapov, just copy the required files in C:\program files\POV_Ray... and
> it should be able to render well.
>
>
The change in the install directory under windows is because, under
Vista, programms are NOT allowed to alter any file in the programm files
folder. POV-Ray need to change one of it's .ini files.
The actual change have been made expressly to circumvent that "feature".
You can install megapov in a subdirectory of the main POV-Ray directory
indtead of accepting it's default location.
Alain
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Rocco wrote:
> Will it be a big difficulty to make a "portable" version of Povray? In a zip
> file for example.
Once 3.7 is final, you'll be able to obtain the sources and build it how
you see fit. That's even more portable than your idea of a portable
Windows binary :)
--
Chambers
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Chambers <Ben### [at] gmail com_no_underscores> wrote:
> Rocco wrote:
> > Will it be a big difficulty to make a "portable" version of Povray? In a zip
> > file for example.
>
> Once 3.7 is final, you'll be able to obtain the sources and build it how
> you see fit. That's even more portable than your idea of a portable
> Windows binary :)
>
> --
> Chambers
It was not my intention to criticize POVRay and the setup system. Sorry if you
think I'm just here to make annoying comments, this is false, it was just a
trick and a suggestion, nothing to make POVRay developers irritated about the
choices of Windows setup. For sure If I had time, I will build my own system
but I'm sure there are other users who will like a zip file instead of a setup
..exe.
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Rocco wrote:
> It was not my intention to criticize POVRay and the setup system. Sorry if you
> think I'm just here to make annoying comments, this is false, it was just a
> trick and a suggestion, nothing to make POVRay developers irritated about the
> choices of Windows setup.
Who called you annoying? I certainly don't think you are. I was merely
pointing out a pertinent fact.
> For sure If I had time, I will build my own system
> but I'm sure there are other users who will like a zip file instead of a setup
> ..exe.
AFAIK, the Windows version of POV-Ray expects files in certain
locations, and looks for values in the registry. These are exactly the
kinds of things that installers set up.
If you don't want to deal with such issues, then the generic CLI version
is easily distributed as a ZIP'd archive. Once the final sources are
available, compiling said version will be trivial.
--
Chambers
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>> In the meantime, I share a trick to install a Povray beta using the MSI
>> installer but place the Povray beta in the "c:\program files\" directory.
> It don't work if you are using Vista.
Other programs seem to manage.
> The change in the install directory under windows is because, under Vista,
> programms are NOT allowed to alter any file in the programm files folder.
> POV-Ray need to change one of it's .ini files.
Would it work if you just put the .ini file in the user space, and not the
whole program? A lot of other programs seem to keep their data in the user
space.
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scott wrote:
> Would it work if you just put the .ini file in the user space, and not
> the whole program?
You could either put the ini file under "all users" documents (aka
"public"), or you could copy it from ProgramFiles into Documents the first
time it was run by a given user, or (I don't know Vista's quirks, but maybe
worth a try) have the installer override the security ACL on the files in
ProgramFile it wants to write to, or store the ini files in \ProgramData.
That said, I suspect the problem is more that the people working on it
simply haven't taken the time to fix the incompatibilities and build a new
installer, more than it is they don't know what needs to be done. :-) But it
would seem that trying a new ACL would be an easy thing to test, at least.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Insanity is a small city on the western
border of the State of Mind.
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scott wrote:
>> The change in the install directory under windows is because, under
>> Vista, programms are NOT allowed to alter any file in the programm
>> files folder. POV-Ray need to change one of it's .ini files.
>
> Would it work if you just put the .ini file in the user space, and not
> the whole program? A lot of other programs seem to keep their data in
> the user space.
There's a bit of confusion of two issues here:
1. Administrator privileges are required to install POV-Ray under
"Program Files" in the first place. The option (currently default,
unfortunately) to install privately under "Documents" is just to
allow installation w/o administrator privileges.
2. Administrator privileges are required to modify files under
"Program Files". In order to run POV-Ray as a normal user, all
files which are modified during normal operation must reside
under documents. This concerns both INI files and scene files
(renders write output images, #write, photon maps, ...). This
has already been changed for 3.7 beta.
All you need to do is to select "Install for all Users" in the
installer to get an installation which works. Scenes and ini files
will reside under "Documents", POV-Ray under "Program Files".
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