Release Notes for Aztec 2.0.0f-alpha
Release Date: 30 August 2003
Well, its been a while since these releae notes were updated. The focus of the program has shifted from being an all round tool, to being primarily a modelling tool. After modelling has been completed to an acceptable level, then we will move on to other areas.
Changes of Interest
Well, its been a long time, so lots of things have changed.
- User Interface
- The entire user interface has been rewritten. Its been written using a home grown API, which hasn't got all the greatest bells and whistles, but the functionality is portable to other operating systems. Richard is working on a Linux Qt version, and after that is done, we should have Aztec running on linux. Same goes for any other user interface we (or anyone else) choose. A few things have fallen behind, such as rendering, that haven't made it into the user interface yet.
- Java scripting for the user interface. Thats right, the user interface is scriptable! Its not perfect, but its a good step in the right direction. David Biggs has been hard at work stretching the boundaries of it to make it as good as possible.
- Context menus, so you can right click instead of having to go up to the menu's all the time.
- Modelling tools:
- Edge ring and edge loop its about time!
- Edge connect with multiple edges and face connect
- Point connect
- Face connect allows arbitrary two groups of faces to be connected
- Solid Chamfer There is no normal chamfer yet, but its on the way. This chamfer was inspired by Sebastian Thiel work. And its good stuff.
- Improved Edge Divide Gives feed back on how far along the edge we are dividing.
- Can convert selections between
- Grid Snapping
- Quick slice tool Allows a quick way to divide up an entire object along a plane.
- Inset tool A poor mans bevel.
- Undo has improved. The undo system was rewritten, and it is now much better, and more flexible than before. Just about everything is undoable, without the high level code having to worry about anything.
Known Issues
There are a few things that are known problems in this release, so don't be surprised if you see them:
- The channel bar sometimes does not lay out the fields properly. This can be a major hassled, but for the moment, just reselect your object, should fix it right up.
- Normal chamfer isn't there. It will be soon,
- And lots of things are on the bug and feature list too, at this page.
Release Notes for Aztec 1.1.3
Release Date: 28 October 2002
This release was a slow one coming, mainly due to me (Phil) trying to finish off my degree. It is virtually over, so I tidied up a few things to do a release.
Changes of Interest
Some more good stuff has made it into this release:
- Rendering! We use PovRay (www.povray.org) to do the rendering. It just launches povray, and feeds it a povray scene file based on what is currently inside Aztec. It will be possible to add in renderes over time, so don't expect Povray to be the only one!
- Inverse Kiniematics. A simple CCD (Cyclic Coordinate Descent) IK solver has been added in. And it is quite fun to use.
- Lightwave importing has improved. The colours of triangles are now imported nicely. This will eventually migrate to become a material system for Aztec, rather than just simple face colouring.
Release Notes for Aztec 1.1.2
Release Date: 10 August 2002
Changes of Interest
There are several notable things to do with this release. There has been some major work in several areas, improving Aztec considerably. These main developments are:
- Revamped file format. Files are now saved and loaded as .AztecAscii files. It is an ascii file format that is easily readable and maintainable. This should greatly help with the problems that Aztec has been plagued with by having the file format change so often, and causing users to not be able to read in their old files. This should hopefully never happen again!
- Channel Bar changes. The channel bar now only displays one object at a time. This is different to previous versions, where they displayed all the objects at time. The big reason for this is that it was desirable to display all the inputs and outputs of a selected object at the same time. If we were to do that with every object that has been selected, it would have been a major hassle. Instead, there is now a button above the Channel Bar which allows the user to select which object is displayed in the channel bar. It is quite a nice way to organise things, and hopefully it will suit you as well.
- Scene Graph improvements. The way the scene graph links together has been improved quite a bit. Objects are now updated automatically and consistently for nice results. Have cubes that have been subdivided participating in CSG operations, and the animate them with some bones, and it all works properly.
- Lightwave Import. Simple lightwave files can now be loaded.
Other things to note
There is another few things to note about this release. This release was made off the PARAM_INTERFACE_CHANGES branch off the source code. This means that it does not contain any of the updated work from the other team members, but only contains the changes made to the way the scene graph links together, and the file format. Shortly after this release, various merges will take place, and a new version will be released after that.
Credits
Once again this release wouldn't have been possible without the help of many people. Jordan, Alexander and Richard have all been amazing, so many thanks for helping out! For all the people on the mailing list, a million thankyous for the issues you have pointed out, and for the ideas you have supplied. I wish I had more spare time so I could do everything you requested!