
                             I3D Export Plugins
                                     for
                             POV-Ray 3.1 and 3.5

                                     by
                              Gran Gustafsson
                             (gorgus@algonet.se)


 OVERVIEW
 --------

This directory contain two export plugins that write files in POV-Ray
format. The first and simplest plugin exports in a format suitable to
POV-Ray 3.1 (it uses "mesh" objects). The second and slightly more complex
plugin exports in a format suitable to POV-Ray 3.5 (it uses "mesh2"
objects). It is possible that a file exported in POV-Ray 3.5 format might
work in MegaPov but that is untested.


 LIMITATIONS
 -----------

In this first version of the plugins there are a number of limitations to
what can be exported and how it is done.

1. Triangulation

One important thing to note is that all meshes will be triangulated before
exporting. Currently this modifies the original mesh without any possibility
of undoing the operation.

2. Color Materials

Material export is very limited in this version. All materials that do not
use a texture image are exported as simple color pigments. The Ambient color
set in I3D will be used as color in POV-Ray and Opacity used as a transmit
component of that color. All other settings in the I3D material are
currently ignored. Any suggestions on how to handle material exports would
be most welcome.

3. Texture Images

Only the POV-Ray 3.5 format will use texture images in materials. The
POV-Ray 3.1 format will simply ignore the texture images and export the
material as a simple color material.


 SPECIAL FEATURES
 ----------------

1. pov:smooth

Since I could not find a property to determine if a mesh is supposed to be
smooth or flat shaded I decided to use the Notes property to store a simple
flag for this purpose. Simply add the text "pov:smooth" (without the quotes)
as a line in the Notes property on any mesh that should be exported as
smooth shaded to POV-Ray.


 USAGE
 -----

All meshes are currently exported as top-level objects in a single file. To
render the meshes I would recommend including the exported file into a scene
file. It is probably best to put the include inside a "union" since all the
meshes can then be transformed as a single object.


