Introduction to the Scene Description Langage (SDL) of the POV-Ray Raytracer         - page 0 -
by Friedrich A. Lohmüller

An Introduction to the Scene Description Langage (SDL)
of the POV-Ray Raytracer

1.	Using the Program. How to avoid writing by using the "Insert Menu Add-on".
2.	Basics on How To Make a Scene About writing the text, "//" und "/* ... */". xyz - Three-Dimensional Coordinates: Floats, Vectors (< , , >), Calculations.
3.	Scene Structure - What belongs to a Scene? A basic example of a scene description.
4.	Scene File Headers:, #include files, camera, light_source.
5.	Basic Geometric Objects (sphere, box, cylinder, cone, torus, plane) and other shapes (shapes.inc, height_field, text, isosurface).
6.	Transformations (scaling, rotation, translation and others) and CSG - union (merge); difference; intersection.
7.	Colors on Surfaces. texture, pigment, normal, finish.
8.	#declare, #local, #macro, - About placeholders and flexible objects.
9.	#while - Mass production deluxe with loops.
10.	#include. - Include files and re-usable objects. Don't build everything from nothing!
11.	Tips and tricks for efficient working. Speed hints, flexibility, how to keep track, modular working, Adapting POV-Ray 3.1 scene files to POV-Ray version 3.5/3.6. Adapting POV-Ray 3.5/3.6 scene files to POV-Ray 3.7. Using POV-Ray 3.6.2 and 3.7 with Windows Vista.

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The following short introduction gives an overview on POV-Ray, the Persistance Of Vision Raytraying Programm.
It does not intend to be complete!
This description aims to give a fast help to beginners by explaining the basic rules.
For advanced raytracing users it is absolutely recommended to turn to the original documentation
for more detailed information. It would be also a good idea to study (by rendering in small size)
the original sample files of POV-Ray (see the subdirectory "scenes"!).
For feedback and ideas to enhance this tutorial, just drop me some lines by email - thanks!

New: The development of POV-Ray 3.7 is about to reach it's goal. Currently(07-May-2012) we can download an already rather stable Release Candidate 5 (RC5) from the 'beta test page' of POV-Ray.
Essential innovations now are recommending urgently the using of POV-Ray 3.7:
The ability of SMP (Symmetric multiprocessing) with today very common multicore processors speeds up rending process enormously ( z.B. Intel i7 -> 4 cores -> 8 threads parallel -> ca. 8 times faster! ).
In addition POV-Ray 3.7 has a revised 'Insert Menu', which now contains the importantst parts of my old 'Insert Menu Add-on' for POV-Ray 3.6.2.
New among others are the for-loop (#for(COUNTER,START,END,STEP) .... #end), diverse new pattern functions and also the possibility to make images in JPEG format (space-saving!) as well as in .hdr format. And we can now use HDRI images for indirect Illumination of our scenes (HDRI environment mapping).

Happy Raytracing with POV-Ray - Friedrich A. Lohmüller   07-May-2012