5.2.2 Display Options

The Unix version now has a single binary which supports display using the X Window System, or using the SVGA library (SVGAlib) on the console (GNU/Linux systems only), 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, the X Window 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.

Text graphics display a crude 75x24 ASCII version of the image which can be useful none the less to monitor the render progress on a text terminal. Using text graphics and the Verbose (+v) option simultaneously will not work very well.