Cheetah3D 5.5 Beta 1 (with particle system)

Martin

Martin

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Cheetah3D 5.5 Beta 1 (with particle system)

Hi,
I'm proud to finally release the first beta version of Cheetah3D 5.5. Although it isn't feature complete yet it should be quite usable already. I will write the documentation of the particles system during the beta test so for the first there are just some example files which show how the particle system works.

http://cheetah3d.com/download/Cheetah3D5.5b1.zip

Since this is beta software please don't use it for important work or data.

Here is a list of the new features and the bug fixes of version 5.5.

Code: 
  -added particle/instancing system
	-various particle system types
	    -particle emitter   (omni, rect, disc, mesh and spline emitters)
	    -particle array
	    -particle spline
	    -particle mesh (point, edge, polygon, surface and volume distribution)
	-various particle effectors
	    -dynamic effectors (forces)
		-attraction
		-drag
		-delfection
		-gravitaion
		-radial
		-turbulence
		-wind
	    -state effectors
		-orientation
	-particles are instanced to save memory
	-partcile state node for creating per instance materials
	-particle tag to initalize each particle individually
	-multiple particles types in each particle system allowed
        -many new icons by Frank
    -added material preview to material menu
    -added many new predefined materials (donated by archie)
    -added support for normal mapping
    -added Blueprint object to "Object" menu
    -added Stair object to "Object" menu
    -added "auto" camera light mode
	-camera light turns off when there is a light source in the scene or if there is a Radiosity + HDRI Tag
    -added Base::scriptPath() function call to Javascript API (returns the path of the script)
    -improved joint tool
	-added auto-highlighting
	-joint hierarchy is expanded by default
    -removed context menu from pose tag
    -improved turbulence function
    -improved split tool (deletes polygon selection)
    -integer parameters are now interpolated in F-Curves
    -localized object names in object browser
    -objects get selected when they are collaps in the object browser
    -fixed .jas file loading bug
    -fixed some german localization typos
    -fixed subdivide bug of second UV set
    -fixed bump mapping bug in membrane shader
    -fixed crashing bugs in booleans object
    -fixed object copy&paste bug
    -fixed material selection bug (didn't update timeline)
    -fixed bug with material "takes"
    -fixed texture tiling bug
    -fixed bug when rendering reflectiv objects on bright surfaces
    -fixed ESC delete bug
    -fixed endianes bug in "File" Javascript class
    -fixed crashing bug in rendere caused by NaN-vertices
    -fixed bug in joint tool
    -fixed pivot point bug in FBX loader
    -fixed shadow bug in distant light
    -fixed wrongly defined UVPINNED and CREASE constants in Javascript API
    -fixed bug in camera navigation icons (jump)
    -fixed bug in sweep tool when deleting a spline
    -fixed FBX export bug (messed up rotation)


I hope you like it.

Kind regards
Martin

P.S. Cheetah3D 5.5 will be a free update for all registered 5.x users.
 
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Thanks Martin! You have an awesome product and I am impressed with how you are always improving it and adding more features.
I can't wait to play with the particles.
Kind regards,
Tom
 
Love the normal mapping and particle mesh ability. Great additions.:icon_thumbup:

Cheers
Frank
 

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Thank you Martin!
the first good news in weeks (yes, hard times... I keep on saying "it can't go on raining forever" but my shoes are soaking wet :frown: )

cheers,
Alessandro
 
The auto tag on the camera light is a pleasant bonus with this release! Thanks :icon_thumbup:
 
Although far better than trying to do this individually, it's quite slow, especially if you're making changes. May I suggest making this commit upon the press of a button? For instance, if I put a tree in the particle-mesh, and then later decide to change anything it wants to change everything in real time. This can be painstakingly slow, instead of allowing me to make all desired changes, and then hitting a button to commit.
 
alvordr said:
Although far better than trying to do this individually, it's quite slow, especially if you're making changes. May I suggest making this commit upon the press of a button? For instance, if I put a tree in the particle-mesh, and then later decide to change anything it wants to change everything in real time. This can be painstakingly slow, instead of allowing me to make all desired changes, and then hitting a button to commit.
Click to expand...

You can change the display type to other than the object.
 
How hard would it be to:

a) Allow random UNIFORM random scaling of particles? (Better yet, be able to lock arbitrary dimensions together)

b) Provide quantization options for random offsets and rotations (e.g. if I want buildings to be placed a random number of storeys relative to ground level and rotated by multiples of 90° around the y-axis).
 
Cool. The particle mesh ability may be very handy for what I am working on right now!

I couldn't find any particle-related stuff in the menus, which threw me for a second, then I found I could add in the new toolbar items and all is fine. I assume they will make their way into the menus at some point?
 
@ Tonio. Did you checked the "Particle tag" already?

@SJB. You can customize the main menu by a rightclick.:cool:
 

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@SJB. You can customize the main menu by a rightclick.
Click to expand...

I think you mean that you can customise the Toolbar, which I have done, and which where I found the particle items. I was talking about the real Menu - the one at the top of the screen.
 
SJB said:
I think you mean that you can customise the Toolbar, which I have done, and which where I found the particle items. I was talking about the real Menu - the one at the top of the screen.
Click to expand...

Ah - ok. Can´t tell - I for myself never use the menu except for script access. :D

Cheers
 
I just noticed that the option is set to surface already, not object. Yet, the beach ball spins forever.
 
alvordr said:
I just noticed that the option is set to surface already, not object. Yet, the beach ball spins forever.
Click to expand...
I have no clue what you´re after. At "particle mesh" default "type" is "Points" - and "Display type" is set to "Object". If you want to accelerate OpenGL change from "Object" to "points". Your object will be rendered though.
 
excelent!

thanks Martin
my 12 old son sebastian says:
your new version is very good.
I think the Cheetah is a very good program.
I recomend for all user´s in Mac.
 
Cheetah 5.5 is here! :D:icon_thumbup:

The feature list looks impressive. Can't wait to try this out.

Thanks for continually improving Cheetah3D Martin! The Particles, Instance copies are very welcome additions that I plan to use a lot. Great stuff.

Will be testing it out hopefully all weekend if time permits.
 
Hi, Martin. Nice work. Thanks for adding the normal map feature.

There are 2 types of normal maps, z-up, and y-up. It appears that all my normal maps from a previous project are inverted, they are from an xbox live game. They must be in the direct3d standard, while you are using the opengl standard. Could it be possible to allow the user to toggle the map orientation?

Thanks.

Edit: Filter Forge to the rescue... it has a normal map conversion filter from dx to opengl.
 
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