I know the GUI will always open with POV, but is there a way to keep it from
coming to the front when I do a render using the "/RENDER" command-line
switch.  I'd like to be able to do rendering in the background without
having to alt-tab back into what I was doing.

Thanks,

Andrew Wilcox

Post a reply to this message

"Andrew Wilcox" <awi### [at] unpuzzledcom> wrote in message
news:3d32df0a$1@news.povray.org...
> I know the GUI will always open with POV, but is there a way to keep it
from
> coming to the front when I do a render using the "/RENDER" command-line
> switch.  I'd like to be able to do rendering in the background without
> having to alt-tab back into what I was doing.

Not sure this would be the exact answer for you but if you use the Minimize
to Tray button (or Alt+W) then right-click its icon you can choose a file to
render and POV-Ray remains minimized. Sorry, but that's the best I can tell
you.

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 09:45:40 -0500, "Andrew Wilcox"
<awi### [at] unpuzzledcom> wrote:

>I know the GUI will always open with POV, but is there a way to keep it from
>coming to the front when I do a render using the "/RENDER" command-line
>switch.  I'd like to be able to do rendering in the background without
>having to alt-tab back into what I was doing.

Try telling Windows to run POV-Ray minimized - from the properties of
pvengine.exe. You can do it for shortcuts, I think you can do it on
.exe's as well.


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] vipbg
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002 00:31:44 +0300, Peter Popov <pet### [at] vipbg> wrote:
> Try telling Windows to run POV-Ray minimized - from the properties of
> pvengine.exe. You can do it for shortcuts, I think you can do it on
> .exe's as well.

BTW. I tried to start pvengine via console START command and seems povray
forces its window to be always maximized. I have tried it also with /NR
option. Here is quote from my batch:

SET PACK_POV_RAY=pvengine.exe
START /LOW /WAIT /MIN %PACK_POV_RAY% /NR /RENDER %PACK_SETTINGS%   
  Output_File_Name="%PACK_DIR%\%PACK_OUTPUT%" All_File="%PACK_OUTPUT%" /EXIT

ABX

Post a reply to this message

> BTW. I tried to start pvengine via console START command and seems povray
> forces its window to be always maximized. I have tried it also with /NR
> option. Here is quote from my batch:
>
> SET PACK_POV_RAY=pvengine.exe
> START /LOW /WAIT /MIN %PACK_POV_RAY% /NR /RENDER %PACK_SETTINGS%
>   Output_File_Name="%PACK_DIR%\%PACK_OUTPUT%" All_File="%PACK_OUTPUT%"
/EXIT
>
> ABX

Thanks, this works.

I'm running it from a Java program so I had do to...

cmd /c start /low /wait /min pvengine.exe /nr /render etc...

Now if there were only a way to keep the splash screen from showing each
time.

I'm very close to having a system where I can send render jobs home from
work, so they'll be ready when I get home, but I don't want to annoy any
users that might be on my home machine at the time (i.e. my wife or
daughter). Assuming I don't kill the processor...

Thanks.

Andrew

Post a reply to this message

In article <3d343d2e@news.povray.org> , "Andrew Wilcox" 
<awi### [at] unpuzzledcom> wrote:

> Now if there were only a way to keep the splash screen from showing each
> time.

That is required such that nobody may obscure the fact that the user is
running POV-Ray.

    Thorsten

Post a reply to this message

I agree that POV-Ray shouldn't be used in the background of some other
application without people knowing that POV-Ray is actually doing the real
work.  I bet the Unix/Linux version doesn't have a splash screen though.
And if someone was unscrupluous enough to try and pass POV-Ray off as their
own work, they could always recompile the sources without those things, but
people would eventually find out what they had done.

Actually, I wouldn't mind the splash screen on startup, if POV would stay in
the backround after that, and not hop to the front for each render, but with
the "start /min /low... /exit" solution, a splash screen comes up for each
and every frame of an animation.  Very annoying, IMHO.

Andrew


> > Now if there were only a way to keep the splash screen from showing each
> > time.
>
> That is required such that nobody may obscure the fact that the user is
> running POV-Ray.
>
>     Thorsten

Post a reply to this message

I just read through the POV-Ray license agreement again, and I understand
completely how the POV team doesn't want people using their hard work for
commercial gain.  POV has been my ray-tracer of choice for nearly 10 years,
and I want you guys to have all the credit you deserve for such a great
piece of software.

I could even understand an argument for wanting the POV-Ray window to come
to the front for each /RENDER so that it's obvious who is doing the work,
but how about a compromise?  The POV-Ray window could open, but not force
itself on top.  Then if POV is running in the background it's still obvious
at some point that it is being used, but it's not hampering what's currently
being done by the user?

Ideas?

Andrew

Post a reply to this message

> Actually, I wouldn't mind the splash screen on startup, if POV would stay in
> the backround after that, and not hop to the front for each render, but with

How many other windows applications can you count that don't get the focus when
they start ? I can't think of any, the exceptions being services or other non-
user-oriented things such as tray applets.

> the "start /min /low... /exit" solution, a splash screen comes up for each
> and every frame of an animation.  Very annoying, IMHO.

Why are you running a separate instance of the program for each frame of the
animation ?

-- Chris

Post a reply to this message

> BTW. I tried to start pvengine via console START command and seems povray
> forces its window to be always maximized. I have tried it also with /NR
> option. Here is quote from my batch:

Are you sure you mean maximized ? That means it fills the entire screen.
I don't see how or why that should happen (unless of course you last ran
it maximized ... it will of course remember that fact, which is what it
is supposed to do).

It also used to remember if it was minimized, but that feature was taken
out due to user complaints.

> I have tried it also with /NR option

As the docs say, /NR simply tells the editor to not restore edit sessions.
It has nothing to do with the other settings (such as windows size).

-- Chris

Post a reply to this message