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POV-Ray 3.7 Exporter Development

Test files:

Media:regression_and_test_blendfiles.zip

History

This script started as a proof of concept developed by Campbell Barton for the render API introduced with Blender 2.5. It could render most geometry types right from the start by converting them to triangles.

Silvio Falcinelli added support for UV mapping and Maurice Raybaud worked mostly on the shading area.

Constantin Rahn improved formatting and control of output files including the first ability to export animation.

Bastien Montagne improved the overall architecture of the script and its integration with Linux.

What's New:

The team is currently exchanging test patches for basic instancing support: for a start It will only export object as instances when they have no modifier and the same material due to the close association between mesh and material assignment.
After May the 10th 2011, some development to the script limited backwards compatibility: If you set up some files prior to that and always use the latest exporter from SVN. It is advised to run the update script and save your scene again with the new version: get to the search bar with Space and type 'pov' to access this command.

Povray 3.7 is now in RC3. Release is imminent and just waiting for the end of the documentation update. Some change to the SSTL syntax will require a refresh of Blender's SSS exporting as soon as POV's next release candidate (whether as the official release or not)is available

Latest Fixes:

Selective Digest:

-improved world export

-Added texture gamma adjustment ("gamma n.n" keyword per image_map in pov syntax)

-Added a media entry at world level to allow fast atmospheric effects like volume lights

-Lattices made scenes crash the export

-Better matching of blender texture scales and

-Meshes: Some updates of Blender trunk, now subdivided meshes can export

-Added some advanced Radiosity photons and Depth of Field UI controls

-Animations can be exported

-Custom replacement code for Materials from Text editor added

May Do List:

If you want to add some fucnctionality or fame to POV exporter, here are a few planned tasks, from the easiest to more complex among which to pick:

• just making nice pictures to provide the scenes to testers would be very usefull. Jeremy Birns Render challenges are a good start for models.

• adding presets to radiosity in blender interface, their names and settings should imitate the settings of the rad_def include file shipped with POV, but just work over the interface to avoid including the rad_def in the exported pov (an include statement in a pov file slows down parsing/rendering), it's a good example of what an interface like blender can bring to all pov users who are not used to have one.

• adding pov rainbow object (in world settings)

• moving atmospheric media from main render property tab to world properties? having all pov properties not too scattered across tabs could be a good thing though... what do you think?

• repairing vertex colors, broken since bmesh

• adding procedural texture(s) would be cool since you already thought about it, (even just one most frequently used with options would be a great addition to the workflow) also, now that some script nodes are possible, maybe you would do things differentlly ? (personnally I don't mind if it doesn't use nodes yet) Otherwise, starting from what you had done that first time, all your choices for pov textures from a rollaout are fine, but they would better themselves be put inside some wrapper "POV" texture available if possible at the same level as the blender procedurals so that we can still have an automatic translation of those from Blender Internal scenes (most of them find some equivalents in pov by only changing the names and some factors for their parameters. In the exported pov code the patterns with its options should be written anywhere a bitmap currently can be written.

• hair rendering has just been added but not all corner case have been tested, it probably fails a lot also if procedural(s) are added, maybe some color could be derived from it for the hair sphere sweep.

• smoke support can be added by making Blender write voxel data to a DF3 File

other areas:

• it would be cool to be able to activate compositing for pov render, maybe inspiring from freestyle integration for the code, but the implementation would be best based on BI interface. the only effects we really need since they are so slow in POV are vector blur and defocus for the vector pass, it would necessarily have to run a BI render just before compositing. For the zdepth it could either be made that way as well or using a fog with a white override material in POV to create a zdepth in a previous or subsequent render pass to the main one.

• repair baking code (mesh camera), currently commented out

• adding povray 3.7 real time mode (+RTR comand line) inspiring from cycles for its interface integration

• integrating Lightsys macro using the sky option of the sun lamp and all necessary additional parameters

• integrating the Paint Macro: http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/thread/%3Cop.ww1a93wtufxv4h%40xena%3E/ and maybe combining it with freestyle for the lines.

OTHERS Stacked (more or less) according to priority.

At the end, Completed tickets must not be deleted until some documentation is at least linked to from the user page.

to do  Brainstorming Find some tangent space normal maps pov macro or built in function.

to do  MR Render only visible Layer.

to do  MR Add some procedurals.

to do  MR Edges for toon rendering (try with a very thin slope map)

to do  MR Add Object Depth of Field support. (Distance based is currently available)

to do  Brainstorming Add Motion Blur (using realistic camera macro? Or new improvements since beta 39 of POV-Ray 3.7?)

to do  Brainstorming Ambient occlusion (via proximity pattern?)

in progress 90%  CR MR The texture code has some redundant parts that might be better implemented as functions.

to do  Brainstorming Render only visible/renderable objects (outliner).

in progress 20%  MR Render Baking (using new improvements to camera since beta 39 of POV-Ray 3.7)

to do  MR Add exclusion from media option per light

in progress 10%  MR Add Blurry Reflection/Refraction Hack.