Top Document: comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing FAQ (part 2/2) Previous Document: News Headers Next Document: 5 - Further Information and Resources See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge ------------------------------ Subject 4.1 - Image Display/Conversion Programs * IMAGEMAGICK - An X-Windows based image display program (source distribution), that also allows simple editing of images, such as color modification, scaling, rotating, text annotation, etc. PNG format images are now supported by ImageMagick. Available at: ftp://harbor.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/ http://www.imagemagick.org (Cristy, 1995) * NEOPAINT - A useful DOS shareware paint package (registration US $45) for creating images, height fields, etc, or just touching up finished artwork. Available from wuarchive and mirrors. * NETPBM - A collection of command-line utilities for most platforms (source distribution). Executables available for most other platforms like DOS, OS/2, Linux, and others. NetPBM utilities convert practically any format to any other by using a common intermediate file format, as well as allowing quantization, cropping, combining, blur, and many other effects. Available at: ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/graphics/graphics/packages/NetPBM/ (Poskanzer et al., 1991-1994) * PICLAB - An excellent package for converting and post-processing images for DOS. (Crocker, 1990) * QPV - The Quick Picture Viewer. A great utility for displaying and converting images for DOS/Win systems. Formerly QPEG, QPV has been improved, and has new features, such as the ability to read and write PNG format images. (Fromme, 1995) * XV - An X-Windows image display program (source distribution), with simple image editing facilities, such as color editing, scaling, rotation, and also filter effects for blurring, edge detection, and others. A patch is available for XV 3.10 to support PNG images via libpng and libz. (Bradley, 1995) http://www.trilon.com/xv/ ------------------------------ Subject 4.2 - Format Conversion Utilities Much of the following sections area taken from Amanda Osbourne's <alo@northshore.ecosoft.com> "Raytrace Utilities for DOS/Windows" list. All are IBM PC based unless otherwise specified. Various utilities for converting from one 3D file format to another: * 3DSPOV - Reads 3d studio mesh files. Writes out to Raw, POV-Ray (1 & 2), Vivid and Polyray. (Anger & Bowermaster, 1993) * 3DS2POV V1.80 - This free program can convert your binary 3D Studio 3DS file in POV 1.0, POV 2.0 including basic material parameters (color, ambient, diffuse, reflection, transparency) and smoothing. It also supports the output of RAW (useful for POVLAB), Vivid and Polyray. Supports animation ! BySteve Anger http://www.uni-jena.de/~p6sepa/software.htm * 3DWin - Likely the most versitle shareware 3D conversion utility that you will find anywhere. It is actively maintained and developed and has support for most major 3D file formats. It also include direct support for POV-Ray and Moray plus the author has plug-ins available for Moray for direct import capabilitites. http://www.stmuc.com/thbaier/ * DEM2POV - This program (source distribution) converts US Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Elevation Maps (DEM) to the TGA format heightfields used by POV-Ray 2.2. Includes a large DEM file of the region around the Grand Canyon. (Kirby, 1995) * DXF2POV - DXF to POV-Ray 1 conversion program. (Collins, Wells, Farmer & Gibeson, 1992) * DXF2RAW - DXF to Raw conversion program. (Coy, Barber, Daigle & Shiffman, 1992) * DXF2V - DXF to Vivid conversion program. (Coy, Barber, Daigle & Shiffman, 1992) * DXF3DS - DXF to 3DS conversion program. (Yost/Autodesk, 1991) * HUTIL101c - A set of utilities (source) for converting between various POV-Ray heightfield formats (16-bit TGA, GIF, POT) as well as OCT and Matlab 32-bit MAT files. In addition, it can combine heightfields using arithmetic operators, join them together, scale, and create spherical and cylindrical heightfields with triangle meshes. See also HF-Lab. (Beale, 1995) * IV2RAY - Converts SGI OpenInventor 2.0 (VRML 1.0) files to RayShade files. Freely available from Cow House Productions web page at: http://www.cowhouse.com/. (Cow House Productions, 1996) * MRYPLY - Converts Moray files to PolyRay files. * OBJ2ASC2 - Wavefront object to 3d studio ascii converter. (Knight, 1993) * RAW2PV - Excellent utility that allows the user to adjust the level of smoothing to apply to raw data as it is translated to POV-Ray (1 & 2.x), Polyray or Vivid 2. It can also add a camera and light to the scene, making things fairly easy for the novice user. (Anger, 1993) * RAYL210 - Helpful utility to convert uLathe (an object creator program for windows) files to RAW, POV-Ray 1 & 2.x or Vivid 2 format. (Koehler, 1993) * SPD - The Standard Procedural Database isn't a conversion package, per-se, but rather a set of tools for storing objects in a platform netutral format. It can convert from NFF, simple DXF, and Wavefront OBJ to a multitude of formats (about 14 at last count). It is often used by ray tracing researchers for measuring ray tracer speeds. http://www.acm.org/tog/resources/SPD/overview.html * TDDD2ASC - TDDD (Imagine) to 3D studio ascii file converter. (Knight, 1993) * WCVT2POV - Although wcvt2pov (MS-Windows) started out converting 3D file formats to POV-Ray, wcvt2pov has become a generic 3D file format conversion utility, with support for importing 3d studio, Wavefront, NFF, DXF, TrueType Fonts, RAW triangles and some other formats, and exporting 3ds, asc, POV-Ray, NFF, DXF, VRML, Wavefront, Open GL 'C' code fragments, RAW triangles, and some other formats. http://www.europa.com/~keithr/ (Rule, 1995) * Blender Python Conversion Scripts - Python scripts for converting Blender models to other formats including POV-Ray. http://www.q-bus.de/Blender/ ------------------------------ Subject 4.3 - Creation Creators Utilities to aid in the creation of ray tacing objects: * BOXER - Object generator for POV-Ray 1 (makes things like bathroom tiles and such based upon user input). (Miller, 1993) * BRANCH - Tree creator for POV-Ray 1. (Weller, 1992) * CHAIN - Generates interlocking chain links for POV-Ray 1.0. (Koehler, 1992) * CM - CircleMaster utility for working with quadric spheres and ellipsoids; writes output to POV-Ray 1.0. (Brown, 1992) * COIL - Creates coiled objects for POV-Ray 1.0. (Kirby, 1992) * COILV - Creates coiled objects for Vivid 2. (Kirby & Cox, 1992) * CTDS - Connects a series of xyz dot coordinates. Though this may not sound like much, this is an extremely helpful utility. Supports POV-Ray, Vivid and Polyray. (Brown, 1993) * FORM - All sorts of shapes can be generated with this program. Form files consist of both shapes and commands (like twistx and bend) and output may be POV-Ray 1, 2 or .plg. Interesting program, complementary to LPARSER. (Rowbottom, 1993) * FRACTINT - The ultimate fractals generator for DOS, X-windows source code, and distributed with the Linux Slackware games disks. Great for creating height fields, colour maps, viewing gifs or just creating fractals. (The Stone Soup Group, 1990-95) * FRGEN - Fractal Landscape (and other shapes too) Generator. Though the program supports Vivid and POV-Ray 1 & 2 directly, by selecting raw output you can smooth triangles out with RAW2POV to create nice hills and dales. (Anger, 1993) * GEODOME - Utility for generating geodesic domes. Output to POV-Ray 2.x format as either facets or a mesh of pipes and joints. IBM PC executable, with source included. (Wardley, 1994) * GFORGE - Graphical Fractal Forgery (source, DOS exe). Generates 16-bit heightfields for POV-Ray, using a high-quality algorithm: the IFFT of 1/f noise. File formats include PGM, PNG, POV TGA heightfield, and Matlab bin. Several parameters give you control over the appearance of the output, which can range from sand to hills to mountains. Useful also for 2D textures; the image always tiles perfectly. Now also supports craters. (Beale, 1995) * HFLAB - Heightfield Lab (DOS/Unix source, DOS exe). Generates and manipulates 16-bit heightfields for POV-Ray, using a variety of mathematical and procedural algorithms. Has a graphical interface for both DOS and X Windows. Allows the combination of two or more heightfields by addition, multiplication, or side-by-side joining, and many other operators. File formats include PGM, PNG, POV TGA heightfield, and Matlab 32-bit floating point. (Beale, 1996). * LEVCON - Level Connector. This takes an input image in PGM format and does mathematical "smoothing" on the data to generate smoothly varying surfaces. The input image tells LEVCON which levels are to stay at their given height and which ones can change, and you tell LEVCON how to go about connecting the fixed levels. See the classic image "kkteaset.jpg" at the povray.org Hall Of Fame to get an idea of what LEVCON can do (it made the tiles). (Kivisalo, 1995) * LEVELLER - A heightfield/terrain object modeller/editor for Windows 95/98/NT. Strengths are ease of use, intuitive realtime navigation, visualization and editing, and strong POV-Ray support. Demos and beta versions are free; registered versions cost below $40 US. Available at http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/ * LPARSER - L-system creator and mutator. This program is particularly strong in the creation of organic looking forms. Many example data files are included with the program. The language of l-systems is not intuitive but the results can be truly stunning. Outputs to DXF (both R12 and 3D faces), POV-Ray 2.x, RAW and Renderstar VOL. A wire-frame viewer that reads .3DS, .RAW, Fractint .RAY, ARE-24 .POL and Lparser/Renderstar .VOL files is included. (Lapre, 1993) http://www.xs4all.nl/~ljlapre/lparser.htm * LV20POVID - Newer and more powerful than LV2POV, this program reads an lviewer info file and generates data files in POV-Ray (1 & 2.x) and Vivid formats. The program's main strength lies in landscape generation. (van der Mark, 1993) * TRMK - Terrain Maker (DOS) uses a triangle midpoint subdivision algorithm to generate a variety of GIF heightfields. (Jorgensen, 1995) * PLANT - Fractal plant generator. Outputs supported are POV-Ray (1 & 2), Polyray and CTDS (Connect the dots smoother). (Bryerton, 1993) * SUDS - Random positioning of lots of spheres (or other objects) based on a variety of selections. (Farmer, Wegner & Schwan, 1994) * TORPATCH - This program creates a rope/wire object that passes smoothly through supplied points out of a series of clipped tori. Available as DOS EXE, and Turbo Pascal or C source. Can also create a random tangle of wires. (Mackey & Beddes, 1996) * TWISTER - Utility that will create spirals, coils, etc., of blobs, cubes or sphere. IBM PC executable with source, output to POV 2.x format. (Wardley, 1994) ------------------------------ Subject 4.4 - Texture Editors * CMAP - Interactive color map creator for POV-Ray. (Lutz & Kretzschmar, 1993) * TCE - The color editor for POV-Ray 1. (Farmer, 1991) * TCEV - The color editor for Vivid. (Farmer, 1991) * TEXMAKE - Early version of a utility to assist in texture creation in POV-Ray 2.x. (Sigler, 1993) * TXMAG - Texture Magic is an interactive, 32-bit MS-Windows based texture editor for POV-Ray 2.x, Assymetrix 3D F/X, and Autodesk 3D-Studio. http://private.homepages.intershop.de/rene/povray/tex_mag.html (Pultz, 1996) ------------------------------ Subject 4.5 - Animation * AERO - AERO is a X-Windows based physical simulation environment suitable for making complex, realistic animations. Objects (including the camera) can be given properties like mass, velocity, and acceleration, constraints like springs and dampers can be specified between objects, and then AERO performs collision detection, position, and orientation calculations. Output is to POV-Ray 1.0 or 2.x scene files. (Keller, Stolz, Ziegler, Braunl, 1995) * AWKANI - AWK script to output POV-Ray animation data. (Farmer, 1992) * DTA - Dave's Targa Animator (DOS) converts .PNG, .TGA and many other single image format frames into .FLI's and .FLC's and back again. It can also do useful things like finding the best 256-color palette for a whole series of images. (Mason, 1995) * MPEG_ENCODE - MPEG_ENCODE (source distribution, also many executables) can take images in PPM and JPEG formats (as well as other formats, if a ...toppm converter exists) to produce a fully compliant MPEG 1 animation. It is possible to run the encoding on multiple processors. It is available in many locations (see 2 - FTP Sites, Web Sites, Mailing Lists) (Rowe, et al, 1995) * MPEG_PLAY - MPEG_PLAY (source distribution, also many executables) displays MPEG 1 encoded animations on a large variety of systems. (Rowe, et al, 1995) * PPP - The POV and PolyRay Preprocessor allows scene files to be created with conditional statements, loops, math functions, vector math, and more to generate one or more scene files for animation and complex object creation. (Wind, 1995) * PVQUAN - PVQUAN (source) is a set of tools that allow you to create .FLI creations on many platforms including Unix and DOS. Source code is provided and includes a hosts of useful functions like quantisation, .GIF read, display, etc. * RAYSCENE - Set of animation utilities, not raytracer specific. (Jarik & Hassi, 1991) * RTAG - Ray Tracing Animation Generator (not raytracer specific). A powerful program with its own language which supports, amongst other things, spline path generation. (Sherrod, 1993) * SCEDA - SCEDA is a descendant of the SCED X-Windows modeller, with enhancements to allow generation of multiple scene files for an animation. (See also 3 - Modelling Software) (McLaughlin & Chenney, 1996) * SP - Spline paths for animations. Many output formats (POV-Ray, Vivid, Polyray, 3DV, Wire 3D) and acceleration and deceleration are supported as well. (Mason, 1992) * ZOOM - Interpolates steps between two positions for POV-Ray 1.0. (Brown, 1993) ------------------------------ Subject 4.6 - Miscellaneous Utilities * POVMODE.EL - Emacs mode to handle POV-Ray syntax. Available at: http://www.acc.umu.se/~woormie/povray/index.html User Contributions:Top Document: comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing FAQ (part 2/2) Previous Document: News Headers Next Document: 5 - Further Information and Resources Part1 - Part2 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: mk@cyrus.ruhr.de
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