Polyray - an algebraic input ray tracing program
(c) 1992 Alexander Enzmann
Version 1.3
All Rights Reserved

Polyray is a combination of an extensive set of modelling primitives together
with a comprehensive renderer. Models are specified in an ASCII file, which
are then parsed, and subsequently rendered. An IBM-AT or compatible is the
only platform currently supported. An 80287, or compatible coprocessor is
required for the real mode and 286 protected mode executables. In addition
the 286 protected mode requires that the program "zpm.exe" either be in the
current directory or be accessible via the PATH environment variable.

Polyray provides a number of distinct features, the most important of which
are the freedom of use of expressions in the modelling file and the ability
to render very complex mathematical surfaces.

There are three archives necessary: plydoc.zip, plydat.zip, and plyexe.zip.
These contain the documents for Polyray, a set of data files, and the
executable. In addition to plyexe.zip, there are alternate executables:
ply286.zip which contains a 286 protected mode executable, ply386 which contains
a 386 protected mode executable using floating point emulation, and ply387 which
is a 386 protected mode executable requiring an FPU.

Syntax: polyray filename (options)

File options:

-o outputfile [ default is "out.tga" ]
-p pixelsize [ bits/pixel, default is 16 ]
-u [ Turn off RLE compression of output ]
-x columns [ trace "colunms" pixels per row ]
-y lines [ trace "lines" rows ]
-B [ flush the output file every line ]
-b count [ flush every "count" pixels ]
-v [ Trace from bottom (Truevision format) ]
-R [ Resume an old trace ]
-Q [ Quit if a key is hit ]

Status options:

-t [ Display the row number during tracing ]
-T [ Display row and column during tracing ]

Rendering options:

-S [ Render using polygon scan conversion ]
-q flags [ Turn on/off various shading options ]

Antialiasing options:

-a [ Four samples per pixel, averaged ]
-A samples [ Jittered grid of "samples" rays/pixel ]

Speedup options:

-d scale [ Intersection dither 0<="scale"<=1 ]
-D scale [ Dither all rays 0<="scale"<=1 ]

Memory option:

-M maxprims [ Change the maximum # of primitives ]

Display options:

-V [ Use standard 320x200 VGA display ]
-W [ Leave image on screen until key press ]

Many of the internal variables can also be tuned through lines in the file
"polyray.ini", which must reside in the current directory. For the syntax
of this file see the documentation.

Whats new for 1.3: