Projections in POV-Ray

Camera Position

Regardless of the projection type all cameras use the location, right, up, direction, and keywords to determine the location and orientation of the camera:

Click here to see view volume (frustum).

• location <Location>
• right <Right> , up <Up>

The primary purpose of the up and right vectors is to tell POV-Ray the relative height and width of the view screen. The default values are:

right 4/3*x
up y

• direction <Direction>

Camera direction tells POV-Ray the initial direction to point the camera before moving it with the look_at or rotate vectors (the default value is direction<0,0,1>). The length of the vector determines the distance of the viewing plane from the camera's location. A shorter direction vector gives a wider view while a longer vector zooms in for close-ups.
Not used with orthographic, fisheye, or omnimax projection types.
For ultra_wide_angle, panoramic, or cylindrical projection, use a unit length direction vector.

Note: The angle keyword specifies the (horizontal) viewing angle in degrees of the camera used. Even though it is possible to use the direction vector to determine the viewing angle for the perspective camera it is much easier to use the angle keyword.

• sky <Sky>

  You may change the tilt of the camera using the sky vector.

Projections

• perspective - Most Common. The default perspective camera which simulates the classic pinhole camera.

• orthographic - uses parallel camera rays to create an image of the scene. The size of the image is determined by the lengths of the right and up vectors.

• fisheye - a spherical projection. The viewing angle is specified by the angle keyword. An angle of 180 degrees creates the "standard" fisheye. You should get a circular image.

• ultra_wide_angle - somewhat similar to the fisheye but it projects the image onto a rectangle instead of a circle. The viewing angle can be specified using the angle keyword.

• omnimax - a 180 degrees fisheye that has a reduced viewing angle in the vertical direction. The image will look somewhat elliptical. The angle keyword isn't used with this projection.
• panoramic - also called "cylindrical equirectangular projection". It overcomes the degeneration problem of the perspective projection if the viewing angle approaches 180 degrees. It uses a type of cylindrical projection. The angle keyword is used to determine the viewing angle.

• cylinder CylinderType - scene is projected onto a cylinder. There are four different types of cylindrical projections depending on the orientation of the cylinder and the position of the viewpoint. A float value in the range 1 to 4 must follow the cylinder keyword. The viewing angle and the length of the up or right vector determine the dimensions of the camera and the visible image. The camera to use is specified by a number. The types are:

1 vertical cylinder, fixed viewpoint
2 horizontal cylinder, fixed viewpoint
3 vertical cylinder, viewpoint moves along the cylinder's axis
4 horizontal cylinder, viewpoint moves along the cylinder's axis

cylinder 1

cylinder 2