On Thu, 16 Nov 2000 11:51:00 -0800, David wrote:
>I just installed Red Hat Linux a few days ago, and noticed that it includes
>POV-Ray - long my Macintosh hobby. I installed it, and now I con't launch
>it. What's the trick to starting the thing? I've been using the KDE system,
>which calls the smaple files "executables" (!). Can anyone help this newbie?

In an Xterm type:

$ which x-povray

I get "/usr/local/bin/x-povray", so it's in my path, to find out what your 
path is set to do:

$ echo $PATH 

Must be PATH must be upper case, I get
"/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/sjlen/bin", 

so I go into my home directory and set up the .povrayrc file which is like
the povray.ini file in windows, edit that file and make the appropriate 
changes.  Create yourself a pov directory in your home directory, and then
put some pov files in it.  

To render type:

$ x-povray -Isomefile.pov -Osomefile.ppm -W320 -H240 -A

The -I stands for input file, the -O for output file, -W for image
width, -H for image height and -A to turn AA off.

Fur some brief help do:

$ x-povray -h

I've produced a small utility which works with an Rxvt window to 
give you menu access to the most common command line options, 
it's on my websit in the Linux Stuff section, d/l it and read
the documentation, it's fairly straight forward to get it up and
running.   

-- 
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet

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OK, well, hmm...I think perhaps there's something in all that that I can
understand. I'll try doing some of that stuff with the $PATH, but what even
does it do? Remember, I've been using Linux for three days.
______
David McCabe
dav### [at] maccom
http://homepage.mac.com/davidmccabe/index.htm
Jesus loves you!

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David wrote:

> OK, well, hmm...I think perhaps there's something in all that that I can
> understand. I'll try doing some of that stuff with the $PATH, but what even
> does it do? Remember, I've been using Linux for three days.

Bash looks in the $PATH for the executables. So if you type 'x-povray -i 
somefile', bash looks in $PATH for the x-povray executable.

Remco Poelstra

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On Fri, 17 Nov 2000 10:26:01 -0800, David wrote:
>OK, well, hmm...I think perhaps there's something in all that that I can
>understand. I'll try doing some of that stuff with the $PATH, but what even
>does it do? Remember, I've been using Linux for three days.

Running "echo $PATH" tells you what the search path is for executables.

this can be changed in ~/.bash_profile where the path is redifined for 
your own needs: 

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

This adds ~/bin to the original path.  To get changes to take effect after
editing the .bash_profile file do:

$ source .bash_profile

It'd be a good idea to get a Linux book, "Running Linux" by O'Reilly, has a 
lot in it, covers the basics, and will allow you to grow at your own pace,
I've been on Linux for almost 12 months now and use the book regularly. 

A good URL to look at for basic stuff is:

http://www.crosswinds.net/~beginnerslinux/

-- 
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet

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On Fri, 17 Nov 2000 10:26:01 -0800, David wrote:
>OK, well, hmm...I think perhaps there's something in all that that I can
>understand. I'll try doing some of that stuff with the $PATH, but what even
>does it do? Remember, I've been using Linux for three days.

You don't have to do anything with the PATH unless you install povray in
a non-standard place. But you will have to get used to typing commands
instead of clicking on icons (Not that you can't do much with with a
gui, but the commandline is the natural and most efficient interface to
a Unix system). Others have already posted how to invoke povray from a
terminal window.

I suggest you get a good indroductory book to Linux (O'Reilly's
nutshell-books are generally quite good, so I guess "Linux in a
Nutshell" is, too).

I guess I could write a short tutorial on how to use povray with
makefiles, if there isn't one already.

	hp

-- 


| |   | hjp### [at] wsracat      |    -- Lutz Donnerhacke in dasr.
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ |

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I wrote a scene file and gave it to x-povray, as you said, and it says I
have a bad INI file. What's up?
______
David McCabe
dav### [at] maccom
http://homepage.mac.com/davidmccabe/index.htm
Jesus loves you! 

> From: Remco Poelstra <rjp### [at] homenl>
> Newsgroups: povray.unix
> Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 23:27:05 +0100
> Subject: Re: Runing POV-Ray
> 
> David wrote:
> 
>> OK, well, hmm...I think perhaps there's something in all that that I can
>> understand. I'll try doing some of that stuff with the $PATH, but what even
>> does it do? Remember, I've been using Linux for three days.
> 
> Bash looks in the $PATH for the executables. So if you type 'x-povray -i
> somefile', bash looks in $PATH for the x-povray executable.
> 
> Remco Poelstra
>

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On Mon, 20 Nov 2000 12:52:27 -0800, David wrote:
>I wrote a scene file and gave it to x-povray, as you said, and it says I
>have a bad INI file. What's up?

You probably need to spend a little more time with the command-line 
reference.  My first guess would be that you forgot to type the -i.

-- 
Ron Parker   http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/traces.html
My opinions.  Mine.  Not anyone else's.

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On Mon, 20 Nov 2000 12:52:27 -0800, David wrote:
>I wrote a scene file and gave it to x-povray, as you said, and it says I
>have a bad INI file. What's up?

Yup like Ron says I get that if I miss the -i as shown below:

[sjlen:pov]$ x-povray letters.pov
Persistence of Vision(tm) Ray Tracer Version 3.1g.Linux.gcc
  This is an official version prepared by the POV-Ray Team(tm). See the
    documentation on how to contact the authors or visit us on the
    internet at http://www.povray.org.
Copyright 1999 POV-Ray Team(tm)

INI file error.
'=' or '#' must be preceded by a keyword.[sjlen:pov]$ 

################   End of example  #####################################

Say you've got a pov file called letters.pov and you want to render it
at 800x600 with AA turned on and you want an output file of letters.ppm,
I'll demonstrate what I'd type and I'll include the command promt to 
save any confusion: 

[sjlen:pov]$ x-povray -iletters.pov -oletters.ppm -W800 -H600 +A0.3

-- 
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet

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Steve <ste### [at] zeroppsuklinuxnet> wrote:
: [sjlen:pov]$ x-povray -iletters.pov -oletters.ppm -W800 -H600 +A0.3

  I don't think povray automatically chooses the correct image format by
examining the output file name (if it does, then that's completely new
to me; it might be, though).
  So if povray is outputting to, for example, targa, but the filename is
'letters.ppm', you'll only get problems.
  I would just leave the -o-switch out. If I want a different output format
I would add a +f... command in 'povray.ini'.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):_;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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Ron Parker wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Nov 2000 15:46:51 -0800, Scott Lambert wrote:
> >file itself. (Under Windows for example a file must be a *.EXE file,
> >there is no equivalent "permission".)
> 
> Not necessarily.  Other types of files are executable as well; most
> notably
> .BAT and .COM files.  NT even lets you specify what extensions will be
> tried; the default is
> PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH
> 
i feel the same

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