Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I've generated a v3.62 RC1 POVWIN and new installer. I'd appreciate it if
> some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
>
>   http://www.povray.org/temp/POVWin-v3.62-RC1.msi
>
> Note: on Vista systems, the files will be installed by default to your
> local profile. On XP and earlier, the default remains Program Files.
>
> -- Chris

"StephenS" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> ....
> > I'd appreciate it if
> > some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
> ....
> Installed and ran without issue, WinXP sp3 media center edition.
>
> Looking through the changes I see the new +ac/Antialias_Clipped option,
> interesting :-)
>
> Stephen S

Apparantly "+AC" is on by default....(?)

.... this is new to me, it is apparantly not covered in the help file that was
distributed with POV-Ray 3.6.2 for Windows.

The help file needs to be updated for 3.6.2

What is "Antialias_Clipped"?

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"JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> ALSO....
>
> I just rendered one scene from Advanced to get started... Sounds are apparantly
> NOT working. I just rendered "biscuit.pov" from \advanced, no sound when done.
> I double checked Render -> Sound settings.

Nevermind...

I figured out how to get 3.6.2 re-pointed to the proper place to play the
sounds.

Problem was:
The 3.6.2 installer, by default, sets some paths to users ... AppData ...
roaming ... (etcetera); and I installed to C:\POV-Ray (forced during the
install), but the installer does not take that into account. Fixed within
POV-Ray by invoking the Render menu -> Sounds -> and re-pointing to the actual
WAV locations in C:\POV-Ray.

Also... fixed the Help File problem by copying the C:\POV-Ray\help directory
(and contents) into Users\(ID)\AppData\Roaming\POV-Ray\v3.6\

Its looking like I should have just installed to the default directory that the
3.6.2 installer wanted to install to in the first place? Is that right? And to
avoid the Vista versus INI Files in Program Files problem, the installer places
INIs and INCLUDES (etc) into \Documents?

I am just going to uninstall / reinstall I think.

Post a reply to this message

"JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> > Folks,
> >
> > I've generated a v3.62 RC1 POVWIN and new installer. I'd appreciate it if
> > some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
> >
> >   http://www.povray.org/temp/POVWin-v3.62-RC1.msi
> >
> > Note: on Vista systems, the files will be installed by default to your
> > local profile. On XP and earlier, the default remains Program Files.
> >
> > -- Chris
>
> "StephenS" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> > ....
> > > I'd appreciate it if
> > > some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
> > ....
> > Installed and ran without issue, WinXP sp3 media center edition.
> >
> > Looking through the changes I see the new +ac/Antialias_Clipped option,
> > interesting :-)
> >
> > Stephen S
>
> Apparantly "+AC" is on by default....(?)
>
> .... this is new to me, it is apparantly not covered in the help file that was
> distributed with POV-Ray 3.6.2 for Windows.
>
> The help file needs to be updated for 3.6.2
>
> What is "Antialias_Clipped"?

In revison.txt for 3.6.2:
Change 4387 on 2007/04/13 by chormann@chho

  [docs] adding documentation for the +ac/Antialias_Clipped option

I cannot find this anywhere.

Post a reply to this message

Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I've generated a v3.62 RC1 POVWIN and new installer. I'd appreciate it if
> some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
>
>   http://www.povray.org/temp/POVWin-v3.62-RC1.msi
>
> Note: on Vista systems, the files will be installed by default to your
> local profile. On XP and earlier, the default remains Program Files.
>
> -- Chris

Okay... SINCERELY SORRY about the "static" that I posted over the past couple of
hours... it was due to a knee-jerk reaction to differences between 3.6.1 and
3.6.2 installations under Vista.

I have re-installed into the *default* directory as suggested by the installer
(C:\Users ... AppData ... Roaming ... Confusing_Vista_Path_Stuff ... etcetera).

Everything is working fine. I can live with those critical files being in
D:\Documents. If this is the way that 3.7 is going to work (thanks to Microsoft
& Vista) thats OK I will get used to it (you have to remember that I am a
semi-senile old fart that built his first computer in 1978, and still sort of
misses DOS... actually I HAVE a legacy DOS 6.22 machine in the corner, that I
power up from time to time...).

One issue left; Documentation for 3.6.2 appears to need updating.

Antialias_Clipped is not covered in the documentation (revision.txt says that
the documentation WAS changed, but searching the CHM file I cannot find +ac,
+AC, or Antialias_Clipped). Would appreciate an explanation, I can't even guess
what "CLIPPING" is in relation to antialiasing...


Things like...
"Change 4428 on 2007/04/25 by calimet@lavender"
"photons change 3379"
(is this an "under the hood fix", or has photons changed to an extent that there
is something that users need to know?)

.... and possibly other things.

Post a reply to this message

Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I've generated a v3.62 RC1 POVWIN and new installer. I'd appreciate it if
> some of you could test it as the installer in particular is a re-write.
>
>   http://www.povray.org/temp/POVWin-v3.62-RC1.msi
>
> Note: on Vista systems, the files will be installed by default to your
> local profile. On XP and earlier, the default remains Program Files.
>
> -- Chris

POVRay 3.6.2, installed under WinVista Home Premium 64 bit;

For Options -> Editor Window -> Create Backups; I could not disable this by
clicking (changing from Checked to UnChecked). I had to use regedit.exe to hack
it.

.... might be an issue that will occur with 3.7, if not fixed.

Post a reply to this message

"JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> (1)(b) I thought I would try setting a "compatibility mode" for the desktop
> shortcut (I did that with 3.6.1, it *might have* solved a couple of problems
> under Vista back in 2007, but this is unverified) but the compatibility mode
> settings for the shortcut are greyed out / un-set-able with 3.6.2 for some
> reason.

Heh, no surprise here: The main reason for releasing 3.6.2 was to provide a
fully Vista compatible version of POV-Ray 3.6 :D

So being installed as a "native Vista" binary on Vista systems, why should the
OS offer any compatibility options? :P

Post a reply to this message

"JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Antialias_Clipped is not covered in the documentation (revision.txt says that
> the documentation WAS changed, but searching the CHM file I cannot find +ac,
> +AC, or Antialias_Clipped). Would appreciate an explanation, I can't even guess
> what "CLIPPING" is in relation to antialiasing...

FYI: This refers to the clipping of overly-bright colors to the displayable
range (0.0 to 1.0 in POV-Ray terms, or 0..255 in 8-bit RGB terms).

With anti-aliasing active, "prehistoric" versions of POV-Ray clipped such colors
on a *per-ray* basis, instead of the resulting pixel value. This seems to have
been changed in the course of introduction of proper gamma handling, so that
POV-Ray 3.6.1 clipped the colors on a per-pixel basis; note that this has the
same effect as generating HDR output, and converting the image to 8-bit in a
post-processing step.

However, in some situations - especially with extremely-overly-bright objects in
the scene - this approach may seem to give inferior results, which may be the
reason why it was re-introduced later (as an option) in 2007 (but never
released before; interestingly, it has also never been re-introduced to 3.7).

However, I think it was an oversight to include the 2007 change into 3.6.2
without at least changing the default to "off", as this has been the standard
for years now.

As already mentioned, POV-Ray 3.7 also invariably uses per-pixel clipping
(unless HDR output is used of course, in which no clipping is performed at
all).

Post a reply to this message

"JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> POVRay 3.6.2, installed under WinVista Home Premium 64 bit;
>
> For Options -> Editor Window -> Create Backups; I could not disable this by
> clicking (changing from Checked to UnChecked). I had to use regedit.exe to hack
> it.

Just for additional info: Works fine under Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

Post a reply to this message

"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > (1)(b) I thought I would try setting a "compatibility mode" for the desktop
> > shortcut (I did that with 3.6.1, it *might have* solved a couple of problems
> > under Vista back in 2007, but this is unverified) but the compatibility mode
> > settings for the shortcut are greyed out / un-set-able with 3.6.2 for some
> > reason.
>
> Heh, no surprise here: The main reason for releasing 3.6.2 was to provide a
> fully Vista compatible version of POV-Ray 3.6 :D
>
> So being installed as a "native Vista" binary on Vista systems, why should the
> OS offer any compatibility options? :P

Clipka;

Thanks much for your reply.... that makes sense. I've been playing with 3.6.2
all day, and now I have rendered many of the \scenes and some of the \portfolio
files... 3.6.2 seems to be working OK, except for a few very minor quirks.

Post a reply to this message

"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "JeffBTX" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > Antialias_Clipped is not covered in the documentation (revision.txt says that
> > the documentation WAS changed, but searching the CHM file I cannot find +ac,
> > +AC, or Antialias_Clipped). Would appreciate an explanation, I can't even guess
> > what "CLIPPING" is in relation to antialiasing...
>
> FYI: This refers to the clipping of overly-bright colors to the displayable
> range (0.0 to 1.0 in POV-Ray terms, or 0..255 in 8-bit RGB terms).
>
> With anti-aliasing active, "prehistoric" versions of POV-Ray clipped such colors
> on a *per-ray* basis, instead of the resulting pixel value. This seems to have
> been changed in the course of introduction of proper gamma handling, so that
> POV-Ray 3.6.1 clipped the colors on a per-pixel basis; note that this has the
> same effect as generating HDR output, and converting the image to 8-bit in a
> post-processing step.
>
> However, in some situations - especially with extremely-overly-bright objects in
> the scene - this approach may seem to give inferior results, which may be the
> reason why it was re-introduced later (as an option) in 2007 (but never
> released before; interestingly, it has also never been re-introduced to 3.7).
>
> However, I think it was an oversight to include the 2007 change into 3.6.2
> without at least changing the default to "off", as this has been the standard
> for years now.
>
> As already mentioned, POV-Ray 3.7 also invariably uses per-pixel clipping
> (unless HDR output is used of course, in which no clipping is performed at
> all).

.... then it sounds like something "not- to- worry- about", for someone
transitioning from 3.6.1 to 3.6.2 (I think...)

.... thanks for your reply Clipka.

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