This file contains the documentation specific to the Amiga version of POVRay v2.1. Differences From Original Distribution: The original distribution of POVRay is in ZIP format and contains files in MS-DOS format. The filenames are restricted to 8.3 characters and the text files contain CRLF line terminators. A script and a utility to strip CRs, restore the long Amiga filenames, and create icons is provided in the POVRAY/MACHINE/AMIGA directory. Note that none of the POVRay data files need be stripped of CRs as POVRay accepts data files both with and without CRs. There are custom Amiga executable, documentation, and scene archives that have been converted to LZH format and have been stripped of all CR characters and include long Amiga filenames and Amiga icons. The Amiga executable archive contains two executable versions of POVRay, a 68881 and an IEEE version, two executable programs that perform image postprocessing, one to HAM6 and one to IFF24, and two programs that convert TGA files, one to GIF and one to DUMP. Otherwise, the Amiga distribution is identical to the ZIP distribution. SEE POVLEGAL.DOC FOR USE AND DISTRIBUTION TERMS. The Amiga archive in LZH format is an officially supported and distributed format. Executables: Six executables are provided: povray881 - The version for systems with 68881 math coprocessors. povrayieee - The version for systems without a coprocessor. dump2iff - Converts POV output files to Amiga HAM6. dump2i24 - Converts POV output files to Amiga IFF24 tga2dump - Converts TARGA format to dump format. tga2gif - Converts TARGA files to GIF. Running POVRay: When running POVRay, be sure that you have a large stack set. If the stack is too small, POVRay could crash without warning. Mine is set to 80,000 bytes. Memory Requirements: POVRay can run on simple files with 1 Meg of memory. I would highly recommend having more memory to render more complicated scenes. There is a known bug in this version which prevents POVRay from cleaning up gracefully if it runs out of memory in some instan- ces. If this occurs, the cancel requestor will not be closed. If you click on it, the system will probably hang or reboot. Display Formats: The Amiga version of the raytracer supports four types of display formats: +d, +d0 - default +d1 - HAM6 +d2 - HAM8 +dE - HAME +dF - Firecracker By default, a display will be generated in HAM6 according to the image size. If the image is wider than 368 pixels, the display's horizontal mode is hi-res, otherwise it is lo-res. If the image is taller than 241 pixels, the display's vertical mode is interlaced, otherwise it is non-interlaced. Images that are smaller than the nominal screen size are centered in the display screen. Images that are larger than the nominal screen size are displayed in overscan. Note that not all machines can display a hi-res HAM6 screen or an AGA screen. If your machine cannot display a particular screen, the screen-open call will fail and an error will be displayed. The HAME mode is always 320 x 200 pixels. The firecracker mode adjusts the resolution according to the -w (width) parameter of the raytracer. 320 <= w < 0 use 320 x 482 640 <= w < 320 use 640 x 482 768 <= w < 640 use 768 x 482 1024 <= w < 768 use 1024 x 482 File Formats: The default file format for the Amiga is "dump" format (+fd). Targa or raw may be specified on the command line or in the povray.def file. Building The Source: POVRay was compiled using SAS C version 5.10b. I'm sure that later versions will work. If you're compiling with another compiler, you'll have to edit the makefile to set the proper compiler options. As far as that goes, you're on your own. To compile POVRay from the original source, follow these instructions: 1) From a shell, CD to the POVRAY/MACHINE/AMIGA directory and "execute dos2ami", which is a script that will strip CRs from the text files, restore long filenames, and install some icons. 2) Copy the files in the POVRAY/SOURCE directory into a POVRAY/ BUILD directory. 3) Copy from the POVRAY/MACHINE/AMIGA directory files 'amiga.c', 'config.h', and 'makefile' to the POVRAY/BUILD directory. 4) If you're building an IEEE executable, you must edit the makefile and comment out the line for "CFLAGS = ..." for the '881, uncomment the line "CFLAGS = ..." for the IEEE emulator, and type "lmk povrayieee". 5) To compile a 68881 version of POVRay, leave the original makefile unaltered and type "lmk". Post-Processing Images: Two utilities called dump2iff and dump2i24 have been included in the executable archive to convert the POVRay format output to HAM6 and IFF24 format. To run these utilities, you must provide the names of the input and output files. eg. dump2i24 picture.dis picture.i24 or dump2iff picture.dis picture.iff The dump2iff program can also write out a file containing the palette it used to make the image. It can then be told to use this palette when converting other images. This is useful for making animations for animation players that can't change color palettes between frames. To output a palette, use the -p option of dump2iff: dump2iff -ppicture.pal picture.dis picture.iff To use this palette for other images, simply add it to the command line: dump2iff picture.dis picture.iff picture.pal By default, dump2iff will perform dithering to help smooth out the color changes. To disable dithering, use -d on the command line. The dump2i24 program does not generate a palette. The 24-bit pixel data is stored directly into 24 bit-planes. Two other utilities called tga2dump and tga2iff are also included in the executable archive to convert TARGA format files. To run these utilities you must provide the names of the input and output files. eg. tga2gif -d -m picture.tga picture.gif or tga2dump picture.tga picture.dis "The Art Department Professional" by ASDG does a fine job of post- processing images. ADPro can accept QRT format images (which is the format output by POVRay with the +fd command-line parameter). Al- ternatively, you can output Targa (+ft) or raw (+fr). To read the raw format into ADPro, use the Scuplt reader. You'll have to type in the resolution you used to generate the image. This document is based on text originally by David K. Buck. Comments and suggestions about the Amiga version can be directed to me: Dave Park Internet: 70004.1764@compuserve.com CompuServe: [70004,1764]