POV-Ray Software, Utilities and Modelers
With an emphasis on Mac compatible software
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A lot has changed since this list was originally compiled and posted to the internet in February 2001. Unfortunately, many of the tools originally listed here can no longer be found. I've begun the process of updating the list, eliminating the dead links and adding new ones. There is still some work to do though, to get everything up-to-date. On the positive side, both the official Mac POV-Ray version and the independently developed Mega-POV version have have continued to be developed and have released 3.5 versions. In addition both have been carbonized to run on Mac OS X which many POV-Ray users are running.
All the software listed here will run on the Macintosh platform. Some of it is available to other platforms and there are a couple of Java-based applications that should function on any OS with a JVM available to it. I've included my own observations where I have direct experience with the software. I've tried to make this the most complete listing of Mac utilities and modelers available on the web. We hope you find something useful here.
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| POV-Ray Distributions
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| Following are all the Mac POV-Ray distributions that I'm aware of along with the official distribution available to all platforms and the most popular cross platform patched distribution available.
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The official distribution of POV-Ray maintained and supported by the POV-Ray Team. Binaries for all officially supported platforms can be obtained from their website. Additionally, the source code is available here.
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POV-Ray
Mac Official
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The official website of the Mac OS POV-Ray Official application. The official Mac distribution has a built in text editor with syntax coloring and a user editable template menu which contains commonly used code snippets that can be inserted into the current scene or include file.
The current version is 3.5 Build 173. If you are running OS X, then it is recommended you run the beta version 3.6 available at the official Mac POVRay website on this page.
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MacMegaPOV
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MacMegaPOV is a Macintosh distribution of MegaPOV, a collection of most of the known patches to POV-Ray combined into one version. The patches in MegaPOV add many functions to POV-Ray. The Mac version includes a generously featured text editor with the ability to open multiple text files, a listing of all the include files in each open text file and brace matching. It also features a template editor with templates for most of POV's features and a lot of MegaPOV's unnofficial features. You enter the desired values for your object or texture and the required code is placed into your scene file with the parameters you have set for it. In addition to saving a lot of typing this can aid in learning the scene description language. But that's not all! There is also a graphic spline editor for creating splines to make lathe and prism objects, a graphic editor for the creation of color maps and, in the latest version, a not yet completely implemented graphic material editor. While some people don't care for all the bells and whistles in this distribution its definitely worth checking out if you never have.
The carbonized version of MacMegaPOV runs in OS X or in 8.6 - 9.2.2 with Carbon Lib, and there is still a non-carbonized version of MacMegaPOV for use with pre OS 8.6 systems.
The current version is 1.0 |
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MegaPOVPlus |
MegaPOVPlus is a patch to MegaPOV. It includes all the features of MegaPOV 1.0 and some additional features by the patch's author Chris Huff. Chris is no longer making binaries available and is using the patch mostly for testing his own experimental features, however he still has the source available for download for those interested in compiling an executable version.
The current version is 1.0 release 1 |
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| MegaPOV |
Website for the MegaPov collection of unofficial patches to POV-Ray. You can get source and compiled versions for Windows and Linux as well as a generic unix source if you want to compile your own. |
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