PovRay
Install POV-Ray from the link above, or for instructions on installing in Linux, click here.
When choosing the installation directory, it will make things easier later if you pick a path easy to write (e.g. C:\idynomics\povray). You can define the rendering settings using .ini files. One example can be seen in the file example_povray.ini that we have included in the "povray_ini_inc_files" folder within the iDynomics download. This example renders images in .png format and sets the width/height of the images to 780 pixels. You can load this file from PovRay, check under the Render menu the option Edit settings/render and browse to the directory containing the example_povray.ini file. Then choose Set but don't Render and PovRay will now use the settings contained in the ini file to render the images.
NOTE: Some people have reported trouble with using POV-Ray version 3.6 and QuietPOV on Windows Vista. If you are running Vista, it seems you must use POV-Ray version 3.5. Install the software in a folder other than Program Files, and before trying to run the software, browse to the installed directory and into the ‘bin’ directory (e.g. C:\idynomics\POV-Ray for Windows v3.5\bin). Then right-click on the file pvengine.exe, look in the menu Compatibility and select Make compatible for Win89/ME, and allow all users full access. This procedure has solved the problem for some users.
QuietPOV is a GUI Extension for POV-Ray for Windows that allows the user to start and stop renders in POV-Ray from the command-line. As the name suggests, it stops POV-Ray from popping up the POV-Ray window in the foreground upon starting a new render. It is not necessary but makes using POV-Ray more tolerable. To install QuietPOV, run the QuietPOV-install.exe file. Then start POV-Ray from the Start menu, and check under the ‘GUI-Extensions’ menu that QuietPOV is enabled (as shown below). Finally, choose a default resolution to render your images (also shown below) and close POV-Ray. You can still perform your simulations without QuietPOV, recent releases of POV-Ray seem to be missing this GUI extension.
