I've got a complex scene that is extremely view dependent. In my
scene-building sessions, I'm fidgeting around with subtle positioning of
some of the geometry. To keep my "render/adjust/repeat" cycles down, I'd
like to render, say, the lower right quadrant of the image, at a higher
resolution, but WITHOUT moving the camera. Is there a way to do this from
the command line? I'm imagining something like this:

povray +i scene.pov +W1024 +H768 viewleft=50% viewtop=50%

It would render my scene with regular camera setup, but would only actually
fire rays through the lower right corner of the defined camera viewport.
Ideally it would fire rays at double the resolution and fill the entire
1024x768 with a higher-res view of the lower left portion of the image. But
I could live with it if it only rendered that portion of the image, leaving
the rest blank. I could get what I want by just rendering at W2048 H1536.

Jefficus

Post a reply to this message

"Jefficus" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.43dffc03685b08ad9ce5362d0@news.povray.org...
> I've got a complex scene that is extremely view dependent. In my
> scene-building sessions, I'm fidgeting around with subtle positioning of
> some of the geometry. To keep my "render/adjust/repeat" cycles down, I'd
> like to render, say, the lower right quadrant of the image, at a higher
> resolution, but WITHOUT moving the camera. Is there a way to do this from
> the command line? I'm imagining something like this:
>
> povray +i scene.pov +W1024 +H768 viewleft=50% viewtop=50%
>

Not sure if this is Windows only, but in Windows, you can drag select a 
portion of your image with the cursor and have only it render, or hols shift 
while dragging to save the settings to your ini. Or see "3.2.1.2.2  Partial 
Output Options" in the help for ini file settings.  This does not blow up 
the section selected but renders only it and leaves the rest blank.

-tgq

Post a reply to this message

That works beautifully. Thanks.

Is the documentation as fragmented as it appears, or have I just not found
the "one stop shopping" index of all options yet?

I should have been able to find this without having to bug the community for
help.

Jefficus

Post a reply to this message

"Jefficus" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> That works beautifully. Thanks.
>
> Is the documentation as fragmented as it appears, or have I just not found
> the "one stop shopping" index of all options yet?
>
> I should have been able to find this without having to bug the community for
> help.

If you don't like the HTML version of the documentation, you can also
download the PDF version, available from the official download site, and
print it out. But please note that the feature you were looking for was
reall easy to find, given the sections it can be found it have the titles
"General Output Options" and "Partial Output Options". These can easily be
found in the table of contents as part of the "Command-line Options", which
are clearly the first place to look for information about command-line
arguments.

Not to mention, the Linux/Unix version offers the usual Unix-style
command-line help...

Post a reply to this message

"Jefficus" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.43e0e053d4a8d6160bdffc60@news.povray.org...
> That works beautifully. Thanks.
>
> Is the documentation as fragmented as it appears, or have I just not found
> the "one stop shopping" index of all options yet?
>

Hi Jefficus,

I think there's just a lot of options and stuff for the documentation to 
cover and it cannot always match everyones logical thought processes on the 
first attempt.

I use the Windows Version and the Index normally gets me to what I'm after. 
If that fails, the Search usually brings something up.
So where nothing came up on the Index panel for 'Partial' and nothing much 
relevant to this question on 'Render', the term 'Partial Render' in the 
search panel brought the Partial Output Options section right to the top of 
the list.

You also get to the same info with just 3 or 4 clicks if you go through the 
table of contents.

> I should have been able to find this without having to bug the community 
> for
> help.

I don't think anyone minds answering this sort of question on the 'newusers' 
group because I think we've all had moments where the answer is just hiding 
from us. Also it's always possible that posting such a question will reveal 
a new way of doing it.

Regards,
Chris B.

Post a reply to this message

I printed the manual from PDF.  Best thing I ever did.  Left beside the bed 
for occasional night time reading.  Not only do you have the ability to 
"flick" through when looking for something, but it can inspire some fantstic 
dreams.

I wonder if the POV people have ever considered Print-On-Demand for the 
manual.  That might be a money earner for the project.

-- 
#####-----#####-----#####
POV Tips and Hints at ...
http://povman.blogspot.com/

Post a reply to this message

"Jefficus" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.43e0e053d4a8d6160bdffc60@news.povray.org...
> That works beautifully. Thanks.
>
> Is the documentation as fragmented as it appears, or have I just not found
> the "one stop shopping" index of all options yet?
>
> I should have been able to find this without having to bug the community 
> for
> help.

    I had the same problem about three years ago. Got my answer for win, and 
use it all the time now. Don't be afraid to ask anything here.

    And don't forget to show us your scene!  :)

      ~Steve~



>
> Jefficus
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message