Whats new to version 1.43 ============================================================ o Added support for Hicolor DAC display mode o Changed resolution selection mechanism to slider o Added save options on exit to save current state. Version 1.42 o Removed WINPOV path. It didn't serve any purpose. o Added POVRAY.DEF file specification support. Version 1.41 o Modified the path setup stuff to be more efficient. o Added much more error trapping code. o Cleaned up drop down menus. Version 1.32: o Fixed a bug that left zero byte files hanging around. o Fixed a bug regarding resolution selection. o Made the continue aborted render logic a bit more robust. o Changed the way WINPOV invokes POVRAY to handle multiple PIF files. o Added ability to change Windows editor and targa viewers. o WINPOV will restart an aborted render if you select a targa file that has not completed rendering. o Supports running POVRAY in full screen to display rendering progress. o Optionally will start background instances of POVRAY pre-minimized. o Delete button next to file list o Render quality setting (I can't believe I forgot that in 1.0) WINPOV Mar 12 1992 - 21:11 by Randy Antler CIS ID:71511,1015 Well here it is! The first front end processor for POV in Windows! Actually, it's just a pretty front end for choosing options and datafiles and such. It allows you to select pretty much all of the POV options, but I might have forgotten a couple. It is (hopefully) bug free, as I have tested all of the options myself, but it does let you do things with POV that don't necessarily work. Such as resuming a trace with different display resolution, or using notepad to edit a targa file! Please let me know of any bugs you find and or any enhancements you would like made. After I get tired of playing around with the program, I'll make the source code available. But until then I prefer to release only the executable version. The program is written in Visual Basic with some of the new custom control libraries that are becoming available. The executable size is only around 24K but you must have the Visual Basic DLL file called VBRUN100.DLL, which is publicly available. Also included is the file THREED.VBX needed for the custom controls. Since POV ray is not actually running as a Windows application, you need to setup a PIF file that will allow POV to run in the background. This is only possible for Windows users who can run in 386 Enhanced mode. There are sample PIF files enclosed that I use with WINPOV that you can hack up to fit your environment. If you have sufficient resources available on your machine you can actually kick off multiple POV ray sessions simultaneously! WINPOV also has the ability to launch the Windows notepad to facilitate editing your POV datafiles. You can also print your POV from within WINPOV by the same method. The program keeps track of where the data files reside in a file call WINPOV.INI. It is not recommended that you edit this file. To setup WINPOV for your system, select Setup Path Info from the File menu. Enter the pertinent information on the screen that follows and click the Save Configuration button. Next choose the Setup Libraries option from the File menu and setup everything you need there as well. If any of the path specifications are invalid or files that are expected there, are not present, WINPOV should present you with a warning box to that effect, and you can go back and change whatevery was wrong. Here is a brief explaination of each path and its function within WINPOV: PathSpec Example ======================================================================= Datafile Path d:\work\pov\dat This is the directory where you store your POV datafiles. Include Path d:\work\pov\inc This is the directory where you store your INC files. May be the same as your datafile path. Targa Path d:\work\pov\targas This is the directory where POVRAY will be told to store its output. PIF Path d:\work\pov\winpov\povray.pif This is the path of the PIF file needed to execute POVRAY in background processing mode. Each mode of POVRAY execution needs its own PIF file. Click each radio button in Current Path Setup and ensure that the PIF Path is pointing to the correct PIF file for that mode. ---------------------------- DEF Path d:\work\pov\povray.def This is the path specification to the POVRAY definition file. EditorPath notepad.exe Path specification of the Windows program you wish to use as your POV data file editor. This function will break if your program doesn't use the CUI (common user interface) that Windows apps are supposed to follow. For example Alt-FO to open a file. ViewerPath f:\winrix\wr.exe Path specification to a Windows targa viewing program. Use SENDKEYS to send to commands needed to open the file, so don't use a DOS application here or weird things will happen. See note on EditorPath. ======================================================================= WINPOV passes the parameters you've chosen to POVRAY in DOS by creating a POVRAY.DEF file in the current directory (or where you started WINPOV from) and executing POVRAY with a dummy commandline parameter to get it read the POVRAY.DEF file. All of the options have been written to the DEF file so it doesn't really matter what parameter gets passed. This parameter is recorded in the sample POVRAY.PIF file enclosed. Be sure that the Startup Path in the PIF file is the same as the PIF Path in the Setup Path Info screen. Wish List / Future Features: =========================================== o Keep track of image rendering times in Windows. o Link 32x32 icon images to POV datafiles for browsing (Just like Jim Nitchals' MAC version. Looks great!) o Use SSTOOLS.INI file for storing configuration info. o Display image in a Windows window during rendering. =============================================================================