POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.unix : Linux framebuffer patch version 0.5.0 released Server Time
22 Dec 2024 14:18:15 EST (-0500)
  Linux framebuffer patch version 0.5.0 released (Message 1 to 1 of 1)  
From: Nicolas Calimet
Subject: Linux framebuffer patch version 0.5.0 released
Date: 6 Oct 2005 12:13:40
Message: <43454d34$1@news.povray.org>
Version 0.5.0 of the Linux framebuffer patch to povray-3.6.1 for Unix
is available for download here:

http://pov4grasp.free.fr/download/povray-3.6.1-fb-0.5.0.diff.bz2

	List of changes from version 0.4.0:

- add support for console switching (using display buffer)
- add command-line options overriding corresponding $POV_FB_* settings
- add support for /dev/fb/0 when /dev/fb0 cannot be read
- add framebuffer clearing when closing the display
- fix long-standing crappy detection of framebuffer device [unix.cpp]
- fix display detection order: now X11 > fb > svga > ascii [unix.cpp]
- fix missing checks for unsupported framebuffer types and visuals
- fix wrong checks for open() and ioctl() return value
- fix again screen coordinates to deal with visible resolution
- fix incorrect handling of color map backup and restore
- fix color artefacts with +ua and +a +am1 or downscaled display
- fix unexpected shift in default background when using display offset
- fix inconsistent dithering depending on display offset
- fix display geometry parser to accept dimensions without offset
- fix warning level in Warning() calls to 0 instead of 350
- fix missing alpha assignment with gray palette [source/colutils.cpp]
- code reorganisation


	A generic linux povray binary is also available here:

http://pov4grasp.free.fr/download/povray-nc-0002.bz2

Download the file, unpack it with 'bunzip2 povray-nc-0002.bz2' and set its
executable permission with 'chmod +x povray-nc-0002'.

The binary includes the two other patches described in this thread:
http://news.povray.org/431c914d@news.povray.org
It has support for the X Window display but comes without SVGAlib display
(the current patch is meant to replace SVGAlib in the future).  The binary
was compiled with the Intel C++ compiler to take advantage of Pentium 4
optimizations.  It should however work on any other platform as well.


	Notes:

The main purpose of this release is to introduce support for console switching.
That is: when displaying the rendering image, switching to another Linux console
(e.g. by using CTRL+ALT+Fn keystrokes) won't mess up the other console screens
anymore.  Switching back to the initial console will also restore the POV-Ray
display as expected.  This feature as well as some of the issues fixed in this
release require the use of display buffers that are allocated at the time the
image is displayed on-screen.  Their sizes depend on the display dimensions and
framebuffer color depth.  Therefore, rendering with e.g. large display at 32 bpp
may cause POV-Ray to stop if not enough RAM is available.

This release also introduces command-line support for the framebuffer-specific
features handled via the POV_FB_GEOMETRY and POV_FB_DUMP environment variables.
Several syntaxes are allowed for conveniency.  They differ by the use of dashes
vs. underscores, and space vs. equal sign to specify the option value.
For instance, the following options are equally acceptable:

   -pov_fb_geometry 1024x768-0+0
   --pov-fb-geometry=1024x768-0+0  **this form is encouraged**
   -pov-fb-dump=screenshot.ppm
   --pov_fb_dump screenshot.ppm

Command-line options override the settings defined by the equivalent environment
variables.


	Installation instructions for the source patch:

1) copy the file linked above to the parent directory of the povray-3.6.1/
    directory (source distribution only).  The povray source distro that you
    intend to patch should be the official release.

2) IMPORTANT: if you already applied a previous version of this patch,
    you must unpatch the povray sources first with the *old* patch, e.g.

% bzcat povray-3.6.1-fb-0.4.0.diff.bz2 | patch -p0 -f -R

3) patch the povray-3.6.1/ sources:

% bzcat povray-3.6.1-fb-0.5.0.diff.bz2 | patch -p0 -f

    and ignore the possible warnings (in principle they are harmless).

4) cd to povray-3.6.1/ and run the ./bootstrap script.  This requires
    having the GNU autotools installed, i.e. autoconf and automake.

5) run './configure && make check' as usual.


	- NC


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