Subject: Comp.Graphics.Raytracing FAQ 1/2

From: [email-masked] (Jordan Kovacs)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 03:34:23 GMT

+ comp.graphics.raytracing            
+ FAQ release V1.0 
+ (C) Copyright 1994 Andy Wardley 
+ <[email-masked]>

                "But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old:
                        'It's clever but is it art?'"
                                                          Rudyard Kipling
                                         _The_Conundrum_of_the_Workshops_

This is the comp.graphics.raytracing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) List.
It's not the most definitive ray tracing reference you'll ever come across,
but then, it was never meant to be.  What it does set out to do is to 
answer some of the questions which keep cropping up on c.g.r and to give 
pointers to other references.   It keeps the noise down on the group and
we get to spend an extra 10 minutes in bed.  This is a Good Thing.

It has been cobbled together by me, Andy Wardley <[email-masked]>, 
from answers posted to c.g.r, from information people have supplied and 
from other existing ray tracing lists and references, most notably, Eric 
Haines' Ray Tracing News and other lists.  More details of these later....

You may distribute this document to whoever, or wherever you like, as long
as you keep the copyright message and give correct attributions for material
used.  This is just to stop nasty people with a substantial lack of moral
fibre from taking the document and fobbing it off as their own.  The FAQ
belongs to the group, I just wrote it.

If you have any comments, suggestions, material, corrections, collaborations
or criticisms (of the constructive kind, preferably), please feel free to
send them to me (email address above) and/or to post them to the group.
If you are posting to the group, it's probably a good idea to Email it to
me as well, just in case I happen to miss it on c.g.r.

And if you're only reading this document because your machine is locked up
tracing, remember that all things come to those who wait.

Andy


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CONTENTS
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INTRO  What is Ray Tracing?
      
    1  Ray Tracing Software

       1.1 POV-Ray
       1.2 Polyray
       1.3 Vivid (including BOB)
       1.4 Rayshade
       1.5 Radiance
       1.6 Others
       1.7 Non-Ray Tracing Software

    2  FTP Sites, Bulletin Boards, etc.

       2.1 FTP Sites
       2.2 Bulletin Board Systems
       2.3 Mailing Lists
       2.4 Others

    3  Utilities and Other Software

       3.1 Modelling Software
       3.2 Format Conversion Utilities
       3.3 Creation Creators
       3.4 Texture Editors
       3.5 Animation
       3.6 Misc

    4  Further Information and Resources

       4.1 On-line Resources
       4.2 Other Newsgroups
       4.3 Books
       4.4 Image Libraries
       4.5 Texture Libraries

    5  Frequently Asked Question

       5.1 "Who is..." 
       5.2 "This picture doesn't trace."
       5.3 "I traced my picture, but I can't see anything."
       5.4 "Rotating this object doesn't work properly."
       5.5 "Where can I find model data for..."
       5.6 "How can I view these pictures?"
       5.7 "Can I post binaries to this group?"
       5.8 "What does this mean..."
       5.9 "How can I Email someone on CompuServe?"
       5.10 "What is the difference between rendering and ray-tracing?"

    6  Roll The Credits...

EPILOGUE


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INTRO  What is Ray Tracing?
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Ray Tracing, in a one-line description, is a method that allows you to
create stunning photo-realistic images on a computer.  All you need is
a computer, some ray tracing software, a little imagination and some
patience.

The first stage of creating this masterpiece is to "describe" what it
is that you want to depict in your picture.  You may do this using an
interactive modelling system, like a CAD package, or by creating a text
file that has a programming language-like syntax to describe the elements.
Either way, you will be specifying what objects are in your imaginary
world, what shape they are, where they are, what colour and texture they
have and where the light sources are to illuminate them.  Having done all 
of this, you feed it into your ray tracer, sit back and wait.  

And wait...

That's the main drawback of ray tracing - it's not fast.  The software 
actually mathematically models the light rays as they bounce around this 
virtual world, reflecting, refracting and generally having a good time 
until they end up in the lense of your imaginary camera.  This can quite
literally involve thousands and millions of floating-point calculations
and this takes time.  Tracing images can take anything from a few minutes
to many days.  It's a long process, I know, but the results can make it all 
worth while.

Ray tracing isn't the only method for creating photo-realistic pictures.
There are packages like 3D Studio which uses scanline rendering, Radiance,
which uses radiosity, and so on.  Although these don't count as ray 
tracing, the methods you use from one system to the next are often 
sufficiently similar to warrant their discussion in this group.  So if you
think it's relevant, feel free to bring it up.  These systems will be 
mentioned in a little more detail later on.


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1  Ray Tracing Software
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1.1 POV-Ray
    
    The Persistance of Vision Ray Tracer (POV-Ray) is an all-round 
    excellent package, but there are two things that particularly make
    it stand out above the rest of the crowd.  Firstly, it's free, and 
    secondly, the source is distributed so you can compile it on virtually
    any platform.  It's without doubt the most used package among the
    comp.graphics.raytracing crowd and well worth checking out if you 
    haven't already.

    POV-Ray is based on David Buck's original ray tracer, DKB-Trace and
    has been (and still is) developed and supported by a whole crowd of
    people on CompuServe Graphics Developers' Forum (GO GRAPHDEV).  For
    more info, see the POV-Ray docs.

    The latest version is 2.2 and the following list, taken from the 
    official POV-Ray docs, details some of the main features.

    * Easy to use scene description language
    * Large library of stunning example scene files
    * Standard include files that pre-define many shapes, colors and 
      textures
    * Very high quality output image files (24-bit color.)
    * 15 and 24 bit color display on IBM-PC's using appropriate hardware
    * Create landscapes using smoothed height fields
    * Spotlights for sophisticated lighting
    * Phong and specular highlighting for more realistic-looking surfaces.
    * Several image file output formats including Targa, dump and raw
    * Wide range of shapes:
    * Basic Shape Primitives such as... Sphere, Box, Quadric, Cylinder,
      Cone, Triangle and Plane
    * Advanced Shape Primitives such as... Torus (Donut), Hyperboloid,
      Paraboloid, Bezier Patch, Height Fields (Mountains), Blobs,
      Quartics, Smooth Triangles (Phong shaded)
    * Shapes can easily be combined to create new complex shapes. This
      feature is called Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). POV-Ray
      supports unions, merges, intersections and differences in CSG.
    * Objects are assigned materials called textures.  (A texture describes
      the coloring and surface properties of a shape.)
    * Built-in color patterns: Agate, Bozo, Checker, Granite, Gradient,
      Leopard, Mandel, Marble, Onion, Spotted, Radial, Wood and image file
      mapping.
    * Built-in surface bump patterns: Bumps, Dents, Ripples, Waves,
      Wrinkles and mapping.
    * Users can create their own textures or use pre-defined textures such
      as... Mirror, Metals like Chrome, Brass, Gold and Silver, Bright
      Blue Sky with Clouds, Sunset with Clouds, Sapphire Agate, Jade,
      Shiny, Brown Agate, Apocalypse, Blood Marble, Glass, Brown Onion,
      Pine Wood, Cherry Wood
    * Combine textures using layering of semi-transparent textures or tile
      or material map files.
    * Display preview of image while computing (not available on all
      computers)
    * Halt rendering when part way through
    * Continue rendering a halted partial scene later

    There are now two official distribution sites for POV-Ray.  The first is 
    alfred.ccs.carleton.ca [134.117.1.1] and the second, more recent one,
    is uniwa.uwa.edu.au [130.95.128.1]

    The files that make up POV-Ray are:

    - povsrc-2.2.zip       Source files for compiling POV-Ray yourself.
    - povdoc-2.2.zip       Documentation
    - povscn-2.2.zip       Sample scenes
    - povibm-2.2.exe       Runtime binary for IBM PC systems.

    Depending on where you look, you may also find binaries for other
    platforms or the above archives packaged in different formats.

    Definately worth a mention here is Dieter Beyer's Faster Than POV-Ray
    (ftpovray) which is a custom build that incorporates many speed-ups
    and enhancements to the original POV-Ray.  Not all scenes benefit
    from the enhancements and some may even run slower, but in certain
    cases, speed increases by an order of magnitude are possible.  The
    archive ftpv20.zip is available from most of the major POV FTP sites.

1.2 Polyray

    Polyray is a close cousin to POV-Ray and shares many features with it.  
    Harry Rowe <[email-masked]> elaborates:

    "If you have access to a lowly 486 or Pentium (like I use), why not
    try out Polyray v1.7 from Alexander Enzmann (XANDER). He is also an
    original member of the POV team. 

    It does the familiar fx(u,v), fy(u,v), fz(u,v) parametric surface. I
    am playing with building an include file of Alan Barr's Superquadrics.

    It also includes:

    * Implicit functions f(x,y,z)  // Unique to shareware/freeware tracers
    * Numerical expressions to include trig and dot products.
    * Conditional expressions
    * NURBS (trim curves are coming in the next release)
    * Glyphs (TrueType Font conversions)
    * Particle systems
    * Good animation support
    * For polynomial f(x,y,z), there are 3 root-solvers; Ferrari, Vieta
      and Sturm. Though, due to numerical inaccuracies, no amount of
      root-solving will help some poly surfaces from rendering correctly in
      all directions. You may experience some pixel drop-outs.
    * Focal Blur in addition to the pin hole camera.
    * *Finally* added the last Affine: Shearing

    Registered version ($35.00) uses virtual memory in addition to the
    coprocessor. You also don't have to spend $9.64/hr on CIS GRAPHDEV
    to get support from XANDER."

    Polyray v1.7 is currently available from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the 
    directory /pub/msdos_uploads/graphics.  See the file ply.txt for info.

1.3 Vivid (including BOB)

    Vivid is a shareware ray tracer for IBM PC's by Stephen Coy 
    <[email-masked]>.  Version 2, the current publicly available 
    version, is available from several FTP sites as vivid2.zip.  
    Registration will costs you $50 U.S. which will get you version 2.0a19,
    released 6/30/93.  Version 3 is expected soon.

    Compared to POV-Ray, Vivid doesn't have as many features, but in many
    cases it can run faster.  Source code isn't available, so the package
    is limited to the one platform.

    Stephen Coy, Christopher Watkins and Mark Finlay co-authored a book on 
    Ray Tracing called "Photorealism and Ray Tracing in C" (see section 4.3).
    Distributed free with the book was an example ray tracer called BOB.
    This was actually a cut down version of Vivid which did include source.

1.4 Rayshade

    Rayshade is a free ray tracing package for unix/X11.  The "official" ftp 
    site is:
    
    - princeton.edu/pub/Graphics/rayshade.4.0

    (erm...)

1.5 Radiance

    Radiance is a free software package that adopts a radiosity-type 
    approach to lighting simluation.  It's author, Greg Ward 
    <[email-masked]>, discusses it here:

    "I've spent the past nine or so years developing a ray-tracing program 
    for lighting simulation and rendering called Radiance.  Although it 
    doesn't use the typical finite-element/form-factor approach of 
    radiosity programs, it does compute what they compute plus some.  
    Specifically, Radiance computes diffuse, specular and directional-
    diffuse reflection and transmission in arbitrarily complicated 
    environments.

    Here is a short description:
 
    Radiance is a suite of programs for the analysis and visualization of
    lighting in design.  Input files specify the scene geometry, materials,
    luminaires, time, date and sky conditions (for daylight calculations).
    Calculated values include spectral radiance (ie. luminance + color),
    irradiance (illuminance + color) and glare indices.  Simulation results
    may be displayed as color images, numerical values and contour plots.
    The primary advantage of Radiance over simpler lighting calculation and
    rendering tools is that there are no limitations on the geometry or the
    materials that may be simulated.  Radiance is used by architects and
    engineers to predict illumination, visual quality and appearance of
    innovative design spaces, and by researchers to evaluate new lighting
    and daylighting technologies.

    Radiance has been written up in many technical and non-technical
    articles in various journals and magazines.  Most recently, a
    Radiance-generated image appeared on the cover of the 1992 Siggraph
    Proceedings.  This year, I hope there is going to be a long systems
    paper at Siggraph describing the software.

    The software is free, runs on most UNIX/X11 platforms (including
    Linux), and is available in source form via anonymous ftp from
    hobbes.lbl.gov (128.3.12.38) in California and nestor.epfl.ch
    (128.178.139.3) in Switzerland.  (Please use the one that's closer.)

    There are hundreds of happy Radiance users world-wide, including public
    and private research institutions as well as engineering and architecture
    firms.

    I guess that's all I can think of to say about it at the moment...

    -Greg"

1.6 Others

    There are many other ray tracing packages available; ART, DKBtrace, 
    RTrace, RAY4, MTV, QRT, DBW for instance, and some for distributed 
    (parallel) tracing: XDART, Inetray, RRLib, prt, VM_pRAY.  See the 
    comp.graphics FAQ or Eric Haines' <[email-masked]> lists for more info 
    on these (see section 4.1)

1.7 Non-Ray Tracing Software 

    * 3D Studio

      Autodesk's 3d Studio is an interactive 3d modelling, rendering and 
      animation package for the IBM PC platform.  It employs scanline 
      rendering to achieve photo-realistic effects rather than ray-tracing.
      Because of this, it cannot do true shadows, reflections or refractions,
      but can, in many cases, simulate them accurately enough for most 
      purposes.  The package costs around $3000 or $1200 with the educational
      discount.


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2  FTP Sites, Bulletin Boards, etc.
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2.1 FTP Sites
    
    The following list details some of the main graphics related FTP sites,
    their maintainers (where known) and any other info.

    For a more complete list of FTP sites, see the list by Eric Haines 
    <[email-masked]> and Nick Fotis <[email-masked]> from which much 
    of the following has been taken.

    * wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4]: 
      George Kyriazis <[email-masked]>

      A huge repository of graphics stuff, particulary:

      - /graphics/graphics - get CONTENTS file.
      - /graphics/graphics/objects/TDDD - the TTDDD objects and converters.
      - /mirrors/unix-c/graphics - Rayshade, MTV, Vort, FBM, PBMPLUS, etc.
      - /mirrors/msdos/graphics - DKB ray tracer, FLI RayTracker demos.
      - /graphics/graphics/mirrors - mirrors many sites.
      - /pub/rad.tar.Z - SGI_RAD.
      - /graphics/graphics/radiosity - Radiance and Indian radiosity package.
      - /systems/ibmpc/msdos/graphics - loads of PC graphics stuff.

    * ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de [134.106.1.9] :  
      Frank Neumann <[email-masked]>

      Another good site for ray tracing, particulary POV-Ray.  Recently
      been re-organised:

      - /pub/pov-ray - get INDEX for full details
      - /pub/pov-ray/conv - format converters
      - /pub/pov-ray/edit - graphical editors
      - /pub/pov-ray/ext - source extensions
      - /pub/pov-ray/gen - data file generators
      - /pub/pov-ray/misc - other tools, ray tracers, etc.
      - /pub/pov-ray/new - uploads
      - /pub/pov-ray/obj - objects
      - /pub/pov-ray/pack - compression
      - /pub/pov-ray/pix - pictures
      - /pub/pov-ray/scen - scenes
      - /pub/pov-ray/text - text articles
      - /pub/pov-ray/view - viewers
      - /pub/pov-ray/pbin - unofficial POV binaries

    * alfred.ccs.carleton.ca [134.117.1.1]:  
      David Buck <[email-masked]>

      Official distribution site of dkb-trace and POV-Ray:

      - /pub/dkbtrace - DKB ray tracer
      - /pub/pov-ray - POV-Ray

    * uniwa.uwa.edu.au [130.95.128.1]
      Christopher Cason <[email-masked]>

      Official secondary distribution site for POV-Ray.  Also has utils, 
      scenes and images, including a Hall of Fame and an Image of the Month.

      - /pub/povray - Official POV distribution and more.  See the file
            CONTENTS_PLEASE_READ (or finger [email-masked]).

    * princeton.edu [128.112.128.1]:  
      Craig Kolb <[email-masked]>

      - /pub/Graphics - Rayshade, RT News, Wilson's RT abstracts, RT bib, 
            Utah Raster Toolkit, Graphics Gems I, II & III code, etc.

    * avalon.chinalake.navy.mil [129.131.1.225]:  
      Francisco X DeJesus <[email-masked]>

      This site was created to be a 3D object "repository" for the net.
      3D objects (multiple formats), utilities, file format documents.  
      Note that connections are refused from any sites whose name can't
      be resolved.  If this happens, check with you network people that
      your namesever is running and is up to date.

    * hobbes.lbl.gov [128.3.12.38]: 
      Greg Ward <[email-masked]>

      Official distribution site for Radiance ray trace/radiosity package.

    * rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209]:  

      - /pub/usenet/news.answers - the land of FAQs.  Graphics and pictures 
            directories of particular interest.  [Also available from 
            [email-masked].  Send sending a mail message 
            containing: help for more info]

2.2 Bulletin Board Systems
  
    The following list details some Bulletin Boards Systems dedicated to 
    graphics and, in particular Ray Tracing.  At the end of the section there 
    is a list of BBS'es of PCGNet (Professional CAD and Graphics Network) 
    kindly provided by Bjorn-Kare Nilssen <[email-masked]>

    * The Graphics Alternative 

      TGA is heavily orientated around Ray Tracing, 3D Rendering, Modelling
      and Animation.  It's the official support BBS for Vivid and has an 
      extensive library of utilities, programs, source and images built up
      by its 1300+ users.

      Location:  El Cerrito, CA, USA.
      Sysop:     Adam Shiffman
      Data:      (510) 524-2780 (PM14400FXSA v.32bis 14.4k, Public)
                 (510) 524-2165 (USR DS v.32bis/HST 14.4k, Subscribers)

    * You Can Call Me Ray

      Another Ray Tracing specific BBS, this time in Chicago.  Lots of 
      interesting stuff.

      Location:  Chicago Suburbia, USA.
      Sysops:    Bill Minus & Aaron Collins
      Data:      (708) 358-5611

    * Pi Squared

      On the East Coast of the USA is Pi Squared.  Alfonso Hermida is the 
      sysop and he is the creator of POVCAD.  All the latest POV files
      available as well as support for his own products.

      Location:  Maryland, USA.
      Sysop:     Alfonso Hermida (CIS: 72114,2060)
      Data:      (301) 725-9080 (14.4K, 24hrs)
   
    * The Tackle Box

      Another BBS dedicated to POV-Ray with hundreds of modelling utilities,
      source, pictures and animations.  1.2 GIG online, with a CD-Rom Ray 
      Tracing disk coming online shortly. 

      Location:  Edmond, Oklahoma, USA.
      Sysop:     Neil Clark <[email-masked]>
      Data:      (405) 459-3301 (14.4K, N/8/1, 24hrs)

    * The New Graphics BBS
     
      A graphics specific system for those interested in 3D, objects, image
      processing, animation, MPEG, JPEG, GIF, file formats, etc.  Knowledge
      Media "Graphics 1" CD-ROM available, 645 Mb "MultiMedia" CD online
      shortly.

      Location:  ?
      Sysop:     Bob Lindabury <[email-masked]>
      Data:      (908) 469-0049 (14.4K, 24hrs)

    * The Graphics Emporium BBS

      A BBS for the graphics professional and hobbyist to exchange ideas,
      information and creativity.  Not dedicated to any one platform.

      Location:  Redondo Beach, CA, USA.
      Sysop:     ? <[email-masked]>
      Data:      (310) 374-8805

    * Boards of the Professional CAD and Graphics Network 

      USA and Canada
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      SAUG BBS                     Bellevue          WA      206-644-7115
      Joes CODE BBS                West Bloomfield   MI      313-855-0894
      CHAOS BBS                    Columbia          MO      314-874-2930
      Engineering Services         Atlanta           GA      404-325-0122
      Autodesk Global Village      Sausalito         CA      415-289-2270
      Route 66 Solutions           Albuquerque       NM      505-294-4543
      The Graphics Alternative     El Cerrito        CA      510-524-2780
      PC-AUG                       Phoenix           AZ      602-952-0638
      Convergence Spline BBS       Richmond          BC      604-275-3462
      Graphicly Speaking           Langley           BC      604-534-2954
      Granite BBS                  St. Cloud         MN      612-654-8372
      Tern Solution BBS            Ottawa            ON      613-228-0539
      Canis Major                  Nashville         TN      615-385-4268
      CAD Engineering Services     Hendersonville    TN      615-822-2539
      The Virtual Dimension        Oceanside         CA      619-722-0746
      The Drawing Board BBS        Anchorage         AL      907-349-5412
      The University               Shrewsbury Twp    NJ      908-544-8193
    
      France
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      CAD Connection               Montesson                33-1-39529854
      Zyllius BBS!                 Saint Paul                 33-93320505
    
      United Kingdom
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      Raytech BBS                  Tain, UK                  44-862-88340
      The Missing Link             Surrey, England         44-81-641-8593
      CADenza BBS                  Leicester, UK            44-533-596725
    
      New Zealand
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      The Graphics Connection      Wellington               64-4-566-8450
    
      Australia 
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      The Baud Room                Melbourne                61-3-481-6873
      Sydney PCUG Compaq           New South Wales          61-2-540-1842
      My Computer Company          Erskineville             61-2-557-1489
    
      Slovenia
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      MicroArt                     Koper                     386-66-34986
    
      Germany
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      NEWS BBS                     Duesseldorf            49-211-680-1458
    
      The Netherlands
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
      BBS_Bennekom: Fractal Board  Bennekom                 31-8389-15331
      CAD-BBS                      Amsterdam                31-20-6861533
      Foundation One               Baarn                    31-2154-22143
    
      Some of the above may require additional country or long-distance
      codes.

2.3 Mailing Lists

    Listed below is a selection of mailing lists related to graphics and/or
    ray tracing.  If I haven't included specific details on subscription,
    it's because I don't know.  Best bet is to send a "help" message.

    * POV-Ray 

      Called the dkb-list for historical reasons (POV-Ray was based on David
      Buck's "DKBTrace"), the list exists for users of POV-Ray and
      associated products, on all platforms.

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Body Text:     subscribe dkb-l <Your full name>
      Posting:       [email-masked]

    * Rayshade

      Mailing list for Rayshade users, mainly on UNIX platforms.

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Posting:       [email-masked]

    * Radiance

      Greg Ward, the author of Radiance has a distribution list of all users.
      Register with him: [email-masked]

    * Imagine 

      For users of the Imagine 3d rendering and animation package for the
      Amiga and, more recently, the IBM PC.

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Posting:       [email-masked]

    * Toaster
  
      This mailing list deals with the Video Toaster system for the Amiga.

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Body Text:     subscribe <address> toaster
      Posting:       [email-masked]

    * Lightwave
  
      Lightwave is part of the suite of programs that come with the Video 
      Toaster system for the Amiga.

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Body Text:     subscribe <address> lightwave
      Posting:       [email-masked]

    * 3D Studio
 
      Autodesk's 3d modelling and scanline rendering system for the IBM PC. 

      Subscription:  [email-masked]
      Body Text:     subscribe <address> 3dstudio
      Posting:       [email-masked]

2.4 Others

    * CompuServe

      The CompuServe Graphics Developers' Forum (GO GRAPHDEV) is the home
      of POV-Ray (section 8 POV Sources and section 9 POV Images) as well
      as other development projects including fractals, animation and 
      morphing.  You can get information of joining CompuServe (in the US)
      by calling (800) 848-8990.  CompuServe access is now available in 
      other countries, including Japan and Europe.

    * America On-Line

      AOL also has a section (PCGRAPHICS) dedicated to POV-Ray support.

    * World Wide Web

      Ian Grimstead <[email-masked]> has collected together
      a large collection of over 360 pages on-line of ray tracing papers.
      It is accessible via the World-Wide Web and has links to other on-line
      papers and documentation and to other ray tracing web pages.

      - hhtp://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Ray.Tracing/

      Marius Watz <[email-masked]> has set up a WWW page for POV 
      utilities, containing information about some of the most popular ones
      and allowing you to download them directly from the page.

      - hhtp://www.ifi.uio.no/~mariusw/pov/utilities.html