POVray at SOCS

Current status:
Installed at SOCS on main servers (SUNS), and Pentiums running FreeBSD (unix).

The program ``POV-ray'' is a command-line oriented rendering program. It can be found in ``/usr/local/bin/povray''. There is also a course directory titled ``/course/cs557/PovStuff'' (on marge.cs.mcgill.ca) that may contain some additional information. Binaries for several machine architectures are (also) available over the internet (click here) so you can run it at home in many cases. Versions of this program can be installed on PC-compatibles, Macs, SGIs or other architectures so you can put it on your own machine, if you have one.

POVRAY will read rendering commands from an input text file which you may create with any text editor. Once you have created a file, for example called "myfile.pov", it can be processed using the command:
povray -imyfile.pov

The SOCS installation may automatically convert the default "TGA" format output file to "ppm" format and, if you are using X-windows, display it using Xview. These options can be disabled by the flags -ppm and -xview respectively.

Because most displays do not have square pixels, you may want to correct the aspect ratio with the flags: +W80 +H60

The following example file should be enough to give you the general idea to get going.

There is an extensive (200 page) manual on-line. It can be borrowed from the consultant's desk.


dudek@cim.mcgill.ca
Thu Jan 22 18:16:54 EST 1997