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58 | Parser/SDL | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 beta 32 | Defer | Low | allow SDL code to detect optional features | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Some features are optional in custom builds of POV-Ray (I’m thinking about OpenEXR in particular); it would be nice to have a syntax for an SDL script to check for support of such features, so it may take some fallback action if the feature is not supported.
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292 | Geometric Primitives | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Arbitrary containing object for isosurfaces | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
A low priority thought for the future: isosurface now only allows contained_by to be a sphere or a box. It would be more intuitive to allow the same objects that are allowed in clipped_by and bounded_by (although it probably needs to be finite). It would enable allow much faster rendering in many cases:
1) There are a lot of cases when the sphere or a box are very bad in bounding - if an object has a hole, a torus may be better, and in many cases, cylindrical bounding would help a lot. 2) Sometimes, having a too large contained_by object includes far-away parts of the iso-function, and expose large gradients that you want to avoid. If a bounding object is better, you can decrease the max_gradient and speed up the render. 3) The isosurface is usually much more expensive to calculate than any normal bounding object, so it’s an improvement even if the intesection test is not as fast as bounding box. 4) A typical case: if you use texture-like functions to make the surface realistically rough, you know almost exactly what the bounding object is - it can be the original unmodified object. 5) For isosurface terrains, a preprocessing macro could create a rough mesh-like bounding object to contain the “mountains”, thus making everything faster. 6) In case you want clipping, having the contained_by set to the same object probably avoits calculating too many intersections.
The main modification is probably that the intersections of bounding objects can be split into more than one interval - but it’s probably worth it, the isosurfaces are usually a speed bottleneck.
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289 | Light source | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | area_illumination with light fading and scattering medi... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
with reference to http://bugs.povray.org/task/46
still some issue with area illumination and light fading when interacting with media
seems light fade is not taken into account with scattering media. emission and absorption media seem to work fine. occurs with all scattering types.
#version 3.7;
global_settings {
ambient_light 0
assumed_gamma 1
}
camera {
location <0, 3, -5>
look_at <0, 2, 0>
}
#declare Light = 3; // light 1 = individual lights
// light 2 = standard area light
// light 3 = area light with area illumination
#declare Fade = 1; // light fading: 1 on, 0 off
#declare Media = 1; // media 1 = scattering
// media 2 = emission
// media 3 = absorption
#declare Type = 1; // scattering media type
#switch(Light)
#case(1)
#declare Ls = light_source {
0
1/7
#if(Fade) fade_distance 2 fade_power 2 #end
}
union {
object { Ls }
object { Ls translate .5*x }
object { Ls translate x }
object { Ls translate 1.5*x }
object { Ls translate -.5*x }
object { Ls translate -x }
object { Ls translate -1.5*x }
translate y
}
#break
#case(2)
light_source{
y
1
area_light 3*x, z, 7, 1
#if(Fade) fade_distance 2 fade_power 2 #end
}
#break
#case(3)
light_source{
y
1
area_light 3*x, z, 7, 1
#if(Fade) fade_distance 2 fade_power 2 #end
area_illumination on
}
#break
#end
cylinder { <0, .01, 0>, <0, 5, 0>, 2 pigment { rgbt 1 } hollow no_shadow
interior {
media {
#if(Media = 1) scattering {Type, 30 } #end
#if(Media = 2) emission 2 #end
#if(Media = 3) absorption 2 #end
density { cylindrical turbulence 1.5 scale <1, .14, 1> }
}
}
scale <.15, 1, .4> translate 4*z
}
plane { y,0 pigment { rgb .7 } }
plane { -z,-7 pigment { gradient y color_map { [.5 rgb 1][.5 rgb 0] } } }
union {
sphere { 0,.05 }
sphere { .5*x,.05 }
sphere { x,.05 }
sphere { 1.5*x,.05 }
sphere { -.5*x,.05 }
sphere { -x,.05 }
sphere { -1.5*x,.05 }
translate y
hollow pigment { rgbt 1 } interior { media { emission 10 } }
}
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328 | User interface | Definite Bug | 3.70 release | Very Low | Medium | Ascii char '=' in filenames causes command line parsing... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
The following command fails with parsing error: povray +OqXfFbD0Vg5XjZgi5sOefkvdF_oCGrZ1ChVhrQw==.png +IqXfFbD0Vg5XjZgi5sOefkvdF_oCGrZ1ChVhrQw==.pov +W1000 +H1000
The following command succeeds: povray +OqXfFbD0Vg5XjZgi5sOefkvdF_oCGrZ1ChVhrQw.png +IqXfFbD0Vg5XjZgi5sOefkvdF_oCGrZ1ChVhrQw.pov +W1000 +H1000
Any option that gets a filename as parameter will fail if it contains ‘=’.
It is a regression, as it worked fine with 3.6.
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321 | Other | Definite Bug | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | bounding threshold inconsistency | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
User reported documentation inconsistency. Investigation led to the discovery of a bug in the setting of the current default value.
~source/frontend/renderfrontend.cpp reports the value “3” while ~source/backend/scene/scene.cpp sets a default value of “1”
Before for addressing this issue, are there any thoughts as to what the default value should be?
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229 | Image format | Feature Request | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Clock value into EXIF data for PNG | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
The best time for a picture....
I set the day time and so the position of the sun by “clock=”
Normal I document my source very good, but this time, I forgot the clock seting for the picture of my book cover.
So I would find it very practicall to put the clock value and other setings for rendering into EXIF data of the picture.
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42 | Other | Definite Bug | 3.70 beta 32 | Very Low | Medium | command line parameters are not parsed properly on Unix | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
POV-Ray does not follow common practice on command-line handling; for instance:
povray +i"My File"
entered on a Unix shell would be passed to POV-Ray as
povray
+iMy File
(each line representing a distinct parameter here), which POV-Ray would further dissect, interpreting it as
povray
+iMy
File
To achieve the desired effect, one would actually have to quote the string twice:
povray +i"'My File'"
which the shell would translate to
povray
+i'My File'
which POV-Ray would interpret as
povray
+iMy File
In both cases, this is obviously not what a Unix user would expect.
The further dissecting of individual command-line parameters may have had its valid roots in the peculiarities of DOS’ command-line handling, but to my knowledge all major contemporary operating systems follow a concept akin to Unix, passing a list of parameters instead of a monolithic command line, and burdening the respective command shells with the task of dissecting command lines into parameters.
Therefore I suggest to disable this anachronistic feature in favor of contemporary standards; a compiler flag might be used to allow for easy re-enabling of the feature, for compiling POV-Ray on exotic targets.
- edit -
It has been pointed out that the described behaviour differs from 3.6, so I’m promoting this to a bug and changing the title.
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302 | Other | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | confusing error message when .ini file cannot be parsed | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When a command-line parameter in an .ini file cannot be parsed (such as “+a.3”), POV-Ray reports a “Problem with setting”, quoting the command line, rather than indicating that the problem occurred in an .ini file. This leads the user to think that the problem is with the command line itself, unnecessarily confusing him.
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256 | Texture/Material/Finish | Feature Request | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Low | CSG texturing modes | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
At times, the current method of specifying texture for CSG components and compounds is restricting. The issue pops up now and then, see e.g.
http://news.povray.org/povray.pov4.discussion.general/thread/%3Cweb.4799def8e1857b77c150d4c10%40news.povray.org%3E/
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.4fc892634f065c00e32b83540@news.povray.org%3E/
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.5073e9f7dae1fbb2d97ee2b90%40news.povray.org%3E/
There should be a new CSG option “texture_mode” or similar, which could take one of the following values:
preserve (the current behavior) cutaway (the current behavior when specifying cutaway_textures) override (replace all individual textures with compound texture) layer (layer the compound texture over the existing textures)
and possibly, more involved
modify/merge: if both element and compund textures are simple, i.e. not layered or mapped, override all default values of the element textures with the values from the compound texture. The idea would be to, e.g., have the elements already pigmented but then apply common normal or finish properties.
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310 | Editor | Feature Request | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Editor should remember bookmarks | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Now the editor remembers only the cursor positions of the loaded files when starting a new PR session. It would be more friendly to remember whether the window was split or not, as well as the bookmarks.
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301 | Other | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Fallback to default image size causes wrong values to b... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When resolution is not specified (neither via POVRAY.INI nor via QUICKRES.INI nor via command line or custom .ini file), random values are displayed for image resolution in the Image Output Options message output. (The actual render will be performed at the default size of 160×120 pixels though.)
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227 | Refactoring/Cleanup | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | High | Fixed Vector Limitations | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
See this documentation entry for more details.
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50 | Runtime error | Possible Bug | 3.70 beta 32 | Very Low | Medium | Frequent segfaults with photon scenes | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
I observe frequent segfaults with POV-Ray 3.7 betas when rendering scenes using photons:
Segfaults are sporadic but frequent (occurring in roughly 50% of all photon renders).
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263 | Parser/SDL | Feature Request | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Low | Functions and patterns for finish variations | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
the pigment {} and normals {} sections allow spatial variation of color, transparency and normal map. On the other hand, the specular parameter is a fixed scalar. This removes many possibilities. For instance, specularity could vary in space (speckles of oil or water on a surface, worn-out finish, having specularity reduce where the pigment transparency increases) and have color components. With current settings, the light’s color is simply multiplied by the scalar specified by “specular”, whereas multiplying each component with different color could create diverse effects (the “metallic” keyword already acts similar to duplicating the specular color from the pigment). The syntax could be exactly the same as for the pigment (all the patterns, color maps, image maps and functions would apply, allowing reuse of most of the code).
The effect can now be partially faked by having patterned textures, but it requires a very complex code and the lack of layering of patterned textures makes it difficult to vary the specularity and pigment separately.
In a similar way, roughness and brilliance could also vary in space.
Doing the same for varying reflectivity would be more difficult, as it has angular dependence and possibilty of Fresnel calculation, but it could at least be a full color instead of a simple scalar multiplier. For instance, having a blue surface that reflects only red component of the light should not be impossible.
I think at least part of this functionality actually makes the scene description language more uniform and self-consistent.
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237 | User interface | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC3 | Defer | Very Low | Glitch in displaying rendered pixels and percentage | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When rendering in multiple passes (radiosity in my case), the elapsed pixels and percentage, written to terminal are first displayed like this: Rendered 126202 of 360000 pixels (35%) Then on the second stage the output text becomes shorter and you see Rendered 25344 of 360000 pixels (7%)%) The contents of the previous status are not erased, so the longer text persists (note the duplicate percentage sign and closing parenthesis). Such a glitch could have more drastic effect in rare cases.
I’m running Version 3.7.0.RC3 (g++ 4.6.2 x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu) compiled for the Arch Linux package.
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334 | Texture/Material/Finish | Feature Request | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | HLS colors | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
It would be nice to be able to specify colors in HLS as well as RGB.
Currently, you can use a macor to convert individual colors. But this does not work in color_maps where you want smooth gradations/interpolations between two or several colors.
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278 | Backend | Feature Request | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Medium | Implement Lens Flare Rendering | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Currently POV-Ray does not support rendering lens flare effects, however, they can be simulated using a macro (include file) by Chris Colefax.
I would like to suggest adding a feature to POV-Ray to support lens effects “natively” since
as far as I know the macro has been designed for POV-Ray 3.1 so with each new POV-Ray version it gets more likely that this macro does not work properly any more
the macro does not work when rendering with radiosity, probably because the macro creates the lens effect by using a pigment with a high ambient value (which is ignored by POV-Ray 3.7’s radiosity algorithm).
Additionally, the macro is not quite easy to employ because
it needs to know the exact camera parameters (location etc.) and defines an own camera itself so any important camera information has to be stored if the effect has to work as expected
it does not (actually cannot) take into account that objects may (partially) hide the lens effect
reflections and refractions (of light sources) cannot be combined with it properly - the user would have to calculate both the point where the reflected/refracted light source can be observed and the shape it then has due to distortion, and in more complex scenes such computations are nearly impossible in SDL.
I would suggest integrating such a lens flare rendering feature with the “looks like” mechanism you already have for light sources. Several parameters that can currently be set for the macro - including effect brightness and intensity, lens options and whether to create a flare at all - could be set for the light source.
Then POV-Ray could store the location and colour of each ray that finally intersected the “looks like” object of a light source and, having finished the main rendering, from that data compute a partially transparent “lens flare layer” eventually mixed into the rendered image. By this, the above mentioned problems could be avoided:
an object fully or partially intersecting a light source’s “looks like” object would also reduce the number of pixels used to create a flare - and therefore reduce that flare until fully hiding it
the same goes for reflected and/or refracted versions of the “looks like” object
the camera’s location and other properties would be used automatically
and finally, as a feature supported by POV-Ray itself, there would be neither compatibility issues nor problems like the effect not fitting together with radiosity.
Do not get me wrong, I would not expect POV-Ray to really calculate intersections that naturally happen in a camera lens, causing lens flares. Effects looking appropriate can actually be created just in 2D space (as some graphics programs do support) so the work to be done would, as far as I have any overview, be:
storing, as mentioned above, the relevant data for pixels showing “looks like” objects
calculating a lens flare from that data after the render has finished
overlaying the rendered image with the newly created lens effect.
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41 | Other | Feature Request | 3.70 beta 32 | Very Low | Low | improve command-line parsing error messages | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
POV-Ray 3.6, upon encountering problems when parsing command line and/or .ini file options, would quote the offending option in the error message.
POV-Ray 3.7 currently just reports that there is some problem with the command line, without providing any details. I suggest changing this, as the information may be helpful at times.
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264 | Photons | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 RC6 | Defer | Low | Improve precision of photon direction information | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
In the photons map, the direction of each photon is stored as separate latitude & longitude angles (encoded in one byte each), causing the longitudinal direction component’s precision to be unnecessarily high for directions close to the “poles” (Y axis); in addition, encoded value -128 is never used. For better overall precision as well as precision homogenity, the following scheme could be used instead:
latCode = (int)((LatCount-1) * (lat/M_PI + 0.5) + 0.5)
For each latitude code, define a specific number of encodable longitude values, LngCount[latCode] = approx. cos(lat)*pi*65536/(2*LatCount); this can be a pre-computed table, and may need slight tweaking for optimum use of the code space. Encode the longitude (-pi to +pi) into a value from 0 to (LngCount[lat]-1) using
LC = LngCount[latCode];
lngCode = (int)(LC * (lng/(2*M_PI) + 0.5) + 0.5) % LC;
dirCode = LatBase[latCode] + lngCode;
For decoding, a simple lookup from a precomputed list of directions could be used (2^15 entries, i.e. one hemisphere, will suffice). To conserve space, direction vectors could be scaled by (2^N-1) and stored as (N+1)-bit signed integer triples rather than floating point values; due to the limited precision of the lat/long information, 8 bits per coordinate might be enough, giving a table size of 96k. A full double-precision table would require 786k instead.
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230 | User interface | Feature Request | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Improved handling of animations | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
October to middle November, I prodduced a 5 minutes video mainly py POVRAY.
Here a part of the video.ini file
#
# szenes based on games.pov #
#game-pat #Initial_Frame=450 - time scale 1000 - 30 seconds #Final_Frame=899 #Initial_Clock=-12500 #Final_Clock=17500
#game-lost - time scale 1000 - 22 seconds #Initial_Frame=0 #Final_Frame=659 #Initial_Clock=2000 #Final_Clock=24000
#game-lost - time scale 3000 - 12 seconds - fast through the night #Initial_Frame=0 #Final_Frame=359 #Initial_Clock=24000 #Final_Clock=60000
#book-cover #clock=64000
#game-sunrise - time scale 1000 - 35 seconds #Initial_Frame=0 #Final_Frame=1049 #Initial_Clock=60000 #Final_Clock=95000
Now imagine all the problems:
One computer crashes often because of thermal problems. Last picture rendere 487.
Now calculate the setings, that this computer continues the task at 487
Or 2 computers should render a scene.
Sounds very easy. Something like computer 1 makes 0..499 computer 2 makes 500..999.
But the computers are different in speed and the pictures are very different in computation time.
So it would be best
computer 1: 0 to 999 computer 2: 999 to 0
They would meet in the middle, where ever this middle is.
So it would be much easier with
#game-sunrise - time scale 1000 - 35 seconds Initial_Frame=0 Final_Frame=1049 Initial_Clock=60000 Final_Clock=95000 Initial_Task=487 Final_Task=1049
So I have not to calculate the exact clock seting, when a computer sould continue a task after crashing at picture 487
#game-sunrise - time scale 1000 - 35 seconds Initial_Frame=0 Final_Frame=1049 Initial_Clock=60000 Final_Clock=95000 Initial_Task=1049 Final_Task=0
This would be the reverse calcualtion order. Starting with picture 1049 and going down 1048..1047
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70 | Photons | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 beta 34 | Low | High | load/save photons should be controlled via command line | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Just like radiosity load/save, the photon mapping load/save mechanism should be moved to the frontend and controlled via command-line switch, instead of being SDL-driven in the backend.
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335 | Parser/SDL | Possible Bug | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | macro works in variable but not in array | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
This doesn’t work:
#declare pavement_object = array[2] {
object {trash_can_macro() scale 3/4 translate -x * 1/2},
object {potted_plant_macro(_CT_rand2) scale 3/4 scale 3/2 translate -x * 1/2}
}
This does work:
#declare trash_can_object = object {trash_can_macro()}; #declare potted_plant_object = object {potted_plant_macro(_CT_rand2)}; #declare pavement_object = array[2] {
object {trash_can_object scale 3/4 translate -x * 1/2},
object {potted_plant_object scale 3/4 scale 3/2 translate -x * 1/2}
}
Logically, I cannot see a reason for this to be so.
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333 | User interface | Feature Request | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | Make text in "about" alt+b dialog selectable with the m... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When you press alt+b or access the “about” dialog in the Help menu it displays some text including software version number and list of contributors.
It would be nice to be able to select and copy this text using this mouse. Sometimes in the newsgroup I have to tell people what version of POVray I am using, and typing the version number can be a pain.
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295 | User interface | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Minor GUI Bugs | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Here are two low-priority bugs in POV-Ray’s GUI, observed by me under Windows XP, which should be easy to fix I think:
In the “Insert” menu, there are sub-menus (e.g. “Radiosity and Photons”) in which there are menu seperators at the end of the popped-up menu bar.
The progress bar in the top-right corner of the editor window seems to be too large for the window (203px) and therefore clipped. As a result, progress seems to be 100% when it is not yet, e.g. at 90% progress. (Have not measured exactly.)
Both bugs are not severe at all, but it would be nice if they could be fixed. By the way, a second progress bar could be added to visualize the number of frames already rendered in an animation.
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178 | Texture/Material/Finish | Feature Request | 3.70 beta 39 | Very Low | Low | Modify metallic reflection code to better work with con... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
The combination of metallic reflection with conserve_energy causes the reflection to lose colour, as demonstrated by the following scene:
global_settings {
max_trace_level 10
}
camera {
right x*image_width/image_height
location <-2,2.6,-10>
look_at <0,0.75,0>
}
light_source {
<500,300,150>
color rgb 1.3
}
sky_sphere {
pigment {
gradient y
color_map {
[0.0 rgb <0.6,0.7,1.0>]
[0.7 rgb <0.0,0.1,0.8>]
}
}
}
plane {
y, 0
texture { pigment { color rgb 0.7 } }
}
#declare M=
material {
texture {
pigment {rgbt <1.0,0.7,0.2,0.99>}
finish {
ambient 0.0
diffuse 0.5
specular 0.6
roughness 0.005
reflection { 0.8, 1.0 metallic }
conserve_energy
}
}
interior { ior 1.5 }
}
box {
<-0.2,0,-2.3>, <0.0,4,0.3>
material { M }
rotate z*5
rotate x*2
}
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226 | Geometric Primitives | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Near-coincident surface accuracy | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
This is a transparent box very close to a plane.
box {
-1, 1
pigment { rgbf <0, 0, 1, 1> }
}
plane {
#if (version < 3.7)
y, -1.0000007
#else
y, -1.00007
#end
pigment { rgb 1 }
finish { ambient 1 }
}
camera {
location <1, 2, 3>
look_at 0
}
The box is placed 100 times closer to the plane for 3.6, but both 3.6 and 3.7 produce exactly the same black artifact (attached).
So apparently 3.7 is less accurate. (And the exact factor 100 feels suspicious.)
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273 | Other | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Medium | No automatic backup files from inc files | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
If enabled, POVray always created backups of pov and inc files once per session. Now using 3.7 RC6 only pov file backups are created but not from inc files.
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151 | Runtime error | Possible Bug | 3.70 beta 37a | Very Low | Low | No way to cancel save while parsing, never ending error... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
On Windows, when I try and save a file while it is being parsed prior to rendering, I get an error, “Failed to save file: The operation completed successfully”, with a single OK button to click. Despite the weird wording, I’m OK with that.
However after clicking OK I get the error, “Failed to save file ‘...’“, with three buttons: Cancel, Try Again, Continue. Not sure what “Continue” means in this context, given that the possibilities would seem to be covered by the other two buttons. Whatever.
Also, sometimes I get a message with only a single “Retry” button. Not sure what the exact message was.
Anyway, the real problem is that, regardless of which button I press, the program continues to spawning the same error message endlessly. Luckily there is a delay between them, but still it would be nice to have at least one of the three buttons *stop* POV-Ray from asking me again.
Also, once the program finishes parsing the file and it becomes possible once again to save the file, it does nothing. I.e. it doesn’t save the file. So what’s the point of the message and all the options? Why not just say, “Unable to save the file, file is parsing” and be done with it?
I think I recall the same behavior in 3.6.2, so it’s nothing new that’s been introduced.
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202 | Geometric Primitives | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Numerical oddities in Julia_Fractal | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
I understand that some things have changed in the way certain computations in POV-Ray decide when something is “good enough” and I think this is biting me in Julia_Fractal (where, of course, the highest-resolution computations are needed).
The bug has been posted here:
http://news.povray.org/povray.bugreports/thread/%3Cweb.4dbf2e26b56a53c15b4449250%40news.povray.org%3E/
Including a short .pov file and instructions that reproduce it.
(It pops up in other configurations and view angles as well, but this one captures in in a way that makes it clear it’s a bug: the distance of the camera from the origin appears to change the shape of the rendered object).
This appeared first on a Windows Server 2003 machine, it is apparently confirmable on at least one other system as per that thread.
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240 | Geometric Primitives | Feature Request | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Object for efficient automatic periodic pavement | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Whenever some object is to be periodically repeated in some kind of grid, you can achieve this with macros, but it a) wastes a lot of resources
even if object references are implemented in the future, wrapper with its own transformation matrix still takes space and bookkeeping
b) is not infinite
annoying when making infinite planar tiling with arbitrary objects
like an approximate water surface or tiling with real bricks
or anything that needs to extend to horizon
c) is not optimized for periodicity
I think it can be very efficiently implemented as an object that takes a finite object argument (like CSG functions) and can be periodic in either 1D,2D or (possibly dangeorous?) 3D with specified period. In each dimension, the number of repetitions can be any integer or even infinity (or max_int). Something like periodicity <2,2,Infinity> 2 copies in 1 direction, 2 in the other, infinite in the third grid_separation <1,2,2> 1 unit size in first direction, 2 unit sizes in the other two
All the code needs to do is raytrace in the current unit cell and if the ray passes uninterrupted, pass it through the neighbouring unit cell (which means trace a translated ray through the same object). The object itself would just feel an additional clipping box, everything else would work seamlessly.
In case of infinite column of transparent object, max_trace stops the infinite loop anyway.
This is just a suggestion, I realize this is more of a long-term change but it is quite easy to implement and would simplify a large number of projects.
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299 | Parser/SDL | Feature Request | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Object Properties Feature | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Up to POV-Ray 3.7 RC7 it has not been possible so far to declare custom properties for POV-Ray’s objects, which would be especially useful for complex objects defined in include files.
Currently, if you want to have an object (e.g. a car) with certain variable parameters (e.g. colour, wheel rotation, ...) defined in an include file and the parameters set by a scene file which uses the include file, you have to choose one of the following approaches:
1. use a macro
#macro car(colour, wheelrot, ...)
...
#end
or, 2. check parameters declared before, e.g.
#declare car =
union {
#ifdef (colour)
#local colour_internal = colour;
#else
#local colour_internal = default_colour;
#end
}
The resulting object would be used in the following way:
#include "car.inc" // include file once
object {
car(rgb <1,0,0>, 0, ...) // macro approach
}
// other approach
#declare colour = rgb <1,0,0>;
#declare wheelrot = 0;
...
#include "car.inc" // include file every time you want to have a car object instance
object {
car
}
Needless to say, both approaches are not quite optimal.
The macro approach needs only one #include directive and name conflicts will (hopefully) not be a problem. However, one would have to look up the parameter order of the macro in the include file, in the worst case every time the macro is used.
The other approach needs as many #include directives as car objects shall be instantiated, there can arise name conflicts with other inculde files used in the scene, and a (potentially long) list of parameters has to be declared before each #include. On the other hand, with this approach for any value it is clear which information it gives, e.g. #declare colour = rgb <1,0,0> can easily be read as ‘set car colour to “red”‘.
My suggestion would be creating an SDL feature to
One step up could be to even declare object classes along with them.
This could look like this:
// include file code
class car { // alternatively (without classes) use #declare car = object { ...
property colour = rgb <1,0,0>; // with default colour
union {
...
}
}
// scene file code
car { // alternatively (without classes) use object { car ... }
colour rgb <0,0,1>
}
Note that this solution makes the declarations much more concise and easy-to-read. Especially in scenes with many includes and animation scenes where objects’ properties have to be manipulated according to sometimes complex functions, this would be very useful. Please also consider that such user-defined objects can have dozens of properties.
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25 | Animation | Definite Bug | 3.70 beta 32 | Defer | Low | Pause sometimes fails when rendering animation | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
There is an issue where the pause button in POVWIN will sometimes not work during an animation (primarily where the frame rate is high), and furthermore, POVWIN can then get into a state where it’s not possible to use the pause until it is re-started.
Newsgroup report.
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252 | Photons | Definite Bug | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Low | photons and light_group is broken | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
photons are not working when used with a light_group. verified in NG posting in p.general a simple scene file is attached.
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293 | User interface | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | POV-Ray Shown Twice in Windows Taskbar | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When rendering for some time, it occasionally happens that POV-Ray appears twice in the Windows taskbar. One button is the normal one, the other one does not open any window when clicked on and reads something like “99% complete” (see attached image), like the render window’s title, but obviously unrelated to it (probably the title the render window had shortly before?). After stopping the render, the odd taskbar button remains there until POV-Ray is closed.
Observed under Windows XP
POV-Ray 3.7.0.RC7.msvc10-sse2.win32
When applications are summarized into groups in the taskbar by Windows, the odd POV-Ray button is attached to the Windows Explorer group
Run with render priority set to “high”
Is this a Bug in Windows or in POV-Ray?
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313 | Radiosity | Definite Bug | 3.70 release | Low | High | radiosity.cpp pov::RadiosityFunction::BeforeTile assert... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
With 3.7.0 final, rendering attached files (for Computer Engineering college course), which renders without issues in povray 3.6.1, fails with following error:
...
==== [Rendering...] ========================================================
povray: backend/lighting/radiosity.cpp:324: virtual void pov::RadiosityFunction::BeforeTile(int, unsigned int): Assertion `(pts >= PRETRACE_FIRST) && (pts <= PRETRACE_MAX)' failed.
Command line:
povray +K0.6500 \
+FN +Q9 +MB1 \
+W600 +H400 \
+AM1 +A0.0 +R2 \
+D +SP32 +EP4 \
+L/usr/share/povray-3.7/include \
+Imain.pov \
+Omain-0.6500.png
Using Arch Linux testing current: Linux archmidi 3.12.0-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Nov 6 09:06:27 CET 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Downstream bug report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/37689
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71 | User interface | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 beta 34 | Very Low | Low | raise warning when command line option has no effect | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Warnings should be raised when a command line option has no effect, for example...
pvengine +am
is legal, but without the number after it, it has no effect.
pvengine +am7
should be an error, and also raises no warnings.
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7 | Radiosity | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 beta 32 | Low | Medium | Re-implement Radiosity render abort/continue support | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
For proper render abort/continue support, radiosity cache data must be written to (or read from) disk even if the user does not explicitly opt to have a sample data file written/read. This feature has temporarily been dropped from 3.7 beta and is still pending re-implementation.
To meet high-reproducibility requirements in conjunction with SMP operation, it may be necessary to extend the 3.6 radiosity cache file format.
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300 | Other | Feature Request | 3.70 RC7 | Defer | Very Low | Reference Documentation Support | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
As emerged as an idea during the discussion of FS#299, an SDL / POV-Ray editor feature would be useful that allows API documentation via formal comments, e.g. in include files:
/**
* Creates a car object.
* @param a
* description of param a
* ...
*/
#macro car(a,b,c)
...
#end
In addition to the ability of (auto-)generating a documentation file from such comments, an editor window feature would be convenient that allows popup display of a macro’s (object’s / parameter’s / ...) documentation section.
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286 | Texture/Material/Finish | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | reflection exponent other than 1 causes black artifacts... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
[EDIT: Original title was “radiosity causing black patches when using emission less than 0”]
see attached image for reference.
mountain on left has emission set to -.13 and black patches show up, when emmission set to 0 or greater no patches
changing max_trace or any radiosity settings has no effect
setting no_radiosity on mountain fixed problem as a temp fix
code sample ...
#version 3.7;
#default { finish { ambient 0 } }
#declare rad_lvl = 4;
global_settings {
assumed_gamma 1
max_trace_level max(5,rad_lvl*3)
adc_bailout .007
ambient_light 0
radiosity {
pretrace_start 64/max(image_width,image_height)
#if(rad_lvl)
pretrace_end max(2,int(8/rad_lvl))/max(image_width,image_height)
#else
pretrace_end 32/max(image_width,image_height)
#end
count pow(rad_lvl+1,2)*10
nearest_count 1
#if(rad_lvl) error_bound 1/rad_lvl #end
low_error_factor max(.4,(8-rad_lvl)/10)
recursion_limit 1
gray_threshold .25
brightness 1
max_sample 1
normal on
media off
always_sample off
minimum_reuse min(.008,8/max(image_width,image_height))
maximum_reuse .1
adc_bailout .02
}
}
#declare sunC = rgb <1, 1, .9925>; // actual D65 standard illuminant
#declare SkyC = rgb <.3195, .5745, .8805>;
#macro GammaAdj(C,G) rgb <pow(C.red,G),pow(C.green,G),pow(C.blue,G)> #end
light_source {
50000*y
sunC*1.06
area_light <-300, 0, -300>, <300, 100, 300>, 3, 3
rotate <-28, 0, 14>
adaptive 0
circular
}
sphere { 0, 1
texture {
pigment{
gradient y
pigment_map{
[.07 GammaAdj(SkyC,.5)]
[.2 average pigment_map { [.5 GammaAdj(SkyC,.75)][1 wrinkles turbulence .65 octaves 5 lambda 3 omega .9 color_map { [.2 rgb 1][.5 SkyC] } scale <10, .1, 1>] }]
[.4 GammaAdj(SkyC,1.15)]
[.5 GammaAdj(SkyC,1.35)]
}
rotate -75*y scale <1, 1, 100>
}
finish { diffuse .72 }
}
scale 100000
inverse
}
#declare Cam_pos = Cam_pos + <0, 20, -40>;
#declare Cam_lkt = Cam_lkt + <0, 10, 50>;
camera {
location Cam_pos
direction <0,0,1>
right 1.33*x
up y
sky <0,1,0>
#if(Cam_agl) angle Cam_agl #end
look_at Cam_lkt
}
#macro sinai(HillQ)
#local F = function { pattern { granite poly_wave 4 turbulence .01 lambda 2.1 omega .9 scale 5 translate <.2, 0, 18.08> scale <2, 1, 3> } }
#local N = function { pigment { crackle ramp_wave turbulence .3 lambda 2.2 omega .76 color_map {[0 rgb 0][1 rgb 1] } scale .07 translate <-.15, -.12, .13> } }
height_field {
function HillQ, HillQ { F(x,y,z) + N(x,y,z).grey/47 }
water_level .05
clipped_by { box { <0, .05, .3>, <1, 1, 1> } }
translate <-.5, -.05, -.5>
rotate 20*y
texture {
pigment{ crackle color_map { [0 rgb <161, 107, 71>/255][.25 rgb <193, 132, 93>/255][.35 rgb <218, 163, 123>/255][.45 rgb <212, 153, 112>/255][.55 rgb <222, 166, 125>/255][.65 rgb <236, 178, 124>/255][.75 rgb <220, 154, 102>/255][.85 rgb <160, 121, 103>/255] } turbulence .75 lambda 3 omega .7 scale .1 }
finish{ diffuse albedo .56 emission -.13 specular .25 roughness .02 brilliance 1.5 metallic 1.3 }
normal { crackle poly_wave .7 turbulence .4 omega .8 scale <.007, .03, .007> }
}
rotate 12*y
scale <2400, 2000, 3000>*1.5
translate <1900, 0, 1900>
scale <-1,1,1>
no_radiosity
}
#end
sinai(1600)
plane { y,0 pigment { rgb <1, 1, 1> } }
//courtyard gating not included due to size of code and many external files needed. add anything around <0,0,0> to try to reproduce effect of error
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246 | Other | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Low | Regression on scale limit between 3.7 and previous rele... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
From Thomas de Groot
Using the following code for a (sky) sphere in a scene, with light source well outside the sphere; works correctly until the above scale value. Use a value of >=100*10e4 and the sphere becomes black.
#version 3.7;
global_settings{ assumed_gamma 1.0 }
#declare T_sky =
texture {
pigment {
gradient y
pigment_map {
[0.0 srgb <1.0,0.7,0.6>*1 transmit 0.5]
[1.0 srgb <0.8,0.1,0.0>*1 transmit 0.5]
}
}
finish {
emission 0.9
diffuse 0.0
}
}
#declare T_cosmos =
texture {
pigment {
color rgbt <0,0,0,1>
}
finish {
ambient 0.0
diffuse 0.0
}
}
sphere {
<0,0,0>,1
texture {T_sky}
interior_texture {T_cosmos}
no_shadow
no_reflection
inverse
scale 99.9*10e4
}
Working with windows version of POV-Ray and Win7 x64
Is this normal for version 3.7 RC5? I seem to remember that with lower versions of POV-Ray on could go at least to 10e6. Especially with the Ringworld scenes back in 2010 the scales used where much larger without any black out.
I can indeed confirm that the Ringworld scene does not render correctly anymore, with identical black out.
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47 | Preview | Possible Bug | 3.70 beta 32 | Very Low | Low | Render Preveiw window can become disabled | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
If a render is continued with the +c option and the render had completed, the render preview window will disappear and the show/hide render window button will be grayed. Even after the scene is modified and the command line options have been changed, the show/hide button will still be grayed.
Opening or changing to another scene and rendering will not restore the button, nor will rendering with +d. However, if a trace is started using -d, halted, then continued using +d (or allowed to finish completely with -d and a new one is started using +d), then the preview window is restored.
This behavior is different from 3.6.1, which correctly always showed the preview window (since +d is default) unless -d was specified.
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20 | User interface | Feature Request | 3.70 beta 32 | Very Low | Very Low | render window behavior | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When changing the behavior of the render window, “Keep above main”, requires restarting the POV editor to take effect. It would be nice either to get a warning to restart, or to get it to work without restarting.
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326 | Other | Definite Bug | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | restricted setting ignored in 3.7 | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Due to a typo in the conf file parser (introduced, I think, in refactoring after 3.6), the restricted setting is ignored, and access checks aren’t performed.
Fixing this reveals some other issues:
%INSTALLDIR%/../../etc is incompletely canonicalized to /usr/local/share/../etc , not /usr/local/etc
read+write paths are added to the read list only, so writing is impossible
See attached patch.
Relatedly, I think it would be nice to add a new replacement token %CONFDIR% instead of %INSTALLDIR%/../../etc .
Also, there’s a realpath function that could simplify path handling, though I’m not sure if it’s available on all platforms.
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81 | Geometric Primitives | Definite Bug | 3.62 | Very Low | Medium | sphere_sweep generating artifacts | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
I’m running POV-Ray for (64 bit) Windows v3.62 on (64 bit) Windows Vista
This pov file:
#include "colors.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
light_source { <6, 9, -21> color White }
camera { location <0, 0, -3> look_at <0, 0, 0> }
sphere_sweep {
cubic_spline
6
<-2.0, 0, 0> 0.05
<0.000,0,0> 0.2
<0.025,0,0> 0.2
<0.050,0,0> 0.2
<0.075,0,0> 0.2
<3.0,0,0> 0.2
pigment { color White }
}
Produces two strange artifacts: A disk at the center of the sweep, and a faint “halo” or veil which shows as 4 faint hyperbolas centered around the origin.
I have tried tweaking tolerance (for no other reason than I saw that someone else was tweaking it to solve a problem) but this does not seem to change things.
For a look at MY result when I run this, view this image:
Alain reports the same behavior in the latest version: “It’s still there with the latest version: 3.7 beta 35a.” This MAY move the status to “confirmed”, but I can’t do that
Someone else says that changing the scale (!) “solves” the problem by moving the disk and the halo offscreen, but that sounds like a bad idea to me.
-Jeff Evarts, first-time POVRay bug reporter
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145 | Parser/SDL | Feature Request | 3.70 beta 37a | Very Low | Low | Stack trace report on error | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
In other languages if you encounter an error you’ll often be presented with a stack trace showing not only the file and line number the error occurred at, but also any calling functions and _their_ calling functions and so on.
Currently, Povray reports the line number of the error as well as the last five or so lines prior to the error. This is usually OK in simple scenes, but breaks down when you start making use of inclusion and macros.
Let’s say you have a macro located in a file that you then include in your scene. Within your scene you call the macro multiple times, passing input to it. However, by accident you pass _invalid_ input to the macro at some point, resulting in an error when parsing. In this case Povray will report the error as belonging to the macro whereas the actual bug exists in the calling code. If the macro is called more than once in your scene it can be difficult to figure out _which_ instance is the one supplying the bad input.
Not sure how much of this is achievable in Povray.
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327 | Parser/SDL | Feature Request | 3.70 release | Very Low | Low | Support for non-ASCII characters in filename strings | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
pov 3.7 Can not identify the Chinese.I give the texture map filename in chinese,it turns out parse error.
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205 | Documentation | Unimp. Feature/TODO | 3.70 RC3 | Very Low | Low | Syntax documentation uses inconsistent notation | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
The syntax notation used in the main documentation is different than that used in the quick-reference section. This should be changed for consistency, using the superior quick-reference notation throughout.
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288 | Geometric Primitives | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC7 | Very Low | Low | Tolerance problem with refraction in blobs in CSG inter... | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
If a blob is intersected by something else, the composite object has incorrect refractions if it is too small (in absolute units). Having the same object constructed without a blob, the errors happen at much smaller scales. The errors don’t affect solid objects, just refractions.
An example shows a half-sphere, constructed as CSG sphere + plane, and identical half-pshere, constructed as CSG blob + plane. When the scale of the entire construction is changed, the refractions disappear first for the blob, and at 100x times smaller scale, also for the sphere. The right side shows the solid version, showing that the surface intersection test is ok, it’s just the refraction that fails.
The problem is not present when looking from the curved side (the blob side). So the ray that hits the blob, gets refracted correctly, but the ray that hits the intersecting plane first, and should then refract in the blob from the inside, doesn’t work. If in attached sphere, you exchange -y with y in clipping planes, everything is ok.
The scale when this happens is not very small - blobs of radius 0.02 already fail (noticed because in 1=1metre scale, blob raindrops on a glass plate didn’t have intersections when looking from the back).
Examples are named by factor=9,0.9,0.09,0.009 and you can see first the blob (top) refraction gets smaller and disappears, then later the bottom (sphere) also gets the same problem.
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323 | User interface | Possible Bug | 3.70 release | Very Low | Very Low | Tooltip for render speed status bar has wrong unit | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
Tooltip popup for render speed always displays as “Pixels per Second” rather than matching status bar. I’ve noticed it in 3 renders so far. Most of my renders are fast enough not to see any other unit besides PPS, but I should be able to reproduce again if necessary.
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269 | Texture/Material/Finish | Possible Bug | 3.70 RC6 | Very Low | Low | Transparent Objects inside Media Cause Artefacts | Tracked on GitHub | |
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Task Description
When placing a transparent object inside another object which contains media, artefacts may occur (see attached file). They look similar to specular highlights or are just strange white spots in the image.
I discovered artefacts of that kind first in the image of which MediaArtefactDetail.png is a cropped part. The code I managed to reproduce such artefacts with contained a “starfield” sphere
sphere {
<0,0,0>, 1
pigment { rgbt 1 }
interior {
media {
emission rgb 1/10
density {
crackle form <1,0,0>
density_map {
[0.0 rgb 1]
[0.05 rgb 0]
}
scale 0.002
}
}
}
scale 1000
hollow on
}
and a transparent sphere
sphere {
<0,0,0>, 1
pigment { rgbt 1 }
scale 2
hollow on
}
which is, obviously, completely inside the other sphere. So is the camera.
Since the sphere has a pigment { rgbt 1 }, it should be completely invisible, which is correctly rendered as long as the scaling factor is 1 and hollow off (MediaArtefact1.png). Changing hollow to on does not yet produce the artefact, but the right half of the output image seems to be shifted by one pixel (MediaArtefact2.png). Changing the scaling factor to 2 (as it is in the above code) produces the artefact (MediaArtefact3.png). Changing the camera location (MediaArtefact4.png) does not change anything, the artefact just “moves with the sphere”. Changing the sphere size again, however, seems to stir up the “stars” in the “starfield” sphere while not removing the artefacts (MediaArtefact5.png). Changing hollow to off again does neither (MediaArtefact6.png).
The artefacts are definitely no specular highlights. There is not even a light source in the scene that could produce any. I used POV-Ray 3.7 RC6 to render the images, but the artefact shown in MediaArtefactDetail.png already occured in POV-Ray 3.6 which I used to render that image.
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