Sim-POV

Sim-POV is a extension of the freeware raytracer POV-Ray for calculating mechanics simulations.

The concept of this extension is to provide an all purpose tool for simulating many kinds of structures and movements. It can be used for both stills as well as animations. The high flexibility in use is achieved by an adaptable interface to the POV-Ray scene description language. POV-Ray scripts can be used both for creating the simulation objects' topology as well as for placing objects according to the positions calculated by the simulation engine.

Note that this system is still under development, not all features are complete yet and most things are still subject to changes. None the less i would be very interested about reports from those using the program, about possible problems and suggestions for improvements.

For the conditions for using POV-Ray and modified versions you should have a look at the POV-Ray license.

This is a unofficial custom version of POV-Ray in terms of this document. The POV-Ray Team is not responsible for supporting it.

Download

A newer version of this patch is now included in MegaPOV. Development of this separate version is discontinued, these files are only supplied for reference.

There are currently two packages available for download: the source code distribution contains all platform independent POV-Ray source files and should be installed over the official source code package for your target platform. The windows executable is a command line program compiled with the Cygwin system. Documentation and sample scenes for the extensions are included in both packages.

Apart from the Sim-POV simulation system this POV-Ray version also includes several other patches:

If you do not already have a version of POV-Ray, you should download the official POV-Ray documentation, samples and include files from the POV-Ray FTP server.

You may modify and redistribute this version of POV-Ray under the restrictions of the POV-Ray license. But all versions should include the documentation and sample scenes i included here too.

If you have questions or suggestions for improvements you can contact me via EMail.

• simpov_010.zip (5031kB) - the complete source code and the documentation and sample scenes
• simwin_010.zip (4949kB) - the windows command line version (Cygwin/MinGW) with documentation and sample scenes
• The patch documentation - for online reading
• The sample scenes that are included in the package
• List of newsgroup postings i made on the POV-Ray newsserver concerning this patch.


• IsoCSG Library - Useful for creating environments for mechanical simulations, required for several sample scenes.