What is POV-Ray 2.2 w32 GUI ?

It is an unofficial build of a well known POV-Ray tracing software www.povray.org
In fact this is a quick re-compile of 1993's POV-Ray 2.2 written for MS DOS command line, just to make it work in Windows GUI environment.

Current official POV-Ray version is 3.62 and it works on Windows, however it is now over 12 MB .msi installer and doesn't run on Win98 which I'm still using for everyday work. After all, current POV-Ray is an overkill for me, because it allows me doing much more than I would ever need :)

On the other hand, that old v2.2 didn't support large textures from image files (I had to use about 20 MB hi-res Targa image, and original v2.2 failed to load such a large file due to MS DOS memory limit). So, my first step was, compile it using Borland BC++ 5.5 to a win32 console application (which worked perfectly).

Next step was, make it a GUI.
I thought my unofficial build could be useful to other people who don't need all the power of latest version, and/or just have a weak PC for some reason (use a netbook or have no rights to install software etc.)

Of course, a console version would be more flexible because of many command-line switches supported, though I doubt many today users are familiar with command line in Windows and I doubt they just wanted to learn it...

How do I render a 3D scene ?

Well there's nothing new :) Please note that small preview image on right side of the window is for debug purposes only. The full quality image is always rendered to Targa (.tga) file that you can later edit in any image editor (crop, resize etc...)

Who will answer my questions about POV-Ray 2.2 w32 GUI ?

I can help you regarding the GUI itself. I can not teach you the POV-Ray scene language, 3D modelling and I can not help you with textures creation.

Keep in mind that GUI has exactly the same ray tracing engine as one could see in official POV-Ray 2.2 for MS DOS. Their scene language is the same, so all your questions about modelling you should address to appropriate web forums or mailing lists (start at www.povray.org)

Who compiled POV-Ray 2.2 w32 GUI ?

I am Alexander Milukov from AM Software. I am not the author, I just compiled it.

POV-Ray is based on DKBTrace 2.12 by David K. Buck & Aaron A. Collins.
Contributing Authors: (Alphabetically)
Steve Anger, Steve A. Bennett, David K. Buck
Aaron A. Collins, Alexander Enzmann, Dan Farmer
Douglas Muir, Bill Pulver, Robert Skinner
Scott Taylor, Drew Wells, Chris Young
Other contributors listed in the documentation.