POV Stop Start
Colin, If you use the +x switch on the commandline, in your povray.def file, or
the POVRAYOPT= setting, you can interrupt a trace mid-stream. The file can
then be started again with the +c switch. It's all in the docs.
The .tga file must be converted to a .gif (again, see the .docs) unless you
have a Hicolor DAC video card (or a 24 bit "fullcolor" card, of course). If
you've got a hicolor chip, you can also see the preview screen in hicolor.
There are viewing programs that will attempt to map 24 bit image to 256 colors,
but they don't work well. You really need to use a converter first.
Read action !