I was comparing the trace times of 2 similar scenes when I came across this
problem with povray's trace timer.

Using this commandline:
\dos\povray\povray +iTIMER +w160 +h120 +p +d

with this remnant of the original scenes:
// Complete TIMER.POV file
camera{ location -100*z angle 40 look_at 0 }
light_source { <100,70,-600> color rgb 1 }
background{ rgb 0.5 }
// eof

the completed trace is displayed and statistics then show that the timer
keeps running most times until a key is pressed. Also <time for parse> is
not always shown.

It is OK at 320*200 up, or with other scenes I've tried. I've not had time
to play further.

I'm using DOS povray 3.1d, Win98SE and Celery 500.
No change booting to DOS instead of W98 DOS prompt, or using default
povray.ini


Alf

http://www.peake42.freeserve.co.uk
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Alf_Peake/

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Alf Peake <alf### [at] peake42freeservecouk> wrote:
: Also <time for parse> is not always shown.

  I think that when <time for parse> is 0 seconds, then it's not shown.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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On 21 Nov 1999 14:52:48 -0500, Nieminen Juha
<war### [at] punarastascstutfi> wrote:

>Alf Peake <alf### [at] peake42freeservecouk> wrote:
>: Also <time for parse> is not always shown.
>
>  I think that when <time for parse> is 0 seconds, then it's not shown.

Can you confirm this? Do you have access to a DOS box? Is it a bug and
if yes, is it documented?


Peter Popov
ICQ: 15002700

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Alf Peake <alf### [at] peake42freeservecouk> wrote:
>: Also <time for parse> is not always shown.

Nieminen Juha wrote:
>  I think that when <time for parse> is 0 seconds, then it's not shown.

Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
> Can you confirm this? Do you have access to a DOS box? Is it a bug and
> if yes, is it documented?

Yes, if the scene requires very little parsing then only the render time
is shown.  In fact, if the scene requires less than a second of
rendering then this isn't shown either!   For animations, however, this
seems to be taken into account fine when calculating the average parsing
and rendering speed, and I wouldn't say I think of this as 'buggy'
behaviour myself.

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On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 09:54:54 +1000, "Chris Colefax"
<cco### [at] geocitiescom> wrote:

>Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
>> Can you confirm this? Do you have access to a DOS box? Is it a bug and
>> if yes, is it documented?
>
>Yes, if the scene requires very little parsing then only the render time
>is shown.  In fact, if the scene requires less than a second of
>rendering then this isn't shown either!   For animations, however, this
>seems to be taken into account fine when calculating the average parsing
>and rendering speed, and I wouldn't say I think of this as 'buggy'
>behaviour myself.

Thanks, Chris. I am glad it's actually a well-thought feature rather
than a bug. It makes sense, too.


Peter Popov
ICQ: 15002700

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Sorry if I did not make it very clear what I was getting.
I would only consider I had a problem if I needed to use the <time for
parse/trace> data (which I was doing). I have no problems with the trace
itself.
Using TIMER.POV and command line both as shown in my first post, in DOS you
get a normal render full-screen preview completed within 1 second, then pov
waits for you to hit a key. So you wait around 15 secs for this demo then
hit one. Screen clears and you get the statistics screen which I've dumped
to the attached text file. Notice the trace time? Timer only stops when you
hit the key, not when the trace stops.

Murphy's law says I can't get a dump with the missing <time for parse> :(

Later...

Just tried this on another PC with Pov v3.1d for dos - a Pentium 166
non-MMX, Win95a, booting to dos, and W95a dos prompt. Same problem exists.

Alf

http://www.peake42.freeserve.co.uk
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Alf_Peake/


  Chris Colefax <cco### [at] geocitiescom> wrote in message
news:38388440@news.povray.org...
> Alf Peake <alf### [at] peake42freeservecouk> wrote:
> >: Also <time for parse> is not always shown.
>
> Nieminen Juha wrote:
> >  I think that when <time for parse> is 0 seconds, then it's not shown.
>
> Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
> > Can you confirm this? Do you have access to a DOS box? Is it a bug and
> > if yes, is it documented?
>
> Yes, if the scene requires very little parsing then only the render time
> is shown.  In fact, if the scene requires less than a second of
> rendering then this isn't shown either!   For animations, however, this
> seems to be taken into account fine when calculating the average parsing
> and rendering speed, and I wouldn't say I think of this as 'buggy'
> behaviour myself.
>
>

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Attachments:
Download 'scrndump.txt.dat' (3 KB)

Alf,

if indeed the timer does not stop until a key is pressed, even after
the trace is finished, then this looks like a bug. I do not have the
MS-DOS version so will you please try it on several different files /
resolutions and if you can confirm it is indeed a bug, post a bug
report. Thank you in advance.


Peter Popov
ICQ: 15002700

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[...after a quick, rather non-systematic test]
Happens too under MS-DOS 6.20.
Couldn't get the parse time to disappear, though.

--
Gerald
ger### [at] aonat

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On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:48:23 -0000, "Alf Peake"
<alf### [at] peake42freeservecouk> wrote:

>Screen clears and you get the statistics screen which I've dumped
>to the attached text file.

  Hi, Alf. You can paste those stats into the body of your message to
avoid using attachments. Much appreciated, thanks.

-- 
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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Peter,

Problem seems related to camera+resolution.
I've used 160*120 as one of my regular resolutions since Pov 2.1
and feel certain I would have noticed this before if it was a regular
occurence.
I'll play with it a bit more.
Alf

http://www.peake42.freeserve.co.uk
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Alf_Peake/



Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote in message
news:pdE5OBr2YbS03sX9n4nW+EMt=FzP@4ax.com...
> Alf,
>
> if indeed the timer does not stop until a key is pressed, even after
> the trace is finished, then this looks like a bug. I do not have the
> MS-DOS version so will you please try it on several different files /
> resolutions and if you can confirm it is indeed a bug, post a bug
> report. Thank you in advance.
>
>
> Peter Popov
> ICQ: 15002700

Post a reply to this message