I recently encountered the below limitation from POV within 3DC.  I used textures with transparencies (PNG files) that when placed in front of one another rendered black.  Here is what I found in POV help:  "When I put several transparent objects one in front of another or inside another, POV-Ray calculates a few of them, but the rest are completely black, no matter what transparency values I give."

Short answer from POV help: Try increasing the max_trace_level value in the global_settings block (the default is 5).

Setting max_trace_value to 10 resolved my problem for me.  However, this global setting can not be set from within 3DC.  I suggest 3DC users be allowed to maintain a text file that 3DC will incorporate into its global_settings whenever it is accessing POV directly.  

The less attractive alternative is to export the scene to POV and add this setting to POV by hand.  While this works, it would be nicer if it could all be controlled within 3DC.


Attached is an example of the black image produced.

Thanks,

Ken

Here is pretty much the same shot done outside of 3DC in POV but with Max_Trace_Value set to 10.

That seems like a good idea to me.

Richard

Richard,
Any chance of incorporating a user defined POV global settings text file, maintained within 3DC or not, that will be passed to the incorporated POV renderer supported by 3DC Pro, for version 7.0? I think this opens up all sorts of possibilites for rendering within 3DC.

Thanks,
Ken