Persistence of Vision Raytracer
                          Version 1.0 
                    IBM-PC Specific Intructions
                  -------------------------------

This file contains the documentation specific to the IBM-PC version of
POV-Ray. See POVRAY.DOC for general program info and installation
instructions.

  The executable POVRAY.EXE was compiled using the Intel Code Builder   
32 bit protected mode compiler. A 386 or 486 and at least 2 meg of RAM
are required to run this program. A math co-processor and VGA display
are recommended.

See IBMPCEXE.DOC for more info.

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Running POV-Ray:
----------------   
   POV-Ray is run from the command line by typing the program name,
   povray.exe followed by command line options. 
   For example,
     
     C:\POVRAY>povray +isimple.pov +osimple.tga +w160 +h120 +d -v +x
   
   Options may also be specified in a separate file, the name of which
   is placed on the command line. Or they may be specified in the
   environment variable, POVRAYOPT, as in:
   
   set POVRAYOPT=+w160 +h120 +x +d0 -v
   
   The environment variable is good for setting global default options
   that will be in effect no matter what directory you're working in.
   Options on the command line override the environment variable.
   It is recommended to set the environment variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
   file and to add the directory containing POVRAY.EXE to your path
   statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
   
   There is also at least one third-party utility available
   that runs POV-Ray from within Micorsoft Windows and provides an 
   easy interface for picking files and setting options. 
   
   POV-Ray outputs Targa (.TGA) files which need to be converted before
   they can be viewed on a standard VGA. See file section below for more
   info.

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Command Line Display Options:
-----------------------------
POV-Ray can display a rough version of the scene file while it creates
the image by using the options listed below. To learn how to see the file 
in its final form, see the files section below.

+d   = Alone, will autodetect the display type and display the image 
       to the screen as it's being worked on. Try specifying the display
       type explicitly if autodetect doesn't work. +d? will invoke a
       message to report what display POV-Ray is detecting.

-v   =  Usually, you should use -v in conjunction with +d. This 
        will turn off the line number text display. It will work
        with some display options. You can experiment to see which.

+d#p = The first character after d is the display type, resolution is 
       automatically selected. The second character is the palette type
       or color selection method.

Some Examples
--------------
+d0h = Autodetect the VGA display type
       and display the image to the screen
       as it's being worked on.
       Use the Sierra HiColor chip and
       dithering to display more than 32,000
       colors on screen. Looks great!
+d1  = Display to standard VGA screen 320x200.
       Try this if your SVGA display is not supported.
+dG0 = Display to a VESA VGA adapter and
       use the HSV palette option.
+dG3 = Display to a VESA VGA adapter and use 
       the 332 palette option.
+d4  = Display to a TSENG 400 chipset VGA using
       the 332 palette option.

If your card isn't autodetected correctly try all the options. 
If no option works, just use +d1 for standard VGA.

DISPLAY OPTIONS:
    +d0     Autodetect (S)VGA type (Default)
    +d1     Standard VGA 320x200
    +d2     Standard VGA 360 x 480
    +d3     Tseng Labs 3000 SVGA 640x480
    +d4     Tseng Labs 4000 SVGA 640x480
    +d5     AT&T VDC600 SVGA 640x400
    +d6     Oak Technologies SVGA 640x480
    +d7     Video 7 SVGA 640x480
    +d8     Video 7 Vega (Cirrus) VGA 360x480
    +d9     Paradise SVGA 640x480
    +dA     Ahead Systems Ver. A SVGA 640x480
    +dB     Ahead Systems Ver. B SVGA 640x480
    +dC     Chips & Technologies SVGA 640x480
    +dD     ATI SGVA 640x480
    +dE     Everex SVGA 640x480
    +dF     Trident SVGA 640x480
    +dG     VESA Standard SVGA Adapter 640x480
    +dH     ATI XL display card

PALETTE OPTIONS:
    +d?3 Use 332 palette with dithering 
        (Default and best for VGA systems)
    +d?h Use Sierra HiColor option. Displays 
         32,000+ colors with dithering. Looks great!
    +d?0 Use HSV palette option for VGA display
    +d?G Use Grayscale palette option for VGA display
    +d?T For Truecolor 24 bit cards. Use 24 bit color.

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File Formats:
-------------
   The default file format for the IBM-PC is Targa (+ft). This format 
is a 24 bit color image allowing over 16 million colors to be created.
Most IBM-PC systems do not have the capability to directly display
Targa images. They must be converted to 256 color GIF images so they
can be viewed on a VGA or SVGA display. To convert a TGA file to a GIF
file, get a copy of  PICLAB or Image Alchemy which can be found from
the same source as the POV-Ray files. The program documentation
of these programs describes how to convert a TGA to a GIF.

  Many SVGA cards now have a Sierra HiColor chip for 16 bit color.
Get a copy of the program TGVIEW and you can see your rendered images
in "almost" full color without converting them to a GIF file.