In the recent povray.general thread asking about file handles for output 
streams I posted an example aimed at cleaner stdout / stderr Unix/Linux 
output; something cleaner than #debug tends to be as the user sees it. 
The method made use of the post_scene_command option and it reminded me 
of some 'jp2a' play.

Ref:
https://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.685406abf832fee04d6accde5cc1b6e%40news.povray.org%3E/

The jp2a utility is available for installation with many Linux/Unix 
distributions. It converts a jpg image into an ascii representation. 
IIRC, early versions of POV-Ray had some similar ascii image feature 
inbuilt.

The attached 'ascii terminal image' was generated using (*):

yuqk tmp.pov +w800 +h400 +fj \
post_scene_command="jp2a --colors --term-fit %o >>/dev/stdout"

Bill P.

(*) - post_scene_command requires that [Shellout Security] be set to 
allowed. The yuqk fork - as installed and run from the 'yuqk' script - 
makes 'allowed' the default.

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Attachments:
Download 'render_.jpg' (22 KB) Download 'screenshot_.png' (206 KB)

Preview of image 'render_.jpg'

Preview of image 'screenshot_.png'

hi,

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> ...
> The method made use of the post_scene_command option and it reminded me
> of some 'jp2a' play.
> ...
> The attached 'ascii terminal image' was generated using (*):
> yuqk tmp.pov +w800 +h400 +fj \
> post_scene_command="jp2a --colors --term-fit %o >>/dev/stdout"

v nice.  Slackware provides the AA library[*], for instance.  it would be cool
if one could use the text/console preview directly, via such a library.

<aa-project.sourceforge.net/>


regards, jr.

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On 6/20/25 10:29, jr wrote:
> hi,
> 
> William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> ...
>> The method made use of the post_scene_command option and it reminded me
>> of some 'jp2a' play.
>> ...
>> The attached 'ascii terminal image' was generated using (*):
>> yuqk tmp.pov +w800 +h400 +fj \
>> post_scene_command="jp2a --colors --term-fit %o >>/dev/stdout"
> 
> v nice.  Slackware provides the AA library[*], for instance.  it would be cool
> if one could use the text/console preview directly, via such a library.
> 
> <aa-project.sourceforge.net/>
> 
> regards, jr.
> 

How did I not know about this library... Reviews are good.

"Thus, aalib turns any Linux/Unix box into a full-blown ASCII multimedia 
station and completely eliminates the need for graphical user interfaces."

"This software works marvellously. Its programmers would be stars in 
digital media art if they had bothered to market themselves as artists."

Bill P.

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Il 20/06/2025 13:10, William F Pokorny ha scritto:
> In the recent povray.general thread asking about file handles for output 
> streams I posted an example aimed at cleaner stdout / stderr Unix/Linux 
> output; something cleaner than #debug tends to be as the user sees it. 
> The method made use of the post_scene_command option and it reminded me 
> of some 'jp2a' play.
> 
> Ref:
> https://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/ 
> %3Cweb.685406abf832fee04d6accde5cc1b6e%40news.povray.org%3E/
> 
> The jp2a utility is available for installation with many Linux/Unix 
> distributions. It converts a jpg image into an ascii representation. 
> IIRC, early versions of POV-Ray had some similar ascii image feature 
> inbuilt.
> 
> The attached 'ascii terminal image' was generated using (*):
> 
> yuqk tmp.pov +w800 +h400 +fj \
> post_scene_command="jp2a --colors --term-fit %o >>/dev/stdout"
> 
> Bill P.
> 
> (*) - post_scene_command requires that [Shellout Security] be set to 
> allowed. The yuqk fork - as installed and run from the 'yuqk' script - 
> makes 'allowed' the default.

Really interesting!

Paolo

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