================================= SharpConstruct 0.11 Release Notes ================================= This release features a new GTK+ interface that greatly improves usability by using standard interface elements. SharpConstruct now supports graphics tablets, dynamically adjusting the brush with pen pressure. Also new is a display accelerator, which can increase the speed of small detail modeling. ----------- What's new: ----------- * SharpConstruct's interface now uses GTK+ and gtkmm. OpenGL rendering is done with GtkGLExt and GtkGLExtmm. * Tablet input is now supported. Pressure data can be used to affect brush size, strength, and intensity. Any of these can be turned off with the toggles at the right of their respective sliders. * Color selection now uses GTK+'s color dialog, which adds support for HSV and hex colors. It also has an eyedrop tool capable of grabbing color from anywhere on screen. * A new logo is now used for the icon and about dialog. The new logo was designed by coschi. * Zooming now works much more like zooming a camera rather than moving the camera closer to the model, avoiding the problem of the camera moving inside the model. * Shortcuts have been added to control the brush size; F will increase the size by two, D will decrease by two. * The format in which data is sent to the graphics card can now be manually changed between VBO (Vertex Buffer Object) and VAR (Vertex Array). * The sidebar containing all interface widgets except the menu and toolbar can be toggled off with View > Show Sidebar to create more room. * The Unify deformation now affects the scale of the model as well as its location. Unify now resizes the model to fit within one unit. * Numerous improvements to both performance and stability have been made throughout the program. ================================= SharpConstruct 0.10 Release Notes ================================= A new tool in this release adds support for temporarily hiding portions of the model; partial model visibility improves the speed of editing and drawing the model. The addition of several new brush modifiers extends the way the brush interacts with the model. Important bug-fixes include reduced CPU usage and a memory-efficient undo system. ----------- What's new: ----------- * Portions of the model can now be hidden with a new partial-visibility tool. The tool is activated by pressing CTRL while dragging on the model; a translucent rectangle shows the area to be affected. On mouse up, the selected portion of the model is hidden. Not only does this speed up drawing, but the speed of most other calculations is also improved. * The undo/redo system has been completely reworked. It is now much faster, mostly because it now copies only small portions of the mesh data, instead of making complete copies. * The program's interface no longer runs at 100% CPU usage, so it plays nicely now with other programs. * The Draw brush has two new options that modify its behaviour. The first, labeled "Layer" produces flat layers on the model instead of the usual rounded hills. The second option, labeled "Dot", makes it easier to exactly position a dot on the model. When Dot is active, the brush draws only one dot on the model, which can be dragged around. * All of the brush modes now affect the model on mouse down (except Grab, where it wouldn't make sense.) It is no longer necessary to move the mouse to see changes on the model. * Reference images can now be displayed while modeling. When loaded, the image is drawn behind the model. The image can be moved and resized, and the model can be drawn translucently so that the image shows through. * A new way of finding the depth of the model beneath the mouse has been added. Using this new method improves the feel of the brush, especially when Layer or Dot mode is active, however the new option can make modeling slower. It can be disabled in the Settings dialog. * The program now excepts the standard "--help" and "--version" options. Also, if a filename is added after the program name, that file will be loaded on startup. * Selecting a brush mode now disables unneeded interface controls; for example, the Grab brush disables the Add/Sub/RGB controls, none of which affect the Grab brush's operation. * The SharpConstruct package now includes a manpage. ================================= SharpConstruct 0.09 Release Notes ================================= This release contains many important changes to the brush system. Most notably, alphas are now used to control the shape and strength of the brush, making it easy to smoothly add small details quickly. Many improvements have been made to the interface and to common operations, such as subdividing and model rotation. ----------- What's new: ----------- * The brush can now be controlled with an alpha. Alphas are simple grey-scale images that control the strength and intensity of the brush. These brushes make it easy to add small details quickly. Thanks to one of SharpConstruct's users for suggesting this! * The old parabola-shaped brush has been removed; a new default alpha replaces it with a much smoother curve. Several other alphas are also included; all were created in the GIMP. * The brush is now drawn on-screen with a red circle, indicating the boundary of where the brush can affect the model. * The size of the brush now corresponds to pixels; instead of having to resize a large model to fit the brush, the brush automatically scales itself by using its size on the screen. * Markers are now drawn to indicate symmetry; a small triangle is drawn at the center of each additional area that is being modified. * Subdivide now produces only quads. Previously, subdividing a triangle resulted in four new triangles. This has been changed to produce three new quads. * A new Smooth toggle has been added for the Subdivide deformation; when used it automatically smooths vertices after a subdivide. * Sliders can now have shortcut keys. The shortcut not only gives the slider keyboard focus, but also draws a copy of the slider beneath the cursor for easy mouse modification. * Most controls in the program now have tooltips. Some have additional information that can be accessed by holding CTRL down while viewing a tooltip. All controls with shortcut keys show the shortcut in their tooltips. * The latest NVidia drivers (7664) now work correctly with SharpConstruct. * Instead of simply failing if VBO support is not available, the model is now rendered using plain vertex arrays. * Rotation now supports angle snapping. By holding down the SHIFT key while rotating the model, it will snap to 45° increments. * Moving the model (on the screen, not the Move deformation) is now done using the middle-mouse button; this fixes the problem on many window managers that use ALT+drag to move the entire window. The old middle-mouse-button click to reset the model view has been moved to the space bar. * Buttons are now clearly differentiated from Toggles. * The File Dialog's "New Dir" button now creates directories properly. * Finally, there is a new and fully up-to-date manual on the SharpConstruct website: http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Manual_for_SharpConstruct -Nicholas Bishop