A SkyboxViewer for the use with POV-Ray

How to make Skybox images for the SkyboxViewer
with POV-Ray scenes?

There are two ways to make this.
Both methods use the include file "SkyboxCamera.inc" to manage the camera to look in the 6 directions - this file should not be edited.
Preperation of the POV-Ray scene file:
Copy your POV-Ray scene file (i.e. MyScene1.pov)
to the directory "Skyboxes"
Open the POV-Ray file an deactivate/remove the camera.
Declare the varible named camLoc as the camera location and after this add the line '#include "SkyboxCamera.inc"'.

/*camera{ location <0,1,-5> right x*image_width/image_height angle 45 look_at <0,1,0> } */ #declare camLoc = <0,1,-5>; #include "SkyboxCamera.inc"

Preperation of the POV-Ray scene file

Method 1: Using batch files + SkyboxCamera.inc
Her we use two batch files which should be placed in the same directory as your POV-Ray scene file:
RenderSkybox6sides.bat and RenderSkyboxStart.bat.
To edit such files open their directory in the Windows Explorer and right click on the name and choose from the popup menu "edit".
To run such file just double click on the name in the Windows Explorer.

Now at first and only once:
In RenderSkybox6sides.bat:
Your PovRay installation path must be placed here... /
Bitte setzen Sie hier den PovRay-Installationpfad...
You'll find it by right clicking on your POV-Ray program icon,
i.e. for POV-Ray 3.6:

Rem --> please set PovRay installation path here...
Set povray="C:\Programme\POV_Ray\bin\pvengine.exe"

i.e. for POV-Ray 3.6.2:

Rem --> please set PovRay installation path here...
Set povray="C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\POV-Ray\v3.6\bin\pvengine.exe"

i.e. for POV-Ray 3.7 beta on Vista/Windows7 64bit:

Rem --> please set PovRay installation path here...
Set povray="C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\pvengine64.exe"

Then each time you want to render a new skybox set:
In RenderSkyboxStart.bat:
Choose image resolution + set filename

rem --> please choose the picture resolution here...
rem set res=64
rem set res=128
set res=256
rem set res=512
rem set res=1024
rem set res=2048
rem set res=4096

rem --> please set filename of scenery and output file here...
Call RenderSkybox6sides.bat MyScene1 %res%
rem Call RenderSkybox6sides.bat Skybox_Demo1  %res%
rem Call RenderSkybox6sides.bat Skybox_Demo1  %res%

pause

Preperation of RenderSkyboxStart.bat.

So all necessary preperations are done!
Now for start rendering: run RenderSkyboxStart.bat (double click the name !)
After this the 6 skybox images will be rendered and saved in the same directory as your POV-Ray scene file: "Skyboxes".

Method 2 : Using SkyboxSerie.ini + SkyboxCamera.inc

Here we use the file SkyboxSerie.ini to start the rendering of the 6 images. This file should be placed in the same directory as your POV-Ray scene file.

Open SkyboxSerie.ini, insert the actual scene file name in the following line:
Input_File_Name=MyScene1.pov
Other possible manipulations:
Display_Gamma=1.9
File_Gamma=1.9
Changes of gamma to add more(>2.2)
or less(>2.2) contrast to the images.
For png output with 24 bit colors write: +FN24

Run this ini file right from your POV-Ray editor!
This produces 6 image files with the names with appended numbers 0 to 5. in your standard POV-Ray output file directory set by Output_File_Name="C:\Users\..."
Now we have to rename the images according the following sequenze (be carfully! Don't mix them up!). With the images from i.e. MyScene1.pov:
MyScene10.bmp --> MyScene1_front.bmp
MyScene11.bmp --> MyScene1_right.bmp
MyScene12.bmp --> MyScene1_back.bmp
MyScene13.bmp --> MyScene1_left.bmp
MyScene14.bmp --> MyScene1_top.bmp
MyScene15.bmp --> MyScene1_base.bmp
At least we have to move these images to our subdirectory 'Skyboxes'
and we can start the SkyboxViewer now.

; Persistence Of Vision raytracer ; POV-Ray version 3.6 / 3.7 ; ini file for Skybox renderings. ; for SkyboxViewer images ;Display_Gamma=1.9 ;File_Gamma=1.9 Antialias=On Antialias_Threshold=0.3 Antialias_Depth=3 Input_File_Name=MyScene1.pov Initial_Frame=0 Final_Frame=5 Initial_Clock=0 Final_Clock=5 Cyclic_Animation=off Pause_when_Done=off

Preperation of SkyboxSerie.ini

Basics + Download | Skyboxes with POV-Ray | Skybox Gallery

Descriptions and Examples for the POV-Ray raytracer
by Friedrich A. Lohmüller

A SkyboxViewer for POV-Ray scenes

How to make Skybox images for the SkyboxViewer
with POV-Ray scenes?

Descriptions and Examples for the POV-Ray raytracer by Friedrich A. Lohmüller

A SkyboxViewer for POV-Ray scenes

How to make Skybox images for the SkyboxViewer with POV-Ray scenes?

Descriptions and Examples for the POV-Ray raytracer
by Friedrich A. Lohmüller

How to make Skybox images for the SkyboxViewer
with POV-Ray scenes?