POV-Ray
POV- Ray ( Persistence of Vision - literally as: The persistence / inertia of seeing / afterimage on the retina - as after looking at the sun ) is a ray - tracer, ie a 3D computer graphics program. The possible ambiguities in the interpretation of the name are intended. The computational complexity for image formation is so high, so that today's personal computer for several minutes to hours or days may be employed with the calculation of a single image (2010).
Technology
POV- Ray renderer is a pure and contains no own 3D modeler. The definition of the represented scene is done via a separate scene description language ( Scene Description Language, SDL ), the syntax of the programming languages C and C is similar. To create complex models external tools can be used, such as Moray or KPovModeler.
In contrast to the usual renderers the underlying data are not based on polygons, but on mathematical formulas and bodies. This makes it possible, for example, represent a three-dimensional fractal. However, this has the result that the compatibility is greatly restricted. There are many conversion programs of other 3D - graphics formats to POV- Ray format, but can convert any of that POV -Ray data without loss of information in a different format.
POV- Ray raytracing controlled, a corresponding adaptations of the radiosity calculation and rudimentary photon maps to the calculation of caustics.
The complexity of the rendered images are no theoretical limits; in practice, the available processing time is the limiting factor.
History
Around 1986 David Kirk Buck had an Amiga computer. One of his friends showed him at this time a ray tracer, which was incompatible with Bucks Amiga. Therefore, he wrote the appropriate drivers to use the tracer itself can. This ray tracer could only represent a pure black or white as well as simple spheres. Since Buck was nevertheless impressed by the program, he programmed the program a little further, so that it also supported color representations. He realized that it was better to develop your own raytracer - DKBTrace was born.
In 1987 or 1988 Buck was contacted by Aaron Collins, as this had DKBTrace modified so that it - was to use on a PC - instead of the previous only on the Amiga. This created a collaboration between Buck and Collins. While the two of version 2.12 of DKBTrace - the last published version - worked, she became aware of a group of people who were very interested in DKBTrace and created many different scenes with it. Since this group was frustrated that Buck and Collins were not fast enough to install new features in DKBTrace, they made the proposal to develop another new raytracer. Since Buck spent less and less time with ray tracing at this time, he made this group on CompuServe offered to develop a new ray tracer based on DKBTrace. This offer he associated with three conditions:
- The program must be offered as freeware and the source code be freely available
- The program must be platform independent
- The program must have a different name than " DKBTrace "
Since you agreed to these Terms, you went on the Naming, where the name " Persistence Of Vision Raytracer " was proposed, which was eventually shortened to " POV- Ray".
The first published version of POV -Ray - POV- Ray 0.5 - was basically an improved version of DKBTrace because POV- Ray 0.5 still use the same syntax, but had far more features than DKBTrace 2:12. Only with version 1.0 of its own syntax for POV- Ray was developed. At the time of publication of POV- Ray 2.0 and Buck left the development team after Collins had left it previously and Chris Cason became head of the development team.
The current version of POV- Ray 3.6.2 for Windows or 3.6.1 for other systems. POV- Ray 3.7 has been released for testing in advance, but not yet replaced version 3.6, since the developers are still reserved to make changes until the official release. The version 3.7 includes support for multithreading and greatest innovation. In addition, there are minor syntax changes and additions to language.
Versions
There are versions for almost all popular platforms, including some based on distributed systems ( clusters ) can be operated. Thus, the computing power of POV- Ray is in direct proportion to the number of available computers and is scalable through this.
- Render Examples
Four precision dice
Roman dodecahedron
" House of the Temple " in Washington, D.C.
Application
Scene structure
Each scene is built on the same principle: First, the camera position is defined and the point to which it is focused, then the background and the light source (s ) can be defined only after the contents of the scene 's turn. Sample Floor Scene
/ / Skeleton # include " colors.inc " global_settings { assumed_gamma 1.0 } camera { location < 0,0.5, -4 > look_at < 0,0,0 > } sky_sphere { pigment { gradient y color_map { [0.0 rgb < 0.6,0.7,1.0 >] [0.7 rgb < 0.0,0.1,0.8 >] } } } light_source { < -30.30, -30 > color rgb < 1,1,1 > } / / Scene content / / A green level plane { y, -1 pigment { color rgb < 0.2,0.8,0.2 > } } / / A red ball sphere { < 0,0,1 >, 1 texture { pigment { Red color } } } Such scenes can quickly assume great complexity when simulating a building, for example, with POV- Ray or creates an animation.
Basic objects
Sphere {
- Official Website
- Small introduction to the program
- POV- Ray Tutorial Geometric Shapes
- Icons with Povray and their scripts
- Sr- povray A to Lorentz contraction extended by Leo Brewin Version 3.6