I've downloaded a couple of .pov files and am trying to figure out the right way
to render them, but am having trouble understanding I/O on the command line.
After quite a bit of fumbling, I eventually use these two different command
lines for the two files:

povray +Icube.pov +H750 > cube.png
povray -D +Idice_usage_examples.pov +w384 +h216

For the first file, the rendered png image is sent to standard out, but for the
other it's sent automatically to a file with the same name as the input file
(ending in .png instead of .pov).

  1) Why the difference?  Is there some setting in one of the two .pov source
files that's governing this behavior that I haven't noticed?

For the latter file, some horrid ncurses stuff is instead sent to standard out
that gets my putty xterm session into quite the tizzy.  I eventually discovered
the -D option to disable this output and saving my xterm the death-throes.  But
again,

  2) Why am I geeting ncurses output in one case, but not the other?

I added the +H750 on the first line because the image otherwise seemed
unnaturally vertically squished.  Not sure why.  Perhaps it's just the nature of
the perspective chosen in that environment.  I guess I'm not too concerned with
that oddity right now.

Anyway, I'd like to understand what the heck I'm doing before I start changing
things.

I'd appreciate any light you can cast into the darkened room in which I
currently stumble.

Matt Busche

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