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===Questions and Tips===
 
===Questions and Tips===
 +
{{#indexentry:Questions and Tips}}
 +
{{#indexentry:VFAQ}}
 +
{{#indexentry:FAQ}}
 
<!--<sectiondesc desc=<"tutorial questions and tips">--->
 
<!--<sectiondesc desc=<"tutorial questions and tips">--->
−
<!--<indexentry primary "Questions and Tips" "VFAQ" "FAQ">--->
+
<p class="Note">
−
<p>
+
<strong>Note:</strong> This section used to contain answers to frequently asked questions about POV-Ray as well as many useful tips not covered in other parts of this documentation. You should now refer to the online version of the POV-Ray [http://wiki.povray.org/content/Knowledgebase:POV-Ray_Questions_and_Tips Questions and Tips]</p>
−
This section contains answers to frequently asked questions about  
 
−
POV-Ray as well as many useful tips not covered in other parts of this documentation.</p>
 
−
<p>
 
−
While it was current at the time that this POV-Ray documentation help file was created,
 
−
it will almost certainly be out of date by the time you are reading this. So, if you
 
−
do not find an answer to your question here, please check out the [http://www.povray.org/search/redirect?VFAQ current version]
 
−
on the internet.
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>
 
−
If you have some question not answered in this FAQ, do not be afraid to
 
−
contact the [http://tag.povray.org/ TAG]
 
−
or ask in the proper group of the [news://news.povray.org POV-Ray news-server].
 
−
</p>
 
−
===Language Tips and tricks to achieve useful things===
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I make a visible light source?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;How do I make a visible light source?&quot;</em> or: <em>&quot;Although I put the
 
−
camera just in front of my light source, I cannot see anything. What am I
 
−
doing wrong?&quot;</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>A light source in POV-Ray is only a concept. When you
 
−
add a light source to the scene, you are actually saying to POV-Ray
 
−
&quot;hey, there is light coming from this point&quot;. As the name says, it is a
 
−
light <strong>source</strong>, not a physical light (like a light bulb or a
 
−
bright spot like a star). POV-Ray does not add anything to that place
 
−
where the light is coming, ie. there is nothing there, only empty
 
−
space. It is just a kind of mathematical point POV-Ray uses to make
 
−
shading calculations.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>To make the light source visible, you have
 
−
to put something there. There is a <code>looks_like</code> keyword in the
 
−
<code>light_source</code> block which allows to easily attach an object to the
 
−
light source. This object implicitly does not cast any shadows.  You
 
−
can make something like this:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
light_source
 
−
{ &lt;0,0,0&gt; color 1
 
−
  looks_like
 
−
  { sphere
 
−
    { &lt;0,0,0&gt;,0.1
 
−
      color { rgb 1 }
 
−
      finish { ambient 1 }
 
−
    }
 
−
  }
 
−
  translate &lt;10,20,30&gt;
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>It is a good idea to define both things, the light source and the looks_like
 
−
object, at the origin, and then translate them to their right place.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Note also the '<code>finish { ambient 1 }</code>' which makes the sphere
 
−
to apparently glow (see also the next question).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>You can also get visible light sources using other techniques: Media,
 
−
lens flare (available as 3rd party include file), glow patch, etc.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I make bright objects?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;How do I make bright objects, which look like they are emitting light?&quot;
 
−
</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>There is a simple trick to achieve this: Set the ambient value of the object
 
−
to 1 or higher. This makes POV-Ray to add a very bright illumination value to
 
−
the object so the color of the object is in practice taken as is, without
 
−
darkening it due to shadows and shading. This results in an object which seems
 
−
to glow light by itself even if it is in full darkness (useful to make visible
 
−
light sources, or small lights like leds which do not cast any considerable
 
−
light to their surroundings but can be easily seen even in the darkness).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>A more sophisticated method would be using an emitting media
 
−
inside the object (and making the object itself transparent or
 
−
semi-transparent).</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I move the camera in a circular path?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;How do I move the camera in a circular path while looking at the origin?&quot;
 
−
</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>There are two ways to make this: The easy (and limited) way, and the more
 
−
mathematical way.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>The easy way:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
camera
 
−
{ location &lt;0,0,-10&gt;
 
−
  look_at 0
 
−
  rotate &lt;0,clock*360,0&gt;
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>This puts the camera at 10 units in the negative Z-axis and then rotates it
 
−
around the Y-axis while looking at the origin (it makes a circle of radius
 
−
10).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>The mathematical way:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
camera
 
−
{ location &lt;10*sin(2*pi*clock),0,-10*cos(2*pi*clock)&gt;
 
−
  look_at 0
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>This makes exactly the same thing as the first code, but this way you
 
−
can control more precisely the path of the camera. For example you can
 
−
make the path elliptical instead of circular by changing the factors
 
−
of the sine and the cosine (for example instead of 10 and 10 you can
 
−
use 10 and 5 which makes an ellipse with the major radius 10 and minor
 
−
radius 5).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>An easier way to do the above is to use the vrotate()
 
−
function, which handles the sin() and cos() stuff for you, as well as
 
−
allowing you to use more complex rotations.
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
camera
 
−
{ location vrotate(x*10, y*360*clock)
 
−
  look_at 0
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>To get an ellipse with this method, you can just multiply the
 
−
result from vrotate by a vector, scaling the resulting circle.  With
 
−
the last two methods you can also control the look_at vector (if you
 
−
do not want it looking just at the origin).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>You could also do more complex transformations combining translate,
 
−
scale, rotate, and matrix transforms by replacing the vrotate() call
 
−
with a call of the vtransform() function found in <code>functions.inc</code>
 
−
(new in POV-Ray 3.5).</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I use an image to texture my object?===
 
−
<p>The answer to this question can be easily found in the POV-Ray
 
−
documentation, so I will just quote the syntax:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
pigment
 
−
{ image_map
 
−
  { gif &quot;image.gif&quot;
 
−
    map_type 1
 
−
  }
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>(Note that in order for the image to be aligned properly, either
 
−
the object has to be located at the origin when applying the pigment
 
−
or the pigment has to be transformed to align with the object. It is
 
−
generally easiest to create the object at the origin, apply the
 
−
texture, then move it to wherever you want it.)
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Substitute the keyword <code>gif</code> with the type of image you are
 
−
using (if it is not a GIF): <code>tga, iff, ppm, pgm, png or sys</code>.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>A <code>map_type 0</code> gives the default planar mapping.<br>
 
−
A <code>map_type 1</code> gives a spherical mapping (maps the image onto a
 
−
sphere).<br>
 
−
With <code>map_type 2</code> you get a cylindrical mapping (maps the image
 
−
onto a cylinder).<br>
 
−
Finally <code>map_type 5</code> is a torus or donut shaped mapping (maps the
 
−
image onto a torus).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>See the documentation for more details.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How can I generate a spline?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;How can I generate a spline, for example for a camera path for an animation?&quot;</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>POV-Ray 3.6 has a splines feature that allows you to create splines. This is
 
−
covered in the documentation and there are demo files showing examples of
 
−
use. There exist also third party include files for spline generation that
 
−
have greater flexibility than the internal splines, for example
 
−
the [http://www.geocities.com/ccolefax/spline/index.html spline macros by Chris Colefax].
 
−
</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How can I simulate motion blur?===
 
−
<p>The official POV-Ray 3.6 does not support motion
 
−
blur calculations, but there are some patched versions which do.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>You can also use other tools to make this. One way to simulate motion
 
−
blur is calculating a small animation and then averaging the images together.
 
−
This averaging of several images can be made with third party programs,
 
−
such as the [http://iki.fi/warp/PovUtils/average/ Targa Averager program].
 
−
</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How can I find the size of a text object?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;How can I find the size of a text object / center text / justify text?&quot;
 
−
</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>You can use the <code>min_extent()</code> and
 
−
<code>max_extent()</code> functions to get the
 
−
corners of the bounding box of any object. While this is sometimes not
 
−
the actual size of the object, for text objects this should be fairly
 
−
accurate, enough to do alignment of the text object.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I make extruded text?===
 
−
<p>POV-Ray has true type font support built in that allows you to have 3D
 
−
text in your scenes (see the documentation about the 'text' object for
 
−
more details).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>There are also some outside utilities that will import true type fonts
 
−
and allow user manipulation on the text. One of these programs
 
−
is called Elefont.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How do I make an object hollow?===
 
−
<p>This question usually means &quot;how do I make a hollow object, like a
 
−
waterglass, a jug, etc&quot;.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Before answering that question, let me explain some things about how POV-Ray
 
−
handles objects:
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Although the POV-Ray documentation talks about &quot;solid&quot; and &quot;hollow&quot; objects,
 
−
that is not how it actually works. &quot;Solid&quot; and &quot;hollow&quot; are a bit misleading
 
−
terms to describe the objects. You can also make an object &quot;hollow&quot; with
 
−
that same keyword, but it is not that simple.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Firstly: POV-Ray only handles surfaces, not solid 3D-objects.
 
−
When you specify a sphere, it is actually just a spherical surface. It is only
 
−
a surface and it is not filled by anything. This can easily be seen by
 
−
putting the camera inside the sphere or by clipping a hole to one side of
 
−
the sphere with the clipped_by keyword (so you can look inside).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>People often think that POV-Ray objects are solid, really 3D, with solid
 
−
material filling the entire object because they make a 'difference' CSG
 
−
object and it seems like the object is actually solid. What the 'difference'
 
−
CSG actually does is to cut away a part of the object and <strong>add a new
 
−
surface</strong> in the place of the hole, which completely covers the hole, so
 
−
you cannot see inside the object (this new surface is actually the part of
 
−
the second object which is &quot;inside&quot; the first object). Again, if you move
 
−
the camera inside the object, you will see that actually it is hollow and
 
−
the object is just a surface.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>So what is all this &quot;solid&quot; and &quot;hollow&quot; stuff the documentation talks of,
 
−
and what is the &quot;hollow&quot; keyword used for?
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Although objects are actually surfaces, POV-Ray handles them as if they
 
−
were solid. For example, fog and media do not go inside
 
−
solid objects. If you put a glass sphere into the fog, you will see that
 
−
there is no fog inside the sphere.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>If you add the &quot;hollow&quot; keyword to the object, POV-Ray will no longer handle
 
−
it as solid, so fog and atmosphere will invade the inside of the object.
 
−
This is the reason why POV-Ray issues a warning when you put the camera inside
 
−
a non-hollow object (because, as it says, fog and other atmospheric effects
 
−
may not work as you expected).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>If your scene does not use any atmospheric effect (fog or media) there
 
−
is not any difference between a &quot;solid&quot; or &quot;hollow&quot; object.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>So all the objects in POV-Ray are hollow. But the surface of the objects is
 
−
always infinitely thin, and there is only one surface. With real world hollow
 
−
objects you have always two surfaces: an outer surface and an inner surface.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Usually people refer to these kind of objects when they ask for hollow
 
−
objects. This kind of objects are easily achieved with a 'difference' CSG
 
−
operation, like this:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
// A simple water glass made with a difference:
 
−
difference
 
−
{ cone { &lt;0,0,0&gt;,1,&lt;0,5,0&gt;,1.2 }
 
−
  cone { &lt;0,.1,0&gt;,.9,&lt;0,5.1,0&gt;,1.1 }
 
−
  texture { Glass }
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>The first cone limits the outer surface of the glass and the second cone
 
−
limits the inner surface.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How can I fill a glass with water or other objects?===
 
−
<p>As described in the &quot;hollow objects&quot; question above, hollow objects have
 
−
always two surfaces: an outer surface and an inner surface. If we take the
 
−
same example, a simple glass would be like:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
// A simple water glass made with a difference:
 
−
#declare MyGlass=
 
−
difference
 
−
{ cone { &lt;0,0,0&gt;,1,&lt;0,5,0&gt;,1.2 }
 
−
  cone { &lt;0,.1,0&gt;,.9,&lt;0,5.1,0&gt;,1.1 }
 
−
  texture { Glass }
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>The first cone limits the outer surface of the glass and the second cone
 
−
limits the inner surface.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>If we want to fill the glass with water, we have to make an object which
 
−
coincides with the inner surface of the glass. Note that you have to avoid the
 
−
<!--<linkto "black spots">coincident surfaces problem</linkto>--->[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 4.1#Why are there strange dark pixels or noise on my CSG object?|coincident surfaces problem]]
 
−
so you should scale
 
−
the &quot;water&quot; object just a little bit smaller than the inner surface of the
 
−
glass. So we make something like this:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
#declare MyGlassWithWater=
 
−
union
 
−
{ object { MyGlass }
 
−
  cone
 
−
  { &lt;0,.1,0&gt;,.9,&lt;0,5.1,0&gt;,1.1
 
−
    scale .999
 
−
    texture { Water }
 
−
  }
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Now the glass is filled with water. But there is one problem: There is too
 
−
much water. The glass should be filled only up to certain level, which should
 
−
be definable. Well, this can be easily made with a CSG operation:
 
−
 
 
−
<pre>
 
−
#declare MyGlassWithWater=
 
−
union
 
−
{ object { MyGlass }
 
−
  intersection
 
−
  { cone { &lt;0,.1,0&gt;,.9,&lt;0,5.1,0&gt;,1.1 }
 
−
    plane { y,4 }
 
−
    scale .999
 
−
    texture { Water }
 
−
  }
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Now the water level is at a height of 4 units.
 
−
</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===How can I bend a object?===
 
−
<p>There is no direct support for bending in POV-Ray, but you can achieve acceptable
 
−
bending with the [http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1434/bend.html Object Bender by Chris Colefax].
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Some objects can be &quot;bent&quot; by just modelling it with other objects.
 
−
For example a bent cylinder can be more easily (and accurately) achieved
 
−
using the intersection of a torus and some limiting objects.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>It might be a bit strange why most renderers support bending but POV-Ray
 
−
does not. To understand this one has to know how other renderers (the
 
−
so-called &quot;scanline-renderers&quot; work):
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>In the so-called &quot;scanline renders&quot; all objects are modelled with triangle
 
−
meshes (or by primitives such as NURBS or bezier patches which can be very
 
−
easily converted to triangles). The &quot;bending&quot; is, in fact, achieved by
 
−
moving the vertices of the triangles.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>In this context the term &quot;bending&quot; is a bit misleading. Strictly speaking,
 
−
bending a triangle mesh would also bend the triangles themselves, not only
 
−
move their vertices. No renderer can do this. (It can be, however, simulated
 
−
by splitting the triangles into smaller triangles, and so the &quot;bending&quot;
 
−
effect is more accurate, although not yet perfect.) What these renderers do
 
−
is not a true bending in the strict mathematical sense, but only an
 
−
approximation achieved by moving the vertices of the triangles.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>This difference might sound irrelevant, as the result of this kind of
 
−
&quot;fake&quot; bending usually looks as good as a true bending. However, it is not
 
−
irrelevant from the point of view of POV-Ray. This is because POV-Ray does
 
−
not represent the objects with triangles, but they are true mathematical
 
−
surfaces. POV-Ray cannot &quot;fake&quot; a bending by moving vertices because there
 
−
are no vertices to move. In practice bending (and other non-linear
 
−
transformations) would require the calculation of the intersection of the
 
−
object surface and a curve (instead of a straight line), which is pretty
 
−
hard and many times analytically not possible.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Note that isosurface objects can be modified with proper functions in
 
−
order to achieve all kinds of transformations (linear and non-linear) and
 
−
thus they are not really bound to this limitation. However, achieving the
 
−
desired transformation needs some knowledge of mathematics.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>See also the
 
−
<!--<linkto "variable ior">variable ior question</linkto>--->[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 4.1#Can I specify variable IOR for an object?|variable ior question]].
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===Can I get non-grainy focal blur?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;The focal blur is very grainy. Can I get rid of the graininess?&quot;</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Yes. Set <code>variance</code> to 0 (or to a very small value, like
 
−
for example 1/100000) and choose a high enough
 
−
<code>blur_samples</code>. The rendering will probably slow down quite a lot,
 
−
but the result should be very good.</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===Language Things that don't work as one expects===
 
−
 
 
−
===Using several transparent objects makes them black?===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;When I put several
 
−
transparent objects one in front of another or inside another, POV-Ray
 
−
calculates a few of them, but the rest are completely black, no matter
 
−
what transparency values I give.&quot;</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Short answer: Try increasing the <code>max_trace_level</code>
 
−
value in the <code>global_settings</code> block (the default is 5).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Long answer:
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Raytracing has a peculiar feature: It can calculate
 
−
reflection and refraction. Each time a ray hits the surface of an
 
−
object, the program looks if this surface is reflective and/or
 
−
refractive. If so, it shoots another ray from this point to the
 
−
appropriate direction.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>Now, imagine we have a glass sphere. Glass
 
−
reflects and refracts, so when the ray hits the sphere, two additional
 
−
rays are calculated, one outside the sphere (for the reflection) and
 
−
one inside (for the refraction). Now the inside ray will hit the
 
−
sphere again, so two new rays are calculated, and so on and so
 
−
on...
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>You can easily see that there must be a maximum number of
 
−
reflections/refractions calculated, because otherwise POV-Ray would
 
−
calculate that one pixel forever.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>This number can be set with the
 
−
<code>max_trace_level</code> option in the <code>global_settings</code> block.
 
−
The default value
 
−
is 5, which is enough for most scenes. Sometimes it is not enough
 
−
(specially when there are lots of semitransparent objects one over
 
−
another) so you have to increase it.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>So try something like:
 
−
<pre>
 
−
global_settings
 
−
{
 
−
  max_trace_level 10
 
−
}
 
−
</pre>
 
−
</p>
 
−
 
 
−
===I'm getting color banding in the image===
 
−
<p><em>&quot;When I make an image with POV-Ray, it seems to use just a few colors
 
−
since I get color banding or concentric circles of colors or whatever where
 
−
it should not. How can I make POV-Ray to use more colors?&quot;</em>
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>POV-Ray always writes true color images (ie. with 16777216 colors, ie.
 
−
256 shades of red, 256 shades of green and 256 shades of blue) (this can
 
−
be changed when outputting to PNG or to B/W TGA but this is irrelevant when
 
−
answering to this question).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>So POV-Ray is not guilty. It always uses the maximum color resolution
 
−
available in the target image file format.
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>This problem usually happens when you are using windows with 16-bit
 
−
colors (ie. only 65536 colors, the so-called hicolor mode) and open
 
−
the image created by POV-Ray with a program which does not dither the
 
−
image. The image is still true color, but the program is unable to
 
−
show all the colors, but shows only 65536 of them (dithering is a
 
−
method that &quot;fakes&quot; more colors by mixing pixels of two adjacent
 
−
colors to simulate the in-between colors).
 
−
 
 
−
</p>
 
−
<p>So the problem is not
 
−
in POV-Ray, but in your image viewer program. Even if POV-Ray shows a
 
−
poor image while rendering because you have a resolution with too few
 
−
colors, the image file created will have full color range.
 
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</p>
 
 
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[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 3.10#The Camera-setup|The Camera-setup]]</td>
 
[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 3.10#The Camera-setup|The Camera-setup]]</td>
 
<td width=50% bgcolor=#EEEEEF align=right>
 
<td width=50% bgcolor=#EEEEEF align=right>
−
[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 4.1#Rotation behaves very strangely|Rotation behaves very strangely]]</td></tr>
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[[Documentation:Tutorial Section 5#Appendices|Appendices]]</td></tr>
 
</table>
 
</table>
 
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Latest revision as of 14:28, 16 December 2016

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Questions and Tips

Note: This section used to contain answers to frequently asked questions about POV-Ray as well as many useful tips not covered in other parts of this documentation. You should now refer to the online version of the POV-Ray Questions and Tips


The Camera-setup Appendices


This document is protected, so submissions, corrections and discussions should be held on this documents talk page.

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