| - | A 386 or better CPU and at least 4 meg of RAM. |
| - | About 6 meg disk space to install and 2-10 meg or more beyond that for working space. |
| - | A text editor capable of editing plain ASCII text files. |
| - | Any recent (1994 onwards) Linux kernel and support for ELF format binaries. POV-Ray for Linux is not in a.out-format. |
| - | ELF libraries libc.so.5, libm.so.5 and one or both of libX11.so.6 or libvga.so.1. |
Required POV-Ray files:
| - | POVLINUX.TGZ or POVLINUX.TAR.GZ - archive containing an official binary for each SVGALib and X-Windows modes. Also contains sample scenes, standard include files and documentation. |
Recommended:
| - | Pentium or 486dx or math co-processor for 386 or 486sx. |
| - | 8 meg or more RAM. |
| - | SVGA display preferably high color or true color ability. |
| - | If you want display, you'll need either SVGALib or X-Windows. |
| - | Graphic file viewer capable of viewing PPM, TGA or PNG formats. |
Optional: The source code is not needed to use POV-Ray. It is provided for the curious and adventurous.
| - | POVUNI_S.TAR.GZ or POVUNI_S.TGZ - The C source code for POV-Ray for Linux. Contains generic parts and Linux specific parts. It does not include sample scenes, standard include files and documentation so you should also get the executable archive as well. |
| - | The GNU C compiler and (optionally) the X include files and libraries and KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO USE IT. Although we provide source code for generic Unix systems, we do not provide technical support on how to compile the program. |
Required hardware and software:
| - | A 68020 or better CPU without a floating point unit (LC or Performa or Centris series) and at least 8 meg RAM or |
| - | A 68020 or better CPU *with* a floating point unit (Mac II or Quadra series) and at least 8 meg RAM or |
| - | Any Power Macintosh computer and at least 8 meg RAM. |
| - | System 7 or newer and color QuickDraw (System 6 is no longer supported). |
| - | About 6 meg free disk space to install and an additional 2-10 meg free space for working space. |
| - | Graphic file viewer utility capable of viewing Mac PICT, GIF and perhaps TGA and PNG formats (the shareware GIFConverter or GraphicConverter applications are good.) |
Required POV-Ray files:
| - | POVMACNF.SIT or POVMACNF.SIT.HQX - a Stuffit archive containing the non-FPU 68K Macintosh application, sample scenes, standard include files and documentation (slower version for Macs without an FPU) or |
| - | POVMAC68.SIT or POVMAC68.SIT.HQX - a Stuffit archive containing the FPU 68K Macintosh application, sample scenes, standard include files and documentation (faster version for Macs WITH an FPU) or |
| - | POVPMAC.SIT or POVPMAC.SIT.HQX - a Stuffit archive containing the native Power Macintosh application, sample scenes, standard include files and documentation. |
Recommended:
| - | 68030/33 or faster with FPU, or any Power Macintosh |
| - | 8 meg or more RAM for 68K Macintosh; 16 meg or more for Power Macintosh systems. |
| - | Color monitor preferred, 256 colors OK, but thousands or millions of colors is even better. |
Optional: The source code is not needed to use POV-Ray. It is provided for the curious and adventurous. POV-Ray can be compiled using Apple's MPW 3.3, Metrowerks CodeWarrior 8 or Symantec 8.
| - | POVMACS.SIT or POVMACS.SIT.HQX - The full C source code for POV-Ray for Macintosh. Contains generic parts and Macintosh specific parts. It does not include sample scenes, standard include files and documentation so you should also get the executable archive as well. |
Required:
| - | at least 4 meg of RAM. |
| - | at least 2 meg of hard disk space for the necessities, 5-20 more recommended for workspace. |
| - | an ASCII text editor, GUI configurable to launch the editor of your choice. |
| - | Graphic file viewer - POV-Ray outputs to PNG, Targa (TGA) and PPM formats, converters from the PPMBIN distribution are included to convert these to IFF ILBM files. |
Required POV-Ray files:
| - | POVAMI.LHA - a LHA archive containing executable, sample scenes, standard include files and documentation. |
Recommended:
| - | 8 meg or more of RAM. |
| - | 68030 and 68882 or higher processor. |
| - | 24-bit display card (CyberGFX library supported) |
As soon as a stable compiler is released for Amiga PowerPC systems, plans are to add this to the flavor list.
Optional: The source code is not needed to use POV-Ray. It is provided for the curious and adventurous.
| - | POVLHA_S.ZIP - The C source code for POV-Ray for Amiga. Contains generic parts and Amiga specific parts. It does not include sample scenes, standard include files and documentation so you should also get the executable archive as well. |
| - | A Sun SPARC processor and at least 4 meg of RAM. |
| - | About 6 meg disk space to install and 2-10 meg or more beyond that for working space. |
| - | A text editor capable of editing plain ASCII text files. |
| - | SunOS 4.1.3 or other operating system capable of running such a binary (Solaris or possibly Linux for Sparc). |
Required POV-Ray files:
| - | POVSUNOS.TGZ or POVSUNOS.TAR.GZ - archive containing an official binary for each text-only and X-Windows modes. Also contains sample scenes, standard include files and documentation. |
Recommended:
| - | 8 meg or more RAM. |
| - | If you want display, you'll need X-Windows or an X-Term. |
| - | preferably 24-bit TrueColor display ability, although the X display code is known to work with ANY combination of visual and color depth. |
| - | Graphic file viewer capable of viewing PPM, TGA or PNG formats. |
Optional: The source code is not needed to use POV-Ray. It is provided for the curious and adventurous.
| - | POVUNI_S.TGZ or POVUNI_S.TAR.GZ - The C source code for POV-Ray for UNIX. Contains generic UNIX parts and Linux specific parts. It does not include sample scenes, standard include files and documentation so you should also get the executable archive as well. |
| - | A C compiler and (optionally) the X include files and libraries and knowledge of how to use it. |
Although we provide source code for generic Unix systems, we do not provide technical support on how to compile the program.
| - | POVUNI_S.TGZ or POVUNI_S.TAR.GZ - The C source code for POV-Ray for Unix. Either archive contains full generic source, Unix and X-Windows specific source. |
| - | POVUNI_D.TGZ or POVUNI_D.TAR.GZ or any archive containing the sample scenes, standard include files and documentation. This could be the Linux or SunOS executable archives described above. |
| - | A C compiler for your computer and KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO USE IT. Although we provide source code for generic Unix systems, we do not provide technical support on how to compile the program. |
| - | A text editor capable of editing plain ASCII text files. |
Recommended:
| - | Math co-processor. |
| - | 8 meg or more RAM. |
| - | Graphic file viewer capable of viewing PPM, TGA or PNG formats. |
Optional:
| - | X Windows if you want to be able to display as you render. |
| - | You will need the X-Windows include files as well. If you're not familiar with compiling programs for X-Windows you may need some help from someone who is knowledgeable at your installation because the X include files and libraries are not always in a standard place. |
All versions of the program share the same ray-tracing features like shapes, lighting and textures. In other words, an IBM-PC can create the same pictures as a Cray supercomputer as long as it has enough memory.
The user will want to get the executable that best matches their computer hardware. See the section "Where to Find POV-Ray Files" for where to find these files. You can contact those sources to find out what the best version is for you and your computer.