POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : A beginner's first questions! Server Time
9 Aug 2024 19:41:37 EDT (-0400)
  A beginner's first questions! (Message 1 to 4 of 4)  
From: ErI
Subject: A beginner's first questions!
Date: 10 Jun 2000 00:15:40
Message: <3941c0ec$1@news.povray.org>
First off I'd like to say hello to everybody.  Now for the questions....

1.  Is POV-Raytracer like C++ and Visual Basic in regards to it having it's
"own" programming language?

2.  If so how can I learn to "program" POV?
     ( I can't find any literature on the language itself)

  I created a wireframe object using sPatch and previewed it with sPatch's
OpenGL preview renderer.  It looked great!  Then I exported it into .pov!  I
then rendered it with POV and it looked horrible.  The OpenGL render was
smooth and was appealing to the eye, but in POV it looked like it was
rendered in 2 bit!!!  really blocky like I had a cheap video card.  The
OpenGL render looked really smooth and professional.  I don't want to give
up on POV just yet because I've seen what others have done with POV and I
was very impressed!!!  Please help!!! Also if someone decides to help but
you need more than a posting will allow you could email me if it isn't too
much trouble!!  My email address is fre### [at] fusenet!!  Any and all
help would greatly be appreciated!!

Sincerely,
Ed


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From: Mr  Art
Subject: Re: A beginner's first questions!
Date: 10 Jun 2000 05:45:17
Message: <39420DC0.5B5BC073@gci.net>
When you export a model to povray, the resulting file
contains triangle information of one sort or another.
With only a few triangles, the resulting render will not bear
too much resemblance to the smooth, non triangle version
of the modeller. There are a few ways to get better results
from using modelers and I am sure that someone here knows
more than I do and will help in that department.

As for POV having its own language, well, yes it does,
sort of. It grew out of the need to have a way to
describe object, positions, colors, textures and
such. I like to say that the language is object-based,
but I know that the programers in these groups would 
have a fit if I said that too much. This object-based
mind set lets me think of each scene as being made up
of well defined objects that I have described and that I
can position as I see fit. These include the lights, 
the camera, the parts of the scene, even the 'air'
that it all takes place in.

The best way to learn the language that I know of is to
start with the documents that come with the official
release. Also look at other peoples code. There are
plenty of examples to be found in povray.text.scene-files
here on this server. As each person has their own favorite 
was of spacing and indenting their code, edit the code until
it is easy for you to read and understand what they are 
trying to do. 

As I am sure that more people will share more that I know
to, I am shutting up now.

Mr. Art


ErI wrote:
> 
> First off I'd like to say hello to everybody.  Now for the questions....
> 
> 1.  Is POV-Raytracer like C++ and Visual Basic in regards to it having it's
> "own" programming language?
> 
> 2.  If so how can I learn to "program" POV?
>      ( I can't find any literature on the language itself)
> 
>   I created a wireframe object using sPatch and previewed it with sPatch's
> OpenGL preview renderer.  It looked great!  Then I exported it into .pov!  I
> then rendered it with POV and it looked horrible.  The OpenGL render was
> smooth and was appealing to the eye, but in POV it looked like it was
> rendered in 2 bit!!!  really blocky like I had a cheap video card.  The
> OpenGL render looked really smooth and professional.  I don't want to give
> up on POV just yet because I've seen what others have done with POV and I
> was very impressed!!!  Please help!!! Also if someone decides to help but
> you need more than a posting will allow you could email me if it isn't too
> much trouble!!  My email address is fre### [at] fusenet!!  Any and all
> help would greatly be appreciated!!
> 
> Sincerely,
> Ed


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From: Doug Eichenberg
Subject: Re: A beginner's first questions!
Date: 10 Jun 2000 12:48:09
Message: <39427149$1@news.povray.org>
Goto ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/Official/Docs/ to get the documentation
on POV and read through it.  It has examples that explain everything.

-Doug Eichenberg


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From: Alan Kong
Subject: Re: A beginner's first questions!
Date: 10 Jun 2000 21:14:45
Message: <dup5ksc498fj00f9ikkqo07ro2l1d85h6s@4ax.com>
On Sat, 10 Jun 2000 00:17:02 -0700 "ErI" <fre### [at] fusenet> wrote:

>2.  If so how can I learn to "program" POV?
>     ( I can't find any literature on the language itself)

  Hi, ErI. Since you are using sPatch I will assume that you are using
POV-Ray for Windows v3.1g. If not, please indicate which version of
POV-Ray (v3.1g is the current version) and on what platform you are
using it with. The official version comes with a Windows Help file that
includes documentation on the POV-Ray Scene Description Language,
tutorials, and example scenes (code). This should be your first resource
to learning how to create scenes.

  All follow-ups to this thread should go to povray.newuser, please.

-- 
Alan - ako### [at] povrayorg - a k o n g <at> p o v r a y <dot> o r g
http://www.povray.org - Home of the Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer


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