Documentation:Mac OS Section 1

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Introduction

Welcome to POV-Ray 3.7 for Mac OS! This software is called a ray tracer. It may be a little different from other 3-D software you are used to, but you will soon find that the images and movies you can create with POV-Ray can rival those commercial packages costing thousands of dollars! POV-Ray reads a text file that describes the objects and lighting in a scene, and it generates an image of that scene from the view point of a camera, also described in the text file. The creation of these images and animations by ray tracing is not a fast process by any means, but it produces very high quality images with realistic reflections, shading, textures, perspective, and other effects. This program is Copyrighted Freeware, which means you may use it for free, but it does have special restrictions on how you can modify it or redistribute it. For more information on the usage and distribution policies of POV-Ray, please see POVLEGAL.DOC included with this distribution.

What's new in POV-Ray for Mac OS

The are no new features for the Mac OS platform. See the section Changes and New Features Summary for information about non-platform specific changes.

Installation

Just copy the POV-Ray 3.7 folder to your hard-disk. Note that POV-Ray does not run on read-only volumes.

Requirements

The Macintosh version runs under Apple's Mac OS operating system version 8.6. It may run on 8.1 and 8.5 as well, but we do not support POV-Ray 3.7 running on Mac OS 8.1 and 8.5 or newer with CarbonLib 1.6 or newer installed. Note that we no longer support 68K based Macintosh computers. POV-Ray 3.7 requires a Power Macintosh!

A Power Macintosh is any iMac, iBook, Mac G3, Mac G4, Mac G5, Cube, any older Mac with a four digit model number (i.e. 5200, 6300, 7200, 8100, 9600) and any third party computer running Mac OS 8.6 or later. Mac OS X 10.2 or later are supported but for maximum render speed it is not recommended to use Mac OS X.

Required hardware and software: Power Macintosh computer with at least 16 MB of free RAM. Mac OS 8.6 or newer with CarbonLib 1.6 or newer installed. About 20 MB free disk space to install and an additional 5-10 MB free space for your own creations (scenes and images). Graphic file viewer utility capable of viewing Mac PICT, GIF and perhaps TGA and PNG formats (the shareware GraphicConverter applications is good.)

Required POV-Ray files: POVPMAC.SIT or POVPMAC.HQX - a StuffIt archive containing the native Power Macintosh application, sample scenes, standard include files and documentation.

Recommended: Power Macintosh G4 with 128 MB or more of free RAM. Mac OS 9.2.2 or newer with CarbonLib 1.6 (works with Mac OS 8.6 or newer) to access all features of the Mac frontend. CarbonLib 1.6 is available for free download from Apple in the software update section of the Apple website. Color monitor with millions of colors.

Bug Reporting via our Bug Tracking System

Bug reports may be lodged about povray by using the bug tracking system. The bugtracker is monitored regularly by the POV-Ray development team and they will address any properly-lodged bug reports in the most timely manner possible.

You may like to remember, however, that no matter where you end up getting assistance from, users who show that they have looked in the documentation and read the POV-Ray Questions and Tips first, will be much more likely to receive the response they want than someone who obviously has not done their homework.

Any messages or reports sent to us may (not necessarily will, but may) be reposted by us in our newsgroups, on USENET, or on our web site. If you do not wish your communication to be posted in this manner, please do not send us any.

You should not expect any reply to bug reports.

The minimum information to include in your bug report is:

1. The version number of POV-Ray for Mac OS.
2. Your operating system or distribution and version. It's surprising how many people fail to provide this basic piece of information. We need to know what version of operationg system you are running.
3. Your computer; what processor and how much memory.
4. A complete description of the problem and what led up to it. It will make it a lot easier to track down if you can include a scene file that will cause the problem. If the file is large, try removing parts until you have the minimum scene file that will cause the problem.

Note: If posting on the bug tracking system, news group or emailing someone for support, never, ever include file attachments without asking first.

Introduction

Getting Started

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