povray is the name of the program and it is followed by several switches. Each switch begins with a plus or minus sign. The +I switch with the filename tells POV-Ray what scene file it should use as input and +V tells the program to output its status to the text screen as it's working. The +W and +H switches set the width and height of the image in pixels. This image will be 80 pixels wide by 60 pixels high.
In switches which toggle a feature, the plus turns it on and minus turns it off. For example +P turns on the pause for keypress when finished option while -P turns it off. Other switches are used to specify values and do not toggle a feature. Either plus or minus may be used in that instance. For example +W 320 sets the width to 320 pixels. You could also use -W 320 and get the same results.
Switches may be specified in upper or lower case. They are read left to right but in general may be specified in any order. If you specify a switch more than once, the previous value is generally overwritten with the last specification. The only exception is the +L switch for setting library paths. Up to ten unique paths may be specified.
Almost all + / - switches have an equivalent option which can be used in an INI file which is described in the next section. A detailed description of each switch is given in the option reference section.
The majority of options you use will be stored in INI files. The command line switches are recommended for options which you will turn off or on frequently as you perform test renderings of a scene you are developing. The file povray.ini is automatically read if present. You may specify additional INI files on the command-line by simply typing the file name on the command line. For example:
If no extension is given, then .ini is assumed. POV-Ray knows this is not a switch because it is not preceded by a plus or minus. In fact a common error among new users is that they forget to put the +I switch before the input file name. Without the switch, POV-Ray thinks that the scene file simple.pov is an INI file. Don't forget! If no plus or minus precedes a command line switch, it is assumed to be an INI file name.
You may have multiple INI files on the command line along with switches. For example:
This reads options from myopts.ini , then sets the +V switch, then reads options from other.ini .
An INI file is a plain ASCII text file with options of the form...
For example the INI equivalent of the switch +I simple.pov is...
Options are read top to bottom in the file but in general may be specified in any order. If you specify an option more than once, the previous values are generally overwritten with the last specification. The only exception is the Library_Path = path options. Up to ten unique paths may be specified.
Almost all INI-style options have equivalent + / - switches. The option reference section gives a detailed description of all POV-Ray options. It includes both the INI-style settings and the + / - switches.
The INI keywords are not case sensitive. Only one INI option is permitted per line of text. You may also include switches in your INI file if they are easier for you. You may have multiple switches per line but you should not mix switches and INI options on the same line. You may nest INI files by simply putting the file name on a line by itself with no equals sign after it. Nesting may occur up to ten levels deep.
For example:
INI files may have labeled sections so that more than one set of options may be stored in a single file. Each section begins with a label in [] brackets. For example:
When you specify the INI file you should follow it with the section label in brackets. For example...
POV-Ray reads res.ini and skips all options until it finds the label Med . It processes options after that label until it finds another label and then it skips. If no label is specified on the command line then only the unlabeled area at the top of the file is read. If a label is specified, the unlabeled area is ignored.
To set the environment variable under MS-Dos you might put the following line in your autoexec.bat file...
On most operating systems the sequence of reading options is as follows:
| 1. | Read options from default INI file specified by the POVINI environment variable or platform specific INI file. |
| 2. | Read switches from command line (this includes reading any specified INI/DEF files). |
The POVRAYOPT environment variable supported by previous POV-Ray versions is no longer available.
The notation and terminology used is described in the tables below.
| Keyword=bool | turn Keyword on if bool equals true, yes, on or 1 and turn it off if it is any other value. |
| Keyword=true | do this option if true, yes, on or 1 is specified. |
| Keyword=false | do this option if false, no, off or 0 is specified. |
| Keyword=file | any valid file name. Note: some options prohibit the use of any of the above true or false values as a file name. They are noted in later sections. |
| n | any integer such as in +W320 |
| n.n | any float such as in Clock=3.45 |
| 0.n | any float < 1.0 even if it has no leading 0 |
| s | any string of text |
| xor y | any single character |
| path | any directory name, drive optional, no final path separator ("\" or "/", depending on the operating system) |
Unless otherwise specifically noted, you may assume that either a plus or minus sign before a switch will produce the same results.