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On Fri, 1 May 1998 08:06:04 -0700, "Mike Weber"
<mwe### [at] racal-pelagos comx> wrote:
>In other words, I can do it by reading the .inc file I downloaded and follow
>the texture definition as I create it in Moray's TE. Is that correct?
Yup, but also, if you've got more than one, it could pay time, to
check into a little shareware proggi, the rest of this message is its
readme file, it is NOT (bloody shame) supporting POV3 features:
---------------------------------------------
June/97
P O V 2 M D L
Version 1.7
POV-Ray 2.x to MORAY 2.x Converter
by Thomas Baier
Version 1.0 and later of POV2MDL are Shareware.
Note that this program is fully functional.
What POV2MDL does
POV2MDL converts scene files from POV-Ray's POV to MORAY's MDL
format.
Introduction
POV-Ray certainly belongs to the best raytracers and is freely
available. The voluminous script language makes the realization
of
complex scenes with high image quality possible. Soon after the
release of POV-Ray there were modelers available, which
supported
graphical design of scenes. Certainly one of the first modeler
is MORAY. For a lot of people it is one of the best POV-Ray
modelers.
Soon there was a request for a converter from POV-Ray to MORAY
which
would allow importing older, manually designed scenes.
This is where the idea of POV2MDL was born. The program reads a
POV-Ray
scene file and converts it to the MDL format of MORAY.
What do you need
minimum 386 Compatible PC
DOS 3.3 or higher
Windows 3.x or higher (Dos-Box)
OS/2 2.x or higher (Dos-Box)
POV-Ray Ver 2.0/2.2 (optional)
MORAY Ver 2.x
Copy the shipped files to a directory of your choice. Make sure
that the program DOS4GW.EXE is available via the PATH variable.
The DOS Extender is needed by POV2MDL and MORAY. Please use
version 1.95 or higher.
Files produced by POV2MDL
POV2MDL generates a MDL file, which can be read by MORAY V2.x.
Additionally a LOG file will be generated which contains
warnings
that might be issued during conversion.
Running POV2MDL
POV2MDL expects a filename as parameter in the commandline. The
file should be a POV-Ray scene file in ASCII format.
e.g.
POV2MDL colors.pov
After successful read (syntax errors abort conversion) the MDL
file will have been generated in the same directory (e.g.
colors.mdl). Additionally a LOG file (e.g. colors.log) will
exist
which contains possibly issued warnings.
For importing textures only into moray 2.0 there is a command
line
option: -t
e.g.
POV2MDL -t colors.pov
Only textures (used and not used) are converted.
Attention: some texture definitions are not ready for
converting
with POV2MDL:
e.g.
#declare Jade = pigment { ..... }
POV2MDL converts only complete texture definitions. In this
case
you have to complete the definition with a texture statement:
e.g.
#declare Jade_Txt = texture { pigment { Jade } }
POV-Ray Search paths
The environment variable "POV_INC" contains additional
searchpaths
for include files.
set pov_inc=c:\povray;d:\MORAY\scenes
If an include file is not found during parsing, the conversion
will
still be continued. Any declarations in the include file will
be
not be available.
What is supported
First of all not every object known to POV-Ray or MORAY is
supported.
Supported Objects:
Box
Sphere
Cone
Cylinder
Light_source
CSG
Heightfield
Bicubic_Patch
Torus
Plane
Disc
Object
Blob
Texture
Camera
Bounding and clipping is not supported.
The parser supports only POV-Ray 2.x syntax. POV-Ray 1.0 and
POV-Ray 3.0 syntax is not supported. The exact syntax is
described
in POVRAY.DOC.
The keyword "version" is totally ignored.
All other objects and features of POV-Ray are ignored.
If there is an object that is not convertable by POV2MDL, a
short
message will be written to the LOG file.
Converting
The transformations are a special topic during conversion. The
syntax of POV-Ray accepts transformations (scale, rotate and
translate) at several locations and in several orders. MORAY on
the other hand accepts object and texture transformations only
in a strict order (scale, rotate and then translate). This
leads
to some strangs effects after conversion.
The surprise appears if a scale <a,b,c> follows a rotation. The
conversion to the sequence scale, rotate, translate can not be
made complete. The result in MORAY will not be what you
expected.
An additional shear vector would be helpful but is not yet
implemented in POV-Ray or MORAY. If POV2MDL recognizes such a
construct the message "Warning: Inaccurate Matrix Operation
(Shear Vector) in Object xxx !" will be written to the LOG
file.
The problem does not appear when the scaling vector is of the
form <a,a,a> (equal to 'scale a').
Some hints
If you have problems converting a scene, try to render the
scene with
POV-Ray. If POV-Ray has problems, the chances are that POV2MDL
will
have them, too.
If you have problems with memory try this:
put these 10 lines in to a file named new4g.vmc ...
!.VMC file DOS4GW.EXE
!This file shows the parameter values.
minmem = 1024 At least 1024K bytes of RAM is
required.
maxmem = 8192 Uses no more than 8MB of phys. RAM
!virtualsize = 32768 Swap file plus allocated memory is
32MB
virtualsize = 16384 Swap file plus allocated memory is
16MB
!To delete the swap file automatically when the program exits,
add
deleteswap
!To store the swap file in a directory called SWAPFILE, add
!swapname = c:\swapfile\dos4gvm.swp
and write on the dos - command - line:
set dos4gvm=@<path_where_new4g.vmc_is_located>\new4g.vmc
[RETURN]
This is from the DOS4GW - documentation and will increase the
virtual memory for DOS4GW.
For Techies
POV2MDL is entirely written in C++. The parser was developed
with
Lex&Yacc, a class library manages all POV-Ray objects. The
parser
engine is absolutely independent of any MORAY modules and could
be used for a wide variety of tasks.
For example, the POV-Ray syntax could be easily enlarged by
some
elements for animation. Nevertheless the output can be pure
POV-Ray code.
Every converter from POV-Ray to XXX is conceivable ..., but
makes
no sense, because I am not aware of other modelers or
raytracers
that follow the rules and have the features POV-Ray has (except
maybe
POLYRAY).
All known modelers for POV-Ray are very strict in using
transformations. The work for a converter is very hard, and I
am
not sure it is worth it. The converter could not support all
features of POV-Ray.
Thanks to
Bernhard Baier
Lutz Kretzschmar (MORAY)
Erkki Sondergaard (POV-Team)
Lex van der Sluijs (GUM)
Andreas Lagotzki (RR)
The future
Further I have a POV-Ray to RAW converter in mind. First ideas
are
in my drawer.
If you find a strange situation
If you have a scenery or object that is not convertable in the
right way, or you find a bug or some strange behaviour, please
send me a letter or e-mail with the scene file and an error
description.
Thanks.
Use of POV2MDL
You are welcome to make copies of this program and pass them on
to friends or post this program on bulletin boards or
distribute
it via disk catalog services provided the entire distribution
is
included in its original, unmodified form. A distribution fee
may
be charged for the cost of the diskette, shipping and handling.
However, POV2MDL may not be sold, or incorporated in another
product that is sold, without the permission of Thomas Baier.
You are welcome to contact the author:
Thomas Baier
Ammerseestr. 9
85551 Kirchheim
Germany
Internet: thb### [at] ibmnet
WWW: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/thbaier
Compuserve: 100527,3011 or GO GRAPHDEV
Both the POV2MDL program and documentation are copyright (c)
1995
by Thomas Baier. You are not authorized to modify the program.
"POV2MDL" is a trademark.
Registration
If you enjoy this program, use it frequently, and can afford to
pay a registration fee, then send me $15.
Please include your name and mailing address.
With this contribution you help me improve POV2MDL. With
registration
you can expect a prompt response on questions or bugs. Thanks.
Disclaimer
POV2MDL is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind,
either
expressed or implied. This program may contain "bugs" and
inaccuracies, and its results should not be assumed to be
correct
unless they are verified by independent means. The author
assumes
no responsibility for the use of POV2MDL and will not be
responsible for any damage resulting from its use.
Trademarks
OS/2 is a trademark of IBM
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft
DOS is a trademark of Microsoft
POV-Ray is a trademark of the POV-Team
MORAY is a trademark of SoftTronics
History
Version 1.7
- Error with torus fixed
Version 1.6
- Error with gradients fixed
Version 1.5
- Added Support for povpars (see povpars.txt)
Version 1.4
- merge object causes corrupt mdl file (no merge object
written)
Version 1.3
- bug in material map fixed: "tiled" is now default
- bug in normal bump map fixed: "actual color" is now default
Version 1.2
- fixed bug in cone output
Version 1.1
- added -t option for texture output only
- naming of POV2MDL generalized
Version 1.0
- First public release
Version 0.5
- syntax error with declared color_maps fixed
Version 0.4
- some bugs fixed
- blobs added
- camera
Version 0.3
- some bugs fixed
- bug in CSG - transformations fixed
- very old (!) bug in heightfield fixed
Version 0.2
- first Beta
>
>Mike
>
>Lutz Kretzschmar wrote in message <354### [at] 194174214.7>...
>>Hi Mike Weber, you recently wrote in moray.win:
>>
>>> Is there a method to add my own texture, or pre-existing written textures
>>> into Moray's texture library? I downloaded some .inc files for textures
>and
>>> would like to use them in Moray.
>>Not directly. You'd need a POV-Ray parser for that. You need to design
>>the textures in the Texture Editor, then export them as a texture
>>library. You can then import the library you want to extend and them
>>importmerge the new one.
>>
>>- Lutz
>> email : lut### [at] stmuccom
>> Web : http://www.stmuc.com/moray
>
>
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