The Panorama FAQ
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Subject: 0 Introduction and Intent
This is the FAQ (list of Frequently Asked/Answered
Questions) for the Panorama package.
Hosting of this FAQ by a site does not
imply any endorsement of Panorama or of
the views expressed herein.
This FAQ may be distributed over the
internet or by other means for non-commercial
purposes only. If you wish to publish
this for profit on a CD-ROM obtain
permission from the maintainer(s) first.
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Subject: 1 Contents
0 Introduction and Intent
1 Contents
2 Changes
3 General Questions.
3.1 What is Panorama?
3.2 Is Panorama a renderer?
3.3 Is Panorama a raytracer?
3.4 Is Panorama compatible with POVRay?
3.5 Does it have a modeler?
3.6 Who wrote Panorama?
3.7 Can I distribute it?
3.8 Can I help ?
3.9 Does Panorama have a homepage?
3.10 What Panorama mailing lists/newsgroups are there?
3.11 What plans do you have for the future?
4 Questions about building Panorama
4.1 What is the latest version?
4.2 Where can I get it?
4.3 Will it ever build under GNU C++ 2.7.2.X?
4.4 I have had problems building under Solaris 2.5.1.
What should I look out for?
4.5 I have successfully built Panorama, how do I
run a make check to be sure things are sane.
4.6 I have successfully installed Panorama, but render
complains about not seeing libllapi.so.0
4.7 What executables exist after the build?
5 Questions about the Scene Language
5.1: Where can I find a grammar for the Scene Language
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Subject: 2 Changes
19-AUG-1999 Hugh Sasse added 4.7.
July 1999 Hugh Sasse <hgs@dmu.ac.uk>
revised the format for the file
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Subject: 3 General Questions.
Questions about what Panorama is, etc.
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Subject: 3.1 What is Panorama?
Panorama is a framework for 3D graphics production.
It is part of the GNU project.
This will include modeling, rendering, animating,
post-processing, etc. Currently, there is no
support for animation, but this will be added eventually.
Functionally, it is structured as an API, composed
by two dynamic libraries, and several plugins, that
you can optionally load in runtime. A simple console
mode front-end for this API is included in the package,
that can load a scene description in one of the supported
scene languages, and then outputs a single image file
in any of the supported graphic formats.
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Subject: 3.2 Is Panorama a renderer?
Yes, but it is more than a renderer. It is a general framework for
3D graphics production. This includes rendering, procedural
modeling and animation, postprocesing, etc. See
README file for more information in current status.
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Subject: 3.3 Is Panorama a raytracer?
It can do raytracing (see next question), but it is not simply
a raytracer or renderer (see previous question).
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Subject: 3.4 Is Panorama compatible with POVRay?
It can do raytracing. When the POV scene plugin is finished, it will be
able to load POVRay scenes and render them. But not only that. It will be
able to render this scene with any of its renderers.
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Subject: 3.5 Does it have a modeler?
A graphic interface has been started, but it does not currently include a
modelling tool. It does, however, have an object
oriented scene description language. This allowing objects
or material types to inherit properties from other
such objects, and it includes the idea of aggregate
objects to handle collections as a single unit.
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Subject: 3.6 Who wrote Panorama?
Angel Jimenez Jimenez (ajimenez@vnet.es)
Carlos Jimenez Moreno (carlosj@leader.es)(carlosj@vnet.es)
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Subject: 3.7 Can I distribute it?
Yes. Panorama has been put under GPL license.
See:
http://panorama.sourceforge.net/LICENSE
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Subject: 3.8 Can I help ?
Of course. Take a look at the developers page:
http://panorama.sourceforge.net/developers.html
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Subject: 3.9 Does Panorama have a homepage?
Yes, on the Sourceforge site, where the project is hosted (will be
much more current than anywhere else).
http://panorama.sourceforge.net
Also, on the Gnu site (not updated for almost 2 years).
http://www.gnu.org/software/panorama/panorama.html
Some mirrors:
http://gnu.via.ecp.fr/software/panorama/panorama.html
http://www.ie.gnu.org/software/panorama/panorama.html
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Subject: 3.10 What Panorama mailing lists/newsgroups are there?
There are no newsgroups. There are the following
mailing lists:
bug-panorama@gnu.org to send bug reports and fixes.
help-panorama@gnu.org for user discussion of the program.
devel-panorama@gnu.org for discussion among developers.
To subscribe, send a message to
bug-panorama-request@gnu.org
or
help-panorama-request@gnu.org
or
devel-panorama-request@gnu.org
with the word 'subscribe' in the subject.
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Subject: 3.11 What plans do you have for the future?
A010: We just want to make this the best environment for
modeling, rendering and animation. More info about
what we are doing now in the development page:
http://www.gnu.org/software/panorama/development.html
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Subject: 4 Questions about building Panorama
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Subject: 4.1 What is the latest version?
0.14 is the latest 'release', although significant changes have been
made. The CVS tree is the best source for current sources (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/panorama)
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Subject: 4.2 Where can I get it?
http://www.gnu.org/software/panorama/download.html
has pointers to:
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/panorama-0.13.3.tar.gz
http://www.vnet.es/~ajimenez/panorama-0.13.3.tar.gz
and other places.
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Subject: 4.3 Will it ever build under GNU C++ 2.7.2.X?
No. Panorama makes extensive use of STL classes, and there are many
problems in GNU C++ 2.7.2 STL implementation, and with templates in
general.
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Subject: 4.4 I have had problems building under Solaris 2.5.1.
What should I look out for?
If you are using egcs-1.1.2 or later, make sure
your LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not pointing at the
Sun Workshop libraries. And Vice Versa.
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Subject: 4.5 I have successfully built Panorama, how do I
run a make check to be sure things are sane.
You cannot do this at this time. Running
programs/render/render directly is likely to
result in an error about not finding some
library file.
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Subject: 4.6 I have successfully installed Panorama, but render
complains about not seeing libllapi.so.0
Make sure that the lib directory you have just
installed is in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH
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Subject: 4.7 What executables exist after the build?
Only render. Prior to installation this is
to be found in programs/render/render.
On Solaris it will be installed in
/opt/panorama/bin/render .
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Subject: 5 Questions about the Scene Language
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Subject: 5.1: Where can I find a grammar for the Scene Language
There is a Bison grammar in the distribution at:
plugins/scene_io/rt/parser.y
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