View source for HowTo:Use POV-Ray with Blender

{{MoreDetails|Features|
Some key features of the exporter include:
* Geometry import and export with their modifiers, keyed and physics animation
* Add POV-Ray specific non mesh  primitives (never show tesselation)
* Instances
* Hair particles
* Smoke simulations
* Atmospheric media (volume fog)
* HDRI environment mapping
* Aperture depth of field
* Material properties such as filtering, emission, translucency, subsurface scattering, glass fog (tinted absorption), blurry/glossy reflections...
* Procedural textures (emulated from Blender Internal and POV-Ray native)
* Image textures
* Texture influence channels: Alpha ; Diffuse ; Bump ; Specular ; Mirror (uses same channel as specular)
* Global Illumination: Radiosity (Indirect Lighting) ; Photons caustics (reflect/refract); meshlights
* Custom POV-Ray code input giving access to any POV-Ray feature not supported by the exporter.

POV-Ray 3.7 features 
volumetrics and media (scattering/absorbing), blurry reflections(uberpov), ghosting for motion blur(uberpov), micropoly displacement (HGPOV) etc.
}}

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<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3" align=center>
*[http://povray.org POV-Ray Site]
*[[HowTo:Use_POV-Ray_with_Blender#Quick_Start|Exporter Quick Start]]
*[http://povray.org/documentation/3.7.0/ POV-Ray Documentation]
*[[HowTo:Use_POV-Ray_with_Blender/Sample_Materials| Sample Materials]]
*[[Media:POV_WORKSPACE_1.blend|POV-Ray centric default workspace]]
*---
*---
*---
*---
*---
*---
*---
*---
*design ideas
*[[Media:regression_and_test_blendfiles.zip|regression files]]
</div>

<br>
<div class="clearBoth"></div>
<div style="text-align:center; border-top: grey solid 1px;">
<ul style="font-size:1.1em; list-style-type:none;"><li><font size="+2">[http://developer.blender.org/diffusion/BA/history/master/render_povray/ Latest News]</font size="+2"></li>
<li>[irc://irc.freenode.org/blenderpovray Chat room, IRC: #blenderpovray at freenode]</li>
<li>[http://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender-addons.git/atom/refs/heads/master?f=render_povray RSS feed]</li>
<li>[http://blenderartists.org/forum/group.php?groupid=79 Forum Group]</li></ul>
</div>



[[HowTo:Use_POV-Ray_with_Blender#Standard_Script_Information|Standard Script Information]] at the bottom of this page.

= POV-Ray 3.7 Exporter for Blender 2.8x =
POV-Ray is an an SDL based (Scene Description Language) rendering engine with a long history that makes it very stable and feature rich. The latest version of POV-Ray 3.7 can be found at: http://www.povray.org/download/<br/>
Though this exporter is currently shipped with any official Blender builds, the POV-Ray 3.7 renderer itself is not included in Blender like some other renderers are (Cycles or Freestyle for instance). Instead, users are just expected to download and install it for themselves: See the [[HowTo:Install_POV|Installation]] page for platform specific details on how to get, install or build POV-Ray. 

=Download=

*Of course, don't forget to [http://www.povray.org/download/ download and install POV-Ray] itself !

The POV-Ray exporter is shipped with every official Blender release, so you can start using it directly.

However, after checking the logs of [http://developer.blender.org/diffusion/BA/history/master/render_povray/ every commit to the source] of the script for new features or bug fixes, if you find out you need an update, 

*You can download all the script at once by clicking ''<u>snapshot</u>'' 
[http://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender-addons.git/tree/refs/heads/master:/render_povray on this page].

*or download a fresh blender build including scripts from generally a few days before
[http://builder.blender.org/download here].
 
= Usage =
== Quick Start ==

{| width=100%
| valign=top | '''1.''' Go to the menu {{Menu|Edit}}

{{Submenu|<u>P</u>references...}}
Choose the {{Menu|Add-Ons}} tab and check {{Button|Persistence of Vision}} down the list of render Add-Ons.
| [[File:Pov_start01.png|thumb|500px|1]]
|-
| valign=top | '''2.''' Choose {{Menu|<u>P</u>ersistence of Vision}} from renderer choices. 
| [[File:Pov_start02.png|thumb|500px|2]]
|-
| valign=top | '''3.''' Then you can render as usual with the {{Submenu|<u>R</u>ender Image}} render menu or its shortcut ({{Shortcut/Keypress|F12}} in default keymap) 
| [[File:Pov_start03.png|thumb|500px|3]]
|}

{| width=100%
| valign=top | The image will be rendered according to parameters set in the ''Properties Window''. 

Main global render settings for instance can be changed in the {{Menu|Render}} tab of properties window. 

But there are also properties for environment, material (textures), object, etc. all accessible in neighboring tabs contextually depending on selected object (geometry, camera, light...)
| [[File:Pov_render_tab_01.png|thumb|500px|4]]
|}

=POV compatible forks=
Below is a comparison of some features of the two engines available to this exporter to help picking a branch:

{|class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="border-spacing:0;" data-expandtext="{{int:show}}" data-collapsetext="{{int:hide}}"


|-


! ===== Feature/Engine/Support  =====


! ===== POV-Ray =====



! ===== UberPOV =====


|-
|| Full Spectral Resolution
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>yes (under development)</center>

|-
|| Supersampling
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Alpha Mapping
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Bump Mapping
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Normal Mapping
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Displacement Mapping
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Motion Blur
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Sub Surface Scattering (SSS)
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Volumetric Scattering (Medium)
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Blurred Reflections
|| <center>yes (very tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Clay Render
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Depth of Field
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Material Layering
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Thin Film Coating
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Dispersion
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Anisotropy
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Thin Film Interference
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Complex IOR Files
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Coating Thickness Absorption
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Custom Reflectance 90
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Custom Fresnel Curve
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>

|-
|| Sigma Texture
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Sun-Pool Caustics
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Ambient Occlusion
|| <center>no (tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes (under developement)</center>

|-
|| Lens Shift
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Diaphragm Circular/Polygonal
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Per-Model Texture Coordinates
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Texture Projection Modes
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Front/Camera Mapping
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>

|-
|| Multiple UV Channels
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Texture Tone Mapping
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>

|-
|| Procedural Textures
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Texture Layering
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Synthesis Texture Layering
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Point Lighting
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Mesh Lighting
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Image-based Lighting
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Physical Sun/Sky
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>

|-
|| HDRI Support
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| IES Support
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Instance Support
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Resume/Merge Render
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Interactive Render
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Vignetting / Bloom / Glare (Post)
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>
|| <center>yes(tricky)</center>

|-
|| Camera Response CRF (Post)
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Color Balance (Post)
|| <center>no</center>
|| <center>no</center>

|-
|| Multithreading
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Region Rendering
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Passive Emitter
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Invisible Emitter
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Invisible Model
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Shadowless Model
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Shadowless Point Lights
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|-
|| Bucket Rendering
|| <center>yes</center>
|| <center>yes</center>

|}

{{MoreDetails|Activating UberPOV|

[[File:UberPOV.png|left|64px]]

[http://github.com/UberPOV/UberPOV UberPOV] is a development branch of POV-Ray. Just like MegaPOV used to be in the old days. 

[http://github.com/UberPOV/UberPOV/releases HERE] you can download a standalone installer that will not interfere with a standard POV-Ray installation and [http://github.com/UberPOV/UberPOV/releases/tag/v1.37.1.0-beta.10 HERE] is an update to the main binary.


Choose the feature set and just point the renderer path in {{Menu|Edit}}{{Submenu|<u>P</u>references}} to the location of the engine you choose to use and you're good to go.
[[File:RendererPath.png|thumb|600px]]


Note that ''Feature Set'' is what features get written in the POV file and the ''Binary Location'' path points Blender at the binary to actually render it with. Whithout any ''Binary Location'' path, Blender will use the environment variables and try to find the most feature rich binary available in that directory. So if you installed UberPOV it's most probably being used for rendering, but you still need to enable its feature set to enjoy specific features, like blurry reflections. And if you want to be sure to use the plain official POV-Ray 3.7 engine instead, just explicitly point the ''Binary Location'' path to it.
}}

=Exported UI Properties=
== Render Properties ==

[[File:RadiosityPresets.png|thumb]]
===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/HowTo:Use_radiosity Radiosity]===
In POV-Ray, ''Radiosity'' is diffuse inter-reflection which has nothing to do with vertex color based radiosity. In fact, it is more similar to final gathering of irradiance samples and provides a noise free indirect light.
<br/>

Some presets to radiosity are included, their names and settings are those of the rad_def include file shipped with POV-Ray, they set up the properties so you don't need to include the rad_def.inc in the exported pov, it's one of the many examples of what an interface like blender can bring to all POV-Ray users who are not used to have one.



===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Tracing_Options#Anti-Aliasing_Options Anti-aliasing]===
Three sampling methods are supported: 
* non-recursive
* recursive
* stochastic (Monte-Carlo)
The third is only available for UberPOV

====Sampling depth====
Values must be comprised between 1 and 9. 
Higher values increase render time and may even introduce some undesired blur. 
====Anti-alias threshold====
In the simple, non-recursive method, POV-Ray initially traces one ray per pixel. If the color of a pixel differs from its neighbours (to the left or above) by at least the set threshold value, then the pixel is super-sampled by shooting a given, fixed number of additional rays. The default threshold is 0.3 but it may be changed using this Antialias_Threshold=n.n option.

{{NiceTip|Depth of Field Without Anti-Aliasing |Using no anti aliasing when camera Depth of field is on will speed up rendering and often provide decent enough images.}}<br/>
<br/>

===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Tracing_Options#BSP_Bounding Bounding method]===
Also called acceleration, it is set to automatic BSP (Binary space partitioning) by the exporter as it's generally the most efficient(POV-Ray 3.7 only) but other acceleration methods are available in POV-Ray.


===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Category:Command-Line_and_INI-File_Options Command line switches]=== 
Some command line arguments can be passed to POV-Ray. Arguments are separated by spaces. Command line switches consist of a / (Slash), + (plus) or - (minus) sign, followed by one or more alphabetic characters and possibly a numeric value.
<br/>

{| {{Css/prettytable}}
|+ ''Some Commonly Used Commands''
|-
|'''-D'''||'''Hide image while rendering'''<br/>
Use the command line switch '''-D''' to not show the rendered image in POV-Ray (slightly faster and lighter on memory). The image will be sent back to Blender after completion (on Linux this is a hidden default switch to avoid OS specific editor problems).<br/>
|-
|'''+WT'''||'''Limit the number of threads used'''<br/>
'''+WT1''' limits POV-Ray to using only one single render thread. (Likewise, +WT2 would instruct POV-Ray to use two render threads.)<br/>
|-
|'''+C'''||'''Continue an interrupted render'''<br/>
'''+C''' for "Continue trace" is able to recover the point at which your last render stopped and continue it from there (even if you switched off your computer)<br/> 
|-
|'''/EXIT'''||'''Close POV-Ray after rendering the image'''<br/>
There is also an option in POV-Ray for windows interface to do the same:

The "On Completion" option to "Exit POV-Ray for Windows" (in the '''Render Menu''').
<br/> 
|}
<br/>

{{NiceTip|Fast Preview Renders |When first setting up your scene, and for fast preview rendering, turn off anti aliasing, depth of field, photons, Radiosity, expensive material features, and in the scene Shading panel, turn off shadows.
(other features might get turned off from this panel in future versions of the exporter) Alternatively, use the [Reference:Tracing_Options#Quality_Settings "quality" command line switches] '''+q1''' to '''+q11'''.
These allow you to easily  disable most of the CPU-intensive features.}}<br/>
<br/>

===Formatting===
The exported POV-Ray file can be customized: 
*Different indentation characters to choose from. 
*Option to add comments to POV-Ray file. 
*Option to write long lists of coordinates in one line for easier browsing of the POV file (and slightly faster parsing by the renderer)
*Choice of [[Reference:Global_Settings#Charset|character encoding]] is automatic for versions above 3.8

== Scene Properties ==
===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Color_Expressions#Common_Color_Pitfalls Color Management]=== 
[[Reference:Color_Expressions#sRGB_Colors|sRGB]] is supposed to be always used currently (except for world colors which seem to still be linear in Blender Internal).
== World Properties ==
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:TerranPOV.png|left|480px|]]
===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Background Background]=== 
Blender '''World''' gets exported 
*As POV-Ray ''[[Reference:Background|background{}]]'' if flat colored
*As a POV-Ray ''[[Reference:Sky_Sphere|sky_sphere{}]]'' when using Blender's '''Blend Sky''' option 
(sky texture currently appears a little different because of its mapping).
|}

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:POV_ClearBlueSky.png|left|480px|]]
Using a World Preset such as '''Clear Blue Sky''' can also setup scattering media to a natural looking atmosphere.
|}



{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovStair.png|left|480px|]]
===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Atmospheric_Media Atmospheric Media]=== 
(to create volume lights):<br/>
*Number of samples for media calculation<br/>
*Atmospheric media color<br/>
|}
<br/>

== Object Properties ==

===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Radiosity#Importance Importance sampling]=== 
It is a priority value between 0 and 1 that can be set per object in the '''Object''' properties tab 
for Radiosity to shoot more rays at object that require them most.
Touch this rather carefully when trying to improve render times.

== Data Properties ==
The script exports Sky, Lights, Hair particles, Smoke, fluids, Meshes, Blobs (MetaBalls). 

===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Camera Camera]===
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:postJhu.jpg|left|480px|]]
====[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Camera#Focal_Blur Depth of Field]====
It has to be enabled for below property to act:

The focal point of depth of field is based on Blender UI ''Distance'' field, or object field. 

=====Aperture=====
sets the blur amount. (increase to get more)
|}
<br/>

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:povNormalPerturbation.png|left|480px|]]
====[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Camera#Camera_Ray_Perturbation Perturbation]====

Normal map for camera plane, native POV procedural patterns can be used with variable

*''strength''

*''turbulence''

*''scale''
|}
<br/>
 
===Light===

*No Shadows toggle button can be used to deactivate tracing of shadows for specific lamps only

{{NiceTip|For Realistic Light Attenuation|Use Inverse square falloff, and a small falloff distance value with a higher light intensity will give the best results with Povray's implementation of inverse square law. See [http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.4d77b443f36cbfe281c811d20%40news.povray.org%3E/ this discussion]}}<br/>
<br/>

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:BlenderToPovraySmoke.gif|left|480px|]]
===Smoke===
*A DF3 file (POV-Ray voxel format) is exported and used with a POV-Ray media container with the same dimension and resolution as Blender smoke Domain
|}
<br/>


{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:BlenderToPovrayHair.png|left|480px|]]
===Hair===
*A union of POV-Ray sphere_sweep is exported and used for each strand. 
*They can take the color of a texture applied to emitting object, 
*and shape of sphere sweep tries to emulate shape of strands.
|}
<br/>

== Material Properties ==

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:Handle_Lamp_POV-Ray.png|left|480px|]]
===Emission=== 
{{NiceTip|Mesh Lights |When used together with Radiosity, Emit property will allow you to create light bulbs or any luminous form that really illuminates other objects.}}<br/>
<br/>


{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:stylizedLevi_POV-Ray.png|left|480px|]]
===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Finish#Subsurface_Light_Transport SSS / SSLT]===
Note that SSS in POV-Ray (called SSLT) is very sensitive and will give different results if the mesh normals are smooth shaded or flat.


===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Finish#Diffuse Translucency]=== 
Illumination from the back of a surface is considered as a second and optional '''diffuse''' argument in POV-Ray.

===IOR Mirror===
This option is for using one consistent IOR for raytrace reflection and refraction and not breaking the law of [[Reference:Finish#Conserve_Energy_for_Reflection|conservation of energy]] between the two.

===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Finish#Iridescence Iridescence]=== 
(Newton's thin film coating)

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:Caustics.png|left|480px|]]
===Caustics===
*Chromatic dispersion for refractive caustics<br/>
*Fast fake caustics (somewhat like Blender Raytransp)<br/>
*Refractive caustics using photons<br/>
*Reflective caustics using photons (high IOR or no mirror IOR for easier effect.)<br/>
|}
<br/>

{{NiceTip|Faster Photons |To set up some caustics, try moving from the smallest photon depth value to a minimum at which you start to see the effect you are after.
Check off the ''Receive Photons'' object property for any object that does not really need it.(A glass object casting caustics often doesn't need to receive any itself.)
Then you can balance other parameters to tune photons distribution and smoothing (gathering).
Don't set the global spacing too fine in scene settings, because then you can still make it finer on each object using its spacing multiplier.
If your system has several threads, they can be used in the photons stage: one thread per light, so you can then complexify your scene lighting without overhead.}}<br/>
<br/>

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
===shaders===
Emulation is attempted from blender for:<br/>

*Specular and diffuse toon (no edges yet)<br/>

*Phong and Cook Torrence (both the same)<br/>

*Blinn (not perfectly matched)<br/>

*WardIso<br/>

*Fresnel and Minnaert, started but not finished yet<br/>
|}
<br/>
{{NiceTip|Glass Like Materials |When trying to achieve some glass like material, keep low diffuse value, dark or totally black to avoid dull surface and keep clear transparency.}}<br/>
<br/>

== Texture Properties ==

===UV coordinates===
best with planar projection for now. (Silvio Falcinelli)

===Texture channels===
Texture influences currently exported are: Alpha ; Diffuse ; Bump ; Specular ; Mirror (uses same channel as specular)
--(No other channel because of POV-Ray non uniform syntax for them) 

===[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Documentation:Tutorial_Section_3.3#Gamma_Handling Custom gamma]===
For image textures (read POV-Ray 3.7 doc before using since it generally needs not be used.)


{{Template:MoreDetails|Using Image Sequences|
[http://koti.mbnet.fi/mmyllyma/image_sequence.html Link to the original Tutorial by Markku Myllymäki]

Note to the reader: this functionality works in Blender Internal, Cycles (see the end this document) and now it works with POV-Ray render (little change in POV-Ray exporter). For Blender itself it is old feature.

This document assumes that the reader is able to UV unwrap and texture a model and animate with keys.

Also, it is safest to set render engine to POV-RAY at the beginning. Otherwise some datablocks may vanish when you change renderer.

''Image sequences are changing textures. For example, if your 3D scene has a TV set, and you want to animate, what the TV shows, you could use image sequence. There are many uses. Here, we will be using it for facial animation.''

For facial animation, we want to be able to change texture (i.e. facial expression) with a key, so when something happens to a character, the expression changes as a reaction.

'''Pre-requisite'''

You need UV mapped model:

[[File:uvmapped.png]]

You need a sequence of images:

[[File:allfacetex.png]]

These are separate images, here together only for illustration.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a limitation to how you can name the sequence files. For the exporter to work correctly, use this kind of naming:

filename.001.png filename.002.png ... etc.

For example, I used facetex.001.png etc. here in this example.

The dot, three number sequence and another dot. It is mandatory. The exporter fails otherwise. This also applies to some other image sequences in Blender, and the naming convention is from Blender docs.

Defining the image sequence

You can define the material normally. Also, the texture is defined as normal UV mapped texture:

[[File:uvcoords.png]]

But when you define image name, select first (filename.001.png) image in sequence and change Single Image to Image Sequence:

[[File:sequence.png]]

Now you have image sequence defined!
Using the image sequence in animation

In an animation, you need to be able to to make keys for texture changes. It is useful to set viewport shading to GLSL and put textured mode on, so you can see what happens without rendering the animation.

You can make keys this way:

[[File:i_key.png]]

Set "Frames:" to 1. Set "Start:" to 1. Now you can with "Offset:" change the texture in sequence. You can set keys to animation by hovering over "Offset:" and pressing I-key.

Remember to set key Interpolation Mode to Constant:

[[File:constant.png]]

That's because Blender's default is Bezier. It would change the value of the "Offset:" fractionally and that is not usually a good idea, because usually you want certain texture to show until you define a different one... Constant Interpolation Mode is good for textures.

Now, when you render your animation using POV-Ray, texture changes should work!

Example, frames 1, 5 and 10:

[[File:frame0001.png|250px]]
[[File:frame0005.png|250px]]
[[File:frame0010.png|250px]]

Sidenote: Cycles usage

For those who wonder how Cycles does this (you need to begin from scratch, because Cycles has different datablocks than BI or POV-Ray).

Set renderer to Cycles Render:

[[File:cycles.png]]

This is the material node setting for Cycles. As you can see, you can define image sequence there too!

[[File:cycles_nodes.png]]
}}
= Custom POV Code =

POV-Ray files are not just pure data files (unlike with most other renderers).
They are programs, with loops, functions, etc. 
This means that no matter how many features this exporter could support, POV-Ray will always have much more under the hood.
== Video Tutorial ==
Here is a demonstration of the exporter by SMcA. This video is currently being worked on and may get replaced in the future.
<br/>
{|width="100%"
|left|<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD4PmGLMyys</youtube>
|}

== Step by step ==
You can add custom POV code directly in Blender's text editor, all you have to do is to make sure this pov code has directly or indirectly a #declare keyword, followed by the name of your choice and the pov item you want to use. (Current POV syntax is closer to C than Python, so anything that follows  two slash character ( // ) is a comment)

===Adding POV code directly===
Pov items can be anything but for now only the equivalent of Blender materials can be replaced with this method. In Povray, it is called '''texture {}''' don't get confused, it really includes all the material properties.

Though you can directly specify a texture {} block in POV-Ray files, the #declare directive allows to assign it to a variable and reuse it more easily. The exporter makes use of this feature by default, so you won't be able to use your custom texture, unless you declare it. Here is an example:

<source lang="pov">
#declare MyTexture =
texture{ 
    pigment{ 
        brick color rgb< 0.99, 0.99, 0.99>  // color mortar
        color rgb< 0.75, 0.5, 0.30>*0.75  // color brick
        brick_size <0.25, 0.0525, 0.125> // format in x ,y and z- direction 
        mortar 0.01                      // size of the mortar 
        scale 3
    } // end of pigment
    normal {wrinkles 0.75 scale 0.01}
    finish {ambient 0.15 diffuse 0.95 phong 0.2} 
    rotate<0,0,0>  translate< 0.01, 0.00, 0.00>
} // end of texture
</source>

{| width=100%
| valign=top | '''1.''' Navigate the text window menu to display the text properties {{Menu|View}}{{Submenu|Sidebar}} or use the {{Shortcut/Keypress|⌘ Ctrl}}{{Shortcut/Keypress|T}} shortcut
| [[File:Pov_ReplaceWith01.png|thumb|400px|1]]
|-
| valign=top | '''2.''' In the text view properties option, you can chose to render 3d view and/or text. Enable ''Both''.
|-
| valign=top | '''3.''' Syntax highlight detects the following file extensions: 
<source lang="bat">
*.pov 
*.inc 
*.mcr 
*.ini
</source>
 
| [[File:povSyntaxHighlight.png|thumb|400px|3]]
|-
| valign=top | '''4.''' Some complete POV-Ray scenes are available to {{Menu|Templates}} menu from the text header.
| [[File:povTemplatesMenu.png|thumb|400px|4]]
|-
| valign=top | '''5.''' And an {{Menu|Insert}} Menu to add just some pov code snippets at cursor's location.
| [[File:povInsertMenu.png|thumb|400px|5]]
|-
| valign=top | '''6.''' Then you have to go into the material properties to the {{Button|Custom POV Code}} field, and just type in the name of your declared item to use: MyTexture in the example Given. Then you can render your image normally and the material will be replaced.
| [[File:Pov_ReplaceWith03.png|thumb|400px|6]]
|}

<br/>

Blender and POV-Ray do not have the same coordinates systems: POV is Y up while Blender is Z up, so it is to be expected that text generated content is not turned the same as exported UI items since the exporter adds a transform matrix to all exported entities. So if you want to specify orientations more intuitively by looking at the interface, some transforms have to be specified at the end of your custom blocks, for instance as follows :
<source lang="pov">
scale <-1, 1, 1>  
rotate <90, 0, -90>
}
</source>

===Adding POV code from include files===
In any Povray scene you can use the ''#include'' directive to add items from an external Povray file. It's like the import function in Python. The files to be included have .inc as their name extension. Then in the replacement field, you can type in any of the declared names available in the include file. "Out of the box", Povray ships with a lot of include files.
So you can use them for your textures, but you can also use them for some of their elements. For instance a very often used include file is one that allows to call colors by their names instead of numbers called ''colors.inc'', so the previous example could also be written:

<source lang="pov">
#include "colors.inc" 
#declare MyTexture =
texture{ 
    pigment{ 
        brick color White*0.99  // color mortar
        color rgb< 0.75, 0.5, 0.30>*0.75  // color brick
        brick_size <0.25, 0.0525, 0.125> // format in x ,y and z- direction 
        mortar 0.01                      // size of the mortar 
        scale 3
    } // end of pigment
    normal {wrinkles 0.75 scale 0.01}
    finish {ambient 0.15 diffuse 0.95 phong 0.2} 
    rotate<0,0,0>  translate< 0.01, 0.00, 0.00>
} // end of texture
</source>

Some other POV-Ray specific objects are also available: In POV-Ray a triangle mesh is just one primitive among many. You can explore the POV-Ray language by modifying the output file. and with the same method, add these primitives by hand, OR you can just pick some from the {{Button|Add}} menu.

=POV-Ray Primitives=

Pressing {{Shortcut/Keypress|⇧ Shift}}{{Shortcut/Keypress|A}} in the 3D View allows you to add POV-Ray specific objects in addition to native Blender objects.

[[File:exporterAddMenu.png]]

They are mathematically defined as opposed to Triangle meshes. The sphere, torus, cylinder or cone side will always be round and smooth when rendered, no matter how close you get, and regardless of their appearance in the 3D view, which is only a proxy. 


These objects are the type of objects that get created when you import a POV-Ray file, so that ideally, you could "exchange" data back and forth between POV-Ray and Blender.

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Plane Infinite Plane]==
The rendered plane is actually infinite, but represented by a proxy in the 3D view, which is just very big, but still finite. Please report if you'd rather have a différent default scale.
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovInfinitePlane1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovInfinitePlane2.png|300px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Box Box]==
Based on a mesh cube the object can be transformed using move/rotate/scale
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovBox.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Sphere Sphere]==
The sphere has a radius parameter, a location and a scale.
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovSphere1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovSphere2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Cylinder Cylinder]==
In POV-Ray, cylinders are defined by radius, base point and end point. For convenience, move/rotate/escale can be used to the same effect. 
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovCylinder1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovCylinder2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Cone Cone]==
Cones have a basis radius and end radius
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovCone1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovCone2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Torus Torus]==
Torus has a main radius and a section radius.
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovTorus1.png|400px|]]|[[File:Torus2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Parametric Parametric]==
This is a surface generated from the combination of three mathematical equations


==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Rainbow Rainbow]==
The rainbow is a view dependant effect
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovRainbow1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovRainbow2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Lathe Lathe]==
This object behaves like the Blender screw modifier to create surfaces by revolving a spline except instead of being tesselated beforehand, it follows the mathematical curvature of the spline so you won't see any polygons no matter how close you zoom.
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovLathe1.png|left|400px|]]|[[File:PovLathe2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>


==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Prism Prism]==
This is a POV-Ray primitive that simply extrudes a shape
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovPrism.png|left|400px|]]
|}
<br/>


==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Superquadric_Ellipsoid Superquadric Ellipsoid]==
A quite versatile tool that can provide quick models for cushion or star shaped objects

[[File:PovSuperquadricEllipsoid.gif|250px|]][[File:PovSuperquadricEllipsoid2.gif|250px|]]




==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Height_Field HeightField]==
This is a displacement of a surface following a texture. Tessellation also happens at render time, so you don't need to subdivide anything before.
{|style="width:100%" border="0"
[[File:PovHeightField1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovHeightField2.png|400px|]]
|}
[[HowTo:High_precision_heightfields|Read More]]

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Sphere_Sweep Sphere Sweep]==
This POV-Ray primitive sweeps a sphere a long as spline to create an interpolated form that can have variations of radius along the spline. 
It is also used to export hair strands.
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovSphereSweep1.png|left|400px|]]|[[File:PovSphereSweep2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>


==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Blob Blob Sphere]==
Like Blender Metaballs

{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovBlob1.png|265px|]]|[[File:PovBlob2.png|265px|]]|[[File:PovBlob3.png|265px|]]
|}
<br/>

==[http://wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Isosurface Isosurfaces]==
In POV-Ray isosurfaces are objects that can combine and be deformed using pigments or equations

===Isosurface Box===
An isosurfacecomponent shaped as a box
===Isosurface Sphere===
An isosurfacecomponent shaped as a sphere
===Supertorus===
An isosurface shaped as a torus with deforming parameters equivalent to those of t.

Parameters (POV-Ray names):


*''MajorRadius'', ''MinorRadius'' = Base radii for the torus.
*''MajorControl'', ''MinorControl'' = Controls for the roundness of the supertorus. Use numbers in the range [0, 1].
*''Accuracy'' = The accuracy parameter.
*''MaxGradient'' = The max_gradient parameter.

==Macro based primitives==
Two primitives are actually macros that generate a mesh from curves before render time:
*Polygon to Circle Blending
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovPolyToCircle1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovPolyToCircle2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

*Loft
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovLoft1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovLoft2.png|400px|]]
|}

==Parametric surfaces==
The primitive requiring user to activate Add Mesh: Extra Objects addon is Parametric surfaces: that other addon was indeed very well suited to create the 3D view mesh preview, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel. However it is considered bad practice for an addon to enforce activation of another addon so that decision has to be left to the user of activating that other dependency, even though it's still internally shipped with Blender and nothing else has to be done but mere checking of a box at first run (next sessions will remember it). The only consequence is that If you were to enable all addons, Blender would take slightly longer to startup. 

*Parametric
{| style="width:100%" border="0"
|[[File:PovParametric1.png|400px|]]|[[File:PovParametric2.png|400px|]]
|}
<br/>

=Importing POV-Ray files=

{| width=100%
| valign=top | '''1.''' From the same {{Shortcut/Keypress|⇧ Shift}}{{Shortcut/Keypress|A}} menu, you can also import povray files
| [[File:POV_importMenu_01.png|thumb|600px|1]]
|-
| valign=top | '''2.''' Or otherwise, clicking {{Menu|File}}{{Submenu|Import}} from the main header menu
| [[File:POV_importMenu_02.png|thumb|600px|2]]
|-
| valign=top | '''3.''' You can then select one or several files (holding {{Shortcut/Keypress|⇧ Shift}} or pressing {{Shortcut/Keypress|B}} for drag box selection
| [[File:POV_importMenu_03.png|thumb|600px|3]]
|}
{{Template:MoreDetails|Merging POV scripted Animations|
[http://koti.mbnet.fi/mmyllyma/combine_blender_pov.html link to original tutorial]

''While Blender is one of the best modelers in existence, it is primarily a polygon modeler. There are some cases when you want to use something like POV-Ray's CSG features, which are very good at pure, mathematical forms. But compositing POV-Ray and Blender output is hard work. However, there is a way to combine animations to one render with Blender's POV-Ray Exporter!''

Let's make an (very simple) example case: Spaceship flying out of hangar. We wanted to make a dilating door animation in POV-Ray, spaceship animation in Blender and combine them.

'''Preliminary function declaration'''

<source lang="py">
    def exportCustomCode():
        # Write CurrentAnimation Frame for use in Custom POV Code
        file.write("#declare CURFRAMENUM = %d;\n" % bpy.context.scene.frame_current)
        #Change path and uncomment to add an animated include file by hand:
        file.write("#include \"/home/quantum/povray_animation/animation_include_file.inc\"\n")
</source>
The exporter doesn't include an interface to this functionality yet but it's quite usable already.
The folowing lines are from Blender's POV-Ray Exporters file, render.py. The only change you need to do is to write the file path for your own .inc file (which can be named as you want) and check that those two file.write statements are not commented out (i.e. no '#' in the beginning...).

This example uses Linux, so file path is Unix-style, in MS Windows paths are written differently...

'''Blender animation'''
[[File:blpovfram001.png|500px]]
[[File:blpovfram100.png|500px]]

We defined 100 frame animation in Blender. Basically just move (linearly) the spaceship.

Of course the world paramaters, lighting and objects materials/textures need to be what POV-Ray needs. Here, they are very basic. No image textures, one light, little ambient light.

'''POV-Ray animation'''

<source lang="pov">
#include "colors.inc"

#declare doorpart = difference {
	cylinder { <0, 0, -0.1>, <0, 0, 0.1>, 3 }
	box { <-10, -10, -10>, <0, 10, 10>  rotate <0, 0, (-3*CURFRAMENUM+3)> }
	box { <-10, -10, -10>, <10, 0, 10> }
}

#declare wall = difference {
	box { <-100, -100, -0.2>, <100, 100, 0.2> }
	cylinder { <0, 0, -1>, <0, 0, 1>, 2.9 }    	
}

object {
	wall
	pigment { Green }
} 

#if (CURFRAMENUM<30)
object {
	doorpart
	rotate <0, 0, 0> 
	translate <0, 0, 0> 
	pigment { Green }
} 

object {
	doorpart
	rotate <0, 0, 90> 
	translate <0, 0, 0> 
	pigment { Green }
} 

object {
	doorpart
	rotate <0, 0, 180> 
	translate <0, 0, 0> 
	pigment { Green }
} 

object {
	doorpart
	rotate <0, 0, 270> 
	translate <0, 0, 0> 
	pigment { Green }
} 
#end
</source>

We wrote the POV-Ray animation code. This is the ''animation_include_file.inc'' which was included in Python code. Note, that CURFRAMENUM is used. It is the animations current frame number in Blender! This way we can know what should happen and when in POV-Ray code. 
Here is the resulting animation:
[[File:CompoAnimPreview.png|center|480px|Click image to see the video.|link=http://wiki.blender.org/uploads/5/52/Povtut2.mp4]]
}}

=Standard Script Information=
{{ScriptInfo
|name= render_povray
|tooltip= Renders scenes with POV-Ray 3.7
|menu= Renderer rolldown menu
|usage= If POV-Ray 3.7 is installed, activate the addon in the menu {{Menu|Edit}}{{Submenu|<u>P</u>references}}. Choose it as the renderer and render with {{Shortcut/Keypress|F12}}.
|version= 0.0.9
|author= Campbell Barton, Silvio Falcinelli, Maurice Raybaud, Constantin Rahn, Bastien Montagne, Leonid Desyatkov
|blender= 2.57
|category= Render
|license= GPL
|distribution= Release
|note= After May the 10th 2011, some development to the script limited backwards compatibility: If you set up some files prior to that and always use the latest exporter from SVN. It is advised to run the update script and resave your scene with the new version: get to the search bar with {{Shortcut/Keypress|    Space    }}  and type pov to access this command.  
|exe= (Python script)+ POV-Ray 3.7
|download= 
Here are the logs of every commit to the source: 

[http://developer.blender.org/diffusion/BA/browse/master/render_povray/]

*You can download all the script at once by clicking ''snapshot'' here: 

[http://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender-addons.git/tree/refs/heads/master:/render_povray]

*or download a fresh blender build including scripts from generally a few days before here: 

[http://builder.blender.org/download/]

*And of course, don't forget to [http://www.povray.org/download/ download and install POV-Ray] itself ! 

|modules= Used standard Python modules
|deps= {{Warning/Important}}'''Requires versions of POV-Ray after 3.7/3.8, it won't work with POV-Ray 3.6'''
<br/>
|data= 
|bugtracker= [http://projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=23145]
|warning= Please report any bug or request!
|link=http://povray.org/ 
|releaselog= [[Dev:2.5/Py/Scripts/Render/POV-Ray]]
|issues= Currently Important: Many properties have been broken in Blender 2.8... Use 2.79 if you want to be safe 

}}