It's been almost six months since 1.0 was released. I thinks it's time to think about releasing 1.2, the next stable release.
This is the first release candidate for 1.2. There might be a few minor new features sneaked in into the next release candidate, but from that release there will be no more new features, only bug fixes.
I expect that 1.2 will be released before the end of the year.
After the 1.2 release, there will be new development releases called 1.3, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, and so on.
To all translators: Can I ask you to provide your real name and an email address? I want to commit updates of the translations under your name and email address, not my own, to make it easier to update the AUTHORS files in the future.
Enjoy!
/Björn
Changes in 1.2.rc1 (compared to 1.1.16)
=======================================
- Using Weld to weld holes could cause subsequent crashes.
(Problem reported by Mark Whittemore.) [bjorng]
- When a single object is selected, the information about the
object in the upper left corner of the Geometry window will now
also show the numbers of holes the object has (if it has at least
one hole). [bjorng]
- There is a new Shell Extrude command that is a combination
of Extrude (Region) and Extract. [optigon]
- Several minor bug fixes by optigon.
Notable new features in 1.2 (compared to 1.0.2)
===============================================
* The object mode (vertex color/material) for objects has
been eliminated.
Instead materials have a Vertex Colors setting that can be
"Ignore" (don't use vertex colors; default for new materials),
"Set" (to use vertex colors instead of the colors in the material),
and "Multiply" (to multiply vertex colors with the diffuse texture).
The material "default" has "Set" as the value for the "Vertex Colors"
property, meaning that if you assign vertex colors to face having
the "default" material, the vertex colors will be visible.
There is a new command (with a sub-menu) in the body mode menu called
"Vertex Attributes".
When opening a .wings file written by Wings 1.1.7 or earlier, the
object modes for the objects in the file will be ignored. If there
are vertex colors, they will be visible on faces that have
the 'default' material assigned. For faces with other materials,
the colors or textures in the material will be shown (even if
the object was in vertex color mode).
When saving a .wings file in this version of Wings and opening
it in an older version of Wings, all objects will be in
material mode (even if they have vertex colors).
* Wings have had the _hole_ material for a long time to fake
holes by marking faces that should not be included when exporting.
There is a new Face|Hole command to create a holes
that looks like holes also in the Geometry window.
To remove a hole, select a face adjacent to the hole and RMB
click on the Face|Hole command to create a face to cover the
hole.
When loading old .wings files, all faces containing the _hole_
material will be converted to the new type of hole.
If you load a .wings file saved with this version of Wings in
an old release, the holes will become hidden faces, but they
will NOT have the _hole_ material (i.e. they will not behave
as holes when exported).
* The smooth proxy is now updated directly when invoking
interactive commands.
* Menu Cleanup: Consolidated Extrude with Extrude Region and Extract Region with
Extract Faces. Since there is now only one heading each for Extrude and
Extract, the mouse buttons that activate specific commands have been changed.
* Collada export. Objects including UV coordinates and materials
are exported. Lights and cameras are not exported yet.
* New in Tools menu: Ambient-Occlusion Generator/Baker. It works on a per-
vertex basis and uses a standard inside-out approach. Mesh subdivision
yields more accuracy. The results are stored in the vertex-colors and can
also be baked to a texture through AutoUV.
* Many improvements and bug fixes in the Tweak mode.
* The Wavefront (OBJ) exporter will now export smoothing
groups based on the hard edges in the model.
Eliminated annoyances
=====================
* If View|Scene Lights has been turned on, but the scene
contains no lights, the usual modeling lights will be turned on
instead so the objects do not turn black.
* When displaying objects that have a virtual mirror face in
the smooth preview mode (i.e. turning off workmode by pressing TAB),
the seam between the real part of the object and mirror image will
now be soft.
Performance
===========
* Picking (i.e. finding out which face is under the mouse
cursor) is no longer done using OpenGL, but by our own
C code, which is both faster and more reliable.
* The internal data structures for edge and vertex tables require
less memory than in Wings 1.0, which should also improve
peformance.
* The display code has been extensively rewritten and now uses
vertex buffers in OpenGL. It should be faster in most
circumstances.
This is the first release candidate for 1.2. There might be a few minor new features sneaked in into the next release candidate, but from that release there will be no more new features, only bug fixes.
I expect that 1.2 will be released before the end of the year.
After the 1.2 release, there will be new development releases called 1.3, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, and so on.
To all translators: Can I ask you to provide your real name and an email address? I want to commit updates of the translations under your name and email address, not my own, to make it easier to update the AUTHORS files in the future.
Enjoy!
/Björn
Changes in 1.2.rc1 (compared to 1.1.16)
=======================================
- Using Weld to weld holes could cause subsequent crashes.
(Problem reported by Mark Whittemore.) [bjorng]
- When a single object is selected, the information about the
object in the upper left corner of the Geometry window will now
also show the numbers of holes the object has (if it has at least
one hole). [bjorng]
- There is a new Shell Extrude command that is a combination
of Extrude (Region) and Extract. [optigon]
- Several minor bug fixes by optigon.
Notable new features in 1.2 (compared to 1.0.2)
===============================================
* The object mode (vertex color/material) for objects has
been eliminated.
Instead materials have a Vertex Colors setting that can be
"Ignore" (don't use vertex colors; default for new materials),
"Set" (to use vertex colors instead of the colors in the material),
and "Multiply" (to multiply vertex colors with the diffuse texture).
The material "default" has "Set" as the value for the "Vertex Colors"
property, meaning that if you assign vertex colors to face having
the "default" material, the vertex colors will be visible.
There is a new command (with a sub-menu) in the body mode menu called
"Vertex Attributes".
When opening a .wings file written by Wings 1.1.7 or earlier, the
object modes for the objects in the file will be ignored. If there
are vertex colors, they will be visible on faces that have
the 'default' material assigned. For faces with other materials,
the colors or textures in the material will be shown (even if
the object was in vertex color mode).
When saving a .wings file in this version of Wings and opening
it in an older version of Wings, all objects will be in
material mode (even if they have vertex colors).
* Wings have had the _hole_ material for a long time to fake
holes by marking faces that should not be included when exporting.
There is a new Face|Hole command to create a holes
that looks like holes also in the Geometry window.
To remove a hole, select a face adjacent to the hole and RMB
click on the Face|Hole command to create a face to cover the
hole.
When loading old .wings files, all faces containing the _hole_
material will be converted to the new type of hole.
If you load a .wings file saved with this version of Wings in
an old release, the holes will become hidden faces, but they
will NOT have the _hole_ material (i.e. they will not behave
as holes when exported).
* The smooth proxy is now updated directly when invoking
interactive commands.
* Menu Cleanup: Consolidated Extrude with Extrude Region and Extract Region with
Extract Faces. Since there is now only one heading each for Extrude and
Extract, the mouse buttons that activate specific commands have been changed.
* Collada export. Objects including UV coordinates and materials
are exported. Lights and cameras are not exported yet.
* New in Tools menu: Ambient-Occlusion Generator/Baker. It works on a per-
vertex basis and uses a standard inside-out approach. Mesh subdivision
yields more accuracy. The results are stored in the vertex-colors and can
also be baked to a texture through AutoUV.
* Many improvements and bug fixes in the Tweak mode.
* The Wavefront (OBJ) exporter will now export smoothing
groups based on the hard edges in the model.
Eliminated annoyances
=====================
* If View|Scene Lights has been turned on, but the scene
contains no lights, the usual modeling lights will be turned on
instead so the objects do not turn black.
* When displaying objects that have a virtual mirror face in
the smooth preview mode (i.e. turning off workmode by pressing TAB),
the seam between the real part of the object and mirror image will
now be soft.
Performance
===========
* Picking (i.e. finding out which face is under the mouse
cursor) is no longer done using OpenGL, but by our own
C code, which is both faster and more reliable.
* The internal data structures for edge and vertex tables require
less memory than in Wings 1.0, which should also improve
peformance.
* The display code has been extensively rewritten and now uses
vertex buffers in OpenGL. It should be faster in most
circumstances.
)
