Are you using the Windows Version?

If so, you can set up animations using the clock variable, and you can also
call an EXE during an animation loop.



Lukee wrote:

> Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel POVRay would strongly need some
> kind of "render" statement. Let me explain: with version 3.1, POV has
>
> achieved the status of a nearly complete programming language. It has
>
> its own cyles, conditional tests, macros etc. BUT we still have to make
>
> animations by the quite primitive mathod of calling the program
> repeatedly with different arguments: this means re-parsing every time
>
> and no chance of doing a complex animation. I know, now POV can read and
>
> write files, but using them to store temporary variable values seems to
>
> me a bit dumb. What we really need is a siple "render" statement. e.g
>
> #declare a_cross = union {
>
>                         cylinder { <-1.5,0,0>, <1.5,0,0>, 0.3}
>
>                         cylinder { <0,1.5,0>, <0,-1.5,0>, 0.3}
>
>                    }
>
> #macro DrawCross (rot,trans, colr)
>
>         object {a_cross
>
>                 texture {pigment {color rgb colr}}
>
>                 rotate rot translate trans
>
>         }
>
> #end
>
> #declare cycles=0;
>
> #while (cycles<36)
>
>         DrawCross(<0,cycles*10,0>,<0,0,0>,<0,.8,.2>)
>
>         #declare cycles=cycles+1;
>
>         render <sort of a numbered-filename>//<- THIS IS THE NEW DIRECTIVE!
>
> #end
>
> The above code would render to a different file every time it comes upon
>
> the "render" directive (36 times) from WITHIN the cycle, rather than at
>
> the end of the complete parsing, thus outputting an animation. This way,
> we could avoid working outside the POV program with limited .INI files
> to achieve any kind of animation, at any level of complexity: particle
> systems, mesh distortion/morphing ecc. POV would become the most
> flexible 3D system in the world.
>
> Am I wrong?
>
> Could this be implemented via a patch (I don't think I have the skill to
>
> do that)?
>
> Please tell me your opinion!
>
> Luca Rivelli <luk### [at] usanet>

--
Bryan Valencia
Software Services
http://www.209software.com
mailto:bry### [at] 209softwarecom

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