Wow! Respect! I don't know much about C or C++, but if I could find
someone who has the Windows compiler, shouldn't I then not be able to
compile a new EXE file? Or, William, can I ask you to do that? I am
willing to test that version right away, and give a feedback here with
text and images. It won't liquefy my laptop, so I am boldly offering to
use this new EXE.

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Am 23.12.2015 um 19:04 schrieb Sven Littkowski:
> Wow! Respect! I don't know much about C or C++, but if I could find
> someone who has the Windows compiler, shouldn't I then not be able to
> compile a new EXE file? Or, William, can I ask you to do that? I am
> willing to test that version right away, and give a feedback here with
> text and images. It won't liquefy my laptop, so I am boldly offering to
> use this new EXE.

As far as Windows is concerned (which I presume is what you are using),
the only build tool currently supported by the POV-Ray project is
Microsoft Visual Studio, with version VS 2010 being the primary
officially supported version at present, and VS 2015 being supported via
the VS 2010 project files by now. Versions in between have not been
extensively tested.

Microsoft provides a free edition of Visual Studio 2015 called Visual
Studio Community, which can be used within certain legal limitations
(building custom versions of POV-Ray should be fair game) and provides
everything you need to build POV-Ray straight out of the box.


Note however that when you modify the source code of POV-Ray, you do so
at your own risk.

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Am 23.12.2015 um 18:59 schrieb Sven Littkowski:
> Thanks. I send an answer already to the previous posting of yours
> (above). :-)
> 
> Is it possible to recalculate all blob values so I get the same size
> without scaling, rounded edges inclusive as seen in the blob?

I don't think that'll help you, but if you want to try, all you should
have to do is multiply all the blob elements' coordinates and radii with
the same constant factor.

Another thing you might try is changing the total strength of the blob,
by multiplying all the elements' strength values with a constant, and
also multiplying the blob's threshold parameter by that same value.

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Thanks, Clipka, for this information. I never used that software before.
If I get the POV programming source files, I wouldn't even know in which
folders to save them, and which ones to open directly with that VS. But
if I should succeed, I know that this is an unsupported version of
POV-Ray then.

I wonder, if it wouldn't be easier and faster, to get the exe file from
William, as it seems, he got the exe file already and it seems to work
without visible problems, so far. I really have no clue how to compile
with VS, not even what files to load into it. :-)

Just if William cannot do this, I would try to compile with VS. Would
even still need exact information, what files are to be changed and in
which way.

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Thanks, once more. :-)

Will try first to get the new POV-Ray exe, otherwise will try this.

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Thanks again for the hinto to the VSC. I am downloading and installing
it right now, but - wow - it is 19GB large!   :-S

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Thanks again for the hint about MS VSC. I am downloading and installing
it right now, but - wow - it is 19GB large! :-S

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Clipka,

I am about to download the programming files from
https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tree/3.7-stable

But there are many sub folders. Do I have to recreate each folder on my
Windows computer and download each file into each corresponding folder?

Also, seeing that the domain name contains the word "GIT" and MS VSC
offers an option to install some sort of GIT components, does it mean i
have to select that GIT installation option? I really have no
understanding in C++ and MS VSC, thus my asking.

I might also need instructive help to compile that EXE file based on
William#s changes.

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William, even David K. Buck and Chris Cason said (already in 2008) on
"Floss"
(https://www.twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/24?autostart=false),
50th minute of the interview, that POV-Ray contains in parts some very
ancient code.

I take your advise, and will try to compile a new EXE version based on
your change suggestions.

But I admit, I never used Visual Studio, nor C++. I hope I will get it
right.   :-)

If you could e-mail me the EXE file you was building, it would probably
much easier. I wouldn't even have to download 19 GB for the installation
of the free "Visual Studio Community"...

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Am 24.12.2015 um 15:51 schrieb Sven Littkowski:

> I am about to download the programming files from
> https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tree/3.7-stable
> 
> But there are many sub folders. Do I have to recreate each folder on my
> Windows computer and download each file into each corresponding folder?

Nope - fortunately not. You'd be an old man by the time you'd finish.

First, I'd strongly recommend using the latest and greatest version,
which is the "master" branch. The stable version wasn't designed to be
built with VS 2015, and might give you a lot of trouble along the way.
Full compatibility with VS 2015 has only been achieved a couple of weeks
ago.

The latest development version can be found on this page:
https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/tree/master

As for getting all the stuff on your computer, there's a "Download ZIP"
button, which will get you the complete source code (program,
documentation, library and all) as a zip archive; once on your machine,
you can just unzip it into any folder you like.


> Also, seeing that the domain name contains the word "GIT" and MS VSC
> offers an option to install some sort of GIT components, does it mean i
> have to select that GIT installation option? I really have no
> understanding in C++ and MS VSC, thus my asking.

Nope - for now you don't need to worry about that, especially since you
can install components later.

In case you're curious though: The "Git" in the domain name is indeed
the same as the "Git" in MS VS 2015, and is the name of the version
control tool we're using.

Version control is the concept of managing a bunch of related files and
their changes over time, most notably archiving old versions and keeping
track of which changes to different files belong together. A version
control system is often comprised of a more or less central archive
(often referred to as a repository) and a client software to submit or
retrieve particular versions of files to or from the archive.

GitHub is the company that hosts the POV-Ray project's primary
repository, and is one of the most popular companies providing publicly
accessible Git repositories.

The original Git client is a set of standalone Unix tools, but Windows
versions and graphical user interfaces are widely available by now, and
MS VS 2015 happens to have one built in (provided you install it), so
that you can easily sync changes without having to leave VS 2015.

That's how the name "Git" winds up both in the URL of the website at
which the POV-Ray source code is available, as well as in one of VS
2015's optional components.


> I might also need instructive help to compile that EXE file based on
> William#s changes.

That should be pretty easy, once you've made the changes suggested by
William, /plus/ a mandatory change required in all custom builds:

- Open the folder to which you've unzipped the POV-Ray source package.

- Navigate to the "source/base" subfolder, and open the file "build.h"
with a text editor. Modify the line reading "#define BUILT_BY ..." and
remove the next line reading "#error Please fill in BUILT_BY, then
remove this line".

Now you're ready to build:

- Navigate to the "windows/vs10" subfolder.
- Open the "povray.sln" file.

- Visual Studio 2015 should now open up, and may tell you something
about converting from an old version of Visual Studio; agree to that.

- Among the toolbars, there should be a dropdown box showing either
"Release", "Release-SSE2" or "Debug", and next to that another dropdown
box showing either "x64" or "Win32". Set these to "Release" and "x64" if
you have a 64-bit computer, or "Release-SSE2" and "Win32" if you have a
32-bit computer and know that it supports the SSE2 instruction set, or
"Release" and "Win32" otherwise.

- From the "Build" menu, select "Build Solution" (or just press
Ctrl-Shift-B).

- Visual Studio 2015 should now be busy for a couple of minutes, and
then report that the build was successful.

- From the "windows/vs10" folder, navigate to the "bin64" or "bin32"
subfolder; in there, you should find a file named "pvengine64.exe",
"pvengine32-sse2.exe" or "pvengine32.exe". Copy that file.

- Open the folder to which you had installed POV-Ray 3.7 (e.g.
"C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7").
- Navigate to the "bin" subfolder.
- Paste the previously copied file in the directory. As a name with the
same name already exists, Windows Explorer should prompt you whether you
want to overwrite it or rename the new file. I'd recommend renaming the
new file, or at least renaming the original file first.
- If you renamed the new file, create a shortcut to it somewhere you can
find it.


There - you should now be able to run a brand-new homebrew version of
POV-Ray.

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