This file contains the documentation specific to the Amiga version of
POV-Ray.

Differences from original distribution:
   The original distribution of POV-Ray is in ZIP format.  For the Amiga,
   this has been converted to LZH format.  In addition, the Amiga
   distribution of POV-Ray has CR-LF pairs converted to only LF's for text
   files.  Otherwise, the Amiga distribution is identical to the ZIP
   distribution.

Note: PLEASE SEE POVLEGAL.DOC.  The Amiga version in LZH format is an
   officially supported format and can be distributed as is.  You MAY NOT
   re-package the archive file or distribute any changes to it.  If you
   do post it on a BBS or network, you must provide at least the scene
   files and documentation files with the executables.  See POVLEGAL.DOC
   for complete details.

Executables:
   Two executables are provided:

   povray881  - The version for systems with 68881 math coprocessors
   povrayieee - The version for systems without a coprocessor

   
Running POV-Ray:
   When running POV-Ray, be sure that you have a large stack set.  If the
   stack is too small, POV-Ray could crash without warning.  I usually use
   80,000 bytes, but then again, I have a lot of memory to spare.

Memory Requirements:
   POV-Ray can run on simple files with 1 Meg of memory.  I would highly
   recommend having more memory to render more complicated scenes.
   There's a known bug in this version which prevents POV-Ray from cleaning
   up gracefully if it runs out of memory in some instances.  If this occurs,
   the cancel requestor will not be closed.  If you click on it, the system
   will probably hang or reboot.  This should be fixed in the next release.

Display Formats:
   The Amiga version of the raytracer supports three types of display
   formats:

   +d0     - HAM  (default)
   +dE     - HAME
   +dF     - Firecracker

   The firecracker mode adjusts the resolution according to the -w (width)
   parameter of the raytracer.

    320  <= w < 0     use 320 x 482
    640  <= w < 320   use 640 x 482
    768  <= w < 640   use 768 x 482
    1024 <= w < 768   use 1024 x 482

File Formats:
   The default file format for the Amiga is "dump" format (+fd).  Targa or
   raw may be specified on the command line or in the povray.def file.

Building the source:
   POV-Ray was compiled using Lattice (now SAS) version 5.05.  I'm sure that
   later versions will also work fine.  If you're compiling with another
   compiler, you'll have to edit the makefile to set the proper compiler
   options.  As far as that goes, you're on your own.

   To compile POV-Ray from the original source, follow the following
   instructions:

      1) copy the files in the "source" directory into a "build" directory
      2) copy the files in machine/amiga to the build directory
      3) rename amigacon.h to config.h
      4) rename amiga.mak to makefile
      5) if you're building an IEEE executable, you must edit the makefile,
         comment out the line for "CFLAGS = ..." for the '881 and uncomment
         the line "CFLAGS = ..." for the IEEE emulator.

         Type "lmk povrayieee"

      6) To compile a 68881 version of POV-Ray, leave the original makefile
         unaltered and type "lmk".

Post-processing Images:
   A utility called dump2iff has been included in the executable archive to
   convert the POV-Ray format output to IFF HAM format.  To run this utility,
   you must provide the names of the input and output files.

   eg.
      dump2iff picture.dis picture.ham

   The dump2iff program can also write out a file containing the palette
   it used to make the image.  It can then be told to use this palette for
   when converting other images.  This is useful for making animations for
   animation players that can't change color palettes between frames.

   To output a palette, use the -p option of dump2iff:
      dump2iff -ppicture.pal picture.dis picture.ham

   To use this palette for other images, simply add it to the command line:
      dump2iff pic2.dis pic2.ham picture.pal

   By default, dump2iff will perform dithering to help smooth out the color
   changes.  To disable dithering, use -d on the command line.

   Personally, I've started using "The Art Department" by ASDG to
   post-process my images.  The Art Department Professional can accept QRT
   format images (which is the format output by POV-Ray with the +fd
   command-line parameter). Alternatively, you can output Targa (+ft) or
   raw (+fr).  To read the raw format into The Art Department, use the Scuplt
   reader.  You'll have to type in the resolution you used to generate the
   image.


Questions and problems in the Amiga version can be directed to David Buck.

David Buck
Internet:   dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca
CompuServe: 70521,1371