r.out.pov - GRASS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: r.out.pov: Converts a raster map layer into a height-field file for POV-Ray.
Keywords: raster, export, output

## NAME

r.out.pov - Converts a raster map layer into a height-field file for POV-Ray.

## KEYWORDS

raster, export, output

## SYNOPSIS

r.out.pov
r.out.pov --help
r.out.pov input=name output=name [hftype=integer] [bias=float] [scale=float] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

### Flags:

--overwrite
  Allow output files to overwrite existing files
--help
  Print usage summary
--verbose
  Verbose module output
--quiet
  Quiet module output
--ui
  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

input=name [required]
  Name of input raster map
output=name [required]
  Name of output povray file (TGA height field file)
hftype=integer
  Height-field type (0=actual heights 1=normalized)
bias=float
  Elevation bias
scale=float
  Vertical scaling factor

## DESCRIPTION

r.out.pov converts a user-specified raster map layer (map==name) into a height-field file for POVray (tga==name). The hftype==value option (where value is either 0 or 1) specifies the height-field type. When the user enters 0 the output will be actual heights. If entered 1 the cell-values will be normalized. If hftype is 0 (actual heights) the bias==value can be used to add or subtract a value from heights. Use scale==value to scale your heights by value. The GRASS program r.out.pov can be used to create height- field files for Persistence of Vision (POV) raytracer. POV can use a height-field defined in Targa (.TGA) image file format where the RGB pixel values are 24 bits (3 bytes). A 16 bit unsigned integer height-field value is assigned as follows: RED = high byte, GREEN = low byte, BLUE = empty.

## EXAMPLE

An example Povray script file may look like this:

    #include "shapes.inc"
    #include "colors.inc"
    #include "textures.inc"

    #declare Scale = 7;

    light_source { <40000, Scale*3000, 5000> color MainLight }

    camera {
       location < 23000, Scale*2000, 0>
       angle  90
       look_at < 23000, Scale*1400, 5000>
    }

    height_field  {
       tga "dem.lr.tga"
       smooth
       water_level 0.11  // 726 / 6553.6 = 0.111
        texture {
          pigment {
              image_map { // image is always projected from -z, with front facing  +z, top to +Y
                 ppm "map.lr.ppm"
                 once
              }
              rotate x*90 // align map to height_field
          }
        }
       finish {
              ambient 0.2         // Very dark shadows
              diffuse 0.8         // Whiten the whites
              phong 0.2           // shiny
              phong_size 100.0    // with tight highlights
              specular 0.5
              roughness 0.05
       }
       scale < 14500, Scale*6553.6, 13000 >
       translate <18300, 0, 1100>
    }

## AUTHOR

Klaus D. Meyer, GEUM.tec GbR, eMail: GEUM.tec@geum.de

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.out.pov source code (history)

Latest change: Sunday Jul 27 05:53:30 2025 in commit: da409580ef15011f3bac379c76d41101c9e36347

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