Cheetah3D 7.0 - Early Adopters Beta 20

[Martin]

Cheetah3D 7.0 - Early Adopters Beta 20

Hi,
I've just uploaded Cheetah3D 7.0 Beta 20. This beta is mainly a bug fix update. But it also adds some nice improvements in Javascript error reporting. Line numbers are now reported more robustly and there is even a function calling stack in the Javascript error message box.

You can find the download link of the new beta in the original "Early Adopters Beta Test" forum thread:

http://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11802

Changes in Beta 20:

-added "Animate seed" feature to Falcon renderer
-improved Javascript error message (displays call stack)
-removed the possibility to use more than one environment light (Sky- or HDRI-Light) per rendered scene
-fixed Javascript bug in OS::runSavePanel() function
-fixed Javascript bug (wrong line number was displayed in error messages)
-fixed bug in render manager (when starting multiple rendering jobs rapidly)
-fixed crashing Javascript bug (when calling non-existing functions)
-fixed Javascript bug in tool scripts (wrong class)
-fixed crashing bug in HDRI light (caused by ultra bright pixels in OpenEXR files)
-fixed FBX import bug (import of morph targets could fail)
-fixed 3DS import bug (material assignment could fail)
-fixed typo in Javascript isCreatorObj() function call (formerly isCeatorObj(), buggy function still works for compatibility reasons)
-fixed some typos in the UI
-fixed crashing bug caused by bump maps
-fixed crashing bug in boolean tool/modifier/creator (added manifold test)
-fixed bug in timeline (jumping curser if animation has more than 999 frames)
-fixed a problem with .mtl files (occurred if commands were indented)
-fixed rounding bug in particle spline object
-fixed update bug in particle mesh object (when linked mesh gets updated by modifier)
-fixed bump mapping bug (when using the wireframe texture)

Thank you very much for the bug reports.:smile:

Kind regards
Martin

 

[Gavin]

Thanks a lot for the update and all the work you put into the product!

This might be a script error and not a bug in Cheetah, but the OBJ + MTL Export script makes Cheetah beachball before it will crash. It does however, produce the OBJ and MTL files, so there is something happening at the end of the script execution.

 

[pegot]

Thanks for all the updates Martin. Can you explain what the new Animation Seed checkbox is for in Falcon renderer. What does it do?

 

[frank beckmann]

This might be a script error and not a bug in Cheetah, but the OBJ + MTL Export script makes Cheetah beachball before it will crash. It does however, produce the OBJ and MTL files, so there is something happening at the end of the script execution.

Strange - works here as usual under Yosemite.

Cheers
Frank

 

[frank beckmann]

Can you explain what the new Animation Seed checkbox is for in Falcon renderer. What does it do?

In essence it varies the ray pattern the renderer fires into the scene for every frame rendered during animation.
The rendering time increases.

Cheers
Frank

 

[pegot]

In essence it varies the ray pattern the renderer fires into the scene for every frame rendered during animation.

Ok. But how is that useful? In what scenario would an animator use it? - Thanks.

 

[Martin]

This might be a script error and not a bug in Cheetah, but the OBJ + MTL Export script makes Cheetah beachball before it will crash. It does however, produce the OBJ and MTL files, so there is something happening at the end of the script execution.

Hi Gavin,
I'm sorry but I can't recreate that bug. Does it only happen with certain scenes? Could you sent me the crash log or an example scene which triggers that problem.

Bye
Martin

 

[Martin]

In essence it varies the ray pattern the renderer fires into the scene for every frame rendered during animation.
The rendering time increases.

That's true but it doesn't increase the rendering time. It should have no influence on the rendering time.

@pegot: If you render an animation with relatively few samples it might be more pleasing for the eye if the seed of the random number generator changes for every frame. So you don't get a certain noise pattern moving on the screen. If you render with very high sample number it doesn't matter since you won't see a noise pattern anyways.

Bye
Martin

 

[ZooHead]

Hi,
I've just uploaded Cheetah3D 7.0 Beta 20. This beta is mainly a bug fix update. But it also adds some nice improvements in Javascript error reporting. Line numbers are now reported more robustly and there is even a function calling stack in the Javascript error message box.

Kind regards
Martin

Thanks Martin, it's always a pleasure test a new beta.

​

 

[pegot]

If you render an animation with relatively few samples it might be more pleasing for the eye if the seed of the random number generator changes for every frame. So you don't get a certain noise pattern moving on the screen.

Thanks for the explanation Martin. And thanks for that feature think it will come in handy when doing low sample test renders.

 

[frank beckmann]

That's true but it doesn't increase the rendering time. It should have no influence on the rendering time.

Bye
Martin

Well I did test renderings yesterday already - maybe some background processes have some influence but further testing shows time differences are inconsistent and negligibly.

Cheers
Frank

 

[Charless]

Polygon scripts not working??

Hi

Why do I get a Voronoi Plane when I select a Round Box.js

 

[frank beckmann]

Another mystery as it still works here:
There´s another script under the naming? Or why is is it the Voronoi Plane.js script? ;-)

Cheers
Frank

 

[Charless]

Weird, after restarting C3D it works fine now?

 

[misoversaturated]

(from the beta 19 thread)

I'm not getting the wireframe node to work as a bump map,
nothing shows up in the material preview and in rendering,
other textures like dots or fractal do.

In v.6.3.3 the wireframe bump works as expected.

Thanks for the tip. It will work properly in Beta 20.:smile:

Hi Martin, thanks for the prompt resolve, the wireframe bump now renders properly.
But still it doesn't show up in the material preview of the shader node.

In the pic below I combined wireframe with dots, both get rendered, but only the dots appear in the node preview.

Correction (see Franks answer below): That's the normal behavior and is the same as in v.6 if the wireframe is in flat mode; round and linear modes show up in the preview.

 

[Gavin]

Hi Gavin,
I'm sorry but I can't recreate that bug. Does it only happen with certain scenes? Could you sent me the crash log or an example scene which triggers that problem.

Bye
Martin

I only have two crash reports for beta 19 earlier of the day, and it crashed also for beta 20 just before I wrote the post without generating one. However, Finder was acting very odd yesterday where the sidebar disappeared in all save/open dialogs in addition to recent items in all applications stopped working, so eventually I rebooted the system, after which it seems to work. I guess there is no point in sending the beta 19 crash reports?

Cheers.

 

[frank beckmann]

Hi Martin, thanks for the prompt resolve, the wireframe bump now renders properly.
But still it doesn't show up in the material preview of the shader node.

In the pic below I combined wireframe with dots, both get rendered, but only the dots appear in the node preview.

It´s noticeable there when you change the Line type: from flat to Linear or Round for instance.

Cheers
Frank

 

[misoversaturated]

It´s noticeable there when you change the Line type: from flat to Linear or Round for instance.

Frank, thanks for your correction.
Indeed the preview shows nearly nothing in flat mode, as it does in v.6 also.
So everything is ok (except that I didn't check carefully enough... ).

 

[Gavin]

If you make a group selection in Edge mode in both the latest beta (actually all of them) and in the release version (6.3.2), the selection does not show in the UV editor pane. If the selection is made by clicking or dragging over edges, the selection also shows in the UV editor pane.

It would be great if the group selection would show too.

.

 

[Martin]

If you make a group selection in Edge mode in both the latest beta (actually all of them) and in the release version (6.3.2), the selection does not show in the UV editor pane. If the selection is made by clicking or dragging over edges, the selection also shows in the UV editor pane.

It would be great if the group selection would show too.

Hi,
that works fine for me. Are you sure the selected polygons have proper UV coords which are actually visible in the UV editor? Maybe the UVcoords are outside the UV editors view.

Bye
Martin