What's New in Beast 1.0

eRnsT

Distribeast

This release of Beast includes Distribeast version 0.2.8.0.

Improvements:

• Clearing the cache at startup is now done in a separate thread, so that the node is able to start quicker and respond to early stop signals.
• Now able to set the max resource cache size in the installer (only through msi/command line)
• dconfig now shows information about nodes that do not accept jobs and identifies which node consumer (not only which computer) the node is assigned to.
• Improved logging for node assignment scenarios as well as startup and shutdown.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed multiple potential crashes during node shutdown.
• Fixed potential hang in tools when the tool is stopping.
• Fixed potential crash in tools.
• Fixed potential tool crash on Korean language versions of XP for tools when attempting to connect and the node is not started.
• Fixed multiple node assignment issues that could lead to nodes not being assigned even if they are idle.
• Fixed multiple issues that could lead to tools being left running when there is no connection to the controller.
• All registry keys set by the installer now use any existing setting instead of overwriting on installation.
• The node now sets permissions on the directory that contains updates pushed by the automatic update feature, so that all users are able to read the new installer.
• Nodes are now able to more quickly detect the loss of nodes that shut down.
• 64-bit tools are now able to correctly connect to the local node if a non-standard port is used.
• dconfig now documents the -status command line option in the usage information.

Rendertool

Improvements:

• AO-passes supported.
• Progess dialog can now be suppressed using the showResults parameter of ILBStartJob().
• Crash dump generation if program crashes.
• Improved logging and error checking.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed multiple issues with pointcloud baking.
• Fixed issue that could cause baking to abort with an error when performing texture shape normalization.
• Fixed issue that could cause baking to abort with an error if the pathtracer integrator was used.
• Fixed issue that could cause baking to abort with an error during texture baking.
• Fixed a bug with path tracing where enabling ptCacheDirectLighting would exclude direct lighting.
• Fixed issue where job outputs path specified using ILBSetJobOutput() was ignored.
• Fixed issue where scenes with no object would cause a crash in the tool and aborting the bake.

LiquidLight

Bug fixes:

• Fixed various memory leaks.

eRnsT

Improvements:

• Real-time renderer renders primary visbility as expected (i.e not visible from camera, but casts shadows).
• Scaled down versions of real time shader for DX9 class hardware.
• Area lights support.
• Environment light support.
• Separated shadow properties for directional type lights and point type light.
• Real-time lights obey the "cast shadows"-property.
• Added Duplicate command to editor.

Bug fixes:

• Proper back-face culling by Ernst offline renderer (fixes problems with render stats).
• Fixed crash when loading camera types other than perspective cameras.
• Better handling of shut down, when scene fails to load.
• Fixed bug with camera rotation in the editor.
• Fixed problem with cast shadows property in real-time renderer.
• Fixed various camera fov issues.
• Fixed problem with loading cameras into ernst with directions straight up or down.
• Reintroduced negative scaling. Fixed scaling widget to allow negative scaling. Winding order is now flipped when sign of determinant is changed on a shape.
• Fixed bug with editor angle property validation.
• Fixed bug in editor where one could accidentally select an object by double clicking the title bar to maximize.
• Improved OpenGL compability testing. Now outputs some information to the log about glversion/vendor/renderer/glsl-version.
• Fixed two potential memory leak problems in shader compilation ernst-realtime.
• Fixed bug where one could crash the editor by changing a property without pressing Enter and then deselecting the object.
• Improved shut down of distributed rendering in Ernst.
• Fixed memory leaks.
• Fixed bug with light map mip map level lookup.
• Fixed bug with loading Editor primitives and localization.
• Fixed bug with hanging editor when exiting editor during scene loading.

Beast API

Improvements:

• New environment light functionality. Add multiple environment light to the scene via the API and assign influence areas per light.
• Read back target data (Vertex/Texture bake settings) from eRnsT.
• Support for get/set of light source intensity.
• Added LightStats and Display Names for Light Sources.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed various file permission issues.
• Updated documentation to reflect reality when it comes to not giving a configuration file to ILBCreateJob().

Distribeast

This release of Beast includes Distribeast version 0.2.5.0.

Improvements:

• Self-update feature added.
• dconfig command line tool added.
• Added separate DISK_FULL error that allows tools to handle this gracefully.
• Lowered disk usage for tools that produce resources.
• Distribeast is now able to allow local tools to use the local node even if there is no connection to the controller or if the connection is broken.
• Distribeast no longer requires using port 7788 on machines that should be able to submit jobs.

Bug fixes:

• Now correctly reports error for invalid resource transfer requests.
• Now removes the read-only flag from files that are added to the resource cache that could cause the node to fail to clear the cache on startup.
• Now handles files that could not be removed from the resource cache during startup.
• Fixed bug that could cause the node to crash when attempting to transfer a resource if the resource cache could not be cleared during startup.
• Fixed missing exception handler that could cause the node to crash during exit if there was no connection to the controller.
• Now logs unhandled exceptions correctly.
• Now logs at error level instead of info when a tool is unable to load its initial state.
• Removed unused "Distribeast monitor" menu item in the DistribeastMonitor context menu.
• Fixed correct error return values for certain failures.

eRnsT

Improvements:

• Optimized usage of GPU memory.
• Better OpenGL compatibility.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed issue where the editor could freeze when selecting objects in the 3D viewport.
• Fixed problem where the offline renderer failed to load the scene.
• Fixed a number of real-time shadow map bugs.

Known issues:

• Real-time shadows for directional lights and spot lights are currently not working on some ATI graphics cards.
• Changes done to geometry instances, e.g. light mapping type and light map resolution cannot be queried through the API yet.

Rendertool

Improvements:

• Better performance for large shapes. Shapes that has at least 128*128 pixels now will be handled in a more efficient way.
• Progress Dialog now displays the number of "broken" nodes that are excluded from the current build. A node is considered broken if it can not be contacted properly.
• If the scene fails to load the distribution is now aborted, instead of just marking the node unsuitable.
• TextureTargetEntities fully outside Textures are now reported as errors.
• Improved logging of hard link creation.
• Improved logging overall.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug where random TextureTargetEntities might end up black in the atlas.
• Fixed a threading bug where a distribeast job never finished if files failed to add on a remote computer.
• Fixed a bug where shapes could end up black during LOD-baking.
• Demoted hard link creation failure from warning to info. Failure in this case is normal and the file will be copied instead.

Beast API

Improvements:

• Added support for "Texel" atlas packing.
• Added polynomial falloff for lights.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed problem with non-ANSI characters in API manager directory path name.
• Sets correct permissions on API manager directory for Distribeast service.

eRnsT

Improvements:

• Improved support for ATI cards.
• Bundled shaders inside executable.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed crash on exit when not having a scene loaded.
• Fixed bug with getting zero render threads on dual-core machines.
• Fixed bug with id buffer selection causing GUI thread deadlock.
• Fixed importing of camera rotations.

LiquidLight

Improvements:

• Added check to avoid inserting completely invisible objects in the ADS.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug in the reported statistics.
• Fixed a bug where light color was lost when using light gobos.

Beast API

Improvements:

• Added support for getting scene info changes through the API.
• Added support for Camera read back.
• Performance when doing lightpasses.
• Performance when doing shadow sampling.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed bug with setting meters per world unit from the API.
• Fixed bug with double Ernst command line.

Rendertool

Improvements:

• Updated handling of "broken" nodes.
• Camera renders do no longer share caches with baked surfaces.
• Improved logging.
• Improved error handling.
• Improved statistics.
• Progress updates to the progress dialog are made less frequently to avoid flickering.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed correct statistics if jobs have to be run multiple times.
• Fixed a bug with shape normalization that caused incorrect postprocessing commands to be executed in certain scenarios.
• Fixed a bug with the path tracer merge that could cause the merge to fail due to a missing xml settings file in certain scenarios.

Distribeast

Improvements:

• Now periodically probes connections between nodes to detect stale connections.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed incorrectly reported failure when two nodes attempt to connect to each other simultaneously in certain scenarios.
• Now avoids unnecessary connection attempt when a node is being looked up at the same time as that node connects.
• Fixed potential crash bug when two nodes attempt to connect to each other simultaneously in certain scenarios.
• Correct detection of 32-bit operating systems.
• Correct display of connection attempts to the controller in the distribeast monitor.
• Correct tooltip for the distribeast monitor when accept jobs = false.
• Correct logging of errors when clearing the node cache.
• Now creates log directories earlier to prevent error with non-existing directories.