ET wrote in message <370E8137.64CCE6A8@primus.com.au>...
>
>Povray is obviously great - but why on earth save files in a manner not
>consistent with this era?

By default, your files get saved as BMP because BMP is the native format of
the Windows OS - you can always view a BMP in Windows. The other formats
require second-party viewers which you may or may not have. PNG is certainly
a contemporary format, and better than JPEG in that its compression is
lossless. Quality loss in a JPEG image is difficult to predict, so it's not
smart to save your renders as JPEG directly.

>The povray help files are very detailed - but not simple or exampled
>enough for a non tech person. Only a novice could identify this. Is it a
>crime to criticise this fault - I think not.
>
>But back to the original question....
>wanting to know how to save your files is obviously going to be the most
>asked question - yet it is not answered simply and directly anywhere
>that I have seen.
>Nor, in my opinion, was it adequately answered in your faq's - that's
>why I felt a should jump in.
>


Define "adequately explained". When it comes to the simplicity of tutorials
and help files, a line has to be drawn somewhere. Now, in my opinion POV's
help is certainly above average in quality. The file output options _are_
explained. I feel that it's not the part of POV to explain the meaning of
file paths, the various image file formats etc. There are other, more
suitable places for this.
As for the various raytracing terms - yes, they are difficult to understand
at first, especially for a non-native English speaker, like myself. Again,
some are so general that it's not the part of POV to give an in-depth
explanation. Other are specific to POV, and are the subject of vigorous
discussion here among both new users and not-so-new users. The rule of thumb
is to read the manual, look at the example files, test, test, test, and if
necessary, ask. I quarantee you, your questions will not be blatantly
ignored.

Margus

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