Geo Version 1.0, Release Candidate 4 Now Available

Park City, Utah - July 10, 2002 - Carbon Graphics is pleased to announce our forth release candidate. This release adds many bug fixes as well as some new user-requested features.  The main highlights are...

• Added a new Texture Sorter optimizer Plugin. This Tool sorts all Polygons in the selected RenderGroups based on their texture usage. Usage of this tool will likely significantly improve performance both within Geo and in the target runtime.
• Added a new Convert Externals feature. This tool takes all selected External reference Nodes  and makes them part of the parent database. All referenced textures are added to the parent file's texture palette with all texture references being adjusted accordingly.
• Delete Unused Textures in the Texture Palette would crash Geo. This has been fixed.
• Release Candidate 3 would permit the deletion of Selected Groups which were part of Externally Referenced files. This has been fixed.
• Significant improvement in the time it took Geo to close a database of any reasonable size (it was previously - unacceptably slow). This is no longer the case.
• Added a Helper Pts By Number Tool. This tool lays down a string of helper points along a line.
• Added a Helper Pt At Line-Line Intersection Tool. This tool puts a helper point at the intersection of two user-defined lines (typically Polygon edges). The closest midpoint between the lines is created if no intersection is possible (or desired).
• Fixed/enhanced the OpenFlight (r) import plugin as follows...
  • Geo would occasionally get confused with push/pop hierarchies and retaining level parent information. This would result in failed loads or incorrect hierarchy and should be a thing of the past.
  • Added support for Replicate records in the OpenFlight Loader Plugin. Light Strings defined using replication will now load correctly into Geo.
  • Fixed a problem (introduced in RC3+) in the OpenFlight Loader that caused subfaces to be attached to the wrong hierarchy level - resulting in Z-Buffer rendering artifacts. 
  • Under certain circumstances the Flight loader would stop loading externals after a certain number had been loaded. This restriction has been removed.
  • Improved handling of OpenFlight files with multiple textured externals with each, themselves, having multiple textured externals. Previously, such a nested list of files within a single scene would result in occasional texture file reference errors - this is no longer the case. Performance in this type of situation is also significantly improved.
• Under certain circumstances Geo would crash when closing a file which contained instances. This logic error has been fixed.
• The Aechelon Hie & Pto file format loaders have been improved as follows...
  • Older "formatted" directory organization structure now supported.
  • Indexed independent triangle models now supported.
  • Color now supported.
  • Loading Hie Files from the File->Recent Files menu would not load the file or (worse) crash Geo This has been fixed. 
  • Added support for Aechelon LUX  (light string) files.
• The Geo GUI now caters for large numbers of user extensions by popping up a scroll bar as needed (previously it was possible to create -but not be able to access through the GUI- large numbers of user extensions).
• Behavior dialogs are now a pastel green color. This helps to indicate when the behavior editor is active certain picking options/tools etc. can not be activated while the Behavior editor is active.
• The Model Palette dialog now displays two smaller image buttons across (previously it was one larger button on each row). This facilitates more palette entries and less scroll-searching to get to them. Each bmp image must now have 64x64x3 dimensions. Saving a Geo file into the <GEO_DIR>/Models directory will automatically save a bmp snapshot for palette use next time Geo is started.
• Added a new Place Tool. This is a special Translate tool which is especially useful when translating objects from one side of a large database to another. Effectively this tool avoids the need to click on a "from pt" when defining the object translation.
• Paste operations (including inserts from the Model Palette) now use the new Place Tool to position clipboard contents.
• Fixed a minor bug in the 3DS Loader Plugin. Now files with no materials will no longer crash Geo.
• Fixed a bug with Node Extension Value Loading. This was inhibiting the successful load of user Node extensions.
• Improved the Wavefront OBJ Format Exporter. It now decomposes Geo Tri-Mesh, Quad-Mesh & Fan Nodes into simple polygons.
• New LODs were being created with the Switch-In & Switch-Out distances reversed (meaning that geometry would disappear). This has now been fixed.
• The Shrink-Mode function (accessed by pressing the 'a' key) which temporarily scaled polygons around their per-polygon center did not work for Mesh nodes. This has been fixed.
• Isolating an element while Normals were being shown would continue to draw the normals of all elements even if they were no longer visible after being isolated. This is no longer the case.
• Added an Aechelon Hie format export Plugin. This exporter saves the current database in the Aechelon Hie(rarchy) format. Appropriate Material (MAT), Texture (TEX) & GeoState (GST) library files as well as (pto) geometry files are all saved. Geo automatically breaks up RenderGroup primitives into distinct pto files based on texture & material usage.
• This version is built using the Visual C++.NET 2003 (VC7.1) Compiler. All plugins must be similarly developed under this environment to avoid problems.
• Added a new Turn Edge Tool. This interactive tool allows the user to select multiple triangle pairs & switch the shared edge between them.
• Added a new fence-picking behavior. There is now the option to choose between Fence-Touch or Fence-Within picking. Fencing is the process of "rubber-banding" over the scene to pick multiple items. Fence-Touching (the default mode) will pick the item even if only a small part of the item is within the fence region. Fence-Within will only pick the item if all parts of the item are contained within the fence region. This is controlled by the new Select Menu Fence Touching toggle item.
• Reload Textures from Directory would sometimes crash Geo due to a memory corruption bug. This has been fixed.
• Extrude tool now honors the drawstyle of the selected polygons (to extrude). If the polygon is Open Wire Frame it will not extrude a closed shape.
• Edge picking can now be manually activated/deactivated by pressing/holding down the CONTROL Key while the pick-drag is being accomplished. This key press is ignored (and not required) unless Interactive Edge Picking has been disabled in the Geo Preference Dialog. Disabled Edge picking is now the factory default mode.  
• Added a new picking mechanism. It is now possible to "pick" the surface of the polygon under the cursor as it moves/drags across the underlying object. Holding the SHIFT key down while left-mouse pick-dragging will activate surface picking. The precedence order for picking is therefor: Vertices have highest priority, Edge snapping comes next (if enabled), surface picking next (if enabled via the SHIFT Key) followed by Grid intersection if no geometry is picked under the cursor.
• Geo automatically sets the selected Polygon's ShadeModel to be LIT or LIT_GOURAUD when Face and Vertex Normals are manually calculated.
• Geo now supports working with either a Shared-vertex-palette (previously the default mode) or vertex-local data (unshared). Maintaining the shared vertex palette is expensive and can reduce performance when manipulating large models. The default creation mode is now Vertex-local Data. The Rebuild Shared Vertex Palette optimization plugin can be run at any time to generate a model-wide shared vertex palette. Some tools require a shared vertex palette and will check for its existence when they are invoked.
• Previously, Geo Polygon creation tools (i.e. Line, Polygon, Mesh) could prove "sticky" when accepting coordinate input for a new vertex location - the previously entered point would change its position to the new input location (rather than add a new vertex at the input position). This no longer happens.
• Added additional attributes for the LightPt Node. These are Aechelon format specific and will be ignored in all formats except .geo & .hie. Properties are: LightPt Special Effects (None, No Attenuation, Strobe, Halo) and Strobe effect values (num frames & num active).
• Picking now (correctly) only works on visible items when picking in an isolate view. This bug-fix has positive side-effects when doing any operation within an isolate view.
• Auto-Save now prefixes the saved filename to help differentiate saved "in-progress" files & avoid auto-saves overwriting each other. If the current working file is called: "myfilename.geo" (or .flt/.dwb etc.) then the auto-save filename will be myfilename_autosave.geo. The file is saved into the <GEO_DIR> - typically this is the Geo installation Directory.
• Added a special Draw Mode (under the View menu). It is now possible to view all of a  model's DOF definitions at the same time. Previously the axis or coordinate system indicators were only visible when the Transform action was being edited. No indicators are drawn when behavior is "active" - the one exception being the currently-edited action.
• Deleting geometry just added from the Model Part Palette - but before the Place Tool had completed the palette geometry positioning - would crash Geo. This has been fixed.
• Selecting a Node by 3D picking would "open" the corresponding Node in the Tree View - displaying all its children. This was a bit disconcerting and led to a lot of unwanted automatic tree view node shuffling. This has now been fixed.
• Added a Strip-Face Tool. This tool builds a connected network of polygons along a user-defined path. The path points can represent the Left, Center or Right edges of the geometry. Furthermore, an offset can be provided to fine-tune the created geometry from the edge choice. Automatic texture mapping is done as well as auto-texture rotation if desired. Finally, since this tool utilises Grabbers for entry point location they can be dragged/manipulated in any order - you can even insert-before and insert-after the current entry point for increased flexibility. The Strip Face tool also allows for the automatic creation of an "inner" textured  polygon strip - of any size and height offset from the main strip.
• Removed the Model Statistics panel from the Header Property page. This functionality has migrated to the Select->Info menu. It is now possible to retrieve info stats on the current selection (or entire model if nothing is selected). The Stats panel also provides additional info such as the bounding box of the current selection, number of selected items etc.
• Added a complete Search-by-Property capability. Conduct selection searches based on attribute values, conduct searches on multiple properties, use boolean logic etc. This feature is not 100% completed as of this release but provides search capabilities for Groups and Polygons at this time.
• Polygons can now be Hidden. Hidden polygons can not be seen or  picked in the 3D view - although they can be picked in the tree view. Hidden polygons are useful for temporary modeling-assist polygons which are deleted prior to model completion.
• Added a new Set Externals Path Tool. Allows externals (either all or just those selected) to have their external reference path changed to a new absolute or relative path.
• Increased the size of the internal Pick Buffer so that the amount of Vertices that can be picked in one rubber-band select has, effectively, been quadrupled.
• Optimized the speed of Vertex Picking (especially noticeable with Vertex pick-dragging).
• Fixed some bugs associated with picking when viewing isolated geometry.
• Fixed a bug that resulted in newly created geometry not appearing post-creation while viewing isolated geometry.
• Setting the Near Clip Plane distance to zero (and causing visual anomalies) is no longer possible.
• Fixed a bug in the Sphere Tool which created coincident vertices on the end polygons - resulting in wrong shading effects.

Existing customers and evaluators will require a new license key in order to run this version of the program. 

About Carbon Graphics

Carbon Graphics LLC is an innovative company specializing in software products & services for the Visual Simulation market. Their flagship product is Geo - a 3D modeling and animation tool used for building, editing & animating dynamic real-time models and scenes. Visit the Carbon Graphics Web site at http://www.carbongraphics.com

For further in formation regarding this press release or Carbon Graphics, please contact:  

Andy Bushnell, President
Carbon Graphics LLC
(435) 602-9426
andy@carbongraphics.com