[Guide] Rendering LDraw models using POV-Ray

[sparky678911]

Hi I am new to this and having a problem whenever I go to run for render keeps stopping and getting a parse error (whatever that is ) details below please help and thank you

Image

Reference Page

Edited August 15, 2013 by Calabar
: Oversized image converted in text link. Please check punctuation of your request.

[sparky678911]

Hi I am new to this and having a problem whenever I go to run for render keeps stopping and getting a parse error (whatever that is ) details below please help and thank you

Image

Reference Page

All sorted I think now

[lego2lego]

Hi I am new to this and having a problem whenever I go to run for render keeps stopping and getting a parse error (whatever that is ) details below please help and thank you

Image

Reference Page

It looks like you don't have the LGEO parts library installed, but you do reference it in your povray file. You can either install the LGEO library (see this guide for instructions) or remove the include from your povray file.

[Winczlav]

Hi all,

I make some try with MLCAD and POV-RAY.

Here is the result of my work:

But I'm not totally happy with the result. There are some artefact like show in the picture.

And I also would like lights like "daylights" and not inside lights. I don't know if you understand what I mean (I'm french so...)

Here are my parameters:

global_settings {

max_trace_level 10

radiosity {

Rad_Settings(Radiosity_Final, on, off)

}

}

light_source { // X, Y, Z

<-800, -1500, -1000>

color rgb 0.5

area_light 200, 200, 10, 10

jitter

}

Thanks for your help and advise.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Winczlav

[nickless]

So I've been playing around with something that hasn't been mentiones yet in this thread - glowing bricks used to light the scene.

I took this WIP model of a fire engine and placed spotlights inside all the transparent bricks. The light emitted from the brick will filtered by the color of the brick, giving the light just the right color.

I also found that placing bright lights with high "fade_power" and small "fade_distance" values inside the bricks will help to make the brick appear to glow without washing out the light of the surrounding area.

Has anyone else tried something similar?

[Palathadric]

Can't say I have, but quite interesting, I must say.

I would be quite interested in seeing what's the best close-up of a minifig anyone has gotten with LDraw.

The one that I just put in my avatar is about the best I've gotten, but I didn't really experiment with it much, actually almost at all.

[sparky678911]

Hi I have been using Pov-Ray and working ok at the min I have 2 question small probs nothing to bad I hope first is sometimes when I run Pov-ray I get this below

and prob 2 is the chequed area at the top

Thanks for help

[C3POwen]

The CSG parse warning messages are nothing to worry about. There is a minor issue with how some LGEO parts have been constructed that causes this issue to be flagged up.

The message referencing the "#version directive" is just telling you that you need to specify "#version 3.7;" at the beginning of the file (if you're using 3.7, that is).

Finally, your image probably shows the chequered pattern because you have enabled transparency for your render. If you can see a field above the editor window that contains +UA, try removing that to see if that makes a difference.

[Palathadric]

I have a rather weird problem with POV-Ray recently. When I'm rendering large models on my laptop sometimes the laptop will just crash and restart. It's really annoying when doing a render that's almost complete. Thankfully, that doesn't happen with the desktop, but I didn't use to have this problem with the laptop.

Anyone know what the problem could be?

[legolijntje]

I don't know for sure, but maybe your laptop ran out of RAM. How much RAM does it have?

Some devices will crash when they run out of memory. Because the RAM is full, it will start overwriting other data which causes it to crash. You can maybe enlarge the virtual ram and try if it would make any difference. If not, the ram probably isn't a problem.

It's just a thought, I'm not sure

[Palathadric]

From what I've seen POV-Ray doesn't seem to eat into my RAM very much, but it makes the CPU work like crazy. I have 2 GB Ram on my laptop and 4 GB on the desktop, but I've never seen the RAM usage exceed 1.5 GB, if that.

[legolijntje]

Maybe the cpu is overheating? Laptops generally don't have a big cpu cooler (and they don't have a good airflow).

Do you immediately restart after the crash? If so, the overheating cpu would be very unlikely, since it doesn't cool down in a few seconds.

[Palathadric]

It restarts by itself immediately.

Is it normal for POV-Ray to eat up so much CPU though?

[Lego Otaku]

Yes it is normal. With 3.7 it can use all cores. I have a dual XEON system with 12 cores and hyperthreading. When I run POV-Ray I can see 24 processes running at 100%

[sparky678911]

Just a small problem with one of my models I am trying t render thanks for help

[lego2lego]

Just a small problem with one of my models I am trying t render thanks for help

I get this error also occasionally, this is due some export error in ldview. If you compare the line with the line above you can spot the error quickly. "4ri100" needs to be "4rin100" C3POwen has addressed this in another thread.

[sparky678911]

Ok thanks everyone for help I am learning a lot one more small problem which Is the white part at the top of the image thanks

[lego2lego]

Ok thanks everyone for help I am learning a lot one more small problem which Is the white part at the top of the image thanks

The white part isn't a problem, it is your background. See the first page of this thread, chapter 7.2.

[sparky678911]

That's great do you no where I have to place that bit of the code please

[lego2lego]

That's great do you no where I have to place that bit of the code please

I believe you can put it right after the part where you define your lights.

[Horatio-Caine]

I didn't realise you could use POV-Ray with LDraw at first (thought it could only be used with LDD) however found this helpful thread saying you can. I have been trying to get it to work but have ran into a snag, I clicked run on the latest MOC I have done to show soon, however I get this error.

Something to do with the color, sadly I've got no idea what it could be so any help appreciated here.

UPDATE: Nevermind, solved the problem, edited the lgcolor file and took out the s from srgb.

Edited December 28, 2013 by Horatio-Caine

[C3POwen]

GUIDE UPDATE: I have updated the LGEO-Update.zip file in the Downloads section with 9 new parts and 1 fixed part. Again, it's only a small update, but it does include a few brand new 2013/14 parts, as well as some that are LSynth-specific.

The FIXED and NEW LGEO parts from the 2013-12-31 update

I'm going to try and get more parts added this year, as rounded parts (such as the ice cream scoops and "decoration ball" above) really benefit from being rendered using native POV-Ray parts, rather than being converted from LDraw parts.

[Dilvish]

Is there a complete cumulative library of "new" or fixed LGEO parts somewhere on the Web? I remember using one at some point in the past.

[C3POwen]

The existing LGEO library located at DigitalBricks.org is the last up-to-date version by Lutz Uhlmann, which included fixes by other people.

The file I have available adds further fixes, as well as new parts.

If you install LGEO as part of LDraw.org's All-In-One Installer (AIOI), you should be getting both Lutz's and my parts at the same time. As the AIOI is due an update, I cannot yet say if my latest update will be included.

[Palathadric]

I was working on the Covered Wagon set but when I open it in LDView it gives me a list of errors and doesn't show the cover of the wagon. In POV-Ray it renders the model without it. Is there a way I can get it to be visible in LDView and in the render?