Can INI library paths be relative paths as well as absolute paths?

I want to distribute some scenes I'm working on including all the needed INI,
INC and POV files to some less-than-expert POVray users. But the library paths
are always a barrier because people have to edit them to match their local file
system.

Thanks!

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"posfan12" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Can INI library paths be relative paths as well as absolute paths?
>
> I want to distribute some scenes I'm working on including all the needed INI,
> INC and POV files to some less-than-expert POVray users. But the library paths
> are always a barrier because people have to edit them to match their local file
> system.

I have used them a couple of times (in Linux) with no problem; but only in the
same directory as the scene file, so I don't know if they're relative to the
..ini file, the scene file, or the working directory.

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"Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
> I have used them a couple of times (in Linux) with no problem; but only in the
> same directory as the scene file, so I don't know if they're relative to the
> ..ini file, the scene file, or the working directory.

It seems to work. Here's my folder structure:


C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\QUICKRES.INI
C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\ldview_povray_include.inc
C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\ldview_povray_mini_test.pov
C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\lgeo\lg\
C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\lgeo\ar\
C:\Users\NIMDA\Desktop\New folder\LightsysIV


Here are my library paths inside QUICKRES.INI:

 Library_Path="lgeo\lg"
 Library_Path="lgeo\ar"
 Library_Path="LightsysIV"


Thanks for the help!

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> Can INI library paths be relative paths as well as absolute paths?
>
> I want to distribute some scenes I'm working on including all the needed INI,
> INC and POV files to some less-than-expert POVray users. But the library paths
> are always a barrier because people have to edit them to match their local file
> system.
>
> Thanks!
>
>

If you distribute your scene in it's own folder that include all .POV, 
.INI and .INC that are made for that scene, there will be no problems at 
all. In a normal or default installation, the default inc files are 
readily accessible.

It comes from the fact that POV-Ray search first in the local folder for 
the inc files, then in default include folder.

Just add a little readme.txt file instructing how to launch the ini file 
to render the scene as intended.

It's a very bad idea to include hard codded paths in your scene. They 
don't port between the Windows, Linux and Mac versions, don't work if 
the user files and profiles are not in the same location as yours,...



Alain

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