Reference Table of Contents

POV-Ray for Unix version 3.8

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Command-Line and INI-File Options

Animation Options

External Animation Loop

Internal Animation Loop

Subsets of Animation Frames

Cyclic Animation

Field Rendering

General Output Options

Height and Width of Output

Max Image Buffer Memory

Partial Output Options

Interrupting Options

Resuming Options

Display Output Options

Display Hardware Settings

Setting your Display Gamma

Display Related Settings

File Output Options

Output File Type

Output File Name

Output File Buffer

Output File Dithering

Output File Gamma

CPU Utilization Histogram

Scene Parsing Options

Include File Name

Language Version

Shell Command Options

String Substitution in Shell Commands

Shell Command Sequencing

Shell Command Return Actions

Text Output Options

Console Text Output

Directing Text Streams to Files

Help Screen Switches

Tracing Options

Symmetric MultiProcessing

Render Block Size

Render Block Step

Quality Settings

Automatic Bounding Control

Removing User Bounding

Anti-Aliasing Options

Radiosity Options

Radiosity High Reproducibility

Radiosity Load and Save

Radiosity Vain Pretrace

Scene Description Language

Language Basics

Notation and Basic Assumptions

Numeric Expressions

Built-in Constants

Built-in Variables

Vector Expressions

Operator Promotion

Built-in Constants

Dot Item Access for Vectors

Color Expressions

Color Identifiers

Color Operators

Dot Item Access for Colors

Common Color Pitfalls

Sum and Product functions

Functions and Macros

Declaring User-Defined Float Functions

Declaring User-Defined Vector Functions

Declaring User-Defined Color Functions

Internal Pre-Defined Functions

String Literals

String Identifiers

String Relational Operators

String Functions

Built-in Variables

Declaring Arrays

Array Initializers

Splines and Macros

Transformations

Language Directives

Include Directive

Declare and Local Directives

Declaring identifiers

declare vs. local

Identifier Name Collisions

Destroying Identifiers with undef

Deprecation Support

File I/O Directives

The fopen Directive

The fclose Directive

The read Directive

The write Directive

Default Directive

Version Directive

Conditional Directives

The if...else...end Directives

The ifdef and ifndef Directives

The for Directive

The switch, case, range and break Directives

The while...end Directive

User Message Directives

Text Message Streams

Text Formatting

User Defined Macros

The macro Directive

Invoking Macros

Are POV-Ray Macros a Function or a Macro?

Returning a Value Like a Function

Returning Values Via Parameters

Optional Parameters

Scene File Basics

Global Settings

Irid_Wavelength

Max_Trace_Level

Max_Intersections

Number_Of_Waves

Noise_generator

Placing the Camera

Location and Look_At

The Direction Vector

Up and Right Vectors

Transforming the Camera

Types of Projection

Perspective projection

Orthographic projection

Mesh projection

Distribution Type

About the Location Vector

About the Direction Vector

The Smooth Modifier

Fisheye projection

Ultra wide angle projection

Omnimax projection

Panoramic projection

Cylindrical projection

Spherical projection

User defined projection

Camera Ray Perturbation

Camera Identifiers

Cylindrical Lights

Parallel Lights

Shadowless Lights

Projected Through

Atmospheric Media Interaction

Atmospheric Attenuation

Radiosity Basics

How Radiosity Works

Adjusting Radiosity

low_error_factor

pretrace_start and pretrace_end

recursion_limit

Configuring Radiosity

Media and Radiosity

Normal and Radiosity

Save and Load Radiosity Data

Subsurface and Radiosity

Tips on Radiosity

Using Photon Mapping in Your Scene

Photon Global Settings

Shooting Photons at an Object

Photons and Light Sources

Photons and Media

Advanced Techniques

Adaptive Search Radius

Photons and Dispersion

Saving and Loading Photon Maps

Finite Solid Primitives

Superquadric Ellipsoid

Surface of Revolution

Finite Patch Primitives

Smooth and Flat triangles in the same mesh

Mesh Triangle Textures

Smooth Triangle

Infinite Solid Primitives

Constructive Solid Geometry

Inside and Outside

Object Modifiers

Clipped By Object Modifier

Bounded By Object Modifier

Hollow Object Modifier

Inverse Object Modifier

No Shadow Object Modifier

No Image Object Modifier

No Reflection Object Modifier

Double Illuminate Object Modifier

No Radiosity Object Modifier

Sturm Object Modifier

Solid Color Pigments

Color List Pigments

Normals, Accuracy

Specifying a Bump Map

Use_Index and Use_Color

Scaling normals

Diffuse Reflection Items

Crand Graininess

Subsurface Light Transport

Phong Highlights

Specular Highlight

Metallic Highlight Modifier

Specular Reflection

Conserve Energy for Reflection

Patterned Textures

Specifying a Material Map

Layered Textures

Supported Objects

Triangle Texture Interpolation

Interior Texture

Cutaway Textures

General Patterns

Cylindrical Pattern

Density File Pattern

df3 file format

Fractal Pattern

Function Pattern

What can be used

Gradient Pattern

Granite Pattern

Leopard Pattern

Pavement Pattern

Pigment Pattern

Quilted Pattern

Ripples Pattern

Spherical Pattern

Spiral1 Pattern

Spiral2 Pattern

Spotted Pattern

Wrinkles Pattern

Discontinuous Patterns

Checker Pattern

Crackle Pattern

Hexagon Pattern

Triangular Pattern

Normal-Dependent Patterns

Special Patterns

Average Pattern

Potential Pattern

User Defined Pattern

Pattern Modifiers

Transforming Patterns

Frequency and Phase

Noise Generators

Black Hole Warp

Turbulence Warp

Mapping using warps

Turbulence versus Turbulence Warp

Specifying an Image Map

The Gamma Option

The Filter and Transmit Bitmap Modifiers

Using the Alpha Channel

Bitmap Modifiers

The once Option

The map_type Option

The interpolate Option

Special Effects

Atmospheric Effects

Atmospheric Media

Why are Interior and Media Necessary?

Empty and Solid Objects

Scaling objects with an interior

Dispersion & Caustics

Simulated Caustics

Sampling Parameters & Methods

General Density Modifiers

Density with color_map

Density Maps and Density Lists

Multiple Density vs. Multiple Media

Scene File Extras

Predefined colors

Vector constants

Map type constants

Interpolation type constants

Fog type constants

Focal blur hexgrid constants

Dispersion amounts

Scattering media type constants

Common Parameters

Cross Section Type

Invert Isosurface

Internal Functions

Pre defined functions

Pattern functions

Glass colors (with transparency)

Glass colors (without transparency, for fade_color)

Glass interiors

Glass interior macros

Float functions and macros

Vector functions and macros

Vector Analysis

Flat Distributions

Other Distributions

Continuous Symmetric Distributions

Continuous Skewed Distributions

Discrete Distributions

Special textures

Texture and pattern macros

Color Map Files