Hi,

my application uses POV-Ray for rendering, so my users first install POV-Ray and
then run my application.

What happens often and leads to complaints is that users run my application at
work, go home, and when they come back the next morning, the work has not been
completed. Instead everything hangs at POV-Ray, which shows a Windows welcome
splash screen and waits for the user to click a button.

So it appears that the first time you run POV-Ray after installing it, you need
to press a button. Is there any way to disable this behavior? How does POV-Ray
remember that it has been run once already? Can I maybe change a registry entry
or similar from my application?

Thanks for your help,
Elmar

Post a reply to this message

> Hi,
>
> my application uses POV-Ray for rendering, so my users first install POV-Ray and
> then run my application.
>
> What happens often and leads to complaints is that users run my application at
> work, go home, and when they come back the next morning, the work has not been
> completed. Instead everything hangs at POV-Ray, which shows a Windows welcome
> splash screen and waits for the user to click a button.
>
> So it appears that the first time you run POV-Ray after installing it, you need
> to press a button. Is there any way to disable this behavior? How does POV-Ray
> remember that it has been run once already? Can I maybe change a registry entry
> or similar from my application?
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Elmar
>
>
>

In "pvengine.ini", you have:
[General]
RunCount=484

This tels you how many times POV-Ray have been started.

Toward the end of the file, you find this section:
[DontShowAgain]
All items set to 1 will not be shown.


Alain

Post a reply to this message

Hi Alain,

merci bien for your quick reply and the hint to look at pvengine.ini

Here is what I did in Windows 7, 64bit:

1) Use the start menu to look for pvengine.ini, which was found in
c:\Users\elmar\Documents\POVRay\v3.6\pvengine.ini

2) Uninstall and reinstall POVRay 3.6.1 to determine when this file is actually
created so that my application can modify it.

3) Interestingly, when my application now started POVRay, POVRay did *not* wait
for a key to be pressed. And it *did not* create a new
c:\Users\elmar\Documents\POVRay, so there is now no private pvengine.ini I could
modify.

4) I only found a PVENGINE.INI in POVRay's installation directory. When I tried
to modify it with Notepad, I got "access denied". When I ran Notepad as
administrator, I could change RunCount=0, but again, POVRay did not ask for a
keypress. Also I noted that RunCount=0 stays unchanged, no matter how often I
run POVRay. An application can normally not modify data in its own install
directory, so I guess it's expected that RunCount=0 stays that way forever...?

Here is the PVENGINE.INI from POVRay's install directory:

[Permitted Input Paths]
1=%INSTALLDIR%
2=C:\Windows\Fonts
2=%FONTDIR%

[Permitted Output Paths]
1=%INSTALLDIR%\Renderer\ReRun
2=%INSTALLDIR%\Insert Menu

[General]
AutoAppendPaths=1
BigSplash=1362934629
RunCount=0

[General]
CheckNewVersion=0
SendSystemInfo=0
[Editor]
LastPath=C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\POV-RAY FOR WINDOWS V3.6\SCENES\ADVANCED
[Info]
Rendering=0
[LastRender]
CurrentDirectory=C:\Program Files\yasara\tst


So I guess, the open question is: where is the pvengine.ini to modify, and how
can I modify it before running POVRay the first time? (I would expect that
POVRay creates the file the first time it's run, but then it's already too
late).

Many thanks for your help,
Elmar

Alain <kua### [at] videotronca> wrote:

> > Hi,
> >
> > my application uses POV-Ray for rendering, so my users first install POV-Ray and
> > then run my application.
> >
> > What happens often and leads to complaints is that users run my application at
> > work, go home, and when they come back the next morning, the work has not been
> > completed. Instead everything hangs at POV-Ray, which shows a Windows welcome
> > splash screen and waits for the user to click a button.
> >
> > So it appears that the first time you run POV-Ray after installing it, you need
> > to press a button. Is there any way to disable this behavior? How does POV-Ray
> > remember that it has been run once already? Can I maybe change a registry entry
> > or similar from my application?
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> > Elmar
> >
> >
> >
>
> In "pvengine.ini", you have:
> [General]
> RunCount=484
>
> This tels you how many times POV-Ray have been started.
>
> Toward the end of the file, you find this section:
> [DontShowAgain]
> All items set to 1 will not be shown.
>
>
> Alain

Post a reply to this message

> 2) Uninstall and reinstall POVRay 3.6.1 to determine when this file is actually
> created so that my application can modify it.

You may wish to try 3.6.2 instead. I think that version
introduced the updated directory / file handling regarding
the UAC access restriction in Windows Vista / 7.

Post a reply to this message

Am 11.03.2013 02:32, schrieb Christian Froeschlin:
>> 2) Uninstall and reinstall POVRay 3.6.1 to determine when this file is
>> actually
>> created so that my application can modify it.
>
> You may wish to try 3.6.2 instead. I think that version
> introduced the updated directory / file handling regarding
> the UAC access restriction in Windows Vista / 7.

Indeed. As a matter of fact, improved compatibility of the 3.6 branch 
with Vista was the only motivation for the 3.6.2 release. (Consequently 
there's no 3.6.2 for Linux, BTW.)

Post a reply to this message