POV Ray Notes

General Notes

• POV-Ray scenes are located in the "datsville_povray" folder.
• There are several ways I have generated POV-Ray scene files. Some of them use LDView; others use L3P.exe; others use LDCad. Many of them use the LGEO parts library as well.
• Models are referenced inside "wrapper" files, such as "wrapper_streetmap.pov". You should load and render these files instead of the model files themselves.
• POV-Ray files prefixed with "ldv" were generated using LDView. Files prefixed with "l3p" were generated using L3P.exe. Files prefixed with "ldc" were generated using LDCad.
• Scenes marked "modelmap" are for creating isometric model maps. Scenes marked "streetmap" are for creating overhead street maps. Scenes marked "showcase" are meant to showcase a single, individual model. Scenes marked "townview" showcase a scenic view of the town.
• Scenes marked "uber" are meant to be rendered using UberPOV instead of POV-Ray.
• Scenes marked "chromadepth" were designed to be viewed with "Chromadepth" 3D glasses. I have since been informed however that these glasses may not work properly when viewed on computer monitors.
• "Boxed" models have parts that have been replaced with simplified substitutes for quick renders and using less RAM.
• "boxed_n" means no parts have been subtituted. "boxed_h" means LDBoxer was used to substitute parts selectively. "boxed_f" means MyBoxer was used to substitute all possible parts.
• "lgeo_y" means that triangle-based meshes have been replaced with LGEO parts wherever possible. These can be used in CSG operations. Boxed models can use LGEO parts, and they will work together.
• "Inlined" models have been processed using MPDCenter so as to unwrap all the MPD models and place thier parts into a single flattened LDR file. Inlined models can then be processed further using LDBoxer to reduce the number of triangles and quads, thereby (presumably) saving RAM and parsing time.
• The "helper_scripts\sunflow" folder contains models converted into Sunflow renderer scenes. I don't have a lot of experience with this renderer. Renders take less time than POV-Ray, but look grainy unless you downsample them. Sunflow is no longer being developed as far as I know.
• When generating images for the Datsville RPG, as of Revision 519, you will need to offset the renders laterally by 2x2 studs to allow minifigs to walk along sidewalks and on streets properly.
• Early Datsville revisions created by Tore Eriksson and John VanZwieten are centered differently in space compared to more recent revisions. This difference is equal to a translation of <+2240,0,-320> units.

Software-specific issues

• L3P.EXE version 1.4 requires you to set the aspect ratio of the output image to match what is specified in the POV file. This can lead to confusion.
• LDView only exports textures or materials, depending on the POV-Ray version, not both like the other conversion utilities. This makes using the materials problematic in models that assign both materials and textures. For instance to "Complete" parts such as 2536c01.dat, as well as to patterned parts. This is true of old L3P versions, as well, I think.
• LDCad uses unofficial "dithered" colors as well as the regular opaque, transparent, rubber, etc. colors. If you try to render LDCad-generated models using other materials scripts, the scripts will fail because they cannot find these unofficial colors.
• LDCad sets the X and Y bounding box parameters, but not the Z parameter. This causes issues when rendering a scene using the Chromadepth materials.
• When exporting from LDView, make sure to manually replace "rgb" with "srgb" in color definitions, as the program does not do so on its own.
• You will need the version of L3P dated 2013-12-02 (v1.4 beta). The author Lars C. Hassing has not uploaded this version to his website, so you may need to contact him to obtain a copy.

LGEO

• Note that LGEO's "lg_gold_chrome" has been renamed to "lg_chrome_gold" in Owen's LGEO parts library.
• There are several LGEO libraries made by different people over the years:
  • Lutz Uhlmann, included with the All-in-One Installer, http://www.digitalbricks.org/lgeo.html (dead link)
  • Lars C. Hassing, http://www.hassings.dk/l3/lgeofix.html
  • Owen Burgoyne, https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-6127.html
  • Damien Roux, http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108739
• These can all be copied on top of each other. The correct copying order is lutz < owen < darats.
• Do not use the Lars's "lgeofix" parts! They are older than the latest official LGEO library, I think.
• People have made additional POV-Ray parts libraries not directly related to LGEO, as well:
  • Anton Raves, included with the All-in-One Installer I think, http://www.antonraves.nl (dead link)
  • Orion Pobursky, https://github.com/billthefish/LDrawPOV
• Note that POV-Ray parts libraries, including LGEO, use much more RAM than regular polygonal parts. For instance, I have 8GB of RAM, which is not enough to render the entire town model using LGEO parts, even after using LDBoxer to simplify the model's parts.

Rendering the views

• For the model maps, convert the model using L3P v1.14, then delete the "Defines", "Finishes", "Macros" and "Color" sections and add the converted model to "wrapper_mapview.pov". Render at 8192x4096 pixels.
• For the street maps, convert the model using L3P v1.14, then delete the "Defines", "Finishes", "Macros" and "Color" sections and add the converted model to "wrapper_streetview.pov". Render at 8192x8192 pixels.
• Showcases and town views vary depending on if you use L3P.EXE, LDView or LDCad to generate the scenes. They should be added to "wrapper_showcase_normal.pov" and "wrapper_townview_normal.pov", however.

Table

Last updated: 22 September 2016

	L3P	LDView	LeoCAD	LDCAD
Latest version	v1.4 BETA 20131202 (Win32)	4.2	0.83.1	?
User interface	Command-line	Graphical	Graphical	Graphical
POV-Ray version	3.6	3.6	3.6	?
Override output	Yes	Yes	No	?
LGEO support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Anton Raves support	Yes	?	?	?
Adjust camera programmatically	Hard	Hard	Very hard	?