CSR - Review - POV Ray Tracing

Description

Persistence of Vision (POV) is a programming language that does Ray Tracing. You create objects and the program calculates how light interacts with those objects and creates an image.

Assessment/Opinion/Experience

I have been using this program since the early 1990's. It is widely used and has an active community. While the core product uses text to program, there are visual modeling tools that will generate code.

Most of the literature is out of print, but is available through Used Book stores.

Recommendation

There is no cost to this program and it is worth the investment of your time to learn.

Computers Supported

Macintosh*
Windows
Linux

* Note: There is a bug that causes POV not to work with Intel based Manintosh's. The workaround is to use Mega-POV as the code editor.

Books

Ray Tracing Creations - Second Edition by Chris Young and Drew Wells - © 1994 - 571 pages.

Even though this book is dated, it is a good overview. Used copies can be found for a reasonable price. The online documentation for POV is about 450 pages and would be expensive to print.

Rating: ★★★★—

Ray Tracing Worlds with POV-RAY by Alexander Enzmann, Lutz Kretzschmar and Chris Young - © 1994 - 430 pages.

Discussion of a visual modeling tool called MORAY which is now available for no cost.

Rating: ★★★★—

Reference/Links

Official POV-Ray Website
Mega-POV Website

Sample Code for the "Rhythm" Picture

Sample Code - rhythmpov.pov - Click to Open and Close

//Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer Scene Description File
// Rhythm
// 1-2-1-3-1
// November 9, 2009
// Michael D. Gillie

#include "colors.inc" 
#include "textures.inc"

//--- Create Shapes

#declare WhiteMountBoard = 
	plane { 
			<0, 0,1>,40
			texture {
           			pigment { White}
           			finish{Luminous}
           			}
           }
// --- End WhiteMountBoard

#declare Shape1=
	merge{
           	box {
   				<0,0,0>, <20,120,0> 
           		}
           	box {
   				<0,120,0>, <40,380,0>
           		}
           	box {
   				<0,380,0>, <20,500,0>
           		}
           	pigment {Black}
    	}
// --- End Shape 1

#declare Shape2=
	merge{
           box {
   				<0,0,0>, <40,110,0> 
           		}
           box {
   				<15,110,0>, <10,390,0>
           		}
        triangle{
   				<10,220,0>,<10,280,0>,<50,250,0>
           		} 
           box {
   				<0,390,0>, <40,500,0>
           		}
           pigment {Black}
		}
// --- End Shape 2

//------ End Create Shapes

//Mainline
//Lights, Camera
	light_source { 
 				<20,300, --20> color White
           		}

camera { 
        location <200, 250, -500>
        look_at <200, 250,100>
        } 
// --- End Lights Camera

//Action - Render Scene
	WhiteMountBoard
    Shape1
    object {Shape2 translate x*50}
    object {Shape2 translate x*100}
    object {Shape1 translate x*150}
    object {Shape2 translate x*200}
    object {Shape2 translate x*250}
    object {Shape2 translate x*300}
    object {Shape1 translate x*350}
//--- End Action -  Render Scene

CSR - Review - POV Ray Tracing

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The following images were created by Mike Gillie using POV-Ray. Click on the image to get a larger picture.

Space Clock 5:15 has 73 blown-glass spheres filled with neon gas. The time is indicated by red neon gas. The yellow gas in the center indicates seconds.

Pier2 was inspired by a poster showing a pier in a pond in England.

mgPstar is the former Chrysler Corporation Pentastar. This rendition is in brass with the triangles slightly tilted upwards.

mgBox represents the sentinel from 2001 Space Odyssey.

image created using the rhythmpov.pov code. Click on the image to enlarge.

3D perspective rendered with Yellow_Glass and Ruby_Glass.