This section describes POV-Ray and explains what a ray tracer does.  It 
also describes where to find the latest version of the POV-Ray software.

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer (POV-Ray) is a copyrighted freeware 
program that allows a user to easily create fantastic, three dimensional, 
photo-realistic images on just about any computer. POV-Ray reads standard 
ASCII text files that describe the shapes, colors, textures and lighting in 
a scene and mathematically simulates the rays of light moving through the 
scene to produce a photo-realistic image! 

No traditional artistic or programming skills are required to use POV-Ray. 
First, you describe a picture in POV-Ray's scene description language, then 
POV-Ray takes your description and automatically creates an image from it 
with near perfect shading, perspective, reflections and lighting. 

The standard POV-Ray package also includes a collection of sample scene 
files that illustrate the program's features.  Additionally the POV-Ray 
Team distributes several volumes of scenes that have been created by other 
artists using the program. These scenes can be rendered and enjoyed even 
before learning the scene description language. They can also be modified 
to create new scenes. 

Here are some highlights of POV-Ray's features:
  *   Easy to use scene description language
  *   Large library of stunning example scene files
  *   Standard include files that pre-define many shapes, colors and 
       textures
  *   Very high quality output image files (24-bit color.)
  *   15 and 24 bit color display on IBM-PC's using appropriate hardware
  *   Create landscapes using smoothed height fields
  *   Spotlights for sophisticated lighting
  *   Phong and specular highlighting for more realistic-looking surfaces.
  *   Several image file output formats including Targa, dump and raw
  *   Wide range of shapes:
  *   Basic Shape Primitives such as... Sphere, Box, Quadric, Cylinder,
       Cone, Triangle and Plane
  *   Advanced Shape Primitives such as... Torus (Donut), Hyperboloid,
       Paraboloid, Bezier Patch, Height Fields (Mountains), Blobs,
       Quartics, Smooth Triangles (Phong shaded)
  *   Shapes can easily be combined to create new complex shapes. This
       feature is called Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). POV-Ray
       supports unions, merges, intersections and differences in CSG.
  *   Objects are assigned materials called textures.  (A texture describes
       the coloring and surface properties of a shape.)
  *   Built-in color patterns: Agate, Bozo, Checker, Granite, Gradient,
       Leopard, Mandel, Marble, Onion, Spotted, Radial, Wood and image file
       mapping.
  *   Built-in surface bump patterns: Bumps, Dents, Ripples, Waves,
       Wrinkles and mapping.
  *   Users can create their own textures or use pre-defined textures such
       as... Mirror, Metals like Chrome, Brass, Gold and Silver, Bright
       Blue Sky with Clouds, Sunset with Clouds, Sapphire Agate, Jade,
       Shiny, Brown Agate, Apocalypse, Blood Marble, Glass, Brown Onion,
       Pine Wood, Cherry Wood
  *   Combine textures using layering of semi-transparent textures or tile
       or material map files.
  *   Display preview of image while computing (not available on all
       computers)
  *   Halt rendering when part way through
  *   Continue rendering a halted partial scene later

There are specific versions of POV-Ray available for three different 
computers, the IBM-PC, the Apple Macintosh, and the Commodore Amiga.

The IBM-PC version is called POVRAY.EXE and is found in the self-extracting 
archive POVIBM.EXE. It can be run on any IBM-PC with a 386 or 486 CPU and 2 
megabytes of memory. A math co-processor is not required, but it is 
recommended. This version of POV-Ray may be run under DOS, OS\2, and 
Windows. It will not run under Desqview at this time. A version that runs 
on IBM-PC's using the 286 CPU is also available in the self-extracting 
archive POV286.EXE.

The Apple Macintosh version of POV-Ray can be found in the archive 
POVMAC.SEA or POVMNF.SEA.  POVMAC.SEA contains the preferred "high-
performance" executable for Macs with a floating point coprocessor (FPU).  
POVMNF.SEA contains the slower more universal executable, which will run on 
any 68020 or better Mac without an FPU.  

The Macintosh version of POV-Ray needs a 68020 or better CPU (Mac II 
series, SE/30, Quadras, some Powerbooks, etc.)  It will run under Sytem 
6.0.4 or newer (System 7 preferred.)  It also requires 32 bit Color 
Quickdraw, which is built into System 7, and is an optional init in System 
6.  The init can be found on the System 6 System disk "Printing", under the 
"Apple Color" folder.  It should also be available from any authorized 
Apple Service Center, or CompuServe or local Macintosh bulletin boards.  
QuickTime 1.5 or newer is preferred but not required.  If installed, it 
will allow compression of the final PICT images.  It will also allow adding 
custom System 7 Thumbnail icons to the PICT files in the Finder.  Of 
course, a color monitor is preferred, but not required.

The Commodore Amiga version of POV-Ray can be found in the file POVAMI.LZH. 
Two executables are supplied, one for computers with a math co-processor, 
and one for computers without a math co-processor. This version will run on 
Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, and 3000's and should work under AmigaDOS 1.3 or 
2.xx.  The Amiga version supports HAM mode as well as HAM-E and the 
Firecracker.

POV-Ray is written in highly portable C source code and it can be compiled 
and run on many different computers.  There is specific source code in the 
source archive for UNIX, X-Windows, VAX, and generic computers. If you have 
one of these, you can use the C compiler included with your operating 
system to compile a POV-Ray executable for your own use. This executable 
may not be distributed except under the terms specified in the file 
POVLEGAL.DOC.  Users on high powered computers like Suns, SGI, RS-6000's, 
Crays, and so on use this method to run POV-Ray.

All versions of the program share the same ray tracing features like 
shapes, lighting and textures. In other words, an IBM-PC can create the 
same pictures as a Cray supercomputer as long as it has enough memory.

The user will want to get the executable that best matches their computer 
hardware. See the section "Where to find POV-Ray files" for where to find 
these files. You can contact those sources to find out what the best 
version is for you and your computer.

POV-Ray is a complex piece of software made up of many files. The POV-Ray 
package is made up of several archives including executables, 
documentation, and example scene files. 

The average user will need an executable for their computer, the example 
scene files and the documentation. The example scenes are invaluable for 
learning about POV-Ray, and they include some exciting artwork.

Advanced users, developers, or the curious may want to download the C 
source code as well.

There are also many different utilities for POV-Ray that generate scenes, 
convert scene information from one format to another, create new materials, 
and so on. You can find these files from the same sources as the other POV-
Ray files. No comprehensive list of these utilities is available at the 
time of this writing.

The latest versions of the POV-Ray software are available from these 
sources:

POV-Ray headquarters are on CompuServe Graphics Developer's Forum (GO 
GRAPHDEV) sections 8 POV Sources and 9 POV Images. We meet there to share 
info and graphics and discuss ray tracing. The forum is also home to 
development projects on fractals, animation and morphing.  It is the home 
of the Stone Soup Group, developers of Fractint, a popular IBM-PC fractal 
program. Everyone is welcome to join in on the action on CIS GraphDev. Hope 
to see you there! You can get information on joining CompuServe by calling 
(800)848-8990. CompuServe access is also available in Japan, Europe and 
many other countries.

There's an area now on America On-Line dedicated to POV-Ray support and 
information. You can find it in the PC Graphics section of AOL. Jump 
keyword "PCGRAPHICS". This area includes the Apple Macintosh executables 
also.

There is a ray trace specific BBS in the (708) Area Code (Chicago suburbia, 
United States) for all you Traceaholics out there. The phone number of this 
BBS is (708) 358-5611. Bill Minus is the sysop and Aaron Collins is co-
sysop of that board, and it's filled with interesting stuff.

For those on the West coast, you may want to find the POV-Ray files on The 
Graphics Alternative BBS. It's a great graphics BBS run by Adam Shiffman.  
TGA is high quality, active and progressive BBS system which offers both 
quality messaging and files to its 1300+ users.

       510-524-2780 (PM14400FXSA v.32bis 14.4k, Public)
       510-524-2165 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4k, Subscribers)

For those on the East coast you may want to try th Pi Squared BBS in 
Maryland.  The sysop Alfonso Hermida CIS: 72114,2060 is the creator of 
POVCAD.  He carries the latest POV files and utilities, plus supports his 
software.  Call (301)-725-9080 in Maryland USA running @ 14.4K bps 24 hrs.

The POV-Ray files are also available over Internet by anonymous FTP from:
alfred.ccs.carleton.ca
ftp.cdrom.com