{"id":4883,"date":"2016-11-29T03:36:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T02:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andreas-maschke.com\/?p=4883"},"modified":"2016-11-29T03:48:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T02:48:48","slug":"jwildfire-3-00-release-3d-rendering-improved-ui-and-mac-os-x-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/?p=4883","title":{"rendered":"JWildfire 3.00 release: 3D rendering, improved UI and Mac OS X support"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a while since the last release, but sometimes things just need time \ud83d\ude42
\nI can’t remember exactly, but I think we had in the end 6 ALPHA versions and 9 BETA versions to finally finish
\nwhat is now simply called “JWildfire 3.0<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

I know, most people never read notes, and I hope I will still have your attention. In short:
\nnew version = 3d rendering + new UI + experimental GPU rendering + Mac OS X support + endless list of changes<\/p>\n

endless list of changes = integrated in the UI, so no need to read too much at once, it will be still there
\nwhen you start the app the next time \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

The complete list of changes is tremendous, I will post only a little excerpt:
\n3D SOLID RENDERING
\n– completely new 3d (solid) rendering mode for flame fractals, featuring
\n– ambient shadows
\n– distant light-sources
\n– specular lighting, several diffuse-response functions
\n– reflection-mapping
\n– hard and soft shadows
\n– z-buffer-output<\/p>\n

– new “obj_mesh_wf” and “obj_mesh_primitive_wf”-variations to allow you to integrate
\nmeshes as shapes into your fractals. While “obj_mesh_wf” allows you to load arbitrary
\nmeshes (e .g. found in the web, there are tons of free meshes out there), you may
\nuse “obj_mesh_primitive_wf” to use numerous predifined presets
\n– both variations support:
\n– uv-colormaps
\n– uv-displacement-maps
\n– geometry-smoothing (using the Taubin-smooth-algorithm)<\/p>\n

– new “yplot2d_wf”-, “yplot3d_wf”- and “parplot2d_wf”-variations to generate geometry
\nby plotting arbitrary mathematical functions (e.g. “sin(x*x+z*z)”)
\n– all of those variations contain many very cool presets, e.g. there are 35 presets
\nincluded in the “parplot2d_wf”-variaton, just slide through them by changing the
\n“preset_id”<\/p>\n

– new “plane_wf”-variation for easy creation of a textured plane
\n– script-generator (which creates scripts from a flame) also creates solid-attributes
\nfor solid flames<\/p>\n

– support for invisible objects which can receive shadows. This way you can let
\nfractals cast real-looking shadows on objects inside a background-image, inspired
\nby Oak Fractal Sandbox by David Byrd (http:\/\/www.davidbyrd.io\/)
\n– this options is supported by the variations “obj_mesh_wf”, “obj_mesh_primitive_wf”
\nand “plane_wf”<\/p>\n

– completely new DOF for solid rendering with bokeh-effects. This DOF is a post-effect
\n(and works totally different than the regular DOF) and is not visible in the fast-preview(!).
\nBut, it also gives better results.
\nOne way to adjust the DOF is to turn solid rendering of in order to show the regular DOF
\nin fast-preview, adjust it (position and strength),
\nand then turn solid rendering on again<\/p>\n

– new “Solid Julia3D”-random-flame-generator to create random solid flames
\n– new “Solid (experimental)”-random-flame-generator to create random solid flames
\n– new “Solid (stunning)”-random-flame-generator to create random solid flames
\n– new “Solid Labyrinth”-random-flame-generator
\n– new option in the Prefrences to disable solid-flame-random-generators inside the global “All”-random-flame-generator<\/p>\n

IMPROVED UI
\n– huge UI change: the main flame-window was broken into multiple smaller windows
\n– new Navigator-window to make it easier to navigate between windows
\n– window-state for all windows inside the desktoip is saved in the Preferences
\n– new “Tips of the day”-window, may be turned off
\n– the Welcome-window (still providing some useful links) is not show per default,
\nbut you can reach it in the menu
\n– Customizable background and convenience-darkening effect (see
\ndesktopBackgroundImagePath and desktopBackgroundDarkenAmount in the Preferences)
\n– supplied a background-image from my own library
\n– removed the combobox to select the edit-plane, and added three buttons in the
\nmain editor area instead
\n– new “List of changes”-window to display the list of changes made in the software
\n– improved image-quality for scaled image-display on the desktop (e. g. after
\nloading an image or displaying a rendered image)
\n– option to auto-reload saved images from the interactive renderer (in order so be
\nable to check them quickly), may be turned off in the Preferences
\n– option to manually save a z-buffer-image in the interactive renderer
\n– buttons to easily randomize light-position and light-color (for solid flames)
\n– the params in the nonlinear-tab can now get “expanded” in order to access them
\nall at one time, thanks to Martin Flink to the suggestion!
\n– new parameter tinaDefaultExpandNonlinearParams in the Preferences to turn the
\nexpansion of the nonlinear-param-controls per default to on
\n– exchanged some icons in the main editor
\n– variations-editing: the controls use non-fractional step-size when changing a parameter having integer-values (like
\npower of “julia3D”-variation)<\/p>\n

GPU RENDERING
\n– experimental gpu-rendering by integration of FACLRender, and external GPU
\nrenderer, made by Steven Brodhead (see the integrated info-window for more
\ndetails)
\n– new info-window about GPU-rendering
\n– new GPU-render window to interactively render flames, only available
\nunder Windows.
\nQuick way to test out if a certain flame works, you would usually do this,
\nbefore you animate it, and then finally use the batch-renderer with enabled
\nGPU-renderer to render a sequence.
\n– integrated the external OpenCL-renderer in the batch-renderer
\n– new option tinaFACLRenderOptions in the Preferences to influence the options
\nused to invoke the external GPU render<\/p>\n

MAC OS X SUPPORT
\n– native installer for Mac OS
\n– some optimizations for Mac OS X to improve user experience
\n– made “System” the default theme under MacOS
\n– renamed the main class to JWildfire in order to get “JWildfire” displayed as application on Mac
\n– changed to initial directory for the directory-select-box in the flame-browser (works now on Mac)
\n– set up default resolution- and quality-profiles when no preferences file could be found<\/p>\n

MISC
\n– new “Orchids”-random-flame-generator<\/p>\n

– New local hue parameter at the Local Gamma tab (called “Gamma”), allowing much more variations in color than using only the default coloring
\n– New randomizer-buttons at the Local Gamma tab, to randomize each parameter individually<\/p>\n

– added a quarter-render-size option in the Interactive Renderer<\/p>\n

– Removed the Shading-tab and all the options for Blur-Shading, Distance-Color-Shading and Pseudo3D-Shading.
\n– the popular blur-shading was re-introduced as new option under the “DOF \/ Bokeh” – tab as “Post blur”
\n– distance-color-shading was removed completely, if you liked it, please keep an old version
\n– Pseudo3D-shading is obsolete due to new 3d rendering<\/p>\n

– removed the rarely used brightness-slider in the main editor
\n– removed the rarely used Chaotica-bridge<\/p>\n

– recreated the SystemInfo window and added a function to clear the cache (which hold resources like fonts, meshes, …
\nin order to speed up future calculations)
\n– new “Transfer to Interactive Renderer”-button in the main editor
\n– removed the MutaGen-button in the main editor<\/p>\n

– added two new parameters to the “subflame_wf” variation: “colorscale_z” (adds depth to the outer flame according
\nto the color-information of the inner flame) and “use_colors” (use the computed color-information of the inner
\nflame as color of the outer flame)
\n– the “subflame_wf”-variation also respect hidden samples now and can recover iteration after receiving
\ninvalid results (e. g. division by zero)<\/p>\n

– added new parameters “axis”, “centre_x”, “centre_y” and “centre_y” to the “pre_wave3D_wf”-variation
\n– added experimental “direct_color”-parameter to the “truchet”-variation<\/p>\n

– new “MobiusN”-variation by eralex<\/p>\n

– replaced the link to variation-guide, hosted by user FractalGee, which seems to be permanently off, by a link to
\nthe variations-list supplied by Don Town<\/p>\n

– 3 new SINEPOW-filter-kernels (with predefined power-levels)<\/p>\n

– the “Rnd”-button now can also operate on newly created flames<\/p>\n

– refined the default resolution- and quality-profiles<\/p>\n

– improved the speed of the MutaGen<\/p>\n

– changed the layout of the sub-tabs “DoF” and “Solid rendering”<\/p>\n

– slightly shorter startup time due to the use of more simple random-flames-generator at startup<\/p>\n

– support for loading and saving Fusion-compatible *.spl-files in the motion-curve-editor<\/p>\n

– moved the “Rnd”-button at a new “Misc”-tab<\/p>\n

Have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a while since the last release, but sometimes things just need time \ud83d\ude42 I can’t remember exactly, but I think we had in the end 6 ALPHA versions and 9 BETA versions to finally finish what is now simply called “JWildfire 3.0“. I know, most people never read notes, and I hope I will still have your attention. In short: new version = 3d rendering + new UI + experimental GPU rendering + Mac OS X support + endless list of changes endless list of changes = integrated in the UI, so no need to read too much at once, it will be still there when you start the app the next time \ud83d\ude00 The complete list of changes is tremendous, I will post only a little excerpt: 3D SOLID RENDERING – completely new 3d (solid) rendering mode for flame fractals, featuring – ambient shadows – distant light-sources – specular lighting, several diffuse-response functions – reflection-mapping – hard and soft shadows – z-buffer-output – new “obj_mesh_wf” and “obj_mesh_primitive_wf”-variations to allow you to integrate meshes as shapes into your fractals. While “obj_mesh_wf” allows you to load arbitrary meshes (e .g. found in the web, there are tons of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jwildfire","category-jwildfire-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4887,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.overwhale.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}