This geometry export converter writes out the lights, cameras, materials
and geometry to a Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer (POV-Ray) geometry
file, version 2.0 or 3.0 file format. POV is a popular public domain ray tracer that
is available on many BBSs and Internet sites.
Many attributes will be output to a POV-Ray material definition, such
as the finish attributes (shininess, ambient, diffuse, specular,
index-of-refraction, phong values, etc), the pigment color, and an
optional 2d bitmap texture link. The resulting file should be "render ready" with
no tweaking necessary to create a useable output image (in particular, the lights
and camera will not have to be tweaked); however, due to the fact that POV's file
format does not accept (u,v) texture coordinates you may have to adjust the
default spherical texture projection output by this export filter.
Key Features
Converts any form of input geometry (NURBs, bicubic patches, random polygons, n-sided
polygonal meshes with recursive holes) to optimized triangle meshes.
Automatically converts any texture bitmap (referenced by the POV file) to Targa format.
Intelligently converts directional light sources to point light sources (POV does
not support directional lights).
Converts all material attributes, including texture bitmap references.
Dialog Box Options
The following information explains the various options on the dialog box:
POV Version
These two radio buttons determine which POV file format version is to be used. Version 3.0 is the newest version.
Convert Unknown Image Types to Targa Files
If a material references a 2d bitmap texture then this converter will output the bitmap’s filename to the output POV file. However, POV only recognizes certain bitmap file formats such as Targa, GIF, PNG, IFF, PPM and PGM. If this checkbox is enabled then the converter will physically convert all non-Targa format bitmap images to Targa format and store the new bitmap file in the output directory. Currently supported input bitmap file formats are BMP, IFF, JPEG, GIF, FLIC, TIFF and Targa.
Line Terminator Type
This common option selects which line terminator is to be used for the ASCII output file:
Files destined for DOS/PC machines should use CR/LF,
Files for UNIX machines should use LF, and
Files for Macintosh machines should use CR.
The default is specific to which machine this converter is presently running on: CRLF for DOS/PC, LF for UNIX and CR for Macintosh. This option normally does not have to be specified unless you will be using the exported ASCII file on a different type of computer.
Conversion Notes:
The current POV-Ray file format does not allow (u,v) texture coordinates to be associated with the triangle geometry. Therefore, no (u,v) texture coordinates are output to the file. Instead, a default spherical texture projection method has been enabled within the "image_map" command. You will most probably have to hand edit the output file to select the most appropriate texture projection method for the specified material. POV currently supports the following image map types:
0 = Planar
1 = Spherical (aligned with the Y axis)
2 = Cylindrical (aligned with the Y axis)
All polygons will be converted to triangles with optional vertex normals.
The current default camera will be output as the POV-Ray camera (perspective camera only).
Only point and spot lights will be output. Directional lights are not supported by the POV-Ray v2.0 or v3.0 file formats so this converter will output a point light source
instead situated in an appropriate location in space to simulate the original direction
light source.
Many attributes will be output to a POV-Ray material definition, such as the finish attributes (shininess, ambient, diffuse, specular, index-of-refraction, phong values, etc), the pigment color, and an optional 2d bitmap texture link.
Key Features