Hello. Is there any mood in POV-Ray to change the default output file type?
Thanks.

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On Sun,  4 Oct 2009 06:31:04 EDT, "Silverlight2009" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

>Hello. Is there any mood in POV-Ray to change the default output file type?
>Thanks.
>
Yes there is, read the documents/help section 3.1.2.4.1  Output File Type.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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"Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message 
news:tpvgc5t9hae1lr5i5i66fu9dn9qjaepj7r@4ax.com...
> On Sun,  4 Oct 2009 06:31:04 EDT, "Silverlight2009" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>
>>Hello. Is there any mood in POV-Ray to change the default output file 
>>type?
>>Thanks.
>>
> Yes there is, read the documents/help section 3.1.2.4.1  Output File Type.
>

... and, in particular the INI file syntax, which is Output_File_Type=J (or 
one of the listed types), which you can put into the 'povray.ini' file to 
make it the default behaviour on your system.
The 'J' option gives jpeg output (which I think is missing from the 
documentation). On Windows you can edit 'povray.ini' from the Tools menu and 
you shouldn't need to restart POV-Ray afterwards.

Regards,
Chris B.

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"Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
> "Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message
> news:tpvgc5t9hae1lr5i5i66fu9dn9qjaepj7r@4ax.com...
> > On Sun,  4 Oct 2009 06:31:04 EDT, "Silverlight2009" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> >
> >>Hello. Is there any mood in POV-Ray to change the default output file
> >>type?
> >>Thanks.
> >>
> > Yes there is, read the documents/help section 3.1.2.4.1  Output File Type.
> >
>
> ... and, in particular the INI file syntax, which is Output_File_Type=J (or
> one of the listed types), which you can put into the 'povray.ini' file to
> make it the default behaviour on your system.
> The 'J' option gives jpeg output (which I think is missing from the
> documentation). On Windows you can edit 'povray.ini' from the Tools menu and
> you shouldn't need to restart POV-Ray afterwards.
>
> Regards,
> Chris B.

Hmm, did not know this was still there.

On the other hand, ick, very poor quality.

-tgq

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"Trevor G Quayle" <Tin### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message 
news:web.4ac896e53f8a411c67b294d0@news.povray.org...
> "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
>> "Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message
>> news:tpvgc5t9hae1lr5i5i66fu9dn9qjaepj7r@4ax.com...
>> > On Sun,  4 Oct 2009 06:31:04 EDT, "Silverlight2009" <nomail@nomail> 
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >>Hello. Is there any mood in POV-Ray to change the default output file
>> >>type?
>> >>Thanks.
>> >>
>> > Yes there is, read the documents/help section 3.1.2.4.1  Output File 
>> > Type.
>> >
>>
>> ... and, in particular the INI file syntax, which is Output_File_Type=J 
>> (or
>> one of the listed types), which you can put into the 'povray.ini' file to
>> make it the default behaviour on your system.
>> The 'J' option gives jpeg output (which I think is missing from the
>> documentation). On Windows you can edit 'povray.ini' from the Tools menu 
>> and
>> you shouldn't need to restart POV-Ray afterwards.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Chris B.
>
> Hmm, did not know this was still there.
>
> On the other hand, ick, very poor quality.
>

Ah yes! When I mention the JPEG option I really should also warn that it 
seems to do something strange with colours (at least on my Windows Vista 
system). It's not by any means a recommendation to use that particular 
format and it would have been better if I'd have used another format to 
illustrate my point. POV-Ray generated jpeg files display ok in Netscape, 
but the thumbnails and the windows image viewer both show bizarre colours 
which dissapear if I load and save the output from a graphics editor.

Regards,
Chris B.

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I'd never heard of "+fj"!   It's always seemed missing even if jpeg is a better
distribution format than a "mastering" format.  I can imagine there being some
rare uses.  That said, I have to agree with Trevor's comment. :)

Charles

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"Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.4ac9720b3f8a411cac4259f0@news.povray.org...
> I'd never heard of "+fj"!   It's always seemed missing even if jpeg is a 
> better
> distribution format than a "mastering" format.  I can imagine there being 
> some
> rare uses.  That said, I have to agree with Trevor's comment. :)
>

Well, yes and no. JPEG is a lossy format (it's designed that way), but I 
find it by far and away the most convenient when working on graphics 
destined for web pages. Any implication that it's not a worthy format to be 
supported by POV-Ray makes me a tad nervous. I think it should find its way 
into the documentation, with a warning that it's not a loss-free format and 
that the results will unavoidably contain JPEG artifacts. People could then 
simply use another format for any process that requires some sort of top 
quality master.

Regards,
Chris B.

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"Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote in message 
news:4ac8923c@news.povray.org...
> The 'J' option gives jpeg output (which I think is missing from the 
> documentation).

A convenient link so you can add that if you like:
http://wiki.povray.org/content/Doc:Reference_Section_1.1#File_Output_Options

I also started a talk page so you can make the changes:
http://wiki.povray.org/content/Documentation_Talk:Reference_Section_1.1

once you do that I'll merge changes into the original!

Jim

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"Jim Holsenback" <jho### [at] povrayorg> wrote in message 
news:4ac9d64a@news.povray.org...
> once you do that I'll merge changes into the original!
>
> Jim

saw your changes ... and they've been merged back into the original doc.
thank you very much!

Jim

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"Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
> "Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message
> news:web.4ac9720b3f8a411cac4259f0@news.povray.org...
> > I'd never heard of "+fj"!   It's always seemed missing even if jpeg is a
> > better
> > distribution format than a "mastering" format.  I can imagine there being
> > some
> > rare uses.  That said, I have to agree with Trevor's comment. :)
> >
>
> Well, yes and no. JPEG is a lossy format (it's designed that way), but I
> find it by far and away the most convenient when working on graphics
> destined for web pages. Any implication that it's not a worthy format to be
> supported by POV-Ray makes me a tad nervous. I think it should find its way
> into the documentation, with a warning that it's not a loss-free format and
> that the results will unavoidably contain JPEG artifacts. People could then
> simply use another format for any process that requires some sort of top
> quality master.
>
> Regards,
> Chris B.

Sorry, no anxiety intended. ;)  I agree JPEG output is a good option to have
available.  One feature which could make it even better would be a quality
option. For example "+fjxx" where "xx" is a numeric quality level similar to
what you can enter when saving a JPEG in GIMP.

(Disclaimer: I don't know just how quick or easy this would be to implement, and
I imagine it would be of relatively low priority compared to other things.)

I think depending on the content of an image, JPEG can be more distracting than
at other times.  For instance, I tried +fj on a test render with very simple
textures, some fine detail and a blue sky sphere.  It looked bad.   I suspect
the more a rendering looks like a photo (i.e. no shortage of detail so you're
not staring at one little spot which you can't see clearly), the less
distracting JPEG artifacts might be for a given compression level.

Charles

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