XenoDream Changelog

What's new in XenoDream 2.202

Oct 12, 2010

General:
Memory spots now have a 3D appearance.
Fixed a bug where XenoDream did not always restore with the same window active as before.
Fixed a bug when using XenoDream from remote access programs, where an access violation error would occur when using the picture
window menu, and possibly other situations.
The Main window - General:
Export to UltraFractal now supports Max Iteration, and calculates Test Center coordinates if any holon scales are 95 or more.
In Solo Holon mode, when the active holon is hidden, any holons that are extended by the active holon are now visible, to make it easier to edit extender or displacer holons. Solo holon also works for all holons when Hide Parent Shape is on.
Parameter (.xep) files with up to ten blank lines or comments at the top will open correctly.
Fixed a bug where some fields in .xep files had incorrect decimal separators when the separator is a comma. This did not cause any problems.
Fixed the same bug in exported .upr files.
The Main window - View page:
The Stereo Depth control now has one decimal place.
Stereo Depth and Distance are now interpolated in animation, and saved with 3 decimal places in .xep files.
Fixed a bug in the stereo deviation field where it did not give correct results with Fisheye Lens.
The Main window - Shape page:
Max Iteration now works with constructors to limit the number of iterations by other holons.
The Local category of metamorphs has been separated into Local and Grid/block, and a new Fractal category added.
Added 25 new metamorphs:
In the Constructor category:
Cubernd: A rounded cube with variations.
In the Tile category:
Cubsym1: Makes 24 tiles with cubic symmetry, reflecting within each face.
Cubsym2: Makes 24 tiles with cubic symmetry, rotating within each face.
Rotatex, Rotatey, Rotatez: Tiles the holon around the X, Y or Z axis.
Spiraly: Tiles the holon in a spiral around the Y axis.
Stepxy, Stepyz: Tiles the holon in a staircase in the XY or YZ direction.
In the Local category:
Flatx, Flaty, Flatz: Flattens towards a plane facing X, Y or Z; also allows inversion or expansion.
In the Radial category:
Prickly1: Makes radial spikes in clusters by modulating two frequencies.
Prickly2: Makes radial spikes in splayed clusters by modulating two frequencies.
Prickly3: Makes radial spikes with adjustable frequency in each direction.
In the Rotary category:
Armery1: Makes a row of arms or horns around the Y axis.
Armery2: Makes a double row of arms or horns around the Y axis.
Bobbly: Sharp sine variation of the radius around the Y axis.
Bubbly: Smooth sine variation of the radius around the Y axis.
Curly: Curls towards the Y axis.
In the Fractal category:
Apolloz: Makes an Apollonian gasket around the Z axis.
Juliay: Makes a Julia fractal (z^2 -c) around the Y axis.
Juliaz: Makes a Julia fractal (z^2 -c) around the Z axis
Julia3z: Makes a cubic Julia fractal (z^3 -c) around the Z axis.
Quatjulia: Makes a quaternion (4d) Julia fractal (q^2-c).
When randomizing metamorph styles, if only one holon is selected, or Sync is checked, then the style will be chosen from the same category as the current metamorph.
Fixed a bug where right and left clicking in the Metamorph Style list at about the same time could cause an error 'Cannot change Visible in OnShow or OnHide'.
The Main window - Color page:
Added a button to Clear All Gradients. Click to use the default gradient, or Ctrl-click for white.
The Main window - Custom Gradient Editor:
Increased the number of gradient memory spots to 10.
Enhanced the Randomize Positions or Types button. Ctrl-clicking now shuffles node colors, and Shift-click now randomizes node types.
Added a Sample/Smooth/Simplify option to the Gradient menu button. It opens a dialog to allow sampling the gradient from a picture, smoothing the gradient with random shuffling, and simplifying the gradient by removing similar nodes.
Added an Adjust HSV option to the Gradient menu button. It opens a dialog to adjust the HSV levels and variation of the whole gradient.
The Main window - Custom Gradient Presets:
When importing to your own preset file, the choice now includes UltraFractal gradient (.ugr) files.
The Main window - Rendering page:
Enhanced Render More to support new ways to combine opaque and transparent renders.
The Render Size is now saved in .xep files, and shown in the Saved Size field, with a button to use the saved size.
Added an option to terminate renders after a fixed time.
Fixed a bug where opening a file from a dialog while the rendering tab is showing did not redraw the shadow ball.
Fixed a bug in Chaos render and preview where objects using Exclusive iteration rendered slower than they should have.
Fixed a bug in Hybrid render where some stray pixels could occur when using any iteration limits.
The Main window - Animation page:
Added an option to Batch Rendering to apply Pic Textures for each .xep file that contains one.
Added an option to Batch Rendering to apply the DOF filter with the most recently used settings.
Added an option to Batch Rendering to save the depth map with choice of format.
Batch rendering now checks for reflection or refraction using the old lit picture, and in this case clears the lit picture (to black) and applies lighting twice.
Fixed a bug in animating the camera with the Smooth option where a floating point error could occur.
Fixed a bug in animation where the zoom and object size were limited to 100.
The Picture window:
Added an item in the Edit menu to Clear Depth Map.
The View menu now has an option to show or hide a status bar, containing the render time and rate, picture size and zoom, and active layer.
The Picture window title bar now shows the current .xep name, with * if it has changed since last being saved.
Fixed a bug where changing the View menu zoom setting with very large renders could cause an access violation error.
Fixed a bug where saving a picture with layers to jpg failed for various combinations of dimensions.
Fixed a bug where closing the alpha channel then clicking Render More, didn't correctly clear and initialize the alpha channel.
The Lighting window:
Increased the maximum number of lights (and shadows) to 30.
Lighting thread priority is now set below normal, to make XenoDream and other programs more responsive while applying lighting on single core computers.
The lighting ball now has a lower update priority, to reduce the chances of freezes.
When applying lighting, progress is now also shown in the Taskbar title.
Fixed issues relating to Lighting window freezes.
Fixed a bug that could cause the lighting preview to stop responding.
Fixed a bug which could cause an access violation in the glow calculation.
The Mesh Export window:
Mesh export now always produces 2-manifold meshes (every edge is shared by exactly two triangles).
Added a button to the Mesh Export Options dialog to Set Controls to Default Values.
Fixed a bug in the Mesh Export Options dialog where mesh grid sizes above 1240 with the volume method showed the Render Memory Use indicator incorrectly.
Fixed a bug where the Quality control was not disabled while simplifying again. Adjusting Quality while simplifying would cause a crash.

New in XenoDream 2.1 (Oct 12, 2010)

General:
Fixed a bug where the confirmation message for clearing any memory spots mistakenly mentioned Selection memory spots
The Main window - General:
Switching back to XenoDream from other programs now resets any floating windows in case they have lost their stay on top status for unknown reasons.
In the Preferences dialog, added some new options:
Choice of Preview Grid Ratio.
Option to Keep Metamorph Help open.
Option for No Lighting Preview on Window Activation (for the rare cases where v2.1 doesn't completely solve lighting window freezes.)
Parameter (.xep) files now remember which holons are selected, and the selection memory spots.
The File menu has an Export to UltraFractal option, to save UPR parameter files. Up to 31 holons are supported, but no metamorphs.
Added a field to the Holon toolbar to show how many holons are selected.
The Holon window always works for shape dragging, and no longer has view or color modes.
Fixed a recent bug in the Preferences dialog where the Always Use Personal Config option did not show checked when it should.
The Main window - View page:
Completely revised camera handling. There are now six orthogonal views with independent pan and zoom, in addition to the camera. There are new controls to move and rotate the camera.
Added a stereo deviation indicator to the stereo panel.
The Main window - Shape page:
Align cyclic now ignores axes with Curve set to None when other axes are updated, to support direct editing of the ignored parameters on the Shape page.
Added 23 new metamorphs:
In the Constructor category:
Cycloz1: Flat cyclic tube around the Z axis.
Cycloz2: Flat loopy cyclic tube around the Z axis.
In the Tile category:
Cyclotiz: Tile in cycles around Z, similar to cycloz constructors.
Cycotyl: Tile in cyclic coils around Y, similar to cycoil constructor.
In the Local category:
Botsy: Square grid displacing in the Y direction, with random shapes.
Dinibats: Square grid with 3d displacement and random modulation frequency.
Fblockz4: Fractured block pattern facing Z direction, split to a uniform width.
Griddia: Moves towards diagonal pairs in a grid.
Mazez : Maze facing Z direction.
In the Axial category:
Axibits: Square grid displacing in axial directions, with random shapes.
Axibots: Square grid displacing in axial directions, with random shapes.
Diagger: Radial modulation by distance from diagonal intersections.
In the Radial category:
Mazepol: A spherical polar maze around the Y axis.
In the Rotary category:
Gridcirc: A grid of circles around the Z axis.
Holecyly: Cylindrical grid of holes around the Y axis.
Holesphr: Spherical grid of holes around the Y axis.
Joolz: Divides into spokes around the Z axis.
Mazecirc: A circular maze facing the Z direction.
Rings: Divides into rings around the Z axis.
Rufflez: A fan ripple around the Z axis.
In the Warp category:
Shifty: Displaces along the Y axis depending on radius. Good for arrowheads, hearts, etc.
Waffly: A waffle pattern displacing in the Y direction.
Shape memory spots now remember which holons are selected.
Fixed a bug in Holesz metamorph that caused some stray pixels.
The Main window - Color page:
Changed the icon for the Background Creation Mode button.
Added an icon to the parametric gradient editor to Morph Parametric Gradients. This was previously the color morph mode in the Holon window.
Fixed a bug since v1.61 and v2.019 where clicking the Background Creation Mode button caused an access violation error.
Fixed a bug in Holon Sequence coloring where colors could change during preview or render if either bailout is reached often, or hidden holons make up a large part of the object.
The Main window - Custom Gradient Editor:
Changed the purpose of the second gradient randomize button. Click it to randomize positions, or Ctrl-click to randomize node types.
Cycoil: Cyclic tube around the Y axis, cylindrical or spiraling.
Added a Gradient menu button, with these items:
Load, set and clear the default gradient. The default gradient is used in the Main window color page.
Equalize node spacing.
Copy the active node's type to the other nodes.
The Randomize Color buttons now work in HSV space with more chance of harmonious combinations.
Fixed a bug where the Randomize All Parameters button did not randomize positions correctly.
The Color Picker dialog:
Added HSV numeric controls.
When using the eyedropper button, pressing any key will cancel the eyedropper without choosing a color.
Improved precision so RGB values stay exact between closing and opening colorpicker.
Fixed a bug where the edges of the color area would sometimes give RGB values of 1 instead of 0, or 254 instead of 255.
The Main window - Animation page:
Changed the Smooth option from a sine curve to spline interpolation for the camera, shape and meta pattern controls, for much smoother animations. It can still be set per keyframe.
When batch rendering, Lastrender.xep is no longer saved.
Fixed a bug where clicking animation memory spots or changing active frame with Sync checked would change Steps and Smooth settings for all spots.
The Picture window:
Added a File menu item 'Save pars and picture', to save the parameter file with autoincrementing suffix and save the picture.
When saving depth maps more than 1000 pixels high, progress is counted down in the toolbar.
The Pic Texture editor:
In the Contour panel, added Rectangle to the Shapes list. Added an extra decimal place to the Slope controls.
The Lighting window:
Lighting calculations are now in a separate thread, resolving some program freezes and making the lighting controls more responsive.
The Preview Zoom dropdown is now disabled while the preview is in progress, to prevent errors.
When Preview with layers is enabled, changes in the picture window layer options now cause the lighting preview to update when the lighting window is activated.
The Depth window:
Added a second decimal place to the Distance control, to improve alignment with objects.
The Mesh Export window:
Added a toolbar button to Colorize Mesh Display. This shows the triangles more clearly, and is not saved with the mesh.

New in XenoDream 2.019 (Oct 12, 2010)

The Main window - General:
Resolved the problem where the floating windows could occasionally stop staying on top.
The Main window - Shape page:
The Align Cyclic dialog always allows access to the Main window controls.
In the Extend panel, added three new displacement mapping options.
Added five new metamorphs:
Blade in the constructor category
In the Local category:
Brickzigy: a zigzag pattern of bricks
Gridrand1 and Gridrand2: random grid patterns
Slices: cuts into slices in two directions
The Main window - Color page:
Added the Iteration Shift control for Metamorph coloring, allowing holons to rotate the gradient every iteration.
Fixed a bug where Cycle and Wrap were inherited if Map From was Inherit All, instead of always applying to the holon's own gradient.
The Main window - Custom Gradient Editor:
Ctrl-clicking the Randomize All button undoes the last click on any of the randomize buttons.
Fixed a bug where the delete button was initially disabled when opening the editor even if the gradient had more than two nodes.
The Main window - Rendering page:
Fixed a bug where choosing a render size from the dropdown list with height 10000 or more would truncate the height to 4 digits.
Fixed a bug that caused memory errors in some situations, such as using reflection with very large renders.
The Picture window:
Targa files are now saved with RLE compression, resulting in smaller files.
The Pic Texture editor:
In the Noise panel, added Rot control to allow rotating the noise independent of contour and perspective.
In the Noise panel, added nine new noise types.
In the Gradient panel, added Fade Bump option, to fade the bump effect with alpha instead of applying it uniformly.
Includes new texture presets.
The Lighting window:
Ctrl-clicking the Randomize Lighting button undoes the last randomize.
Changed the source buttons to dropdown boxes.
Fixed a bug since v1.6 and v2.0 where opening files could change some lighting colors to white (typically background and haze colors that were set by default or from presets).
Fixed a bug in refraction that could cause an invalid floating point error.

New in XenoDream 2.015 (Oct 12, 2010)

General:
The program title in the Windows taskbar or task manager now includes either the current object name if it has one, or the rendering count while rendering a picture or mesh. This is updated every second and may be seen in a mouseover hint.
Fixed a bug under Linux where numeric controls had part of the number blank on the right.
The Main window - General:
In the Preferences dialog, added 'Keep Metamorph style window on top' option, which is checked by default.
The Main window - View page:
Fixed a bug in stereo mode where any holons that were hidden and not free caused incorrect stereo depth/distance calibration.
The Main window - Shape page:
Added a third decimal place to the metamorph controls.
Fixed a bug where restoring Shape Memory Spots with Incl Color unchecked could in some circumstances lead to an invalid custom gradient reference, causing a 'List out of bounds' error when selecting that holon.
The Main window - Rendering page:
Added a Keep Proportions option to the render size controls.
Increased Render Size width and height limits to 24000.
Improved memory allocation to allow larger renders on systems with more than 1GB. For large renders, the Lit picture is preallocated to make sure it succeeds.
The Main window - Animation page:
The Batch Render picture format list now includes Targa (.tga) option.
The Picture window:
Save Picture now supports Targa 32 bit RGBA files (.tga).
The Depth of Field filter is now almost 2.5x faster and uses less memory. The maximum aperture size is doubled without clipping into a square.
Added an Aperture dropdown box to the Depth of Field filter, with 10 shapes.
Fixed a bug in the Depth of Field filter where negative values of Aberration did not work correctly.
The Lighting window:
If lighting with reflection cannot create a temporary file for the snapshot, it will proceed without one.
The Mesh Export window:
Improved memory allocation to allow larger meshes, especially on systems with 2GB of memory.
The Mesh Options dialog has a field showing the percentage of memory that will be used to render the mesh.
Mesh rendering now only terminates if the voxel rate is less than 2 for five seconds.
In triangulating, the scanning surfaces step is up to twice as fast for the Volume method, and 30% faster for the Surface method.
In triangulating, an improved memory status dialog shows accurate memory requirements, with an option to clear the mesh render memory to allow a larger mesh.

New in XenoDream 2.008 (Oct 12, 2010)

New in XenoDream 1.62 (Oct 12, 2010)

New in XenoDream 1.61 (Oct 12, 2010)

New in XenoDream 1.6 (Oct 12, 2010)

General:
This help file is now in HTMLHelp (CHM) format instead of Winhelp (HLP), for compatibility with Windows Vista.
The main help file no longer has a Getting Started section. There is now a separate user guide called Using XenoDream.
Shortcuts to XD no longer need the Start In location to be specified.
XD now supports opening xep files by file association, 'Open with' or drag and drop.
Improved numeric control behavior. Invalid entries are ignored instead of resulting in the minimum value. Spacebar now sets to default value, m sets to maximum, n to minimum and z to zero, and / selects the number to make it easier to type a new one.
Full hint text now includes range information for numeric controls, and no longer repeats the short hint text when no full hint is available.
Most File Open dialogs have two additional controls: a Home button that takes you to a default folder, and a Return Here Next Time checkbox.
Esc and Enter keys now work in the Color Picker dialog.
Fixed a bug where clicking near the bottom or right edge of some sets of memory spots would cause an access violation error.
The Main window - general:
In the Preferences dialog:
Rearranged controls into groups.
Added an option to set the default Coloring Method.
Added an option to choose between three background colors for the Holon window (black, grey or gold).
Added an option to remember shape memory spots between sessions.
Added a button to reset 'Don't ask me again' dialogs.
Removed the data locations for Starters and Random Parameter files.
Added data locations for the User Home Folder and the User Parameters Home Folder.
Esc and Enter keys now work.
Added a menu item to the Help menu to open the new Using XenoDream file.
Opening Starter Shapes now includes coloring and optimize density parameters.
The Starter Shapes folder location is now XenoDream\Data\Starters and cannot be changed.
The Standard toolbar has a button to set the background color of the Preview window (black, white, grey or gold).
Drag Speed is now remembered between sessions.
Added a Mesh Export button to the rendering toolbar, for convenient navigation.
Increased the maximum number of holons to 200.
Added more options to the Add Holon popup menu in the holon window.
When the active holon control has the focus, pressing 's' toggles selection on or off for the active holon.
Enhanced Holon window drawing, to use normal drawing instead of XOR so overlapping lines don't disappear or change color. The active holon is now green when it is also selected.
When moving the mouse in the Holon window, a mouseover hint shows the number of the nearest holon, followed by 'f' if it is Free and 'h' if it is hidden. If it is extended or displaced, it will also show 'Ex' or 'Di' with the extender holon number.
When dragging in the Preview window, pressing Shift constrains the camera movement to either horizontal or vertical, whichever is closer.
The Holon window Zoom is now associated with the view, and included in View and Shape memory spots and Undo/Redo. It is also saved in xep files.
Replaced the 'Undo last drag' button with Undo and Redo buttons.
Warnings to save before Exit, File Open or File New are now based on Undo status, and more reliable.
In the Holon toolbar, changed the Show All Holons button to Show/Hide Hidden Holons, ignoring free hidden holons.
The Holon Info List is now in a floating resizable window, and remembers its size and position.
The Holon Info list now allows checking and unchecking the active holon.
Improved probability calculation so free hidden holons no longer reduce preview or render speed.
After canceling a file operation, the suggested filename is no longer set to 'tempdata'.
File Append now preserves Other Holon and Extend Holon settings from the appended file.
File New no longer resets shadows or any lighting parameters.
Fixed bugs in the Holon info list where clicking on a holon at the top or bottom of the list could cause the list to scroll back to the top, and could make the wrong holon active. The spacebar now works correctly, toggling the checkbox and advancing to the next holon.
Fixed a bug where the Main preview was active if the Main window was in front while the Mesh Export window was rendering, triangulating or simplifying. It is now suspended whenever the mesh export is busy.
Fixed a bug where deleting holons did not correctly handle Blender or Exclusive Holon controls.
Fixed a bug where deleting the last free holon did not release and disable the Hide Parent Shape button.
Fixed a bug where opening a starter shape and rendering could cause errors in lighting. Starter shapes no longer reset lighting or shadows.
Fixed a bug where the menu shortcuts did not work.
Fixed a bug in opening files in v1.5 that could cause unpredictable errors.
Fixed a bug in Preview with Background where preview having aspect ratio very close to the rendered picture could cause an access violation.
Fixed a bug where if the Main window is maximized and you minimize the Picture, Lighting or Mesh Export window, when switching back to XenoDream the Main window would appear in front.
Fixed a bug in the Holon window where small holons were not drawn and were not selectable by clicking.
The Main window - File page:
For the Creator field, renamed Get Default and Set Default buttons to Restore and Save respectively.
Added Background Picture field. It is set when you open a background picture, or open an xep file that includes it. There are buttons to browse for picture files, clear the field, and to open the picture.
The comments field is larger and has unlimited length.
After canceling File Open, File starters or Open Shape Memory Spots, the File caption is now restored to the previous name.
The File caption now adds the XD version it was saved in, eg (XD v1.203)
The Quick Start buttons now open random Sample Parameter files or User Parameter files respectively.
Fixed a bug where clicking quickstart random buttons caused a 'File not found' error if the paths in Preferences dialog ended in a '\'.
The Main window - View page:
Added a Default Distance control. It also works directly and adjusts zoom for easy comparison of perspective.
Added a button to the Stereo panel to prevent the objects from crossing the center line.
Added an option to the Stereo panel to stabilize depth for objects with a messy front.
Added a choice of stereo mode preview options. Besides Cross-eye, you can choose Parallel or four anaglyph colors.
Fixed several bugs in stereo mode affecting horizontal positioning of images.
Fixed a bug in stereo mode where stopping a render and resuming it could cause blurring or ghosting to occur especially for less stable objects.
Fixed a bug where dragging in the preview window did not update the Angle controls.
The Main window - Shape page:
When dragging holon position in the Holon window, pressing Shift constrains the holon movement to either horizontal or vertical, whichever is closer.
Removed 'Metamorph' from Drag Mode options and added Explore. In this mode, a panel appears below the Drag Mode dropdown with the Explore controls.
Enhanced the Align Cyclic operation to make it easier to use with metamorphs.
Esc and Enter keys now work in Align Cyclic dialog.
Right-clicking a shape memory spot now includes Append in the popup menu, to add the holons in that spot to the current shape.
Holon parameters have a second decimal place.
Cloning holons no longer offsets X Position by 3.
Added 'Relative to Parent Positions' option to the shape page. This makes the holon position relative to each of the parent holons instead of being relative to the origin in world space.
The Metamorph Style List is now in a floating resizable window, organized into categories, with a button for 'None'.
There is a Drive option for the second metamorph. When this is checked, the first metamorph is not applied directly, but modulates the position of the second metamorph.
The Randomize Metamorph Style 2 button no longer chooses constructor styles.
Settings for the randomize metamorph checkboxes are now remembered between sessions.
Added 84 new metamorphs:
In the Constructor category:
Arcball: partial sphere with the top cut off and variable extent around the Y axis.
Arctorus: similar to Torus, with variable arc length around the circle.
Bowl: a sphere with the top cut off, open or closed, with variations.
Gearwhl: gearwheel oriented around the Z axis, with various tooth shapes and a bevel option.
Ovoid: a sphere with extensions for egg or teardrop shapes.
Pipe: a straight pipe along the Z axis, with options for beveled or rounded ends, and ribs.
Rotor: rotor blades oriented around the Z axis.
Springy: a vertical spring.
Triangle: a triangle facing the Y or Z axis
In the Tile category:
Kalix, Kaliy and Kaliz: kaleidoscopic tile around the X, Y or Z axis.
Tilecub: makes copies of the holon in a cubic lattice.
Tilex, Tiley, Tilez: makes copies of the holon in the X, Y and Z directions respectively.
Tilexyrnd: makes copies of the holon in the XY plane, with random displacement.
Tilexzrnd: makes copies of the holon in the XZ plane, with random displacement.
Tilecony: tiles in a cone around the Y axis, for phyllotaxis.
Tilespher: tiles the holon in a sphere, using a spiral path around the sphere's Y axis.
Tilesph2: tiles the holon in a sphere, using a golden mean spiral path.
Tilestar: tiles with one central copy and one copy in each of six axial directions.
In the Local category:
Bricksx, Bricksy, Bricksz: brick patterns in the X, Y and Z directions. Good for coloring or shape, for bricks or cobblestones.
Bricks3d: a 3D brick pattern.
Domey: modulates height in a dome shape. Areas outside the dome are flattened. This is especially useful for controlling the shape of terrains built on Planey.
Fblocky1, Fblockz1: displaces in the Y or Z direction using the fractured block pattern, with four levels of squares.
Fblocky2, Fblockz2: displaces in the Y or Z direction using the fractured block pattern, with three levels of rectangular splitting.
Fblocky3, Fblockz3: displaces in the Y or Z direction using the fractured block pattern, with four levels of rectangular splitting.
Fblock3d: a 3D fractured block pattern, with four levels of rectangular splitting.
Fstoney, Fstonez: displaces in the Y or Z direction using the fractured stone pattern, with four levels of squares.
Ginnies: makes a regular 3D grid of holes.
Ginzer: makes a regular 3D grid of bubbles.
Gridcub2: moves points to the nearest face in a cubic grid.
Hexagoz: regular hexagonal grid of bubbles in the Z direction.
Holesz: makes a regular grid of holes in the Z direction.
Needly: extends a needle along the Y axis.
Powery: adjust the power curve within a band in the Y direction. Useful for modifying FBM terrains.
Vortices: makes swirls in a grid in the XY plane
In the Axial category:
Spikes2: variant of spikes
In the Radial category:
Fstoner: displaces in the radial direction using the fractured stone pattern
Nubble2: variant of nubble.
Peelspy: spiral peel in a sphere around the Y axis.
Spheric2: spherical inversion using 1/r.
In the Rotary category:
Peelcy: spiral peel in a cylinder around the Y axis.
Rotorize: cuts the holon into angled rotor blades around the Z axis.
Rotwistz: cuts the holon into twisted strips around the Z axis.
In the Warp category:
Wyrl: a weird whirl with axial pseudosymmetry.
In the Noise category:
Agate: an FBM noise pattern with vertical stripes, especially useful for agate coloring.
Agater: agate pattern in the radial direction.
Fbmrad: same as Fbmy but displacing in the radial direction, good for making rocks or adding texture to most shapes.
Fbmrmx: same as Fbmymx but displacing in the radial direction.
Fbm3d: 3D FBM noise, also known as turbulence.
Fbm3dv: similar to Fbm3d but using value noise, and negative values of Scale only add octaves in the same or opposite direction to the first one.
Fbmy: 2D FBM noise displacing in the Y direction, ideal for terrains.
Fbmymx: same as Fbmy except that instead of adding the octaves together, the maximum value is used, for an effect like river rocks.
Fbmz: same as Fbmy but displacing in the Z direction, for texture or coloring.
Fbmzval: same as Fbmz but using 'Value noise', which has a strong grid alignment.
Vorminy2: a 2d Voronoi pattern displacing in the Y direction. It uses the minimum of X and Z distances.
Voroy3: a 3d Voronoi pattern displacing in the Y direction. This is a pattern of cracks based on the distance (squared) to the nearest random points.
Voromy3: same as Voroy3 but using manhattan "city block" distance for a pyramidal effect.
Vororad: a 3d Voronoi pattern displacing in the radial direction. Otherwise identical to Voroy3.
Voroy2: the same as Voroy3 except using 2D voronoi instead of 3D. It has less variation but is faster.
Voromy2: 2d voronoi in Y direction with manhattan (city-block) distance.
Voroz2: 2d voronoi in Z direction.
Vorogrid: separates or distorts the voronoi cells.
Wavscy: waves of constant frequency from random positions, displacing in the Y direction.
Wavsvy: waves of varying (randomized) frequency from random positions, displacing in the Y direction.
Wavscr: waves of constant frequency from random positions, displacing in the radial direction.
Wavsvr: waves of varying (randomized) frequency from random positions, displacing in the Y direction.
Woodx, Woody, Woodz: cylindrical woodgrain perturbed by an FBM noise pattern. It produces coloring but does not affect the shape at all.
In the Iterated category:
Curlerys and Curleryc: variations of gnarl but instead of being in the XY plane, they are cylindrical around the Y axis.
Gnorl and Gnurl: 3d variants of gnarl.
Latoocaz: 'latoocarfian' facing the Z axis.
Spinry: a variation of Spinz that is cylindrical around the Y axis.
Popup help for the metamorph styles now appears in a window above the Metamorph Styles window if space permits, otherwise below it.
Fixed a bug in Twistz metamorph where negative Amount did not twist in the opposite direction.
Fixed a bug where restoring a shape spot could in some circumstances cause the program to hang.
The Main window - Color page:
Changed the icon on the Create Background button. This button now also appears on the Shape page in Background Creation mode.
Changed the icon for the Edit Gradient button.
The Gradient Strip now shows the effect of the Cycle control.
The Noise control now also applies in Background Creation mode.
Fixed a bug in Background Creation mode where the preview did not update correctly for slow metamorphs.
Fixed a bug where resizing the Main window during or between using Background Creation Mode would cause an access violation.
Fixed a bug where the Map To dropdown list was editable.
Fixed a bug in metamorph coloring that could cause occasional access violations with Map From set to Background picture.
Fixed a bug in the Cycle control where it didn't bounce or wrap correctly.
The Main window - Custom Gradient Editor:
When saving a custom gradient with a name that already exists, you are now prompted to overwrite it or cancel.
You can double-click a node to edit the color, or double click anywhere in the node area to edit the current node's color.
Nodes can now blend colors using HSB as well as RGB.
Changed the default gradient's second node from black to dark grey.
Added a button to reverse the node properties or the color sequence.
The Esc key now works to cancel the dialog.
The Delete key now works in the Gradient Preset window.
Fixed bugs where restoring memory spots did not reset the active node and did not always set the number of nodes correctly.
The Main window - Rendering page:
Dragging shadows on the shadow ball now updates the angle controls as you move it.
Shadows Cast From Off Screen is now checked by default.
Improved calibration of shadow maps with the Cast From Off Screen option, to reduce pixelization.
Enhanced shadows cast from off screen to include the entire object, including points outside the clipping planes.
Improved Hybrid render algorithm for dramatic speed improvement and more even density. It now outperforms chaos render in many cases; but note that coloring may differ from the preview and it still doesn't handle holons with scales near 100.
Increased maximum Terminate At value to 100,000.
When you Render New, the parameter file is saved in the User Home folder as Lastrender.xep, so you can recover it in the event of a crash or freeze.
Fixed a bug where rendering with new size could occasionally cause an invalid floating point error.
Fixed a bug where the program would produce an error on startup if for some reason a previous crash caused the Xenodream.ini file to lose all your Render Size settings.
Fixed a bug in Ordered Render method where the first holon was still visible when it was Hidden.
Fixed a bug where changing the shadow preset did not update the H and V controls.
Fixed a bug with shadows, where if you moved the position of an already rendered shadow and moved it back, it would not regain 'rendered' status.
Fixed a bug with shadows, where if you moved the position of an already rendered shadow, then returned to the lighting page (without rendering again), disabled and reenabled that light's shadow, it would adopt the new shadow position instead of the rendered shadow.
Fixed a bug where shadows cast from off screen did not work correctly since stereo mode was implemented.
Fixed a bug where a file with lighting that had any source set to the background picture would cause an access violation when batch rendered if the background picture did not exist.
Fixed a bug in transparent stereo renders causing the right image to have defects such as blurring or artifacts.
Fixed a bug in batch render where a File Not Found error would occur if you selected a filename then changed the folder. Now any files that can't be opened are skipped and the batch continues.
The Main window - Regions page:
Fixed a bug with region controls not working correctly until the Region Method had been changed.
The Main window - Animation page
Added a page for animation support, and moved the Batch Render panel from the Rendering page to the Animation page.
Added option to the Batch Render panel to Apply Polish.
In Batch Render panel, adding the '-bat' suffix to picture filenames is now optional.
Added Destination field for Batch Render output.
The Picture window
The locations for opening and saving pictures are now remembered separately.
Saving pictures as PSD now prompts to save layers if none are active, unless you are only viewing the background picture.
Saving pictures as PSD now counts down in the progress indicator to show how long it will take to save.
In the Jpeg quality dialog, Enter and Esc keys now work.
Added 'New Background Picture' to the File menu. It creates a background picture if it doesn't already exist, otherwise clears it.
Added an option to save depth maps in BMP format. It is only 8 bit resolution, not intended for terrains but useful for Photoshop channel ops or plugins such as DOF Pro.
Added an option to open depth maps from BMP format.
In the View menu, using To Fit with layer options for large renders is now much faster, but slightly lower quality.
In the Edit menu, changed 'Clear' to 'Clear Picture'.
In Effects dialogs, Enter and Esc keys now work. Settings are remembered, and a Reset Values button has been added.
The toolbar progress indicator now counts down while lighting is applied, from the picture height down to 0.
The time between picture updates while rendering or lighting now takes the View setting into account as well as layering.
After applying lighting with a transparent render and Use Alpha unchecked, the Alphablend button is no longer automatically released. This increases the options for batch rendering.
Fixed bugs where View other than 100% had tiling artifacts and poor quality.
Fixed a bug where changing the View to 200% or 'To Fit' sometimes had part of the bottom or right of the picture truncated.
Fixed a bug where the top line of the picture was hidden behind the toolbar.
The Lighting window
Added an Alpha panel, containing the Use Alpha checkbox and new controls to adjust the alpha channel response for lighting or layers.
Added a Shadow Quality control, using dithered samples to reduce quantization effects. Also eliminated some problems with self shadowing at grazing angles, and light bleeding into shadows at thin boundaries, without the need to use the Shorten control.
Replaced Update Angles shadow checkbox with a dropdown list with options for Exact Shadows, Nearest Shadows and Add New Shadows.
Removed Copy Light 1 Materials button ('1->') from light sources panel.
Added a Disable Light button to Light sources panel to disable/enable individual lights. You can also Ctrl-click the lights on the lighting ball to turn them off and on. The Enable/Disable All Lights button turns all lights on or off. Switch status is remembered in Lighting Memory Spots and xep files, but not in lighting presets.
Increased maximum value of Shininess to 300, to allow much smaller highlights. Shininess can also be negative, resulting in highlights with a sharp cutoff.
Dragging a light on the lighting ball now updates the angle controls as you move it.
Added a Polish filter in Surface Cleaning panel. This gives a high degree of smoothing with minimal effect on features and edges, so is a much better way to get smooth or shiny surfaces than using the light source smoothing.
Applying any surface cleaning now updates the progress indicator beneath the lighting preview so you can see when it will finish. When Polish is active, the preview also shows progress whenever it updates the surface.
Added a Fresnel control to the Reflection panel. It adjusts reflectivity depending on the surface angle, for more realistic glass and ceramic materials.
Increased maximum value of Haze to 200, to allow sharper transitions.
Added four new haze controls, to adjust the vertical angle of the haze, and to add cloud and fog effects.
The Back Haze option is now included in lighting presets and memory spots.
Source buttons now accept focus and keyboard control.
When lighting sources (haze, background, reflection, refraction) are set to Back Picture in presets or memory spots, they are no longer changed if the background picture doesn't exist. Instead, they retain the setting but use the background color instead.
True depth, reflection and refraction now work correctly in stereo mode.
Applying Pits in stereo now handles the boundary cleanly when the images meet, and also picture edges. Previewing pits does not show the clean stereo boundary.
Fixed the True Depth formula to give correct results. True Depth now works with Fisheye Lens.
Fixed a bug in refraction, where refractive index less than 100 worked incorrectly, especially with True depth.
Fixed behavior of refraction with Use Alpha checked. Previously the background faded out as refraction increases, but it was reduced between 0 and 25 and should have been reduced between 0 and 50, to keep the two in balance.
Fixed various bugs that could cause Lighting window to freeze on activation or when opening presets.
Fixed a bug in the lighting ball where dragging a light near the edge caused erratic highlight calculations.
Fixed a bug in lighting where if you unchecked Shadow, moved the light to the back hemisphere, rechecked Shadow so the light jumps to the shadow position, then unchecked Shadow and moved the light, it would jump to the back.
Fixed a bug where Ctrl-clicking the Add Light icon when ambient light is active caused unpredictable results. Copying a light only works when a directional light is active.
Fixed a bug in the lighting ball where dragging a light near the top or bottom could occasionally cause a floating point error.
Fixed a bug where selecting a lighting preset with fewer lights than the current light number would cause one or more unnecessary updates of the lighting preview.
Fixed a bug where changing lighting or canceling the lighting preset window while lighting was being applied could cause an access violation if reflection or refraction were introduced.
Fixed a bug under Win2k/XP where dragging the lighting preview sometimes stopped updating properly.
All Preset windows
The preset windows have been unified and enhanced, with the main difference being how the preset list displays preset names or thumbnails.
System presets and user presets are now stored separately. You cannot make changes to the system preset files. You can switch between system presets and any other preset files.
The Delete key now works to delete presets.
You can now delete selected presets in one operation instead of having to delete them individually.
For Lighting presets and Parametric Gradient presets, the preset list adjusts column width to fit the longest preset name.
For Parametric Gradient presets, the preset names now show the number of included holon gradients.
The Lighting Preset window now has a close button in the title bar, equivalent to clicking OK.
The Depth window:
Overhauled Depth window, with new layout, more controls and more natural response.
New Object and Replace Background controls for specifying what to do with existing objects and the background.
The Distance control sets distance from the camera (opposite from the previous Base control).
Vertical and Horizontal controls adjust the angle of the depth plane.
Renamed Scale to Height. It now allows negative values.
Added a control to use alpha channel values as well as colors.
If parts of the new depth map are close enough to be behind the camera, the background will show through.
Curve has been enhanced, and Plateau option added, to control the curvature.
The Enter and Esc keys now work.
Renamed the 'Do it!' button to 'OK'.
Clicking OK now updates a progress bar until it finishes.
The Source button now accepts focus and keyboard control
The Mesh Export window
Increased Mesh export grid size limit to 600. Warnings are given when you render, and during triangulation, if memory use will be excessive.
Triangulating, smoothing and simplifying use less memory and work faster, allowing meshes to be created with more than 50% better resolution than in v1.5.
The Mesh Options dialog now remembers changes to mesh grid size and method whether you render or not.
Mesh export options are now remembered between sessions, except for Lock Scaling, Isosurface and Volume Cleaning options, which are only used in specific circumstances.
Enter and Esc keys now work in the Mesh Export options window.
Rendering with the Volume method has a more relevant progress indicator, showing the number of new voxels filled per second (instead of the new pixels at the surface).
With the Fill volume option, the percentage of solid voxels that were filled is included in the progress indicator, to indicate if filling was successful.
Added a Cleaning option for the Volume method, to remove voxels with fewer than a specified number of neighboring voxels.
If you click the Triangulate button during Filtering, instead of aborting it now stops filtering and completes the triangulation.
Changed the mesh filtering to use bilateral filtering, to smooth noise while preserving sharp edges. It is better and faster, and works well with both Surface and Volume methods.
There is no longer a choice of metric for simplifying, as the combo metric proved best in practically all cases.
The Quality control for simplified meshes has an extra decimal place, allowing better control for low poly counts.
Reduced the time between progress updates in Simplify to improve responsiveness for large triangle counts.
When you cancel either triangulating or simplifying, the display now shows 'Stopping…' as soon as possible to let you know it has accepted the click.
When saving, if Quality is at 100% you are asked if you want to simplify first. The dialog has a checkbox for 'Don't ask me again.'
Fixed a bug where if you had already triangulated, then canceled a subsequent triangulation, the display did not update correctly.
Fixed a bug where changing the view direction before rendering could cause a floating point error.
Fixed bugs where the View direction was not correctly set when reopening the mesh export window; and would cause an access violation if changed before rendering.
Fixed bugs where closing the Mesh Export window and reopening it could cause access violations, and some parameters were not reinitialized.
Fixed a bug in the triangulate 'reorient' procedure that left a small number of triangles incorrectly oriented.