Upcoming changes in v0.7

[jeanphi]

Hi,

This post is intended to be a summary of the major externally visible changes in v0.7 compared to v0.6.
EDIT: latest edits in the following list will be in italic.

Changes already in the repository:
- the mitchell filter now has a "bool supersample" option to fake rendering in higher resolution and downscaling, this interface is subject to change before v0.7 final, the size of the filter is automatically multiplied by 5/3
- the old "quad" shape has been removed, use the "mesh" shape instead, quads is the "mesh" shape shape was already supported in v0.6
- float versions of the following textures have been removed (they were useless): blackbody, equalenergy, frequency, gaussian, irregulardata, lampspectrum, regulardata
- luxconsole and luxrender now accept the new -e and -E switches to set the min and max values of the automatically adjusted epsilon used to prevent numerical inaccuracies, a new luxSetEpsilon API call is also available
- the "infinite" light intensity has changed, you need to adapt to the new behaviour (it should however make it easier to use environment maps with the expected output), this could still change before v0.7 final
- new texture type "fresnel" (not yet usable in materials)
- new "constant" fresnel texture, the parameter "float value" defines the IOR over the visible range
- new "cauchy" fresnel texture, the "float cauchyb" parameter is the B parameter of the cauchy equation, then you can use either "float cauchya" to define the A parameter of the cauchy equation or "float index" to define the mean IOR over the visible range and infer the A parameter from this value (the index is usually more widely available than the A parameter)
- new "sopra" fresnel texture, the "string filename" parameter specifies the file to load
- the "turbulance" parameter of blender textures has been renamed "turbulence"
- blender textures are now only available in float form, they need to be used as the amount of a mix texture to get the old color form (it's faster than before)
- most integrator now support much more options to sample the light sources thanks to Dade rendering hints framework
- the mix material now select the first material when amount=0, it previously selected the second material which wasn't the expected behaviour
- new "luxpop" fresnel texture to load luxpop files, the parameter "string filename" specifies the file to load
- new "preset" fresnel texture, the parameter "string name" allows to use one of the presets available from the metal material
- new "sellmeier" fresnel texture, the parameter "float A" gives the constant part (usually 1), the parameters "float B" and "float C" are the lists of B and C parameters (lengths must be identical) to define index of refraction with the Sellmeier equation available for lots of glasses
- new conversion between roughness and exponent for the "glossy" material: roughness = sqrt(2/(exponent+2)) or exponent=2/(roughness^2)-2
- new "MakeNamedVolume" keyword, must be followed by an identifier, a volume name and the corresponding parameter list, it allows to define volume properties that will be later accessible by the identifier
- new "Exterior" keyword, must be followed by a named volume identifier, defines the exterior (side of the shading normal) volume properties of subsequent shapes
- new "Interior" keyword, must be followed by a named volume identifier, defines the interior (opposite to the shading normal) volume properties of subsequent shapes
- new "clear" volume property, parameter "texture fresnel" defines the index of refraction of the volume, parameter "color absorption" or "texture absorption" defines the absorption spectrum of the volume, if the index of refraction has an imaginary part, this absorption will be added to the fresnel absorption
- new "glass2" material, parameter "bool dispersive" selects wether light rays should be split upon transmission to get dispersion, parameter "bool architectural" selects wether light rays should be bent upon transmission, this material has no other parameter as it uses the new volume properties to define the material color
- the brick texture has seen significant enhancements allowing more realistic patterns
- the float version of the imagemap texture now has a "string channel" parameter allowing the selection of any image channel ("red", "green", "blue", "alpha", "mean" or "colored_mean") thus removing the need for separate alpha maps
- checkerboard, dots, fbm, windy and wrinkled are now float only textures
- new tabulateddata color texture that allows loading of spectral color data from a file (it supports PBRT2 file format)
- spherical mapping has switched U and V coordinates, now U is latitude and V is longitude, it also has new float parameters uscale/vscale/udelta/vdelta to move and scale the map
- cylindrical mapping is now slightly switch to match most 3D apps conventions and has new float parameters uscale/udelta to move and scale the map
- new "white" clamping for image maps: every point outside the [0-1) UV range is made white (uniform 1 value)
- new "uvmask" float texture allowing selection of textures depending on UV range
- you can use "" with Exterior and Interior to disable volume properties (useful to redefine instances properties)
- metal material "string name" parameter is deprecated in favor of "string filename" when using a file, it will ensure proper file transmission for network rendering

Jeanphi

[abstrax]

Cool, thank you for the information. It really helps. And also a big thanks for the work you all do.

Cheers,
Marcus

[jeanphi]

Hi,

Exporter developpers should receive as much thanks, without them LuxRender wouldn't be of much practical use.

Jeanphi

[hedphelym]

is there anyone who can fill in this new info into the scene format wiki page?
And would also be great to have the "max" values listed, not just the minimum \ default values too.

It's very hard to try to keep up with the new stuff when the info when it's not in the scene format wiki page.

[SATtva]

And would also be great to have the "max" values listed, not just the minimum \ default values too.

Agree with that. Acceptable ranges (when applicable) are of a big help.

[dougal2]

And would also be great to have the "max" values listed, not just the minimum \ default values too.

Agree with that. Acceptable ranges (when applicable) are of a big help.

Agreed, perhaps someone could take the concept of this table and expand it to include min/max/default/recommended values ?

http://www.luxrender.net/static/texture ... ters.xhtml

BTW, the source spreadsheet for this is in the luxblend25 repo.