Info

Raytracing software

"No fancy frames or columns, just the facts."

Jump to: DOS | Win3.1/95 | OS2 | Unix | Data (planetary maps, textures, wireframes, includes, more) | Other related pages | Objects, Mesh | Objects, POV 3.0 | Objects, POV 3.1

• 7-28-00: Removed dead links.
• 7-28-99: NEW! Updated links!
• 8-4-99: Removed invalid links pointing to POV CDROM.
• 8-8-99: Added more links. Added section for Objects, which are programs, macros, or functions used to generate objects for POV.
• 8-16-99: Began adding non-English POV tutorials.
• 10-21-99: Divided objects into: Mesh, POV 1.0-3.0, POV 3.1.

• Adeline 2.0
  Includes Radiance package for DOS for a fee from Lawrence Berkeley Labs. The Unix version is free and includes source code.
• DKBTrace 2.12
  This is the first raytracer I used until I found POVRay. It is pretty good.
• Polyray 1.7
  SHAREWARE. Includes unix versions here.
• Povray 3.01
• Rayshade
  Includes versions for Amiga, Unix/X11, Mac, and OS2. Inetray and Raynet use Rayshade and multiple CPUs to render pictures over a network.
• Vivid 4.0
  SHAREWARE. Contact scoy@microsoft.com.

DOS Modellers

• Animation
  • DISPLAY - animation viewer/editor
• HF lab
  Generates heightfields for POV. Lots of options to create landforms, including lunar landforms with craters.
• Lightning
  Get this Sparks program to create lightning paths for POV ray.
• Moray 2.5
  SHAREWARE. Features: TrueType fonts, mosaic previewing for POV, colors of lights, 2 user-defined macros, supports POV 3.0, complete texture editor.
• Orb-cyl
  Great for creating bumpy orbs or cylindars, including asteroids! The bumpy cylindars look like petrified trees. For POVRay.
• POVLab
  FREE. Modeller. For POVRay 3.x. This one looks really good. Utilities for POVLab are here. Author says it runs fine under Win95 under most video cards (some video cards give problems), but I had problems with it. Export to POV disabled in the shareware version. It is now FREE.
• Pyramid
  Makes any sided pyramid with lots of options.
• Trees: PTD_TREE
  Makes excellent trees with great random branches, leaves, and bark. Homepage here.

• Behemot
  FREE. Modeller, renderer for Win 95/NT and Linux. Supports NURBS and animations.
• Bryce
  This commercial package doesn't do much except landscapes and trees. But it is really good at it. It now does buildings in the scene.
• Genesis II - landscape generator.
• Magic Camera
  Free raytracer for windows.
• Povray 3.1g
  FREE. POV requires Win95 or Windows 3.1 running Win32s. Win32s is available at their site. POVRay is also for the Mac, SunOS, Linux, and Unix.
• Raystorm
  Renderer and modeller. For Windows 95/NT and Amiga. Supposed to be VERY FAST rendering. $20 SHAREWARE is fully functional but is limited to a rendered resolution of 160x128. Now for Amiga and Power PC also.
• ***Terragen .70 - creates great landscapes. Presently FREE.

Windows Modellers

• Blobman
  Makes a human figure out of blobs, for POV. Variables include: hair, facial hair, lip orientation (for expressions), costumes, finger positions on the hands, limb positions and more. Some predefined costumes include: Judge Dredd, Storm Trooper.
• Blob Sculptor - make objects out of blobs. Exports to POV, Polyray, DXF.
• Breeze
  FREE. Good modeller for POVRay 3.0, and 2.0, VRML, Polyray. VERY slow response if you insert text because it makes the text out of thousands of triangles. Exports Renderman RIB and DXF files. Import 3DS, Autocad 2d and 3d DXF files. Supports 3rd party plugins, has preview mode (supports Intel 3DR and OpenGL preview modes).
• Clayworks
  FREE. V3.0 will support OpenGL. Current version is 2.45. Supports custom toolbars and skins. Reads: 3ds, Lightwave, Mindformer. Exports to: POV.
• Dmesh
  Organic modelling. Creates human figures. Free?
• Eureka - parametric surface modeller? En Francais.
• Exploder (Object Exploder)
  Take any POV object and explode it into lots of smaller pieces.
• Font F/X
  This commercial product has a demo. After 30 days you cannot save, print, or export your fonts.
• Font
  Make fonts for POV, even around an arc or circle.
• Font, LED
  Makes an LED font for POV.
• Genesis modeller
  FREEWARE. For Win 3.1 (with Win32s) and Win95. Realtime texture mapping. This looks real good. 32 bit, imports Lightwave files.
• Genesis Toolkit
  A series of tools which work with POV heightfields.
• Geodome 1.1
  Creates POV code for geodesic dome structures.
• Grand Unified Modeller (GUM)
  Supports POVRay, Polyray, Rayce. You need a 486 plus Windows.
• L System
  FREE. Generates fractal objects.
• Lace 3D
  FREEWARE wireframe modeller for Win95/NT.
• Lather 1.02
  Lathe utility for POV.
• Leo 3d
  Supports POVray and exports VRML, Renderman files. Imports DXF files.
• Lens Flare
  Create a lens flare effect on a light source or star.
• Lightening 3d
  Modeller supports POV. OpenGL preview.
• Liquid Spray
  Creates a liquid-like spray object.
• M3D
  Makes heightfields from 3d graph equations. Very nice.
• Microlathe 1.5.1
  
• Midnight Modeller 4.0 beta for POVRay
  FREE. Most powerful modeller with many features of $1000 packages. Homepage here. Also here.
• Minos
• Molecular modelling (povray.org)
• Moray 3.0
  Price: DM 149, $80 US. Modeller/CAD program for POV. Shareware version has all features, but "reminder" screens frequently pop up.
• Object Bender
  Bend any POV object in any direction.
• Peak 3D
• Pygmalion 3d
  Made for POV. Pygmalion is subdivision surface and GPL'd modeler for mainly POV-Ray.
• Polywog
  Vertex-based editor. For win95 or Amiga. FREEWARE.
• Pretty Poly 3d modeller
  Meant for linux but there will be a Windows version too.
• Povcad 4.03
  $35 shareware. Contact rob_mcgregor@compuserve.com. Anyone have a homepage for this?
• PovChem - models chemical molecules and DNA.
• POVGraph
  Make 3d graphs from math functions.
• POV Lab
  FREE. Modeller which exports POV files.
• POV SB .99o (Jun 97)
  Shareware POV 3.0 modeller. Supports: RAW and DXF and POV output, preview using OpenGL, extruded, beveled fonts, a bunch of CSG shapes, more. Author notes PovSB does not work fully under NT 3.51, but works fine under NT 4.0.
• Rhino 3D
  $795. Modeller imports/exports many formats.
• SoMA
  Modeller under construction for Win 95.
• Smoke generator
• S patch
  FREE. Spline based modeller. Includes s patch tutorials. Homepage here.
• Spilin free spline editor
  Win 95. Shaded preview with OpenGL.
• Spline generator
• Technowin
  2d and 3d cad modeller.
• Terrain Forge
  For win95. Generate height fields for POVRay to make landscapes.
• Terrain maker
  Supports USGS DEM files, makes POV scene files. v1.1 requires 386 or better, VESA SVGA video card with 512k. 486 recommended.
• Vistapro
  Landscape renderer. For more Vistapro links, do a search on Yahoo.
• VisualEyes - currently FREEWARE. May not be complete.

Windows raytracing utilities

• Animation programs
  1. Anim8
     FREE. Says it's the best animator for POV. Also has POVTICK for animation.
  2. AVIEDIT - small program which makes AVI files. Requires Video for Windows.
  3. Axogon - completely free animation system which makes AVI files.
  4. Bink tools
     FREE. Great codec makes quick animations in MPEG or Quicktime.
  5. Dave's animation system
  6. DDClip
     FREE. Adds sound to AVI files. Homepage here. Free version has 1 video and 3 audio tracks.
  7. DTA 2.2
     Dave's Targa animator converts many TGA files to FLI or FLC files.
  8. Fast Movie Processor
     FREE. Makes animation files from POV (TGA?) files.
  9. PILE - big animation resource.
  10. POV Ray AnimSystem
      Make a flight path and preview, more animation functions. Amiga, Windows, Mac, and unix. With tutorial.
  11. Quicktime - QuickTime 3.0 upgrade allows you to render QuickTime movies directly with POV.
  12. TGA2AVI - converts TGA files to AVI files.
  13. TGA2GIF - TGA to animated GIF
  14. Vid Edit - insert many formats of files.
• Avalon software
  Lots of free utils and programs and links to them.
• Color managers
  • RGB Scroller - shows POV syntax for RGB color.
• Convertors
  DXF to POV, USGS DEM to TGA, more.
• Convertors
  1. 3d Win - converts many 3d formats to other formats.
  2. 3ds to POV - go to Software, Translators. Also here.
  3. AVI to MPEG - FREE.
  4. Crossroads - convert many 3d file formats. FREE.
  5. DEM to POV - USGS DEM files to TGA files which can be used by POV as a heightfield (not Vistapro DEM to POV). For Linux, OS2. C source code available on web page.
  6. DEM2POV - 3DEM. Can use USGS DEM files to save as: JPG, BMP, VRML, TER (Terragen), MPG, TGA, DAT (binary elevation), TXT (ascii elevation map). Also makes animated flybys. Requires OpenGL.
  7. DXF to 3DS
  8. DXF to DKB
  9. DXF to POV
  10. FLC to EXE - look under Software, Utilities
  11. FLC2GIF - Converts FLC animated files to animated GIF files.
  12. GIF to DXF heightfield - look under Software, Utilities
  13. GIF to PNG
  14. Mathematica to POV
  15. MOL to 3DS
  16. PDF to POV - molecular PDB format
  17. RAW to 3d studio ascii
  18. RAW to Polyray
  19. RAW to POV
  20. TGA to MPEG - Converts TGA files to animated MPEG files.
  21. TrueType fonts to DXF, POV, RAW
  22. VRML2POV
  23. Wavefront to 3D Studio Ascii, DXF, NFF, RAW, Rayshade
• Fonts - Elefont
  Creates dxf files from TTF font files.
• Fractals: RS-IFS - POVLAB plugin makes fractal IFS shapes.
• HC Make
  Make animated FLI files from hi color TGA files. Look under Software, Utilities.
• POV animation, how to
• POV CDROM FTP
• Rendersoft Illusionae
  Create POV textures. Win 95. $30.
• TexturEyes 1.0
  FREEWARE. Texture editor for POVRay. DOS. Weird video modes may not work with Windows.
• Texture editor
  FREEWARE. Win95 only. Looks very good. Helpfile in French only. Beta version, did not work for me. NOTE: Both POV and this Texture Edit must be installed in a path where each directory does not exceed 8 characters and there are no spaces in the path. I.e. the paths must be 16-bit with no long directory names.
• Texture Library
  List of textures for you to download.
• Texture magic
  Edit textures for POV. Win 95.
• Texture - POV-View
  View POV textures.
• Texture View - FREEWARE texture viewer for POV. Makes contact sheets (lists of textures).
• Sparkle - adds sparkle effect to brightest pixels in an image.
• Tree Designer
  Design trees. Not necessarily for raytracing.
• Varmint's POV animator
  Automates rendering all those animation frames.

• Rayshade
  Includes versions for Amiga, Unix/X11, Mac, and OS2. Inetray and Raynet use Rayshade and multiple CPUs to render pictures over a network.

Modellers

• Rayzor Editor/2 1.0
  Supports POVRay files. FREEWARE.

Utilities

• TexturEyes 1.0
  Texture editor for POVRay. FREEWARE.

• Blue Moon Rendering Tools - adheres to the Renderman interface standard. Binaries for Irix 5.2 and up, Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Nextstep, Sun Sparc running Solaris. Or try here.
• Radiance
• Rayshade
  Includes versions for Amiga, Unix/X11, Mac, and OS2. Inetray and Raynet use Rayshade and multiple CPUs to render pictures over a network. Sources available for unix C compilers.

Modellers

• AC3D
  Modeller for Linux, Solaris, SGI, HPUX, SunOS. Outputs VRML, POVRay 3.0 files, Renderman files.
• Clayworks
  For Linux. Will support OpenGL.
• Geodome
• Leo 3d
  Modeller which supports POVray, and exports VRML, Renderman files. Supports Linux, SGI, Solaris, HPUX, Dec Alpha (OSF1/Digital Unix). Imports DXF files.
• Sceda II - new web page. Old page at: here.

Utilities

• POV Ray AnimSystem
  Make a flight path and preview, more animation functions.

• 3D Cafe
  LOTS of meshes and resources for graphic artists.
• 3d Render
  Lots of tutorials and rendering stuff.
• 3d Site
  Links to lots of free meshes.
• Free objects from 3dlinks.com - various formats.
• Library of libraries for POV
• Manga babes
  Wire frames of women.
• Meshmart
• Models
  For Moray 3.1 (MDL format). Includes desks, chairs, bathroom stuff, computer (desktop and tower) and monitor and related.
• Textures
  • Camonet free textures
  • Freetextures.com - these do not seem to be seemless textures for use in raytracing, but rather photographs of interesting things.
  • Medieval textures - stone, etc.
  • Organic textures - tilable organic textures: fur, hair, leather, skin, brick, stone, wood, bark, more.
  • Textures: 850 free textures
  • ***Textures, free - links to free textures from 3dlinks.com.
• POV-View - view POV textures from their INC files. Renders one sphere at a time. For Windows.

• 3D Ring webring
• comp.graphics.raytracing FAQ - includes more pointers to raytracing apps, modellers, paint programs, image format convertors, and utils.
• Filelibrary.com
  Also has some POV programs, including older hard to find ones.
• Gautam Lad's Links *** Has links to many include libraries.
• Graphics Alternative BBS
  Devoted mainly to raytracing and 3d graphics. (Moved?)
• Ken Tyler's links ***
  Lots 'o links here.
• Medical - Modelling eye surgery with POV
• PILE
  50+ include files for POV. Including: people, twist, lens flares, candles, flames, starfields, braids, chain, more.
• POV FAQ
• POV CDROM FTP - does not have as many utilities as it used to.
• POV City
  A virtual city modelled in POV.
• PovRay - OFFICIAL site
• POVRing webring
• POV utils list
• POV utils, page 1; POV utils, page 2.
  Great site, raytracers, modellers, converter programs, more. Many links do not work as they point to the POV cdrom.
• POV utils, by Mary Ann (Geocities)
  A pretty good collection of POV utilities. Includes modellers, utilities, texture programs, texture files, planet pictures (for use in wrapping around a sphere in your scene), animation links.
• POV utils
  POV utility reviews by Steve Wallace.
• POV-zine
  In German. En Deutsch.
• Raytracing news - older issues from about 1993-1994.
• Rendering Times online magazine
  Has a regular column about POV.
• Shaun Fumo's list of POV utils
  LOTS of utils here with lots of info on each one. Utils for Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux, and Amiga. From 1997. This is a group of text files.
• Tutorial, for POV: en Francais
• Tutorial, animation - from Split Infinity
• POV tutorial from 3dlinks.com - many tutorial links to choose from.
• Unofficial POV ray utility warehouse
  Good utils, like slicer, braids, 3d fonts, LED font, pyramids, etc.
• VanSickle, John - noted animation artist.
• Yahoo - Graphics
  Includes computer generated, 3d, raytracing, more.

OBJECTS, Mesh

• Arch, stone - a mesh file.
• Battery, 9v, Duracell
• Catapult
• CD, audio - inc file with multi-colored reflections. POV 3.0.
• Chainsaw chain
• Chair, folding beach chair
• Crystal generator - Also makes VRML output. Makes mollecular views of crystal structures. Does not make a large view of a whole crystal. For windows/DOS, Mac, or unix.
• Dice
• Disk, 3.5 inch - Moray MDL format.
• DNA - Makes models of DNA. Contact Robert Bryerton.
• Flowers - rose, water lily, spiky tropical plant - MDL Moray format.
• Fruit - apple, banana, cherry, orange, peach, pear - Moray MDL format.
• Gyroscope
• Harmonic knots
• Heart, valentine's
• Helixir - Win 95 program used for making helical shapes, like sea shells. Outputs RAW or UDO/INC files.
• Insects - mosquito, spider, bee, cricket, ant, salamander (COB format). Cannon, artillary, handbrace, grinder, ratchet, musket pistol (MAX format).
• lamp, with green shade
• Legos in POV - Include files for various Lego shapes. Here is a more updated version of Lego include files.
• Lego ships
• Link by Chris Colfax. Make chains with round pieces, oblong pieces, braided rope, barbed wire, train tracks, and more. Just specify 2 points to connect. POV 3.0.
• Misc models - TV, desk, dresser, chair, trashcan, desktop PC, tower PC, monitor, desklamp, bar stool, modem, mouse, toilet, sink, towel dispenser, urinal, dart. (all in Moray MDL format)
• Misc models by Meshop - wicker chair, cabinets, sink faucet, beer bottle, computer biscuit fan (all DXF format).
• Misc objects - 2 Mechs, plane, helicopter (Truespace format.)
• Misc models - Sport fisher boat, old Fords, Porsche 930, delivery van, Boeing 747, grand piano.
• Mobius strip - include file for POV.
• Planitarium - positions the planets based on a date, so you can render it in POV.
• Plants - Make various types of plants for POV. Ferns, trees, flowers.
• POV Objects collection
• Pyr-cube - can make pyramids with flat tops and other 8 sided shapes where the top and bottoms are parallel.
• Rocks - generate rock shapes. Someone mentioned this generates COB files so you need a convertor to convert it to POV.
• Sci-fi models - all in mesh format. Robby the robot, lunar crawler, Lost in Space robot and ship, Star Trek page, Eagle 1999 page, Terminators, Dr. Who.
• Sci-fi - alien rifle, alien power loader, Aliens dropship, War of the Worlds ship, WoW fighting machine, Terminator T800 rifle.
• Sci fi - Star Trek (USS Akayazi, subspace relay station), Star Wars (Sun Crusher, VLCC Black Ice), Babylon 5 (Narn fighter, Whitestar, Omega class estroyer, maint. ship, Centauri transport), Blake 7, Dr. Who, Battlestar Galactica, Red Dwarf, Space: Above and Beyond (all mesh models).
• Shelly lib - Shareware $20 US. Save disabled. Creates models of shells and snails. Exports to POV ray as bezier patches. Exports to other formats also. Includes texture editor for shell textures/colors. Requires OpenGL.
• Shells, try Spiralizer
• Shells, see also: Helixir.
• Snowflake generator - FREE. Generate snowflakes of various kinds for POV. Another one here at PTD Snow.
• Space - martian rover
• Space Shuttle Model project - just for POV.
• Spark generator - Generates include files for rendering sparks.
• Stargate model - supposed to be a free mesh.
• Startrek meshes - lots of categories, lots of meshes.
• Stereogram - You need those red/blue glasses to view these scenes.
• Tree Designer - Win 95 program to design trees, which can then be exported to POV as primatives (not patches or wireframes), or exported as DXF files.
• TomTree - include file for making great trees. Very good tree types: palm, birch, olive.
• Transportation - cars, Delorean, hovercraft, marine, hummer, railroad, space, watership (Lightwave format and free).
• Universe - Generates background space images with stars, novas, more. Win 95 only. This is limited somehow, it is shareware. See also Galaxy include file for POV by Chris Colfax.

OBJECTS, POV 3.0

• Biowin - generate organic lifeforms for POV. Check out his gallery, very neat. POV 3.0.
• Books - view spine end, or page end closed. Pov 3.0.
• Braid - Make various types of braided objects. POV 3.0.
• Chain - Makes hanging chains. For POV 3.0.
• Columns - Make various types of columns. POV 3.0.
• Columns.inc - more columns. POV 3.0.
• Crystal shape generator (XTAL4POV) - FREE. For POVRay 2.x. Contact Klaus Kosten.
• Dome - Rick Bono's dome utility. Includes windows shell for this DOS program. POV 3.0.
• Dome - By Philippe Gibone. Includes a Moray plugin. This excellent utility makes more than geodesic domes, it has many options for making all types of domes. POV 3.0.
• Drum - a 55 gallon oil drum. POV 3.0.
• Exploder - object exploder by Chris Colfax.
• Galaxy - include file for POV 3.0. By Chris Colfax.
• Gears - Gear include file. Many variables. POV 3.0.
• Helix - include file for POV 3.0.
• Keyboard - computer keyboard. POV 3.0.
• Pool balls - Make various types of poolballs, any color, any number, using any font for the number. POV 3.0.
• RockGen - by Steven Pigeon. Win 95. Also available is a version for unix, and Power PC. This is really cool. Some of the triangles which make up the rock reflect light so it looks like the rock sparkles. POV 3.0.
• Spiderweb - by Chris Colefax. Creates a spiderweb with straight or droopy connector lines. POV 3.0.
• Starwars models - just for POV 3.0 and 3.1.
• Tires - Include file generates knobby tires for ATV. From Gautem Lad. POV 3.0.
• Tree, PTD Tree - POV 3.0.
• Trees - very good leaves! POV 3.0.

OBJECTS, POV 3.1

• Bolts - macro to create any size bolt. Nut macro is here. POV 3.1+.
• City Generator - Makes random cities for POV, with traffic and street lights. By Chris Colfax. POV 3.1.
• Clouds - Caution: uses MEDIA, for POV 3.1 only.
• Cog generator POV 3.1+.
• Fur - Fur (needs POV 3.1, INC file)
• Grass - good macro creates a patch of grass, which can then duplicated into a large lawn. POV 3.1.
• lamp, for a street - macro which makes a lamp, several parameters. POV 3.1.
• Pipes - set of 7 different pipes for POV 3.1.
• Polyhedrons - include file makes solid shapes. POV 3.1+.
• Rock generator (VanSickle's) - POV 3.1.
• Stars - creates a background with accurate star positions and magnitude. Up to 9096 stars. Include file for Pov 3.1.
• Tree, MakeTree - Another good tree macro. Can make old or bent trees. Different color leaves. POV 3.1+.
• Starwars models - just for POV 3.0 and 3.1.
• walls - Macro with several parameters to make straight or rounded walls with individual bricks. Can be used for brick-paved streets. POV 3.1.
• Windows - creates various types of windows with balconies and shades. POV 3.1.

Other 3d programs

• Crystal Space 3d - Crystal Space is an Open Source 3D engine for Linux, Windows, Apple/NeXT, OS/2, BeOS, Macintosh. It supports: true six degree's of freedom, colored lighting, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflective surfaces, 3D sprites (frame based or with skeletal animation), procedural textures, radiosity, particle systems, halos, volumetric fog, scripting (using Python or other languages), 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D under Windows, Glide and OpenGL on Windows, Linux, OS/2, Macintosh, BeOS.
• Jet 3d - Jet3D is a state-of-the-art 3D graphics engine built for high performance real-time rendering. Jet3D offers advanced lighting features, 3D modeling support, seamless soft-skin polyonal characters and many other innovations.

This page has been accessed times since Dec 12, 1996.