Stars of Shareware: Raytrace & Morphing

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*FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT POV-RAY* ****************************************************************************** This is a collection of frequently asked questions and their answers taken directly from messages posted in the Graphic Developer's Forum on Compuserve. Special thanks go to the following people for their answers and contributions to this file: Dan Farmer, Dan Richardson, Sam J. Bowling, Robert A. Mickelsen, Steve Anger, Alphonso Hermida, Bill Pulver, Lutz Kretzschmar, Douglas Otwell, Rob Bryerton, and Mike Miller. ****************************************************************************** NOTE: This version of the FAQ is heavily biased towards the CompuServe user of the IBM PC version of POV-Ray. Hopefully later revisions will remove some of this bias, but at present time, that is the largest audience. ****************************************************************************** QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS DOCUMENT: Section 1: The Basics 1.1 Where can I get the shareware raytracer POV-Ray? 1.2 I don't seem to be able to unzip the zipped file I just downloaded! 1.3 How does the POV-Ray tracer work? What goes on internally? 1.4 Can you recommend any good books on POV-Ray? 1.5 I've compiled a version of POV-Ray for the [fill in the blank] processor and I'd like to share it with the world. 1.6 Do I need a math co-processor to run POV-Ray? 1.7 I want to render the sample file SIMPLE.POV, but I cannot find it! 1.8 When I try to render my image, I get an error message "can't find colors.inc". What does this mean? 1.9 What program do I need to convert the .tga file to .gif? 1.10 How can I render files written in 1.0 syntax with 2.2? 1.11 Why do some scenes take so long to render? 1.12 I keep getting an "out of memory" message. What do I do? 1.13 How do you set up the POV-Ray command line using a batchfile? Section 2: Tips and Secrets 2.1 How can I map an image to an object without a lot of trial and error? 2.2 What's the best technique to map a gif image onto a complex figure? 2.3 How can I create text objects in POV-Ray? 2.4 How can I create a grid to help me with modeling and calculating translations? 2.5 What method do the top ray-tracers use to create textures? 2.6 What is Mike Miller's secret to his amazing images? 2.7 My quartic shapes don't render right. What's going on? 2.8 How do I set up area lights in POV-Ray 2.2? 2.9 I have been trying to import an object I created in DESIGNCAD (DXF), but when I trace it in POV-Ray, it comes out faceted. What is wrong? 2.10 How can I run POV-Ray from windows? 2.11 Doesn't running POV-Ray from windows slow everything down? Section 3: Modelers 3.1 Can you recommend some good modeling programs? 3.2 Could you explain what the difference is between Right-handed coordinates and left-handed coordinates (RHC vs LHC)? 3.3 How can I convert an object made in a RHC modeler like MORAY for use in a scene that uses LHC? 3.4 Is there a program for converting POV-Ray files to MORAY .MDL files? 3.5 How can I create a text object using POVCAD? 3.6 I am having problems attaching image maps to objects in MORAY. Help! 3.7 I made some sweeps in MORAY and they trace with a faceted appearance. What is wrong? 3.8 Whenever I try to render a bezier patch created in MORAY, is comes out faceted! What is wrong? Section 4: General Information 4.1 How can I contact the POV-Ray team? 4.2 What is the best way to make a print of one of my images? 4.3 Can I print as large as 24"x36"? 4.4 Isn't there any way to just print directly from the image file? 4.5 What kind of utilities are available for POV-Ray? 4.6 Do you have a list of BBS's for POV-Ray and its related utilities and images? ****************************************************************************** AND NOW... THE ANSWERS! ****************************************************************************** Section 1: The Basics ****************************************************************************** 1.1 WHERE CAN I GET THE SHAREWARE RAYTRACER POV-Ray? Firstoff, The Persistance of Vision raytracer is _not_ shareware, it is copyrighted freeware. What this means is that there is no registration fee for use of the program. It also means, though, that there are a few restrictions on it's distribution (see POVLEGAL.DOC for details). On CompuServe: You need to take a look at the file POVINF.DOC in library 8 'POV Sources' for information on the files you need for your computer. That file CLEARLY spells out what you need. Files required: POVDOC.ZIP - The documentation and essential data files for POV-Ray POVSCN.ZIP - The example scene files for POV-Ray POVIBM.EXE - Executable and docs for IBM-PC and compatibles POVIBM.EXE is a self-extracting archive that contains the executable files for IBM compatible computers. Simply copy the file into your POVRAY directory and run it to extract the files to the proper directories. POVDOC.ZIP contains the documentation files. Copy it into your POVRAY directory and unzip it using the -d switch (to create subdirectories). Then, print out the file povray.doc and pop yourself a beer and sit down and read it from cover to cover. Taking the time to read the docs will make learning much less frustrating and will hopefully eliminate many of the more common beginner mistakes. The docs also contain some good beginning tutorials you should take a look at. POVSCN.ZIP contains a bunch of sample .pov files you can render and play with to learn the code. Copy it into your POVRAY directory and unzip it using the -d switch (to create subdirectories). ****************************************************************************** 1.2 I DON'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO UNZIP THE ZIPPED FILE I JUST DOWNLOADED! Most of the .ZIP files here require the latest version of PKUNZIP. You can find that in the file PK204G.EXE which contains the latest version which is version 2.04g. PK204G.EXE is available in the GRAPHSUPPORT Forum, library 1 'Go Graphics Help'. ****************************************************************************** 1.3 HOW DOES THE POV-Ray RAYTRACER WORK? WHAT GOES ON INTERNALLY WHEN I RENDER A SCENE? In the beginning is a text file. In this file is described the various elements of the scene using a special language that the program understands. Such things as objects, backgrounds, surfaces, textures, colors, and lights and a "camera" are defined in this file. When you run this file through POV-Ray, the program's parser reads your scene into memory, taking a word at a time and comparing with an internal list of "tokens", or keywords. When a match is found, an object, texture, or whatever is created and stored in a "structure", or a database record, if you will, that contains certain necessary information for use later. For a sphere, this would be things like the position, the radius, the texture (which in turn is a structure containing the things in a texture { } block), any translations, etc. There are actually many different types of these structures, and they hold all that stuff that you type into your scene file, although in a simplified and efficient manner. Once it has all of these internal tables filled in, it can begin the job of "shooting rays" through the scene. When a ray is "shot", the space that it passes through is checked against that list of objects that we created, looking to see if any of them occupy that space. This is where bounding boxes and other bounding mechanisms help out, by giving it a smaller list to check initially. To find if a ray will hit an object, an "intersection test" is performed. This involves solving a set of two simultaneous equations. One is the equation of the line representing the ray. The other is an equation describing the surface. For example the equation for a sphere is x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = r^2 If there is a solution to this set of equations then the ray hit the object. Each shape has it's own formula, but the concept remains the same. Once an "intersection" is found, the object's texture database record is checked to see what sort of texture information is assigned to it. The appropriate functions are called to figure out exactly what color that exact x,y,z spot on the object should be. If the texture contains any reflection or refraction, a new ray is created and followed to its next intersection (if any), and its color determined. Ad infinitum (well, not really. Ad max_trace_level_itum). After the ray has been bounced around the scene as much as it's going to, it finally contains the (almost) final color of that point... the total contributions from all of the objects it has hit. I say "almost" because antialiasing may slightly modify that color once again. After any antialiasing, the final value of that point is written (in binary RGB values) out to the output file and the point is plotted on the display. Next pixel. Next row. ****************************************************************************** 1.4 CAN YOU RECOMMEND ANY GOOD BOOKS ON POV-Ray? Probably the best published resource written strictly about POV-Ray is 'Ray Tracing Creations', written by Drew Wells, Chris Young, w/Dan Farmer, and published by Waite Group Press. It has very thorough explanations on how POV-Ray works and some excellent tutorials and sample files. Unfortunately, it was published just six months before the release of POV-Ray 2.0, and so it is written entirely in 1.0 syntax. However, the +mv1.0 commandline switch (or the #version 1.0 directive in your scene files) will allow enough backwards compatibility to allow you to work the examples using POV-Ray 2.x. While an update to Ray Tracing Creations is in the works, the first edition is still a very worthwhile investment if you are learning POV-Ray. Ray Tracing Creations - Waite Group Press - ISBN# 1-878739-27-1 ****************************************************************************** 1.5 I'VE COMPILED A VERSION OF POV-Ray FOR THE [fill in the blank] PROCESSOR AND I'D LIKE TO SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD. -or- I'VE COMPILED A HYPERTEXT VERSION OF THE POV-Ray DOCS AND I'D LIKE TO SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD. You may share custom versions if you follow the guidelines set up in the POVLEGAL.DOC file that is packed in each archive. The POV-Ray documentation is also a copyrighted document and is bound to the same requirements as outlined in POVLEGAL.DOC. ****************************************************************************** 1.6 DO I NEED A MATH CO-PROCESSOR TO RUN POV-Ray? No. But POV-Ray will run 7 - 10 times faster with one. Obtaining a math coprocessor is the single most significant and cost-effective thing you can do to speed up rendering time. Something else to consider, a couple people have reported 15-20X (!!!!) speedup going from a 486SX to a 486DX. The "Overdrive" processors will also give a HEFTY speed boost to POV-Ray because the coprocessor in the 486DX2 is also driven at the clock doubled speed. ****************************************************************************** 1.7 I WANT TO RENDER THE SAMPLE FILE SIMPLE.POV, BUT I CANNOT FIND IT! The docs say that SIMPLE.POV is in the POVRAY\DEMO directory but it is actually in the POVRAY\SCENES\LEVEL1 directory. ****************************************************************************** 1.8 WHEN I TRY TO RENDER MY IMAGE, I GET AN ERROR MESSAGE "CAN'T FIND COLORS.INC". WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Two possibilities come to mind. The first is that you may not have the "colors.inc" file. This, and several other "standard include files", containing predefined colors, shapes, and textures, are provided in the POVDOC.ZIP archive and are extracted to a subdirectory called \POVRAY2\INCLUDE. If you do not have these files, you are also probably missing out on the full documentation. The other possibility has to do with the "library path" settings: POV-Ray may not be able to find the file colors.inc that you have included in your scene file because it does not know where to look for it. POV-Ray does not search the DOS path. You have to specify the location of your include files using the -L switch in your command line. The -L switch sets a library path. You can have up to 10 of these, each pointing to a different directory. Minimal would be -L\povray\include so that POV-Ray can find the standard "include" files (colors.inc, etc). A POVRAY.DEF file is a good place to specify this setting to avoid having to retype it all the time. Example: -Lc:\povray\include. The location of any other files that POV-Ray needs to find should be specified with the -L switch as well. ****************************************************************************** 1.9 WHAT PROGRAM DO I NEED TO CONVERT THE .TGA FILE TO .GIF? There are several programs available in CompuServe Libs 6 and 8 that will do the job. I suggest CONVERT or DYEWORKS for the novice. Some expert tracers tend to prefer PICLAB, available over in the GRAPHSUP forum. The filenames for CONVERT and DYEWORKS on CompuServe: DYEWOR.ZIP Lib 6 44K 11-Jan-94 Dyeworks 1.3 Color Reduction/Conversion CONVRT.ZIP Lib 6 53K 27-May-93 Coy's CONVERT Post-Processor ******************************************************************************* 1.10 HOW CAN I RENDER FILES WRITTEN IN 1.0 SYNTAX WITH 2.2? Files written in POV-Ray 1.0 syntax can be rendered with POV-Ray 2.2 by adding #version 1.0 to the beginning of the file. Similarly, when writing a new scene, you can paste blocks of code written in 1.0 syntax into a file written in 2.2 and place '#version 1.0' immediately before and '#version 2.0' immediately after the block, and that will render successfully. Finally, you can use the +mv1.0 commandline switch when starting POV-Ray to render a scene where all .pov and .inc files are written in 1.0 syntax. ****************************************************************************** 1.11 WHY DO SOME SCENES TAKE SO LONG TO RENDER? Here are some things that are sure to cause a trace to take a long time. 1. The use of large numbers of triangles. 2. The use of objects with transparancy, refraction, and reflection. 3. Tracing with a very low (+a0.01) anti-aliasing threshold. 4. The presence of a great many objects in a scene. 5. The use of area lights. 6. Use of many lights. If you want to speed up rendering times without an additional investment in hardware, you can do so by avoiding or keeping to a minimum the above factors. But then, tracing wouldn't be as much fun would it? ****************************************************************************** 1.12 I AM TRYING TO TRACE AN IMAGE WITH SEVERAL OBJECTS COMPOSED OF TRIANGLE DATA/HEIGHT FIELDS/LARGE IMAGE MAPS. I KEEP GETTING AN "OUT OF MEMORY" MESSAGE. WHAT DO I DO? Large numbers of triangles/height fields/large image maps take considerable memory for the parser to load. You need to increase your region size and maybe even create a permanent swap file for POV-Ray's virtual memory capabilities. You do this by running the included utility POVMOD. In the directory where POVRAY.EXE is located you sould find an IBMDOCS subdirectory. There is a file in there called POVMOD.DOC. It explains how to raise the amount of memory POV-Ray will attempt to use. Height fields/image maps/triangle data take a LOT of memory. Basicly just type: POVMOD POVRAY.EXE <enter> You will then be presented with a screen of the program's current configuration. Press (M) to change the "region size", press (E) to enter a new size, press (Q) to quit. You should then be able to load a huge height field/image map/object composed of a bazillion triangles. <g> (Caution: Swapping to disk will slow down POV-Ray considerably.) ****************************************************************************** 1.13 HOW DO YOU SET UP THE POV-Ray COMMAND LINE USING A BATCHFILE? You can use a .def file and a batch file to ease the commandline burden. Try something like: RENDER.BAT \povray\povray povray.def -i%1.pov -o\povray\tga\%1.tga -w%2 -h%3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 (this needs to be all on one line) You can also specify a path to the povray.def file. If you do it as I've got it above, you'll need a povray.def file in every working directory, but each can be unique to the project. Either way works. To use this, you simply type "render myfile" (no extension!) to render with the defaults you've set up. To change the default resolution, simply specify it, separated with spaces: "render myfile 640 480" To add or override defaults, you must also specify the resolution: "render myfile 320 200 +a0.1" Then set up a povray.def file something like this: POVRAY.DEF -l\povray\scenes ;Path to the scenes directory -l\povray\maps ;You may not have this one. -l\povray\include ;Path to the .inc files -w160 -h100 ;Default image size +d4H ;Default video -v ;No stats +ft ;Output Targa file +p ;Pause when done +x ;Allow abort <Note that the +v and +d switch are mutually exclusive and should *never* be used together.> ****************************************************************************** Section 2: Tips and Secrets ****************************************************************************** 2.1 HOW CAN I MAP AN IMAGE TO AN OBJECT WITHOUT A LOT OF TRIAL AND ERROR? Few problems plague beginner raytracers like the proper placement of image maps. The solution really boils down to keeping things simple. Always attach your image map while your object is at the origin. If you are doing a planar map (map type 0), you can center it by translating the image by <-.5, -.5, 0>. This is because POV-Ray places a planar map with the lower left hand corner at the origin and assumes (before any scaling) that the map will extend to <1, 1, 0>. Once the map is centered, it should be only a matter of scaling to get it to fit right. Remember the 'once' keyword eliminates tiling. Once you have the map properly placed and fitted to the object, you can then translate and rotate your object into it's final position and the map will be translated and rotated along with it. The TEST.GIF file in your INCLUDE directory is a great test pattern for setting up imagemaps. Once you've got the placement correct, simply substitute the image of your choice. ****************************************************************************** 2.2 WHAT'S THE BEST TECHNIQUE TO MAP A GIF IMAGE ONTO A COMPLEX FIGURE SUCH AS A CAR OR AIRCRAFT WITHOUT DISTORTING THE IMAGE MUCH OR AT LEAST PREDICTING WHERE EVERYTHING WILL LAND ON THE FIGURE? Mike Miller provided us with a great tip for this. Render a straight on shot of the object from far enough away so you don't get edge distortion. Use that render as a template in your paint program. Do your logos, textures and such and use the planar map type to project it back on to the object from the same angle. The shells of the turtles in his Turtle Love images were done that way. ****************************************************************************** 2.3 HOW CAN I CREATE TEXT OBJECTS IN POV-Ray? One way to create Text objects in POV-Ray is by using height fields. To do this, use a paint program to create a black and white image of the text you intend to use. Make the letters black against a white background. Make sure you use a standard color palette where the color white is palette #1 and the color black is palette #255. Save the image as a gif file. Create a height field using that gif and rotate the field -90 degrees through the x axis. Some simple text objects can be made by using CSG. A modeler definitely would help here. Alphonso Hermida's modeler POVCAD can make excellent text objects and Lutz Kretzschmar's MORAY comes bundled with some traceable fonts. There is also a utility called FONTS2POV that does a credible job of converting truetype fonts to POV-Ray objects. ****************************************************************************** 2.4 HOW CAN I CREATE A GRID TO HELP ME WITH MODELING AND CALCULATING TRANSLATIONS? You should map the grid in the first place with just a direct planar image map. Creating the grid can be done with Fractint. Create a solid-color "fractal" by zooming fully into one of the wider color bands and saving the result. Then go into 3D, and load that image. On the 1st 3D prompt screen, set your gridsize to whatever seems convenient. On the 2nd screen, select Draw Grid mode, on the 3rd screen, set rotations to 0 and scale to 100. You'll have your grid. Here's another way: camera { location <0, 0, -30> direction <0.0, 0.0, 1.5> sky <0.0, 1.0, 0.0> up <0.0, 1.0, 0.0> right <1.3333, 0.0, 0.0> look_at <0.0, 0.0, 0.0> } light_source { <0, 0, -30> color rgb <1,1,1> } #declare grid = texture { pigment { marble color_map { [0, .10 color rgb<1,1,1> color rgb <1,1,1>] [.10, 1 color rgb <1,1,1> filter 1 color rgb <1,1,1> filter 1] } rotate <90, 0, 0> } } texture { pigment { marble color_map { [0, .10 color rgb <1,1,1> color rgb <1,1,1> ] [.10, 1 color rgb <1,1,1> filter 1 color rgb <1,1,1> filter 1] } rotate <0 0 90> } } plane { z,0 texture { grid finish { ambient .1} } scale 1 } It's fairly easy to adjust the thickness of the lines and it doesn't trace too slowly. The plane should be aligned with the camera. ****************************************************************************** 2.5 WHAT METHOD DO THE TOP RAYTRACERS USE TO CREATE TEXTURES? DO THEY JUST KNOW WHAT TO DO OR DO THEY DO IT BY TRIAL AND ERROR LIKE EVERYONE ELSE? One method, if you need a texture for a particular object, is to declare the object and set up an image with, say, 16 copies in a grid. With each copy as one line in the data file, it's real fast to go down the line and tweak all the values. If it's a complex object, so that it would render slowly, you can substitute a simple proxy object in the declare for rough tests. When you get it narrowed down, uncomment the original object. You can use the same technique with one texture and various rotations of the object when you're really close to what you want. For simple color tests, it may be best to use a number of very simple objects, like spheres, to test different versions of a color. ****************************************************************************** 2.6 WHAT IS MIKE MILLER'S SECRET TO HIS AMAZING IMAGES? From Mike himself: For many of the models I produce in POV-Ray - I produce a set of "blue prints" to model from. These prints include a front, side, and top view. Blue printing works well because all views are referenced from one fixed (x,y,z) location. I draft the prints so the "side view" travels in the X & Y. This makes the "top view" print handle the X & Z and the front view "Z & Y". Once the model is blue printed, it is a matter of writing the CSG to fit the prints. I normally will draft complex CSG with it's own (x,y,z) zero position and use the blue print to translate those complex parts into their proper position. I find it easier to write out the CSG as seperate complex assemblies with each assembly built around a <0 0 0>. I then use the print to translate the assembles to each location in the print. It's a "build the parts first/then move" method that works well for me. For example: A tire and rim was drafted off to one side of the print with a <0 0 0> through the center of the wheel. I wrote the CGS for the wheel and translated it the X Y and Z locations found in the "full" print of the car. ****************************************************************************** 2.7 MY QUARTIC SHAPES DON'T RENDER RIGHT. IT LOOKS LIKE IT GOT HIT BY A LASER GUN AND THERE ARE WEIRD PARTICLES ALL OVER THE SCREEN. WHAT'S GOING ON? Quartics always have been a difficult primitive. To quote from the docs: "Calculations for all higher order polynomials must be very accurate. If this shape renders improperly you may add the keyword "sturm" after the MINOR value to use POV-Ray's slower-yet-more-accurate Sturmian root solver." The symptoms of root-solver failure for quartic objects range anywhere from black "zits" on the surface to objects consisting of "dust", to totally invisible objects, depending on the severity of the failure. ****************************************************************************** 2.8 HOW DO I SET UP AREA LIGHTS IN POV-Ray 2.2? When you're just trying to get your area lights set up try just using a 2x2 grid with jitter. That'll give you _really_ noisy shadows but they'll be quick and you'll be able to see how the shadows fall. Then you can play with light size and positioning. Once you have the shadows the way you want them then you can up the grid size to smooth them out. As a rough rule of thumb I usually make the size of my area lights equal to about 1/10th their distance from the object being shadowed and then adjust up or down from there. e.g. Say your area light is approx 150 units from the main object you want to shadow then a 15.0 by 15.0 sized light would be a good starting point. Area lights will always be slow (typically around 5 times slower than point lights) however if you find that they're really really slow then you might want to check the following. Make sure that the area light isn't intersecting any other objects in the scene (e.g. sticking partway into a wall or sticking partway through your lamp shade). You might want to use the looks_like { } command to see exactly where the light is. Also make sure that you don't have any objects with variable transparency between the light and the objects. ****************************************************************************** 2.9 I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO IMPORT AN OBJECT I CREATED IN DESIGNCAD (DXF), BUT WHEN I TRACE IT IN POV-Ray, IT COMES OUT FACETED. TAKES A LONG TIME TOO. WHAT IS WRONG? DesignCAD takes that nice curved thing you drew and chops it into flat planes. DXF2POV takes those flat planes and hands them to POV-Ray, which draws flat triangles. If you use DXF2RAW, and then RAW2POV, using the smooth triangles option, you should get something more like what you had in mind. Also, when you draw anything curved in DCAD 3D, like a cone or a sphere or a block sweep, it will ask you for the number of facets or the number of copies. The higher the number you choose, the smoother your final output will be. Those lines and divisions you see on the screen translate directly into the polygons that will be in the DXF. Of course, the higher the number of facets, the more RAM DCAD will need and the slower it will run. Lastly, I had the best luck getting data out of DCAD by using their util to convert the .DW3 to IGES .IGS, then the .IGS to RenderMan .RIB, then the .RIB to RAW using a util called RIB2XYZ, and then finally RAW2POV. A bit arduous, but that path seemed to preserve the vertex ordering correctly. Which is important when you start fooling w/ smooth triangles. ****************************************************************************** 2.10 HOW CAN I RUN POV-Ray FROM WINDOWS? First, read the text file IBMPCEXE.DOC that comes with POV-Ray. There is a section in that text file that describes requirements for running POV-Ray under Windows. You will find even more information in the Q&A.DOC file, also found in the IBMDOCS subdirectory. As for the .PIF settings, just launch the PIF editor, load the _default.pif , and make the following changes. Program Filename C:\COMMAND.COM (thats my path, what's your's ?) Execution Background (this is the whole idea, right ?) KB Limit -1 That's all there is to it. Now just save the .PIF, assign an icon to it, and trace your head off! The -1 setting in the KB Limit boxes allows the DOS session to access all available RAM except for Windows' virtual memory. If you want to set a limit on how much memory is available to the DOS session, then enter a specific amount in the Limit box. I recommend leaving it at -1 so POV-Ray can take what it needs. See POVMOD.TXT for more (accurate) info regarding memory usage. It is also a good idea to load SHARE.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to handle any file access conflicts. Sometimes it gets confusing if you are rendering 3 or 4 pictures at the same time and you accidently try to access a .TGA from one window that is being rendered in another window. SHARE will solve this potential problem. Using POV-Ray under Windows 3.1 enable you to write .POV's and render 3 or 4 pictures the same time. While POV-Ray is faster under DOS alone, some think the 'multitasking' feature of Windows is a definite plus. You can safely run other apps, including other DOS sessions, while POV-Ray is running in the background. As it turns out, POV-Ray doesn't care about the PIF settings for XMS memory limits. I set up a PIF with a DOS memory limit of 146k (the smallest CONVENTIONAL amount that POV-Ray will execute under) and 0k for ALL other memory settings and was able to render most of the sample scenes that were not too memory-demanding (chess.pov, tomb.pov, etc...). I also made a copy of POVRAY.EXE and modified the REGION SIZE to 1024k using the POVMOD.EXE utility. This is what you need to do to control the amount of XMS available to POV, as it will try to take 3072k in it's unmodified state. Read the POVMOD doc for more info. Using the above setup, my DOS window only took 221k when I launched it, and another 1044k after I started rendering CHESS.POV with the modified POVRAY.exe. I suggest you modify a copy of POV-Ray to use under Windows. There are also options for a swap file when you are 'in' povmod. This configuration I have described should work good for rendering small to medium sized scenes using a minimum amount of memory. You can make the REGION SIZE as small as you want, but that limits the complexity of the scenes you can render. ****************************************************************************** 2.11 DOESN'T RUNNING POV-Ray UNDER WINDOWS SLOW EVERYTHING TO A CRAWL? Well, it does slow it down, but not that much. Its a trade off between speed and multi-tasking. Some would rather take the slower rendering and be able to use the computer for other things at the same time than to have the computer tied up by povray. And now, with POV 2.0, the slow down isn't all that bad. I'd guess that the slow down is only a few percent from the couple tests I've run (i.e. 5 minutes under Windows verses 4 minutes under DOS). Avoiding the use of the +x abort option and -using- an image buffer with the +bxxx option can help speed trace times. One of the things I like about using Windows is that I can have the image open at the same time I'm editing the .pov file. And I can have multiple .pov files open at the same time and cut and paste between them. That's all very convenient. If you launch POV-Ray under Windows, Windows, and not POVMOD, determines the EMS available to POV-Ray. Thus, if you have povmod set to use more memory than Windows can allocate, then you get an error and POV-Ray won't run. If you set POVMOD below the maximum memory avaliable in Windows, then everything is fine. ****************************************************************************** Section 3: Modelers ****************************************************************************** 3.1 CAN YOU RECOMMEND SOME GOOD MODELING PROGRAMS? Two of the best are Alphonso Hermida's POVCAD and Lutz Kretzschmar's MORAY. Both are available in GRAPHDEV Lib 8. Both are shareware programs. Of the two, MORAY may be a little friendlier and easier to use, but POVCAD has more features. GRAPHDEV is full of folks who swear by both of them. ****************************************************************************** 3.2 COULD YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN RIGHT HANDED COORDINATES AND LEFT HANDED COORDINATES (RHC vs LHC)? Ray tracers are said to be 'left handed' (like POV-Ray) or right handed (like Vivid, another popular ray tracing program, and MORAY, a modeler for POV-Ray). The basic concepts of "handedness" is already explained well in POVRAY.DOC, but here is a quick ascii diagram that illustrates the difference. Vivid and Moray (right-handed) POV (left-handed) +Z +Y (E) | +Y (F) | +Z | / | / -X______|/_______ +X -X______|/_______ +X / / /| /| / | / | -Y -Z -Z -Y ****************************************************************************** 3.3 HOW CAN I CONVERT AN OBJECT MADE IN A RHC MODELER LIKE MORAY FOR USE IN A SCENE THAT USES LHC? I have done some experiments with this and have discovered that is is not as simple a question as it may first appear. We have to assume a couple of things first. We must assume that the object in question was built in a system or modeler that used RHC, where z=up. Next, we must assume that you want to use that object _as is_, in a scene you are building that uses LHC, where y=up. If you simply paste in the data, #declare it, or #include it, you can orient the object correctly by adding the following transformations: ( *RHC-->LHC* ) rotate <-90, 0, 0> scale <1, 1, -1> Conversly, if you import an object created in standard POV-Ray (LHC) into a scene created by MORAY (RHC), the object can be correctly oriented with the following transformations: ( *LHC-->RHC* ) rotate <90, 0, 0> scale <1, -1, 1> Note that these transformations will not work if you change the coordinate system of the file the object was orginally created in. For instance, if you create the object in MORAY and export it to POV-Ray, and then convert the resulting file to LHC by editing the camera and light specifications, the above transformations will not work, and may even be unecessary. In my tests, in such a case, _no_ transformations to the object were necessary! ****************************************************************************** 3.4 IS THERE A PROGRAM FOR CONVERTING POV-Ray FILES TO MORAY .MDL FILES? No. Such a conversion is not possible at this time. There are, however, many programs for converting other platforms (3ds, dxf, raw etc.) to POV-Ray listed at the end of this document. ****************************************************************************** 3.5 HOW CAN I CREATE TEXT IN POV-Ray USING POVCAD? Doing extruded 3D letters with POVCAD 2.0c is straight forward. Check the file EXT3D.GIF for an example of what can be done....let me give you an idea: Let's assume that you want to create the number "3" and extrude it. (quick and dirty explanation) 1) Load POVCAD (in Windows) and select POV-Ray 2.0 (if that's what you're using) 2) Click on the XY VIEW icon (you'll be drawing on the XY plane) 3) Click on the SNAP and GRID icons (they will switch to ON) 4) Click on the POINT icon (it will switch to ON) 5) Move the mouse to the drawing area (where the axis is) and create the outline of the number "3". (you don't need a lot of points - the B-Spline feature will smooth it out) 6) When you're done, click on the POLY menu and select B-Spline. 7) It will ask you for a name, type 3.RAW (use RAW as the extension since it will create triangles). 8) Now it says that it will create an outline with a default number of points, just press OK (or put in a larger number) 9) What will happen is that the contour will be "closed" and subdivided into triangles and saved in the file named 3.RAW. (The more points, the better the outline) That's the quick an dirty way to create a font. Let me explain how to create a font an also extrude it: 1) repeat steps 1) thru 5) previously mentioned 2) Now that the outline is complete, select the PATH menu and click on BSpline. This command will smooth the outline and save it to a name (usually a use the DAT extension since it's a curve..i.e., 3.DAT) 3) Now select the POLY menu and select PATH DATA...it will make you select a file....choose 3.DAT. 4) Since the data is already smooth just give it a name such as 3.RAW. 5) Now, to EXTRUDE it, click on the OBJECT menu and select EXTRUDE. In there choose DATA FILE and pick the file 3.DAT. 6) You'll be asked for the extruded dimension, put 0.3 or whatever. 7) Now, the Extruded data will be saved in another file as triangles, type the name 3E.RAW (the E for extruded). 8) Click on the ISO VIEW to see the result. Go to FILE, EXPORT to create a raytracer compatible file. ****************************************************************************** 3.6 I AM HAVING PROBLEMS ATTACHING IMAGE MAPS TO OBJECTS IN MORAY. HELP! The easiest way to attach an image_map to an object is to do it while the object is not scaled and not rotated. To illustrate an example, create a wall, but treat it as if it was lying flat on the ground. Then attach the image map and scale and move the image map until it's roughly correct. It'll all seem to be lying on the ground (in Moray) at this stage. Then scale the wall to it's size, but still lying on the floor. Then rotate it by 90 degrees around X, making it stand up like a real wall<g>. OK. Now place the wall the way you want it. Then you discover that the image map is not placed as you wanted it, let's say you need to move it a bit on the wall. Remember that when you placed the image map on the wall you were doing it in the TOP view? Well, even though the wall is now standing up, the image map is still attached to the *same* plane of the wall. So, select the image map, move the mouse to the *TOP* view, zoom in, watch the FRONT view, then click and drag the mouse. The image map in the front view will follow the movement of the mouse (being moved in the TOP view). This is because the texture is rotated before the object, something that you'll be able to toggle in the next version. If you rotate the image map to be standing up and then attach it to the wall, it'll have a different effect. For simplicity's sake<g>, let's say that the wall is not rotated, but scaled to stand up. If you now attach the rotated image map and want to move it you really need to do it in the FRONT view (where you see the wall from the front). It'll follow the cursor. The thing to remember is this: rotation comes before movement and image map transformations come before object transformations. If the wall is buried in transformed unions or groups, it becomes *very* difficult to predict how the object will move<g>. What I do in this case, is write down the rotations of the object (if complex), ungroup it from it's parent, and clear rotation. Now you can place the map quite easily. Then set the rotations and re-attach it to it's previous parent. ****************************************************************************** 3.7 I MADE SOME SWEEPS IN MORAY AND THEY TRACE WITH A FACETED APPEARANCE. WHAT IS WRONG? POV-Ray doesn't have a rotational sweep primitive. The programs that do rotational sweeps for POV-Ray build them from smooth triangles. They may exhibit faceting. They will have straight edges and throw straight-edged shadows. Moray will export sweeps as smooth-triangles, so you won't see faceting on the surface of such an object. But the edges of the object will be facetted, the shadow of the object will have straight edges and shadows that fall on the object will have straight edges. The only cure for this at this point is higher resolution, i.e. more triangles. You may also consider exporting the sweep as a RAW file and running this file through a utility called RAW2POV, by Steve Anger, which will optimize the resulting triangle mesh. Command-line options allow you to smooth any triangles whose angle of intersection with adjoining triangles is greater than 'n', where 'n' is a number (degrees) that you specify. Or you can set that switch to smooth all triangles. Read the RAW2POV docs. ****************************************************************************** 3.8 WHENEVER I TRY TO RENDER A BEZIER CREATED IN MORAY, IT COMES OUT FACETED! WHAT IS WRONG? What you are seeing are the subdivisions. POV-Ray 2.0 beziers are "smooth" by definition, but the subdivision keyword determines how "smooth". Also, the flatness keyword determines at what point the patch is considered smooth. A number of 0.01 works quite well. If you have patches that are very convoluted (heavily twisted or deformed, with reasonably sharp edges), you may need to increase the u_steps and v_steps. Do this by setting these values in the objects editing menu from within Moray. Increasing subdivisions will increase parsing and rendering time for the bezier (exponentially), but eventually the facets get too small to see. Increasing u_steps and v_steps from 3 to 5 and reducing flatness to 0 should do the trick in most cases. ****************************************************************************** Section 4: General Information ****************************************************************************** 4.1 HOW CAN I CONTACT THE POV-RAY TEAM? Names and email addresses of team members are in POVRAY.DOC. Most members have CompuServe access because CompuServe's GraphDev Forum is POV-Ray headquarters. You may send internet email to CompuServe. For example Team Coordinator Chris Young can be reached at CIS:76702,1655 and his internet address is 76702.1655@compuserve.com. Please note that CompuServe is a commercial network that charges users for connect time. Therefore keep messages brief and to the point so that team members can afford to read your questions. DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED LONG LISTINGS OR UUENCODED FILES! The team is happy to help you if we can but please respect our costs. ****************************************************************************** 4.2 WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO MAKE A PRINT OF ONE OF MY IMAGES? If you want to make a photograph of your image, that's what service bureaus are for. They take your file and image it to film. The higher the resolution of the file, the better the slide looks. This is how most pictures get to print. I do 2048x1366 images when I'm going to print. 35mm film will do up to about 4096x2732. Beyond that your pixels are smaller than the grain of the film. If you really want serious quality, as for a photo grade poster, you go to 4x5" transparency from an even bigger file. 35mm slides should cost about $8 each. 4x5 costs more like $75. Takes an $80,000 machine to make those. ****************************************************************************** 4.3 WOULD YOU BELIEVE I WAS SHOOTING FOR SOMETHING LIKE 24"X36"? You can go as big as you want. Start with a 35mm slide and have your local photo shop do a big print. If that doesn't come out good enough for your needs, try the same slide on a pro photo shop. If that doesn't do it, go 4x5 and back to the pro shop. That'll do it. Hurt your wallet, too, though. The next problem is how to get the file to the bureau, since high resolution files get big real fast. You definitely want to send a 24 bit file, and 2048 x 1366 is a good resolution. That's an 8 meg uncompressed TGA. You can use ZIP to compress that, sometimes quite a lot. The best lossless compression available is TIF using the LZW and Predictor options, as found in PhotoStyler or Halo Desktop Imager. But if you have a way to move a big file, it's easier (faster = cheaper) for the service bureau if it's uncompressed. They have to charge you more if they have to mess around with it in any way. I usually transport on QIC 40 tapes. Syquest 44 meg cartridges are the most common medium. Some places will take DOS backups to floppies, or ZIP multi-volume archives to floppies. There are also Bernoulli and DAT drives, as well as writeable CDROM drives. You need to talk to the service bureau and see what you've got that they can use. ****************************************************************************** 4.4 ISN'T THERE ANY WAY TO JUST PRINT DIRECTLY FROM THE IMAGE FILE? There are dye sublimation printers that will give you excellent quality printing directly from file. One such machine is the FUGIX 3000. It works like this: A photosensitive material called Donor is exposed by LD scan with exposure levels corresponding to the original, digitized image data. Then, a dye image forms in the Donor (like a photographic film), and thermal transfer of this dye image gives the finished print. Each component color - cyan, magenta, and yellow - is graded in 256 steps for 16.7 million shades of color to interpret an image. The density modulation is performed for each point of the line scan so there is no trade-off between gradation and resolution. Smooth tone copies can be produced from originals rich in intermediate colors. Best of all, the output is strictly hi-res (400dpi), requires no processing chemicals, and takes only seconds to do. Prices for an 8x10 print should run about $15 - $18. ****************************************************************************** 4.5 WHAT KIND OF UTILITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR POV-Ray, WHAT DO THEY DO, AND WHERE CAN I FIND THEM? There have been a plethora of utilities written for POV-Ray. So many in fact, that I can only list a few of them in this file. It would take a document the size of the POV-Ray docs to describe them all in detail. The following is a list of POV-Ray utilities followed by a short description of what it does. I have divided them into categories according to type. (the number following the filename is the GRAPHDEV library number) MODELERS MRAY.ZIP 8 327K 16-Feb-94 MORAY V1.5 - GUI Modeller for POV-Ray 2.x (PC) PVCWIN.ZIP 8 93K 18-Jan-94 POVCAD 3.0a for Windows MODEL2.ZIP 8 211K 12-Jan-94 WinModel V0.2 PV3DB1.ZIP 8 363K 11-Oct-93 PV3D B1.91 one modeler for POV-Ray 2 and VIVID 2 PVMDLR.ZIP 8 68K 13-Jul-92 POV-Ray Triangle Modeler, Version 1.0 OBJECT GENERATORS BLOB.ZIP 6 46K 16-Feb-94 Blob Sculptor 1.0 LPARS3.ZIP 6 365K 15-Feb-94 L-Parser Version 3 FORM03.ZIP 6 182K 07-Feb-94 Form, r3, Todd & Latham style organic modeler OBJREP.ZIP 8 74K 22-Feb-94 Object Replicator for Windows ver 1.3 TORUS.ZIP 8 1K 13-Jan-94 World's smallest torus generator DNA095.ZIP 8 35K 12-Jan-94 DNA.EXE writes objects for POV-Ray and PolyRay SUDS.ZIP 8 66K 04-Jan-94 POV-Ray "Kissing" Spheres Program FS11R2.ZIP 8 114K 22-Nov-93 FS (Fonts/bmps to shapes) v1.1r2 for POV-Ray SURF.ZIP 8 104K 10-Oct-93 POV-Ray Surface Generator FRGEN.ZIP 6 68K 07-Oct-93 FRGEN v1.4. Generated fractal shapes for raytrace PLANT0.ZIP 8 56K 08-Oct-93 PLANT v0.50a gen's plant objects CLAY.ZIP 6 52K 20-Sep-93 CLAY - Free Form Deformation Program RAYL21.ZIP 8 77K 19-Sep-93 RayLathe v2.10 shape generater POVRay/Vivid/.RAW PVCOIL.ZIP 8 58K 17-Sep-93 Utility to generate twisted rings PTWIST.EXE 8 72K 05-Sep-93 POVTWIST - Create twisted shapes for POV-Ray CTDS.ZIP 6 45K 19-Jul-93 Connect The Dots Smoother v2.30 BOXER1.ZIP 8 45K 03-May-93 BOXER1 POV-Ray UTILITY SPIKE1.ZIP 8 69K 22-Mar-93 SPIKE, random spike generator for POV-Ray TTGLGT.ZIP 8 19K 29-Jan-93 Truman's Torus Generator 1.2 (LITE) SPHGEN.ZIP 8 51K 13-Oct-92 Sphere Generator for POV-Ray HYPE.ZIP 8 27K 13-Oct-92 generates user-defined hyperboloids for POVRAY. POVCOI.ZIP 8 32K 09-Oct-92 Coiled Object Generator CM.ZIP 8 25K 15-Jul-92 CircleMaster 1.0 WORM.ZIP 6 142K 16-Oct-92 Worm Version 0.5a SWOOP.ZIP 6 69K 13-Oct-92 Swoop, a POV-Ray Triangle Generator Utility LISSAJ.ZIP 6 87K 13-Oct-92 Lissjous Object Generator TEXTURING AIDS CRNDR.ZIP 8 94K 03-Feb-92 CRNDR V1.5-Interactive Texture editor for POVRay CMAP.ZIP 8 43K 05-Dec-91 Interactive color map editor version 1.1 POVTEX.ZIP 8 61K 18-Apr-94 Texture generator for POV-Ray ANIMATION DTA.ZIP 12 161K 08-Nov-93 Dave's TGA Animator, Rel. 2.0.8 FWHEEL.ZIP 6 58K 30-Nov-93 FWHEEL: an easy raytracing animation generator POVCK2.ZIP 14 16K 24-Nov-93 PovClock 2.0- animations w/ POV-Ray util RTAG.ZIP 14 86K 09-Jul-93 RTAG v2.0 - Ray Tracing Animation Generator ANIBAT.ZIP 14 37K 28-Aug-91 Animation Batchfile generator SHELLS AND FRONT ENDS PMPOVF.ZIP 8 656K 14-Feb-94 OS/2 PM Shell for POV-Ray 2.2 and DTA 2.1 POVCOM.ZIP 8 174K 07-Feb-94 POV-Ray Commander 1.3 BPFE10.ZIP 8 74K 24-Jan-94 Bob's POV-Ray Front End POVSHE.ZIP 8 89K 19-Jan-94 PovShell 2.0 PLAUNC.ZIP 8 9K 04-Jan-94 POV-Launch: Unofficial POV-Ray launcher (Win 3.1) POVMNU.ZIP 8 178K 08-Dec-93 POVMenu, a development environment for POV-Ray POVPAN.ZIP 8 138K 22-Oct-93 POVPANEL 2.0 - CONTROL PANEL FOR POV-Ray 2.0 PVSHAP.EXE 8 601K 25-Apr-93 PV-Shape POV-Ray shell/object editor RWB.ZIP 8 204K 09-Apr-93 Raytrace Workbench 1.6 POVPM.ZIP 8 7K 14-Jan-93 OS/2 2.x VREXX Shell for POV-Ray POVUTI.ZIP 8 28K 11-Jan-93 Windows POV-Ray Utility ver.2.0 DATA CONVERSION PROGRAMS FRC2PV.ZIP 8 274K 14-Feb-94 Fractint to POV-Ray DXF3DW.ZIP 6 145K 18-Feb-94 DXF to 3DS file convertor, Weitek version DXF3DS.ZIP 6 137K 18-Feb-94 DXF to 3DS file convertor from Yost Group DYEWOR.ZIP 6 44K 11-Jan-94 Dyeworks 1.3 Color Reduction/Conversion DTA.ZIP 12 161K 08-Nov-93 Dave's TGA Animator, Rel. 2.0.8 3DSPOV.ZIP 6 129K 07-Oct-93 3DS2POV v1.8 Converts 3DS to POV-Ray and others RAWPOV.ZIP 6 119K 07-Oct-93 RAW2POV v1.8 Converts RAW files to POV-Ray & othe TGAGI2.ZIP 8 14K 13-Oct-93 TGA2GIF.ZIP DXFRAW.ZIP 6 24K 15-Sep-93 DXF2RAW2 convert DXF to RAW triangles CONVRT.ZIP 6 53K 27-May-93 Coy's CONVERT Post-Processor DXFPOV.ZIP 8 32K 02-Dec-92 DXF to POV-Ray converter 11/30/92 AWKBLB.AWK 8 3K 29-Jun-92 CTDS/WORM to Blob converter EDITORS AND OTHER STUFF POVGRA.BAS 8 1K 28-Jan-94 POVGraph for Windows POVQ.ZIP 8 4K 12-Oct-93 POV-Q - A Queueing system for POV-Ray CULLAR.COM 8 26K 30-Mar-93 CULL - POV scene description file utility. POVEDT.ZIP 8 14K 23-Mar-93 Text Editor Companion to POVCAD PVSCN1.ZIP 8 238K 15-Dec-92 3D-Editor for POV-Ray Part I PVIMG3.ZIP 8 295K 15-Dec-92 3d-Editor for POV-Ray Part III PVB20.ZIP 8 253K 15-Dec-92 3D-Editor for POV-Ray Part II FIXTGA.ZIP 8 8K 26-Nov-92 Fix corrupted POV-Ray Targa files. ****************************************************************************** 4.6 DO YOU HAVE A LIST OF BBS'S FOR POV-Ray AND ITS RELATED UTILITIES AND IMAGES? Professional CAD and Graphics Network (PCGnet) PCGnet serves the both the CAD and Graphics communities by making information useful to them widely available. Formerly known as ADEnet, PCGnet is a new network created from the ground up, incorporating new nodes and focusing evenly on both CAD and Graphics related topics, including, but not limited to the following topics: Design, Drafting, Engineering, 2d & 3d Modeling, Multimedia Systems, Raster Imaging, Raytracing, 3d Rendering and Animation. PCGnet is designed to serve the needs of all callers by stimulating interest and generating support forums for active users who have an interest in the CAD and Graphics related topics previously mentioned; interest and support is generated through PCGnet's message confer- ences, file sharing across the network, and industry news and press releases. PCGnet's message conference are moderated forums designed to accommodate friendly, yet professional and informative discussion of CAD and Graphics related subjects. PCGnet Membership ----------------- This is the concise PCGnet Membership list: AZCAD BBS Melbourne, Australia +61-3-481-6873 CAD Connection Montesson, France +33-1-3053-4110 CAD/Engineering Services Gallatin, TN 615-451-2872 Convergence Spline BBS Richmond, B.C., Canada 604-275-3462 The Drawing Board BBS Anchorage, Alaska 907-349-5412 Granite BBS St. Cloud, Minnesota 612-654-8194 The Graphics Alternative El Cerrito, CA 510-524-2780 The Graphics Connection Wellington, New Zealand +64-4-473-0981 Joe's CODE BBS West Bloomfield, MI 313-855-0894 PC-AUG BBS Phoenix, AZ 602-952-0638 Raytech BBS Sutherland, Scotland +44-86283-2020 Route 66 Solutions Albuquerque, NM 505-294-4543 SAUG BBS Bellevue, WA 206-644-7115 TERN Solution BBS Nepean, Ontario Canada 613-228-0539 The University BBS Shrewsbury Twp, NJ 908-544-8193 Xaqute BBS Studio City, CA 818-980-2685 Zillius BBS! St. Paul, France +33-9332-0505 The following are detailed entries about each PCGnet Member: Name: AZCAD BBS Location: Melbourne, Australia Sysop: Tony Zilles Node: +61-3-481-6873 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) The solitary BBS supporting AutoCAD in Australia, AZCAD has 500+ callers and a large files database. Name: CAD Connection Location: Montesson, France Sysop: Nenad Boric Node: +33-1-3053-4110 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 16.8) Description not currently available. Name: CAD/Engineering Services (CAD/ES) Location: Gallatin, TN Sysop: Stan Bimson Node: 615-451-2872 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 16.8) In addition to carrying the PCGnet message echos, CAD/ES is the home to both FidoNet A_CAD and CAD-CAM echoes, of which Stanis the moderator. CAD/ES is also home to CAD*Net, a FidoNet based AutoCAD related shareware file distribution network. CAD/ES carries other file distribution networks as part of its regular service, such as UtilNet and ScoutFDN, and offers its users an impressive selection of AutoCAD and CAD related files. Name: Convergence Spline BBS Location: Richmond, B.C., Canada Sysop: Kevin Garus Node: 604-275-3462 (Intel 14.4EX v.32bis) Convergence Spline specializes in Raytracing and 3D Modeling, with support for programs like the POV-Ray Raytracer. Convergence Spline's file bases are dedicated to graphics related material, including original images uploaded by the authors. Name: The Drawing Board BBS Location: Anchorage, Alaska Sysop: Diana Lucas Node: 907-349-5412 (Gateway Telephath 14.4 baud) Boasting a large selection of AutoCAD and CAD related files and information, The Drawing Board BBS is Alaskas only AutoCAD support BBS. A member of AnchorageNet and FidoNet, TDB carries numerous echomail conferences designed to support CAD, engineering, graphic design, and home improvement. Name: Granite BBS Location: St. Cloud, MN Sysop: Christine Blount Node1: 602-952-0638 (USR HST 14.4) Node2: 612-654-8194 (v.32bis 14.4) Node3: 612-656-0678 (v.32bis 14.4) Granite BBS has been operating for over 10 years and has established itself as a prominent, progressive, and professional E-Mail bulletin board system. With over 650 echoed conferences, Granite BBS is by far the Largest E-Mail based BBS in Minnesota. Working in coop- eration with the Central Minnesota CADD Users Group, (CM-CADD), has establisthed a CAD related file area in which their 40+ member club may use to exchange CAD related information. Name: The Graphics Alternative Location: El Cerrito, CA Sysop: Adam Shiffman Node: 510-524-2780 (PM14400FXSA v.32bis 14.4k, Public) Node: 510-524-2165 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4k, Subscribers) Serving as the PCGnet hub for Graphics related systems, TGA focuses heavily on 3D Rendering, Raytracing, Modeling, and 3D Animation for both serious amateurs and industry professionals. TGA is currently the official support system for the shareware raytracer, Vivid, and sports an extensive library of computer graphic utilities, programs, source code and images created by active callers. TGA is an active and progressive BBS system which offers both quality messaging and files to its 1300+ users. Name: The Graphics Connection BBS Location: Wellington, New Zealand Sysop: Mark Remfrey Node: +64-4-473-0981 (Zyxel 16.8k/v.32bis) The only BBS in New Zealand to support AutoCAD, and other AutoDESK products. With over 750Mb of data available, it makes for a very comprehensive library. The BBS is supported by NZ's CAD dealer of the year, and run by the largest consulting engineering practice in the southern hemisphere. The BBS is also part of the Autodesk Global Village BBS project. Name: Joe's CODE BBS Location: West Bloomfield, Michigan Sysop: Joe Smolinski Node: 313-855-0894 (PM14400FXSA v.32bis 14.4k) Description not currently available. Name: PC-AUG BBS Location: Phoenix, AZ Sysop: James Witt Node: 602-952-0638 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) PC-AUG has it's roots in the AutoCAD community. One of the three founding members of PCGnet. PC-AUG has a large library of AutoDesk related files, a member of CAD_NET and its File Distribution Network (FDN), offers FidoNet conferences as well as Intelec message conferences areas, actively supports The AutoDesk Global Village Project CDROM interface (AGV) and the North American AutoCad User Group (NAAUG), member of The Phoenix Acanthus Users Group. Name: Raytech BBS Location: Sutherland, Scotland Sysop: Paul Smith Node: +44-86283-2020 (Zoom v.32bis 14.4k) Raytech BBS is the only BBS in the UK dedicated to Raytracing and other computer graphics. Raytech is connected to Fidonet and is the home of the fido GRAPHICS_UK conference. An excellent range of raytracers and support programs is available to callers 24 hours per day. Raytech is also the sole European support and registration site for the excellent VIVID Raytracer. Name: Route 66 Solutions Location: Albuquerque, NM Sysop: Jon Barton Jacob Node: 505-294-4543 (Zyxel 1496) Description not currently available. Name: SAUG BBS - Seattle AutoCAD Users Group Location: Bellevue, WA Sysop: Dennis Shinn Node: 206-643-5477 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) SAUG is the home of the Seattle AutoCAD User Group. Formerly known as Alacrity BBS, founded by Jason Osgood and a founding member of ADEnet, SAUG is now an active member of PCGnet, the succesor to ADEnet. SAUG maintains an extensive AutoCAD related library of files, Autolisp routines, and a smaller library of shareware utilities, including raytracing, DOS and communictions utilities. SAUG is an expanding and progressive BBS system which relies on modest contri- butions from its users for support. Name: TERN Solution BBS Location: Nepean, Ontario Canada Sysop: Patrick Oullette Node: 613-228-0539 (Multitech v.32 9600) TERN Solution BBS was originally conceived to support the CAD Community and the TERN AutoCad clients. TERN Solution BBS offers access to FidoNet message bases and the CAD*NET file distribution systems. It also offers the capability of sending in drawing files thru the modem to be plotted at it's plotting service bureau. With it's experience in Drawing Management Systems, Large Document & Apperture Card Scanning, Drawing Conversion, Hardware & Software Integration, and Cad Project Management, TERN offers it's clients a broad base of services and solutions. Name: The University BBS Location: Shrewsbury Twp, NJ Sysop: Mike Quinlan Node: 908-544-8193 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) The University BBS began as a CAD oriented BBS in Northern New Jersey, operated by Barry Wasserman; unable to continue as SysOp, the BBS was moved to it's present location just over one year later. The University BBS offers it's callers access to all PCGnet conf- erences, and many Fidonet conferences covering OS2, C programming, Cooking, and much more. Callers also have access to file distri- bution networks covering AutoCAD (CAD*NET), DESQview, OS2, Utilities, Novell Netware, WordPerfect, and Source code for C, Pascal, and Basic. Name: Xaqute BBS Location: Studio City, CA Sysop: Eduard Marghidan Node: 818-980-2685 (PPI 9600SA v.32) Description not currently available. Name: Zyllius BBS! Location: St. Paul, France Sysop: Vincent Mallet Node: +33-9332-0505 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 16.8k) Node: +33-9332-0720 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4k) Description not currently available. PCGnet Network Positions and Hubs --------------------------------- The following is the current listing of PCGnet Network Coordinators and Hub's: Echomail Hubs: Title: Network Coordinator Name: PC-AUG BBS Location: Scotsdale, AZ Sysop: James Witt Node: 1-602-952-0638 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) Status: PCGnet Hub, Active Address: 9:517/160 Title: Policy Coordinator Name: The Graphics Alternative Location: El Cerrito, CA Sysop: Adam Shiffman Node: 510-524-2780 (PM14400FXSA v.32bis 14.4k, Public) Status: PCGnet Hub, QWK based Hub, Active Address: 9:510/911 Regional Host Systems: Title: Host System Name: The Graphics Connection Location: Wellington, New Zealand Sysop: Mark Remfrey Node: +64-4-473-0981 (Zyxel 16.8k/v.32bis) Status: PCGnet Host, Active Address: 9:532/270 Title: Host System Name: Raytech BBS Location: Sutherland, Scotland Sysop: Paul Smith Node: +44-86283-2020 (Zoom v.32bis 14.4) Status: PCGnet Host, Active Address: 9:526/464 Title: Host System Name: CAD Connection Location: Montesson, France Sysop: Nenad Boric Node: +33-1-3053-4110 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 16.8) Status: PCGnet Host, Active Address: 9:520/203 Other Official PCGnet Positions: Title: Membership Coordinator Name: PC-AUG BBS Location: Phoenix, AZ Sysop: James Witt Node: 602-952-0638 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) Voice: 602-840-9230 Status: PCGnet Hub, Active Address: 9:517/160 Title: Promotional Coordinator Name: SAUG BBS - Seattle AutoCAD Users Group Location: Bellevue, WA Sysop: Dennis Shinn Node: 206-643-5477 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4) Status: PCGnet Node, Active Address: 9:517/206 Title: Nodelist Coordinator Name: CAD/Engineering Services (CAD/ES) Location: Gallatin, TN Sysop: Stan Bimson Node: 615-451-2872 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 16.8) Status: PCGnet Node, Active Address: 9:517/332 Joining PCGnet -------------- PCGnet currently supports FidoNet's echomail message networking protocol and the QWK packet format. At this time, The Graphics Alternative serves as a Hub for existing nodes, and QWK based echomail systems. For more information regarding joining PCGnet, please download PCGNET.ZIP or see the INTRO.TXT contained with the contents of PCGNET.ZIP. INTERNET : There is a ray-tracing specific newsgroup that (because of its popularity) concentrates mostly on POV-Ray, although it is not restricted to it. It is comp.graphics.raytracing. If you have a query, try reading the last few days worth of messages first, and if that doesn't help, place your query in the newsgroup. You will probably get a reply as the newsgroup is fairly active. If you can't get access to newsgroups, try mailing povray@uniwa.uwa.edu.au, but only as a last resort ! There is no guarantee that you will get a speedy reply from this address (or even any reply at all ! <g>) Requests mailed to this address may be placed into the newsgroup. Sites: alfred.ccs.carleton.ca ftp/pub/pov-ray uniwa.uwa.edu.au ftp/pub/povray