"KEBman" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> I have an Intel Mac, a PowerBook Pro in fact, and I think it's such a shame to
> have to use a moldy old PC laptop to render my pic's (in general I hate
> touching PC's, but when you gotta, you gotta) - a thing that takes for ever
> too. I also love the POV-Ray program interface and ease of use, thus I see no
> point in even using the Mac for editing POV-files...

I say this every time someone posts this problem: use MegaPOV until the
situation is resolved one way or another. That's what I do. It's based on POV
3.6.1, uses all the same includes etc, and is a universal binary, equally happy
on either architecture. True, the editor is a little different, but you get used
to it.

Maybe not the ideal solution, but better than switching computers all the time,
or (perish the thought) giving up on POV-Ray entirely... :-)

http://megapov.inetart.net/

Post a reply to this message

"KEBman" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> So PLLLLLEEEEASE make an update for Intel Mac's! =)

I have not tried this, but it sounds like MegaPOV might also be a solution for
Intel macs:

http://megapov.inetart.net/

 - Ricky

Post a reply to this message

"Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Maybe not the ideal solution, but better than switching computers all the time,
> or (perish the thought) giving up on POV-Ray entirely... :-)
>
> http://megapov.inetart.net/

Blast!  Beaten to the punch.

 - Ricky

Post a reply to this message

"triple_r" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> First of all, be assured that in no way do I speak for the POV-Team, and that
> I'm certainly no computer scientist either.  In fact they may be getting sick
> of me saying this, but if you're desperate enough to run it on an old slow
> computer, it's probably worth the trouble just to download XCode from Apple,
> compile POV-Ray yourself from the Unix/Linux source, and be on your way.  It's
> very easy.  This approach works the same for POV-Ray, MegaPOV, and MCPov.
> There are also good text editors (vi, for example) that, although there may be
> a learning curve, do excellent POV-Ray formatting.  I really, genuinely, hope
> this doesn't sound rude, but sometimes it's true that when you want something
> done right, you need to do it yourself.

Isn't that the very basis for most open source projects?

If you want something done right and nobody else seems to be doing it, just go
ahead, do it yourself - then go the extra mile to let others participate...

So why not join the POV team as a volunteer to officially bringing POV to Intel
Mac users? Even if it's just that you'd be the one to compile the official
binary ready to install. Or just write a how-to. Anything that gets other
Intel-Mac users closer to fulfilment of their dreams will probably be
appreciated.

Unless of course you're afraid that the users you'd be helping would complain
that you weren't helping them enough or that you were doing it wrong.

Post a reply to this message

"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> So why not join the POV team as a volunteer to officially bringing POV to Intel
> Mac users? Even if it's just that you'd be the one to compile the official
> binary ready to install. Or just write a how-to. Anything that gets other
> Intel-Mac users closer to fulfilment of their dreams will probably be
> appreciated.

Insufficient time/knowledge.  It doesn't seem it has been ported over from
CodeWarrior to something more current, and I wouldn't know where to start.  The
command-line approach seems to turn many people off and indicate a
non-user-friendly program.  If MegaPOV works, then it's probably the best
option currently available.  It might make sense to note on the download page
that it's a valid option, rather than just turn people away with an apology.

 - Ricky

Post a reply to this message

"triple_r" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> > Maybe not the ideal solution, but better than switching computers all the time,
> > or (perish the thought) giving up on POV-Ray entirely... :-)
> >
> > http://megapov.inetart.net/
>
> Blast!  Beaten to the punch.

Maybe, but look at the timestamps on our posts... ;-)

Post a reply to this message

I checked what a compiler is on Wikipedia, and it seemed a bit beyond my int...
in... capacity for being smart.

Seeing as Intel Macs are now the standard, and since people are buying Intel
Macs in droves, will the next release of fantastic POV-Ray be for Intel Macs?

I sure hope so! =) 'Cause I LOVE POV-Ray! If you do that, imagine a little
puppy-dog running around you in circles. That would be me.

I don't know about this Mega-POW program, though... What's the catch? I like the
real thing. You can't beat the feeling.

Post a reply to this message

Thorsten Froehlich <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
> KEBman wrote:
> > Yes, that's what I want. I think it's lame to blame it on malfunctioning PowerPC
> > emulator when you should have made the binary work on both PowerPC and Intel
> > Macs in the first place.
>
> You do realize that Apple shifted from one day to the other from PowerPC to
> x86 with no advance warning except for their largest software vendors, Adobe
> and Microsoft?

Apple announced that they would be switching to Intel in June 2005, and the
first Intel Macs were sold in January 2006.  In a few weeks it will be 2010!
With or without the advance warning, there has been plenty of time for a
universal binary of POV-Ray.

> To ask a software released before that move to support
> something that was not known at the time is a joke, and a bad one!

We are not asking for an Intel version to have been released in 2005.



I do not intend to be critical of the POV-Ray team, here-- as others have
mentioned, this is free software, there are workarounds to this, and so on.  But
the above response is invalid.  As KEBman said, blaming an obscure PowerPC
emulation bug is lame.  Likewise, blaming a years-old architecture switch is
lame.  Here are some non-lame responses:

1. This will be fixed in our next major release.
2. Use MegaPOV or the command-line version instead.  We not longer issue a
working Mac POV-Ray frontend program.

Post a reply to this message

"KEBman" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Yes, that's what I want. I think it's lame to blame it on malfunctioning PowerPC
> emulator when you should have made the binary work on both PowerPC and Intel
etc .... <snip>

I filed a bug report with Apple and they actually sent me the needed fixes in
PovRay code ... its a PovRay issue -- who can get the source code fixed???

Post a reply to this message

Sterling Garwood wrote:
> "KEBman" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>> Yes, that's what I want. I think it's lame to blame it on malfunctioning PowerPC
>> emulator when you should have made the binary work on both PowerPC and Intel
> etc .... <snip>
> 
> I filed a bug report with Apple and they actually sent me the needed fixes in
> PovRay code ... its a PovRay issue -- who can get the source code fixed???

I know, I finally received them a few weeks ago, too. And to clarify, they 
send you workarounds for the bugs in the PowerPC emulator, not for any bugs 
in POV-Ray. The claim the responsible Apple engineer makes is this:

"The root cause of the problem is NOT a bug in Rosetta. The translator is 
behaving exactly as it was designed. The problem is that the translator was 
never intended to completely emulate a PowerPC processor. There are some 
behaviors that simply can't be translated properly."

So their PowerPC emulator is no PowerPC emulator after all. His workaround 
is actually inserting a few calls to the Carbon multithreading API that are 
trapped by Rosetta and which allow the Rosetta PowerPC emulator to pick up a 
thread state change. This call is not needed on a real PowerPC system, which 
is in turn what POV-Ray was designed for. Hence, his excuse is rather funny 
... and to shorten it he is saying "The Rosetta PowerPC emulator is not 
designed to emulate a PowerPC processor."

	Thorsten, POV-Team


PS: The issue of there being no POV-Ray update yet simply has to do with the 
fact that I will only have time during my Christmas vacation for this.

Post a reply to this message