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Realtime Landscaping Architect Changelog

What's new in Realtime Landscaping Architect 2020 (20.04)

Jun 24, 2020
  • Fixed case where loading plant Abelia ‘Edward Goucher’ could cause an error.
  • Fixed case where an error could occur when starting a Realtime Walkthrough.
  • Fixed case where closing the program while loading a design could cause an error.
  • Fixed error that could occur when saving a viewpoint during a Realtime Walkthrough.
  • Fixed cases where the 2D shape boolean command was producing an incorrect shape.
  • Fixed error that could occur when calculating UltraRes plant growth.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 2018 (18.03) (Mar 18, 2019)

  • Modified the Model Import Wizard to import files created using SketchUp 2019 or earlier.
  • Updated Unilock materials.
  • Improved realism of plant models illuminated by spotlights during a Realtime Walkthrough.
  • Modified Stone Edging to allow for a larger maximum gap between stones (up to 3′ or 0.91 m).
  • Fixed case where the Height Painter tool was causing grass to disappear during a Realtime Walkthrough.
  • Fixed cases where the Text and Overlay objects were appearing during a Realtime Walkthrough even though they were configured not to.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 2018 18.00 (Apr 26, 2018)

  • New UltraRes Plant Models:
  • 200 new UltraRes Plant® models have been added. UltraRes plants are highly detailed, grow realistically, change with the season, and even move in the wind for exceptional realism.
  • New Stone Edging Tool:
  • Use the new Stone Edging tool to automatically place individual edging stones along a path. Over 120 styles are included, such as scalloped, block, wood, crescent, interlocking, and more. The stones can be stacked, so you can build decorative walls and borders. Stone edging is an elegant way to accent transitions and add borders to your landscape design.
  • New Landscape Accessories
  • More than 280 accessories have been added to Realtime Landscaping Architect 2018.
  • New accessories include fire pits, furniture, rugs, planters, televisions, table games, wall decorations, and more.
  • As always, you can easily customize the size, shape, materials, and more to help you create highly realistic landscape designs.
  • New Doors and Glass Block Windows:
  • Improve the realism of your 3D houses with a new library of entry doors and glass block windows. Over 50 new doors have been added, including single entry, double entry, and variations including sidelights. 60 configurations of glass block windows have also been added, including light and dark variations.
  • New and Updated Unilock Materials:
  • Visualise cutting-edge hardscape options with newly updated materials from Unilock, including the newly-released U-Cara™ wall patterns.
  • New 3D Rockery:
  • A complete selection of 3D rocks, boulders, and standalone flagstone have been added to Realtime Landscaping Photo.
  • Choose from more than 130 styles of 3D rock models when designing over a photograph. Each rock can be modified as needed; freely change the size, material, orientation, and more.
  • Improved Performance:
  • UltraRes Plant® models now use less memory, render faster, and appear more realistic when viewed from a distance.
  • Exporting large landscape plans to PDF now requires less memory, allowing large designs to work more efficiently on slower systems.
  • General Improvements:
  • Realtime Landscaping Architect 2018 includes support for the latest Oculus Rift drivers.
  • The CAD Drawing Import Wizard has been updated to support DWG and DXF files in AutoCAD 2018 format.
  • The quality of the user interface has been improved when using high resolution displays (such as 4K monitors).
  • New Presentation Features:
  • Create stunning and professional video presentations using the enhanced Realtime Camera tool. Choose from 12 varieties of new transitional effects, such as Cut, Fade, and Dissolve.
  • Add text to any portion of your video with adjustable size, position, color, font, style, opacity, and shadowing.
  • Enhanced with versatile text and transition support, the Realtime Camera tool is a powerful and easy way to create compelling landscape presentations.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 17.00 (Aug 10, 2017)

  • Large Monitor Support:
  • Realtime Landscaping Architect now supports a wide range of cutting edge high resolution displays, including 4k monitors and TVs.
  • The updated user interface automatically detects the display you are using, and dynamically scales tools, text, and icons based on your Windows DPI settings.
  • New and updated materials
  • Realtime Landscaping Architect includes new and updated pavers and other materials from national brands Unilock and R.I. Lampus.
  • This release also includes miscellaneous fixes and improvements to help keep Realtime Landscaping 2017 the leader in landscape design software.
  • Improved Realism:
  • We redesigned the 3D graphics engine from the ground up, substantially improving the quality and realism of your walkthroughs and presentations.
  • Based on cutting edge DirectX 11 technology, new features include dynamic lighting and shadows, bloom, high dynamic range (HDR), tone mapping, automatic exposure, lens flare, and more.
  • Improved Landscape Design Realism
  • New Terrain Sculpting Tool:
  • Designing complex slopes and grades just got easier using the new Height Painter tool.
  • You can now “paint” terrain elevation changes using the mouse. Options include raise, lower, flatten, smooth, and more. The brush size and shape are fully customizable.
  • The Height Painter works seamlessly with the existing terrain tools, and can be isolated to small areas or cover the entire landscape.
  • New Sheds and Playhouses
  • New and Redesigned Landscaping Accessories:
  • Over 1,600 landscaping accessories have been completely redesigned for improved quality, realism, and size accuracy. In addition, over 300 new accessories have been added.
  • Categories include arbors, trellises, patio furniture, outdoor kitchens, playground equipment, planters, pool accessories, and more.
  • Importing an existing design? No problem. The software will detect that and use your existing objects for compatibility.
  • New 3D Grass:
  • 3D grass can now be added to any fill region, adding a subtle yet surprisingly effective touch of realism to your walkthroughs and presentations.
  • You can control the grass color, height, thickness, and shininess, making it easy to create thin grass for temperate climates, or thick, stubby grass for more tropical landscape designs.
  • Region Edge Effects, which were primarily used to simulate grass, have been removed in this release.
  • Oculus Rift Support:
  • In case you haven’t heard of it, the Oculus Rift is a headset for experiencing virtual 3D environments.
  • Words cannot describe the experience. When you put on the headset, you feel like you are there. It’s not uncommon to see people reaching out and trying to touch things in the virtual environment.
  • We spent over a year enhancing our graphics engine to support this exciting new technology, and are happy to announce support for the Oculus Rift at no extra charge.
  • The Oculus Rift requires a high-end computer and video card. To learn more about the Oculus Rift and its cost and availability, visit www.oculus.com.
  • Idea Spectrum landscape software now supports the Oculus Rift
  • Improved Water Realism:
  • Water has been completely redesigned and includes advanced effects such as foam, sparkles, caustics, improved reflections and refraction, enhanced ripples, and more.
  • New Outdoor Kitchens:
  • New options for designing outdoor kitchens have been added. Design a custom outdoor kitchen by adding cabinets, sinks, grills, and other items and placing them in the desired configuration.
  • In addition, the existing outdoor kitchen accessories have been redesigned for improved realism.
  • The Stream tool has been completely redesigned for greater versatility and realism.
  • Streams now flow more realistically, especially over uneven terrain. The water flow direction can be adjusted as a path. The water level and speed can also be adjusted. Multiple streams can flow into each other automatically.
  • New fountains and waterfalls have been added, and many of the existing ones have been redesigned to make them more realistic.
  • New 3D Rockery:
  • New high-definition rocks, boulders, and slabs have been added. Our art team created these using state of the art modeling techniques for exceptional realism, especially when viewed up close.
  • New controls have been added for adjusting the appearance of landscaping rockery, such as altering the material size, rotation, position, and shininess.
  • New Clouds and Sky:
  • The cloud and sky systems have been completely redesigned for improved quality, realism, and performance.
  • Choose from a large variety of cloud and sky styles, preview the appearance of the sky at different times of day, and even adjust the phase of the moon at night.
  • New Swimming Pool Accessories:
  • New diving boards, handrails, ladders, and more have been added to our library of SR Smith swimming pool accessories. Like the other objects in our extensive library, these object can be easily added to your swimming pool design with a few mouse clicks.
  • SR Smith Diving Board and Pool Ladder
  • SR Smith Swimming Pool Slide
  • New Realtime Walkthrough Options:
  • During a Realtime Walkthrough you can now instantly adjust the time of day, shadow direction, color levels, brightness, exposure, and more.
  • These settings are saved with your landscape design, so each design can have its own custom settings.
  • Performance Improvements:
  • Opening large designs is now much faster, often 2X or more. Due to the advanced caching techniques we added for 2016, the biggest improvements are seen on designs that have already been opened once in the past.
  • Designs with a large amount of custom data (imported SketchUp models, custom models and pictures, etc.) are now automatically compressed, making it faster and easier to move your landscape designs from one computer to another.
  • Glass Swimming Pool Walls and Custom Pool Water:
  • Glass swimming pool walls are now supported. Add a glass section anywhere in your pool wall with just a few clicks. Options include glass height, thickness, and whether or not water flows over the top.
  • A new Pool Water tool has been added for creating standalone swimming pool water of any shape, size, and elevation. This makes it easier to create custom swimming pools using retaining walls, custom modeling tools, or even imported SketchUp models.
  • Improved Video Creation:
  • The video creation tool quality and performance has been improved.
  • Videos now support dynamic time of day changes. You can change the time of day at any point, and even combine multiple time of day changes in the same video.
  • Shadows, lighting, sky, and other effects smoothly transition from one time to another, creating a dramatic visualization of your landscape design at different times of day.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 16.09 (Aug 23, 2016)

  • Improved Realism:
  • We redesigned the 3D graphics engine from the ground up, substantially improving the quality and realism of your walkthroughs and presentations.
  • Based on cutting edge DirectX 11 technology, new features include dynamic lighting and shadows, bloom, high dynamic range (HDR), tone mapping, automatic exposure, lens flare, and more.
  • New Terrain Sculpting Tool:
  • Designing complex slopes and grades just got easier using the new Height Painter tool.
  • You can now “paint” terrain elevation changes using the mouse. Options include raise, lower, flatten, smooth, and more. The brush size and shape are fully customizable.
  • The Height Painter works seamlessly with the existing terrain tools, and can be isolated to small areas or cover the entire landscape.
  • New and Redesigned Landscaping Accessories:
  • Over 1,600 landscaping accessories have been completely redesigned for improved quality, realism, and size accuracy. In addition, over 300 new accessories have been added.
  • Categories include arbors, trellises, patio furniture, outdoor kitchens, playground equipment, planters, pool accessories, and more.
  • Importing an existing design? No problem. The software will detect that and use your existing objects for compatibility.
  • New 3D Grass:
  • D grass can now be added to any fill region, adding a subtle yet surprisingly effective touch of realism to your walkthroughs and presentations.
  • You can control the grass color, height, thickness, and shininess, making it easy to create thin grass for temperate climates, or thick, stubby grass for more tropical landscape designs.
  • Region Edge Effects, which were primarily used to simulate grass, have been removed in this release.
  • Oculus Rift Support:
  • In case you haven’t heard of it, the Oculus Rift is a headset for experiencing virtual 3D environments.
  • Words cannot describe the experience. When you put on the headset, you feel like you are there. It’s not uncommon to see people reaching out and trying to touch things in the virtual environment.
  • We spent over a year enhancing our graphics engine to support this exciting new technology, and are happy to announce support for the Oculus Rift at no extra charge.
  • The Oculus Rift requires a high-end computer and video card. To learn more about the Oculus Rift and its cost and availability, visit www.oculus.com.
  • Improved Water Realism:
  • Water has been completely redesigned and includes advanced effects such as foam, sparkles, caustics, improved reflections and refraction, enhanced ripples, and more.
  • New Outdoor Kitchens:
  • New options for designing outdoor kitchens have been added. Design a custom outdoor kitchen by adding cabinets, sinks, grills, and other items and placing them in the desired configuration.
  • In addition, the existing outdoor kitchen accessories have been redesigned for improved realism.
  • Improved Streams, Fountains, and Waterfalls:
  • The Stream tool has been completely redesigned for greater versatility and realism.
  • Streams now flow more realistically, especially over uneven terrain. The water flow direction can be adjusted as a path. The water level and speed can also be adjusted. Multiple streams can flow into each other automatically.
  • New fountains and waterfalls have been added, and many of the existing ones have been redesigned to make them more realistic.
  • New 3D Rockery:
  • New high-definition rocks, boulders, and slabs have been added. Our art team created these using state of the art modeling techniques for exceptional realism, especially when viewed up close.
  • New controls have been added for adjusting the appearance of landscaping rockery, such as altering the material size, rotation, position, and shininess.
  • New Sky and Cloud Options:
  • The cloud and sky systems have been completely redesigned for improved quality, realism, and performance.
  • Choose from a large variety of cloud and sky styles, preview the appearance of the sky at different times of day, and even adjust the phase of the moon at night.
  • New Swimming Pool Accessories:
  • New diving boards, handrails, ladders, and more have been added to our library of SR Smith swimming pool accessories. Like the other objects in our extensive library, these object can be easily added to your swimming pool design with a few mouse clicks.
  • New Realtime Walkthrough Options:
  • During a Realtime Walkthrough you can now instantly adjust the time of day, shadow direction, color levels, brightness, exposure, and more.
  • These settings are saved with your landscape design, so each design can have its own custom settings.
  • Performance Improvements:
  • Opening large designs is now much faster, often 2X or more. Due to the advanced caching techniques we added for 2016, the biggest improvements are seen on designs that have already been opened once in the past.
  • Designs with a large amount of custom data (imported SketchUp models, custom models and pictures, etc.) are now automatically compressed, making it faster and easier to move your landscape designs from one computer to another.
  • Glass Swimming Pool Walls:
  • Glass swimming pool walls are now supported. Add a glass section anywhere in your pool wall with just a few clicks. Options include glass height, thickness, and whether or not water flows over the top.
  • A new Pool Water tool has been added for creating standalone swimming pool water of any shape, size, and elevation. This makes it easier to create custom swimming pools using retaining walls, custom modeling tools, or even imported SketchUp models.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 4.15 (Mar 7, 2012)

  • Accent Strips and Shapes:
  • Realtime Landscaping Architect 2012 includes new tools for designing accents in patios, walkways, swimming pool floors, decks, and more. Create accents using any material, and use them to add a decorative edge to your landscape designs.
  • Enhanced Surface Detail:
  • Create designs with even more realism using Realtime Landscaping Architect's new enhanced surface detail feature. This exciting new technology greatly enhances the overall realism of your landscape designs.
  • 3D Design Wizard:
  • A powerful new tool has been added: the 3D Design Wizard. This wizard allows you to create objects in Realtime Landscaping Architect and seamlessly use them in Realtime Landscaping Photo, effectively bridging the gap between your Photo and 3D designs.
  • Start the 3D Design Wizard Create the object(s) in 3D Add the object(s) to your Photo design
  • Automatic Borders:
  • Borders can now be added to paths, driveways, and more with just the click of a button. Borders are simple to use, yet highly customizable. Adjust border positions, materials, widths, and even toggle sections of borders on or off.
  • Automatic borders are supported on regions, patios, and paths. Borders may be added in any material needed, such as brick, paving stone, or even mulch.
  • Custom Material Direction Support:
  • Support for custom material directions are now available in Realtime Landscaping Architect 2012. This powerful tool allows for paths with unique designs and layouts, providing directional control of bricks and pavers.
  • New Coping Styles and Options:
  • Caps and coping thickness and overhang can now be customised as needed. Easily create flat, bullnose, rough cut, and seamless caps and coping. Coping can be applied to retaining walls, swimming pools, freestanding pool walls, swimming pool decking, and even patios.
  • Stepped Retaining Walls:
  • It is now quick and easy to create stepped retaining walls of virtually any style. Simply click the "Stepped" option and freely adjust the height of each retaining wall segment as needed.
  • Stepped retaining walls are very versatile and can be created on flat, sloping, or uneven terrain. Stepped retaining walls may be straight or curved, stepping in an ascending, descending, or even a staggered pattern.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 3.14 (Mar 24, 2011)

  • New Branded Materials:
  • More than 1200 products from 12 popular companies have been added to Realtime Landscaping Architect, including S.R. Smith pool products, Jerith aluminum fences, Belgard hardscapes, PebbleTec pool finishes, Philips Hadco outdoor lighting, Amarr garage doors, Kichler lighting, Master Tile pool tiles, Noble Tile swimming pool tiles, Eldorado stone and brick veneer, Unilock pavers, and RicoRock swimming pool waterfalls. For details on each brand, visit our interactive Brands page.
  • Hundreds of New Objects:
  • Several hundred new landscaping objects have been added to Architect, including new furniture, vehicles, fire pits, doors, windows, landscape lights, greenhouses, sheds, pond bridges, and much more.
  • Without Edge Effect New 3D Edge Effect:
  • A special effect has been added that causes normally flat regions to appear raised and realistic. For example, grass can now appear to grow several inches high instead of appearing flat when placed next to patio or mulch regions. The 3D Edge Effect appears in both design and walkthrough views, letting you provide a more realistic and inviting landscape design to your clients.
  • 950 New High Resolution Plants:
  • Nearly a thousand new high quality plants have been added to Realtime Landscaping Architect. These plants were taken from many different regions around the United States and Japan, providing even more variety to the already staggering plant database and bringing the total number of plants to 6,700.
  • New Panel Fence Tool:
  • A new tool has been added to create highly detailed metal and vinyl fences. We have partnered with Jerith to bring you many different styles of aluminum fencing, and have also included many styles of picket, chain link, ornamental, privacy, and post and rail fencing. This panel fence tool and accompanying styles are in addition to the existing wooden fence tool and wooden fence styles.
  • New Options for Creating Custom Plants:
  • Custom plants are easier than ever to create with the ability to quickly re-name the common and botanical name of any selected plant as needed. Additionally, each plant now has a button shortcut to the Plant Creation Wizard, which is used to save a plant using custom plant data.
  • Support for SketchUp 7 and 8:
  • Hundreds of thousands of 3D objects created in SketchUp can be downloaded for free from the Google 3D Warehouse. Realtime Landscaping Architect has been updated to support the new version of SketchUp, increasing compatibility and the opportunities for new content.
  • Enhanced Movie Creation System:
  • Creating movies in Realtime Landscaping Architect is now faster, easier, and higher quality than ever! Videos of your Realtime Walkthroughs can now be created in the WMV format with enhanced compression options that allow for movies to be created quickley while taking up less space. Additionally, support for uploading to YouTube has been added. When your movie is completed, simply click the "Upload to YouTube" button and follow the instructions.
  • Improved User Interface:
  • The look and feel of our Realtime Landscaping software has been improved with a new user interface. We combined the style and appearance of the "ribbon" interface that is used in many modern applications with the functionality and ease of use of our "tab based" interface. The result is an interface that is both easier to use and better looking than anything we had previously seen.
  • Improved Shadows and Lighting:
  • When viewing your landscape through a Realtime Walkthrough, or when creating a movie, shadows and lighting will now appear even more realistic by default. However, you can now take it even one step further by enabling "Ray Tracing" on landscape lights for ultra-realistic night scenes.
  • Improved Water Quality:
  • The water of ponds and swimming pools has been vastly improved to provide an unprecedented level of realism to your movies and walkthroughs.
  • When enabled, improved water now features reflections and refractions in combination with real 3D ripples. The pool finish will shimmer below the surface and the reflections of plants will dance across the water.
  • With the addition of an "Add Water Ripples" option, both rippling and serene water can be simulated without adding waterfalls or fountains.
  • New Swimming Pool and Spa Designer:
  • The tools used to create swimming pools and spas have been vastly improved, and are now faster, easier to use, and more visually appealing. Swimming pools no longer require pool decking to be elevated, spas can be easily placed inside swimming pools without regard to pool decking, pool coping has been enhanced in several different ways, and the swimming pool accessory library has been expanded.
  • New Road Tools:
  • Nine completely new tools have been added for creating partial or complete residential road systems. Use these tools to quickly design the road in front of your client's house, create entire road systems, or use the road tools for specialty projects such as street island landscaping. New tools include Road, Sidewalk, Curb, Curb Ramp, Road Stripe, Road Decal, Road Accessory, Street Light, and Guardrail.
  • Plant Legend Export Option:
  • Plant legends can now be exported in Microsoft Excel format. When a plant legend is exported, it retains its layout and graphical features. Customize your plant legend even further in Excel, or print it off seperately for your client.
  • Soft Symbols New Plant Symbols:
  • 100 new plant symbols for use in the Plan view have been added. These new symbols were created by a landscape professional in a stylized format. Both soft and vibrant symbols can be chosen.
  • Infinity Edges and More:
  • Swimming pools have been enhanced with infinity edge functionality, pool seat and stair nosing, and pool seat and stair tile.
  • The addition of these features allows pool designers and landscapers to create even the most unique residential and commercial swimming pools.
  • Terrain Sculpting using Contour Lines:
  • Full support for contour line terrain sculpting has been added. To create a contour line, simply click the appropriate tool and draw the line by placing points. Both closed and open contour lines are supported, and contour lines can be customized as needed in the Plan view.
  • Many Other Improvements:
  • Many other additions and changes have been implemented based off of customer suggestions and comments, such as the Radial Dimension tool, enhanced Realtime Camera functionality, improved Path Grader behavior, enhanced retaining wall caps, and much more.

New in Realtime Landscaping Architect 2.06 (Apr 14, 2010)

  • Fixed Picture Import Wizard to return to proper page when Back is clicked from Picture page.
  • Modified Overlays to support smooth alpha blending (hardware acceleration required).
  • Added support for some advanced options. See "Advanced Options Readme.txt" for details.
  • Fixed case where some objects could render in the Plan view even though rendering in that view is disabled.
  • Modified Plant Row and Plant Fill objects to rebuild faster when changing the terrain.
  • Fixed to automatically unhide hidden realtime cameras when creating movies.
  • Fixed sprinklers to render properly when using the software renderer.
  • Modified model import wizard to preserve file names for unsupported texture formats (to preserve grouping).
  • Fixed possible error that could occur when importing models with over 32k triangles.
  • Fixed Plant Label Wizard to add labels to Plant Rows.
  • Fixed flowing water to work correctly when creating fountains and waterfalls using the Model Creation Wizard.
  • Added prompts when attempting to use the Model Creation Wizard to create an object that does not support water.
  • Fixed error that could occur in Realtime Landscaping Photo when creating complex fill regions.
  • Fixed some cases where flowing water wasn't working.