[ViewVC] Diff of: radiance/ray/doc/notes/ReleaseNotes

Comparing ray/doc/notes/ReleaseNotes (file contents):
Revision 1.17 by greg, Tue Sep 23 03:54:57 2003 UTC vs.
Revision 1.100 by greg, Mon Sep 19 02:23:58 2005 UTC

+parallel.
+Fixed bug where mesh instances were not being freed, so subsequent calls
-<
+in programs like ranimate would refer to bogus data.
->
+in programs like ranimove would refer to bogus data.
+Added support in normtiff for floating-point and 16-bit/sample TIFF input
+files.
+Changed marksources() routine (src/rt/source.c) to check all
+primitives in the modifier chain for emitting types, not only
+the first.  This permits sources to be described with intervening
-<
+modifiers before the light/illum/glow primitive.
->
+modifiers before the light/illum/glow primitive and allows aliases
->
+as well.
+Fixed bug in xform where it was neglecting to add transform arguments
+to new mesh primitive.
+Changed meta2tga to output correct colors.
-–
+****** COMPATIBILITY CHANGE ********
+Changed local coordinate index from 32-bits to 16-bits, which requires
-<
+that Radiance mesh files be recompiled.
->
+that Radiance mesh files be recompiled.  (Later decided against this
->
+change, as it caused problems with some models.)
+Changed integer tone-mapping routines to better deal with images
+containing large, constant regions.
+Minor bug fix in ranimove where it was restarting processes when it
+didn't need to.
-+
-+
+Increased accuracy of default ambient parameters in rpict, rview, and
-+
+rtrace.  In rad program, doubled -ar value, -ad value, and -as value,
-+
+and decreased -aa value a bit.  Also adjusted -lr upwards and -lw
-+
+downwards.  I should have done these things long ago, as processors
-+
+have been getting faster and faster over the years.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug discovered by Marcus Jacobs where oconv was dumping core
-+
+when it was given too many modifiers.
-+
-+
+Fixed problem with rpict where it was drawing illum sources badly
-+
+even when they weren't all that small in the view.
-+
-+
+Added in(i) function to rcalc for more flexible channel evaluation.
-+
-+
+Replaced all calls to vfork() with regular fork() calls.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in glarendx for dgr calculation with sources behind view.
-+
-+
+Added -p option to histo to print percentages/percentiles r.t. counts.
-+
-+
+Added a source occluder cache to accelerate shadow testing.  This
-+
+can save up to 50% of the calculation time in scenes with many
-+
+light sources, especially ones containing large occluders.  This
-+
+optimization may be tuned or switched off with the -DSHADCACHE=N
-+
+compile switch, where N is the resolution of the shadow cache, or
-+
+to disable it.  Since this is purely a time vs. memory trade-off,
-+
+I decided not to make it a new command-line option.  (We already
-+
+have plenty.)
-+
-+
+****** COMPATIBILITY CHANGE ********
-+
+Changed the following command names to avoid conflicts:
-+
+        rview -> rvu (with symbolic link back to rview)
-+
+        calc -> icalc
-+
+        lam -> rlam
-+
+        gencat -> gencatenary
-+
-+
+Improved -f option of normpat, which caused odd color changes before.
-+
-+
+Created pgblur script which does fast Gaussian blur of image without changing
-+
+its dimensions.  This is very useful in certain types of image processing
-+
+calculations, such as finding or removing low frequencies.
-+
-+
+****** COMPATIBILITY CHANGE ********
-+
+Changed little-used objpict script so that it takes scene files rather than
-+
+rpict options on the command line, and puts everything into the right
-+
+coordinate position automatically rather than requiring the user to do it.
-+
-+
+Added -I option to replmarks for mesh instancing.
-+
-+
+Made similar change for virtual sources to allow modifiers and aliases
-+
+on the mirror and prism types to work properly.
-+
-+
+Rob Guglielmetti added -lw and -lh options to falsecolor to control the
-+
+legend dimensions.  Made it so -lw 0 and/or -lh 0 turns legend off.
-+
-+
+Made it so pcompos will read everything from a stream even if it doesn't
-+
+need it, so input commands will not receive a hangup signal.
-+
-+
+Wrote ra_bmp program to convert to and from Windows BMP files (finally).
-+
+It's the most horrible image format I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot.
-+
-+
+Increased -aa default value for all renderers (and also -ad and -as in
-+
+rview) at Schorsch's suggestion.  I think this undid my earlier decrease
-+
+of -aa last time, which I guess was ill-considered.
-+
-+
+Modified oconv to keep subdividing the octree if there are too many
-+
+objects in a voxel even when the -r resolution limit has been
-+
+reached.  This was not done before due to problems with recursion,
-+
+and still, it will only continue to 256 times the original -r limit.
-+
+If that isn't enough, then there's probably no hope, anyway.
-+
-+
+Added -l option to obj2mesh to search for material files in library
-+
+locations.
-+
-+
+Increased polygon vertex limit to 512 in obj2mesh and obj2rad and added
-+
+warning if this limit is exceeded.
-+
-+
+Added tone-mapping and monitor primary options to ra_bmp.  This gives
-+
+new functionality similar to normtiff and ximage.  It would be nice to
-+
+add this feature to the other ra_* programs as well...  someday.
-+
-+
+Fixed long-standing bug in reported pixel ordering out of certain
-+
+protate commands.
-+
-+
+Added -p option to rcalc for "passive mode" that transmits
-+
+unrecognized input -- useful for substituting data in the
-+
+middle of a stream.
-+
-+
+Fixed a very obscure bug in rpict that caused a dark horizontal
-+
+line in certain cylindrical projections due to improper drawing
-+
+of the sky dome source in rt/srcdraw.c.
-+
-+
+Fixed problems with effective ray lengths computed for dielectric
-+
+and BRTDfunc materials.  This was most evident in breakup of holodeck
-+
+views when VDISTANCE=True.
-+
-+
+Fixed rad so that 'scene' variable may consist only of inline commands.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug introduced in shadow caching routines where sources in the
-+
+middle of spheres were not illuminating properly.  Thanks to Guilio
-+
+Antonutto for spotting this problem.
-+
-+
+Modified gensky behavior so if time is given with standard time zone
-+
+designation, any -m option is ignored.
-+
-+
+Added -n option to mkillum for (shared memory) parallel processing.
-+
-+
+Fixed a long-standing bug in parallel processing code that only
-+
+seemed to manifest with the new mkillum -n option, where rtrace
-+
+would deadlock upon termination.  The reason it never showed up
-+
+before is because I always closed processes in the reverse order
-+
+of opening them in other programs.  I went through and found similar
-+
+(potential) bugs in the rview device subprocess code and util/netproc.c.
-+
-+
+Corrected the normalization of the Gaussian reflectance model.  This will
-+
+cause an increase in specularity for low-lying light sources.
-+
+Thanks to Don Walters of Boeing and Arne Duer of the Univ. of Innsbruck
-+
+for pointing out this error.  The square root used for the two cosines
-+
+in the denominator of the normalization factor should not be present.
-+
+This was a serious mistake I made in the original model, which went
-+
+undiscovered (at least to my knowledge) for over a decade.  I think
-+
+Bruce Walter of Cornell may have known about it, but I never heard
-+
+the details of his discovery.
-+
-+
+Enabled the -p option for primary conversion without tone-mapping
-+
+in ra_bmp.  Also provides for XYZE input conversion to RGB.
-+
-+
+Fixed what I consider a bug in pvalue -o when taking XYZE files on input,
-+
+where it was inappropriately undoing the exposure value so that it always
-+
+reported radiance rather than XYZ values with Y in cd/m^2.
-+
-+
+Made it so ra_bmp only produces run-length encoded 8-bit output for
-+
+grayscale images that are tone-mapped.  This minimizes circumstances
-+
+under which output scanline order is reversed.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in rcalc where it sometimes wasn't parsing the input format
-+
+correctly.
-+
-+
+=====================
-+
+Version 3.7
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in source occluder cache which caused consistency error
-+
+for distant sources and mist materials.  (Thanks to Mark Stock for
-+
+finding the problem.)
-+
-+
+Fixed serious bug in source drawing routines for rpict, where the edges
-+
+of light sources were appearing through obstructions.  (Thanks to Veronica
-+
+Sundstedt for pointing this out.)
-+
-+
+(The above were included in the 3.6.1 patch release.)
-+
-+
+Changed default temporary directory from /usr/tmp, which doesn't exist
-+
+on a lot of systems these days, to /tmp.
-+
-+
+Eliminated many unused files and programs from the distribution, including
-+
+the following programs that were being built but no longer used:
-+
+        oki20   - printer driver for OkiMate 20 printer (B&W)
-+
+        oki20c  - printer driver for OkiMate 20 color printer
-+
+        pcwarp  - intended as more general substitute for macbetcal,
-+
+                        but never quite worked
-+
+        ra_avs  - convert to & from AVS image format
-+
+        ra_bn   - convert to & from Barneyscann format
-+
+        ra_pr   - convert to & from 8-bit Sun rasterfile format
-+
+        ra_pr24 - convert to & from 24-bit Sun rasterfile format
-+
+        thf2rad - convert GDS "things file" to Radiance scene format
-+
+If anyone is still wanting any of the above programs, let us know and we'll
-+
+reinstate it.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in pcond's acuity simulation for small view angles (less than
-+
+degrees horizontally or vertically).  Thanks to James Lee for figuring
-+
+this out.
-+
-+
+Added script to convert to/from ICT's Poskanzer Float Map, which I don't
-+
+care to support officially due to its machine-dependent byte order.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug that caused incorrect reporting of non-surface in set when
-+
+mixing meshes and instances.  (Thanks to Jack de Valpine for discovery.)
-+
-+
+Fixed inaccuracy in calculation of diffuse transmission in the presence
-+
+of pure specular (Fresnel reflection) using "trans" material.  Thanks
-+
+to Christoph Reinhart for pointing out the error.
-+
-+
+Made internal change to tone-mapping library to use structure pointer
-+
+rather than stack, making code re-entrant and more up to modern standards.
-+
-+
+Added -pd option to handle depth-of-field blur in rpict.  This requires
-+
+that the view directon (-vd option) include focal distance information,
-+
+which is now preserved by the various view file routines, and reported
-+
+by the vwright command.
-+
-+
+Added DBLUR variable to ranimate and pmdblur script to handle simultaneous
-+
+motion and depth-of-field blurring.  Thanks to Visarc for funding this work.
-+
-+
+Added setting of focus distance in rvu ("focus" command) and rholo
-+
+('f'/"frame" command).
-+
-+
+Changed default remote shell in ranimate to "ssh" rather than "rsh",
-+
+which has been abandoned on most Unix systems due to security issues.
-+
-+
+Fixed behavior of source primitive using illum with no alternate
-+
+material.  These now become transparent so one can see the sky or
-+
+light-probe background for use in image-based lighting.  Previously,
-+
+the user needed to specify the background glow as the alternate
-+
+material for a distant illum source to behave properly.  (This still
-+
+works.)
-+
-+
+Fixed some minor problems and inconsistencies with 16-bit/channel
-+
+TIFF i/o in ra_tiff.
-+
-+
+Created mksource program to generate distant sources for improved
-+
+image-based lighting with light probes.
-+
-+
+Changed ambient calculation so that -ad will not limit recursion
-+
+depth, and a minimum of 27 samples will be sent out for each stored
-+
+ambient value, or 3 samples if -aa is 0 (caching off).
-+
-+
+Added -oM option to rtrace to report material (rather than modifier)
-+
+for cases where actual material is aliased or further up modifier chain.
-+
-+
+Rearranged the way ray contributions are computed so that it might be
-+
+possible to use rtrace to derive daylight coefficients and optical
-+
+transfer functions.  The new -oTW option of rtrace produces color
-+
+contribution weights for each ray, which combined with the -ti (or -tI)
-+
+option permits the contribution of selected surfaces or sources to
-+
+be determined.  Using the -oTW option, one should also specify
-+
+options "-dt 0 -aa 0 -as 0" for optimal results.  In particular,
-+
+one cannot expect reasonable tallies with -ab >= 1 and irradiance
-+
+caching on (-aa > 0).
-+
-+
+The same code modifications included a change to the indirect computation
-+
+with caching switched off (-aa 0).  Whereas before, the number of secondary
-+
+rays after the first bounce were half of the previous generation, they are
-+
+now determined by the surface reflectance, making for a better and faster
-+
+calculation.  It should now be possible to compute many bounces with -aa 0,
-+
+which used to be prohibitively expensive.
-+
-+
+Added -T option to xshowtrace to trace rays to light sources.
-+
-+
+Added meta2bmp program to produce BMP files from metafile graphics.
-+
-+
+Added cct_x(t) and cct_y(t) to src/cal/cal/blackbody.cal to interpolate
-+
+CIE chromaticities for particular black-body temperatures.
-+
-+
+Increased maximum number of input pictures in pcomb and pcompos to 512.
-+
-+
+Created rtcontrib program for computing ray contribution coefficients.
-+
+This tool may be used to do standard optical ray tracing or daylight
-+
+coefficient calculations for annual simulations, among other uses.
-+
-+
+Added tilde ('~') output option as part of the -o* specification of
-+
+rtrace.  This permits ray trees to be parsed more easily in binary
-+
+output mode, as needed by rtcontrib.
-+
-+
+Implemented Russian roulette ray termination with -lr <= 0.
-+
+Made -lr -10 the default in rtcontrib.
-+
-+
+Made rtcontrib -f option search RAYPATH directories.
-+
-+
+Made it so -o option of rtcontrib can pipe -o output to a command.
-+
-+
+Added -if and -of options to total for binary i/o (following rcalc mold).
-+
-+
+Switched default options in rtrace to use Russian roulette.  (Rpict and rvu
-+
+still use biased ray termination.)
-+
-+
+Added rtcontrib -r option to recover partial output.
-+
-+
+Added -u rendering option for pure Monte Carlo sampling.
-+
+(Got rid of -DMC compile option, which this makes superfluous.)
-+
-+
+Changed -t option of rlam to accept strings as well as single characters.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in rcalc with -l option where it would sometimes go into an
-+
+infinite loop.
-+
-+
+Fixed truly ancient bug in bounding box computation for cones, which
-+
+could (and did) cause missing segments.
-+
-+
+Added -z option to normtiff to output LZW-compressed files.
-+
-+
+Last change to total causes it to produce results when it sees an empty
-+
+line on the input.  This was not intentional, but I decided I like this
-+
+behavior so I documented it rather than changing it.
-+
-+
+=====================
-+
+Version 3.8
-+
-+
+Fixed Russian roulette ray termination, which was doing the opposite of
-+
+what it should have been doing, resulting in overestimated values below
-+
+minimum ray sampling weight (serious).
-+
-+
+Changed mksource to use 98th percentile (rather than 99th) for threshold.
-+
-+
+(Above changes included in 3.7.1 patch release.)
-+
-+
+Eliminated writing of EXPOSURE= line in ra_tiff -r when source TIFF
-+
+does not have STONITS set.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in ambient calculation that caused black values for multiple
-+
+bounces in some scenes.  Thanks to Mark Stock for creating and sharing
-+
+the sophisticated test scene that demonstrated this problem.
-+
-+
+Fixed bug in antimatter using Russian Roulette sampling.
-+
-+
+(Above changes included in 3.7.2 patch release 22 Aug 2005.)
-+
-+
+Created fieldcomb script to combine alternate fields in a rendering
-+
+sequence.  (Development generously sponsored by Iebele Abel.)
-+
-+
+Added missing preload of mesh objects for more efficient memory use
-+
+during parallel rendering -- this was a serious oversight.
-+
-+
+Created ran2tiff program to automate exposure setting of animation
-+
+sequences using a moving histogram in combination with pcond, and
-+
+converting frames to TIFF.
-+
-+
+Eliminated SPEED macro from makeall and source tree.

Diff Legend

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+Removed lines
-+
+Added lines
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+Changed lines
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Comparing ray/doc/notes/ReleaseNotes (file contents): Revision 1.17 by greg, Tue Sep 23 03:54:57 2003 UTC vs. Revision 1.100 by greg, Mon Sep 19 02:23:58 2005 UTC

Diff Legend

Comparing ray/doc/notes/ReleaseNotes (file contents):
Revision 1.17 by greg, Tue Sep 23 03:54:57 2003 UTC vs.
Revision 1.100 by greg, Mon Sep 19 02:23:58 2005 UTC