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Hi all,
please excuse my ignorance. I am definately not a techie when
it comes to graphics and the such.
I've been looking at some of your pictures and I am getting quite
interested in POV-ray.
So please excuse my questions.
What is the purpose of POV-ray? Is it to get the best 3d image that you
can? Can you animate with POV-ray? How long would a typical picture take to
produce? Does it take long to learn the coding?
I run win 98, so can I do it on my machine?
Where do I start?
Many thanks. ~25ct~
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25ct <25c### [at] lineone net> wrote:
: So please excuse my questions.
You don't have to excuse yourself for asking questions. That's what this
newsgroup is for in the first place.
: What is the purpose of POV-ray?
To create raytraced images.
: Is it to get the best 3d image that you
: can?
Well, everyone tries to, but it may not be always very easy :)
: Can you animate with POV-ray?
Yes.
Note that povray is only the rendering core. It doesn't have any modeller
program in itself, so building a scene and an animation may seem pretty
tough for a beginner when you only have a scripting language.
You can either learn the scripting language (which is easier to use than
it seems at first glance) or you can use a 3rd party modeller program like
moray (http://www.stmuc.com/moray/).
: How long would a typical picture take to
: produce?
If you are talking about starting from scratch and modelling a scene, it
may take from some minutes to several months. It depends on the complexity
of the scene and how perfect you want it to be.
If you are talking about the rendering time, it varies from a few seconds
to several weeks. I'd say that the average rendering time for most simple
scenes is a couple of minutes.
: Does it take long to learn the coding?
If you know some programming language (like C, C++, Pascal, Basic...) it's
definitely easier, but you can learn even without knowing any programming
language. It shouldn't take too long to learn the basics.
: I run win 98, so can I do it on my machine?
Definitely.
: Where do I start?
Download and install povray. Learn the documentation that comes with it.
There's an excellent beginner tutorial at the beginning of the documentation.
You can also try moray to see if you like it more (usually beginners do).
--
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):_;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/
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25ct wrote:
> What is the purpose of POV-ray?
To have fun making 3D pictures, or programming a complex rendering application,
or programming POV scripts.
> Is it to get the best 3d image that you can?
You can try this if you want. It's a hobby tool so you're free to do what
pleases you with it. Many people don't try to get "real" images done and are
just happy doodling and experimenting with it, often discovering interesting
images, effects or techniques doing so.
> Can you animate with POV-ray?
Yes. It's possible to do fairly complex animations with POV-Ray. Note that this
requires first a good knowledge of POV.
> How long would a typical picture take to produce?
There's no such thing as a "typical picture". Depending on your mileage, your
free time and how fast is your computer, a "good" (meaning something you're
proud of) image can take only a few hours or several months to create (and some
additional hours, days or weeks to render). The Internet Raytracing Competition
(www.irtc.org) allows 2 months per round.
> Does it take long to learn the coding?
Some people have become proficient in a few months. Having some prior knowledge
of programming (BASIC level I'd say) surely helps. Mastering POV takes longer,
but that's true of every software, and you don't need to master everything to
use POV.
> I run win 98, so can I do it on my machine? Where do I start?
First go to www.povray.org, download the Windows version, read and re-read the
manual, run the demo files. Be sure to read the Very Frequently Asked Questions
(maintained by Warp) :
http://www.students.tut.fi/~warp/povVFAQ/
Have fun.
G.
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Many thanks Warp and Gilles Tran. I only subscribed to newusers in the
first place, so didn't realise povray.animations was there as well as
others, so i've subscribed to po.announce.faq, po.programming, and
po.windows.
I find the pictures fascinating. Some look very real, whilst others don't
look so real but the concept that goes with them is awe-inspiring! It seems
that you can do anything with Pov-ray. Imagination also seems to be the key.
I think that my particular interests would be along the lines of nature,
Super-Heroes, and probably space, although I should imagine that space has
been 'done' quite a lot as regards Sci-Fi.
Thanks again, and maybe in the near future, I could show you something of
mine.
~25ct~
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> i've subscribed to po.announce.faq, po.programming, and
> po.windows.
povray.programming has more to do with the source code that makes
up povray and not the scene description language used to make pictures.
So unless your interested in making modifications to povray the program,
that's probably not what your looking for. If you have questions
regarding
the scene description language that aren't answered or aren't clear in
the documentation, FAQ newsgroup or website tutorials then the
povray.newusers
group or povray.general are good places to find help from other users.
Also don't forget to subscribe to povray.binaries.images that's where
all kinds of cool pictures are being developed.
Welcome to the gang!
--
Phil
...coffee?...yes please! extra sugar,extra cream...Thank you.
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"Phil Clute" <pcl### [at] tiacnet> wrote in message
news:39911431.7097E2B0@tiac.net...
> > i've subscribed to po.announce.faq, po.programming, and
> > po.windows.
>
> povray.programming has more to do with the source code that makes
> up povray and not the scene description language used to make pictures.
> So unless your interested in making modifications to povray the program,
> that's probably not what your looking for. If you have questions
> regarding
> the scene description language that aren't answered or aren't clear in
> the documentation, FAQ newsgroup or website tutorials then the
> povray.newusers
> group or povray.general are good places to find help from other users.
>
> Also don't forget to subscribe to povray.binaries.images that's where
> all kinds of cool pictures are being developed.
>
> Welcome to the gang!
Thanks Phil. I understand now, so I will unsubscribe to that one.
I've now downloaded Pov-ray, and I am slowly picking my way through it.
It's not something that I am used to at all, but I can see that 3/5 years
down the line that people will become proficient at it, or less time maybe.
Having looked at the entrants to the competition, I am even more
interested in it. I usually mess around with PS 5, and come up with some
quite good pics, but this Pov-ray is a whole new ball game!
A couple of quick questions if I may, Phil. I have an error at the start
of the help section. All of the help is there, it's just that when I go to
the next stages, this error message always pops up, do I go back to the
Pov-ray website, and e-mail them about it?
Lastly, and this no slur on the team at Pov-ray,(I'm sure they do a great
job), do you think that the prizes for the competition could be up-graded so
as to attract more entrants? I'm just thinking that there are, say for
example, surfing competitions that pay out quite a lot of money to the
winner. It just seems that a lot of work goes into these images, ref: the
pearl harbour one, that must have taken ages.(It's brilliant as well!)
Just a thought.
~25ct~
> --
> Phil
> ...coffee?...yes please! extra sugar,extra cream...Thank you.
Yes please mate! Cream and two sugars. :o)
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25ct wrote:
>
[...]
> Lastly, and this no slur on the team at Pov-ray,(I'm sure they do a great
> job), do you think that the prizes for the competition could be up-graded so
> as to attract more entrants? I'm just thinking that there are, say for
> example, surfing competitions that pay out quite a lot of money to the
> winner. It just seems that a lot of work goes into these images, ref: the
> pearl harbour one, that must have taken ages.(It's brilliant as well!)
> Just a thought.
> ~25ct~
I think, it's good as it is now, because the competition should not be mainly
about winning but about taking part. Also more expensive prices would require
much more sponsoring.
You should probably not compare it to surfing competitions, because the IRTC is
neither a commercial competition (entry fees, preselection, ...) , nor does
raytracing require expensive material (well, thats only partly true of course
:-)
Christoph
--
Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
Homepage: http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/
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"Christoph Hormann" <Chr### [at] schunteretctu-bsde> wrote in
message news:39914DFA.99A99BB8@schunter.etc.tu-bs.de...
>
>
> 25ct wrote:
> >
> [...]
> > Lastly, and this no slur on the team at Pov-ray,(I'm sure they do a
great
> > job), do you think that the prizes for the competition could be
up-graded so
> > as to attract more entrants? I'm just thinking that there are, say for
> > example, surfing competitions that pay out quite a lot of money to the
> > winner. It just seems that a lot of work goes into these images, ref:
the
> > pearl harbour one, that must have taken ages.(It's brilliant as well!)
> > Just a thought.
> > ~25ct~
>
> I think, it's good as it is now, because the competition should not be
mainly
> about winning but about taking part. Also more expensive prices would
require
> much more sponsoring.
Yes, Christoph, I digress, I totally agree with you about the taking
part. It's just that being new to this, I am amazed to see that such a lot
of work goes into the images that my first thoughts were that the winners
'deserve' something good for their troubles, therefore my question. Ooooh
dear, I'm digging myself in deep here aren't I?
(Apologies Pov Team. :o)
>
> You should probably not compare it to surfing competitions, because the
IRTC is
> neither a commercial competition (entry fees, preselection, ...) , nor
does
> raytracing require expensive material (well, thats only partly true of
course
> :-)
>
> Christoph
Yes, you are quite right. I was wrong to compare the two.
I'm not doing very well as a newbie am I Christoph? :o)
All the best, ~25ct~ (Steve)
>
> --
> Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
> Homepage: http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/
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On Wed, 9 Aug 2000 14:19:40 +0100, 25ct wrote:
> Yes, Christoph, I digress, I totally agree with you about the taking
>part. It's just that being new to this, I am amazed to see that such a lot
>of work goes into the images that my first thoughts were that the winners
>'deserve' something good for their troubles, therefore my question. Ooooh
>dear, I'm digging myself in deep here aren't I?
> (Apologies Pov Team. :o)
No apologies needed (to me anyway; I'm not speaking for the team.) The IRTC
is not our project. Sales of the CDs do help pay for this server, though.
--
Ron Parker http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/traces.html
My opinions. Mine. Not anyone else's.
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On Wed, 9 Aug 2000 12:54:36 +0100, 25ct wrote:
>
> Thanks Phil. I understand now, so I will unsubscribe to that one.
> I've now downloaded Pov-ray, and I am slowly picking my way through it.
>It's not something that I am used to at all, but I can see that 3/5 years
>down the line that people will become proficient at it, or less time maybe.
> Having looked at the entrants to the competition, I am even more
>interested in it. I usually mess around with PS 5, and come up with some
>quite good pics, but this Pov-ray is a whole new ball game!
> A couple of quick questions if I may, Phil. I have an error at the start
>of the help section. All of the help is there, it's just that when I go to
>the next stages, this error message always pops up, do I go back to the
>Pov-ray website, and e-mail them about it?
> Lastly, and this no slur on the team at Pov-ray,(I'm sure they do a great
>job), do you think that the prizes for the competition could be up-graded so
>as to attract more entrants? I'm just thinking that there are, say for
>example, surfing competitions that pay out quite a lot of money to the
>winner. It just seems that a lot of work goes into these images, ref: the
>pearl harbour one, that must have taken ages.(It's brilliant as well!)
> Just a thought.
> ~25ct~
Have a look at old messages in povray.general, I think there's
something about error messages when opening the help file.
When I vote on the IRTC it takes me roughly 40 minutes to investigate,
consider and comment on a good image, some images only take 5 minutes,
but at say 40 minutes per image, at 100 images (about average), hey
that's 66 hours work. I read very slowly, and sometimes rerender the
images of entrants so that I can advise them on possible improvements
this can involve building macros and while loops where the entrant has
declared the same complicated object 100 times in their scene file
etc. Sometimes I need to go on the net to research the capabilities
of the renderer or tools that an entrant has used.
I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from entering the IRTC, but I also
wouldn't want to see a doubling of entrants per round, that'd lead to a
dilution in both the quality of the images entered and the quality of
the voting aswell.
--
Cheers
Steve email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet
%HAV-A-NICEDAY Error not enough coffee 0 pps.
web http://www.zeropps.uklinux.net/
or http://start.at/zero-pps
3:10pm up 25 days, 13:37, 2 users, load average: 1.65, 1.86, 1.99
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