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

Post a reply to this message

> 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!!

Before you get disapointed about POV-Ray, you should browse the IRTC preview
cdrom at: 
http://www.povray.org/preview/irtc-cd3/stills/index.htm

Then you can take a look at my brief webpage at:
http://connect.to/666Mhz

After having done so, you will soon realize that POV-Ray is way beyond what
OpenGL can do...  Yet, POV-Ray is very slow, but like an artist it takes its
time for a marvelous masterpiece of art!

You can browse the povray.org website for Manual, FAQs, source code, etc...

I'm sure you will like what POV-Ray can offer you, but keep in mind that
programing in OpenGL is very different than programming in POV-Ray...

Hope this helps,
	Simon Lemieux

Post a reply to this message

> really blocky like I had a cheap video card. 

This is probably because you need to turn on the "antialiasing". If
your using the windows version there's a selection window at the top
on the left side where you can choose different resolution sizes for
your images. If it says something like 320x240, No AA switch to the
one that says 320x240, AA 0.3 and that should fix it(it might take
longer to render though).

The help file will tell you more about antialiasing and why the renders
take longer.

-- 
Phil
...coffee?...yes please! extra sugar,extra cream...Thank you.

Post a reply to this message

On Sat, 10 Jun 2000 00:14:42 -0700, 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?

Yes.

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

The manual should be included with the program. If it isn't, or if you
prefer PDF, you can get it from
http://www.povray.org/ftp/pub/povray/Official/Docs/


>  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. 

Apart from aliasing, which somebody already mentioned, another problem
could be that sPatch exports the object probably as a mass of triangles.
If the triangles are too large, or if they are not "smooth", you will
see the individual triangles in the pov render. You can probably control
the size of the triangles in sPatch.

	hp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | Nicht an Tueren mangelt es,
|_|_) | Sysadmin WSR       | sondern an der Einrichtung (aka Content).
| |   | hjp### [at] wsracat      |    -- Ale### [at] univieacat
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ |       zum Thema Portale in at.linux

Post a reply to this message