COMPILING DOCUMENTATION FOR POV-Ray FOR MS-DOS USING WATCOM
1.0 INTRODUCTION AND DISCLAIMERS
This documentation is to help you compile the portable C source code into a
working executable version of POV-Ray for MS-Dos using a Watcom C compiler.
The Watcom compiled version of POV-Ray is designated by ".msdos.wat" after
the POV-Ray version number on the opening banner. Everything in this
document ONLY applies to that version. Other versions will operate under
different rules. This file is NOT the only compiling documentation for
POV-Ray. Before proceeding any farther, you should first read the file
COMPILE.DOC in the root directory of the source archive. It provides
important information about the generic parts of POV-Ray. Also read
SOURCE\MSDOS\CMPL_MSD.DOC which provides MS-Dos specific information.
When this document refers to "this directory" it means the
SOURCE\MSDOS\WATCOM directory. All of the compiler-specific files for this
version are found in there. The makefiles are designed under the
assumption that you are compiling from this directory.
This documentation DOES NOT tell you how to use POV-Ray for MS-Dos. It is
assumed you already have obtained the official executable archive compiled
for MS-Dos and that you are familiar with using it. It contains essential
user documentation, sample scenes and standard scene include files. User
documentation is in the executable archive in the hypertext file
POVHELP.PHE. The executable archive also includes a help reader program to
read PHE files and utilities to translate PHE into other forms. MS-Dos
specific user documentation is in the text file POVMSDOS.DOC in the
executable archive. Watcom specific user documentation can be found in
CMPL_WAT.DOC in this directory.
The first question you should ask yourself before proceeding is "Do I
really need to compile POV-Ray at all?" If you do not intend to add any
custom or experimental features to the program, or to port it to an
unsupported compiler you need not compile this program yourself.
As explained in COMPILE.DOC, if you do want to proceed you should be aware
that you are very nearly on your own. This documentation and other related
compiling documentation assumes you know what you are doing. In general
you should not expect any technical support from the POV-Ray Team on how to
compile the program. Everything is provided here "as is". All we can say
with any certainty is that we were able to compile it on our system. If it
doesn't work for you, we probably cannot tell you why.
When making any custom version of POV-Ray or any unofficial compile, please
make sure you read and follow all provisions of our license in the file
POVLEGAL.DOC. In general you can modify and use POV-Ray on your own
however you want but if you distribute your unofficial version you must
follow our rules. You may not under any circumstances use portions of POV-
Ray source code in other programs.
2.0 SUPPORTED COMPILER VERSIONS
POV-Ray 3.0 must be compiled using a 32-bit protected mode, flat memory
model compiler for 386 CPU or better. It cannot be compiled as a real mode
or 286 protected mode program. It cannot be compiled in small, medium,
large or even huge memory models.
The Watcom C/C++ version 10.6 by Powersoft is the compiler used for our
officially distributed version. It compiles reasonably fast and produces
the fastest, most stable executables we have tried. The major drawback is
that the DOS4GW dos extender that comes with it is limited to 16 meg of
physical memory and 16 meg virtual memory however other unlimited dos
extenders may be purchased. Many large triangle mesh or recursive object
scenes can exceed this limit. Although we use the current version 10.6, we
have successfully used 10.0a, 10.5 and 10.5a versions.
3.0 Libraries
This version requires 4 libraries. Pre-compiled versions of these
libraries are provided in this directory. The first 2, LIBPNG.LIB and
ZLIB.LIB add support for PNG format files. If you need to re-compile them
for any reason, you may use the batch file BUILDPNG.BAT. It will log to
the ..\..\ZLIB directory, erase any previously compiled lib, re-compile
ZLIB, copy it to this directory, and cleans up the ZLIB directory. Then it
does the same for LIBPNG.LIB and the ..\..\LIBPNG directory.
PMODE.LIB provides access to video and dos memory from protected mode.
ZTIMER.LIB provides a precision timer for the histogram profiling feature.
There are source files in SOURCE\MSDOS\PMODE and SOURCE\MSDOS\ZTIMER but we
have not provided make files. Parts of these libs are written in assembler
and require Borland Tasm 4.0 to re-compile. For this reason we suggest you
do not attempt to re-compile them unless you absolutely have to do so. See
SOURCE\MSDOS\SCITECH.DOC for more information.
4.0 Compiling
To compile POV-Ray type the following command from this directory...
WMAKE -f MSDOSWAT.MAK
The Watcom compiler will compile each FILE.C into an object file such as
FILE.OBJ and these object files are linked with the libs to create
POVRAY.EXE. Error messages are sent to FILE.ERR and may be deleted. If
you do not plan to re-compile, you may DEL *.OBJ to save space. If you do
plan to re-compile, the WMAKE utility will compile only those files which
have changed.
5.0 The Causeway Dos Extender
As noted earlier, the DOS4GW dos extender that comes with the Watcom
compiler is limited to 16 meg physical memory plus 16 meg virtual memory.
Various other dos extenders may be purchased to lift this limit. The POV-
Ray Team uses the Causeway Dos extender in its official compilation.
Because it is a commercial product we cannot redistribute it with our free
source. After all, we don't give away free Watcom compilers either.
Our makefiles and source code contains special provisions for using
Causeway. You should install Causeway according to the instructions that
came with the product. Then to re-compile POV-Ray type the following
command from this directory...
WMAKE -f MSDOSWAT.MAK CW=1
Note the libraries need not be re-compiled. For more info on Causeway, you
can contact:
Postal: Devore Software & Consulting
PO Box 4283
Naperville, IL 60567-4283
USA
CompuServe: 71540,62
Internet: 71540.62@compuserve.com
Telephone: 1-708-717-6369
Fax: 1-708-717-6373
BBS: 1-708-717-9679
Note: The 708 area code changes to 630 in August of 1996.
Information on other dos extenders was included when you purchased your
Watcom compiler.
