1.2  New Features

This section lists significant new features in the Unix version of POV-Ray 3.5, compared to the last release (3.1g). It does not list new features of the rendering engine, but only of the Unix version. See the What's New in POV-Ray 3.5? section for a list of some of the core changes.

1.2.1  I/O Restrictions

NOTE: The I/O Restriction code may not be completely mature yet. Please report any bugs you may find.

An I/O Restrictions feature has been included in the core POV-Ray code. The actual implementation is platform-dependant - not all platforms turn this feature on. The Unix version does, so you should read the I/O Restrictions Documentation to learn how to control it.

As a quick summary, I/O Restrictions control where the POV-Ray core code may and may not read or write files. By default, this is turned on and is fairly restrictive (read/write is allowed in the directory that the main input file is in, and read is allowed in the standard installation directories).

1.2.2  Display Options

The Unix version now has a single binary which supports display in X, using SVGAlib on the console, or via text graphics otherwise. If the command-line options or INI files turn on display, the following heuristic is used to determine what kind of display should be used. If the DISPLAY environment variable is set, X display is used. Otherwise, if the user is on the console, and has permission to do so, SVGAlib is used. Otherwise, text graphics are used.