Here are some tips to help beginners cope with POV-Ray's flood of methods 
to set command-line parameters.

The easiest way to run POV-Ray is with a batchfile.  Here's the
general idea.  Create a text file called RUNPOV.BAT or something similar.
A sample file is included in this archive and its contents are shown below.  
Be sure to edit the drive and paths to match your system.  If you place 
this batch file in a directory which is on your DOS path, then you may 
run POV-Ray from any directory without adding the C:\POVRAY2 directory to 
your path.

------------RUNPOV.BAT---Cut-here---------
c:\povray2\povray c:\povray2\%1.def -i%2.pov -o%2.tga %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
------------RUNPOV.BAT---Cut-here---------

In your POVRAY2 directory you should have POVRAY.EXE and a number of .DEF
files.  You should create different .DEF files for different purposes.
For example QUICK.DEF could be a 160x100 test render with low quality 
settings. FINAL.DEF might be 640x680 with full quality and anti-aliasing.

Several sample .DEF files are included in this archive and their contents
are given below.  

To use RUNPOV.BAT you type the name of the .DEF file followed by the name
of the scene file like this:

RUNPOV FINAL MYSCENE

This will run POV-Ray using FINAL.DEF rendering MYSCENE.POV to MYSCENE.TGA.
Note that you don't have to type the extension .DEF or .POV because the
batch file adds it for you.

If FINAL.DEF didn't include anti-aliasing you could add it like this:

RUNPOV FINAL MYSCENE +A0.1 +R4 +J0.5

The first parameter must always be a .DEF file in the c:\povray2 directory
and the second parameter must be a .POV scene file.  After that you may add
up to 7 more command-line switches to modify or add to the basic settings 
in your chosen .DEF file.

Here is the contents of the sample .DEF files we've provided.  Edit
these or create your own.  Note the dashed lines and filenames are not 
part of the file.

-----------D160.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w160 -h100          
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
-----------D320.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w320 -h200          
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
-----------D640.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w640 -h480          
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
-----------D800.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w800 -h600          
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
-----------ND160.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w160 -h100          
 -d +v
 +ft -p +x 
-----------ND320.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w320 -h200          
 -d +v
 +ft -p +x 
-----------ND640.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w640 -h480          
 -d +v
 +ft -p +x 
-----------ND800.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w800 -h600          
 -d +v
 +ft -p +x 
-----------QUICK.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w160 -h100 +Q3
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
-----------SUPER.DEF--------
 +Lc:\povray2\scenes  +Lc:\povray2\include    
 -w800 -h600       
 +d -v
 +ft +p +x 
 +a0.1 +r4
----------------------------

All of the files set two library paths using +L switches.  All turn
on .TGA file output with +FT and all allow interrupted traces with
the +X switch.

The Dnnn.DEF files turn graphics display on and verbose messages off
while the NDnnn.DEF files use no display and turn messages on.  The
file QUICK.DEF uses 160x100 with display but lowers quality with +Q3.
The file SUPER.DEF uses 800x600 with anti-aliasing in a 4x4 rays
per pixel.