Tools Version 1.1 Release Notes
From Multiverse
| Multiverse Tools |
|
Overview • Installing |
| Tools UI References |
| Working with Terrain |
|
About Terrain • Using L3DT Pro • Using EarthSculptor • Using PnP TerrainCreator • Importing Heightmap Terrain • Using Mosaic Creator |
| Other Tools |
Contents |
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Hardware and Software Requirements
Minimum requirements:
- Processor: Pentium 4 with 1GHz or greater
- RAM: 512 MB+
- Video: DirectX 9 compatible Video Card. Pixel shader 2.0 and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128 MB of texture memory
- Audio: DirectSound compatible sound card
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Operating System
The Multiverse tools currently run on:
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP Home and Professional
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Windows XP international (non-US-English)
Support for other operating systems is planned.
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Installation notes
- IMPORTANT: Uninstall any previous version of the Multiverse tools before installing this version, otherwise you will get an error. There is no uninstaller: use Windows Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.
- If you have a Beta version of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, you will get an error when installing the Multiverse Tools. You will need to uninstall the Beta version of .NET before installing the Multiverse Tools. See Microsoft's instructions for uninstalling the .NET beta.
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Problem with jittering, frame-skipping on dual core systems
On some dual-core systems, the processors get out of sync for timing. For details, see this AMD Technical Bulletin.
Power management slows down the cores at different times, causing the high resolution timers in the cores to lose synchronization, which causes the time to jump forward and backwards as the process is scheduled to run on one core and then the other. The cores start out in sync when the system boots, but over time get out of sync.
To correct the problem, Download and install a new processor driver. You should not need the Dual-Core optimizer utility that is also mentioned on that page for running Multiverse applications.
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New features and changes
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Multiverse COLLADA Import Tool
Release 1.1 includes a new tool, the Multiverse COLLADA Import Tool. Use this tool to convert models exported to COLLADA format to Multiverse format and import them into your asset repository.
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Upgrading to 1.1
The following new files (included in the version 1.1 Sampleworld asset repsitory) must be in the asset repository to run the World Editor:
- world_editor_light_ring.mesh
- world_editor_light_ring.material
- blue-circle-gradient.png
- footprint-left-25.png
- green-circle-gradient.png
- l3dt-detailmap.jpg
- l3dt-dirt1.jpg
- l3dt-grass1.jpg
- l3dt-grass1-dry.jpg
- l3dt-grass1-lush.jpg
- l3dt-rock1.jpg
- l3dt-rock1b.jpg
- l3dt-yellowsand1.jpg
- red-circle-gradient.png
- splatting_grass.dds
- splatting_rock.dds
- yellow-circle-gradient.png
- blue-circle-gradient_Texture.asset
- green-circle-gradient_Texture.asset
- l3dt-detailmap_Texture.asset
- l3dt-dirt1_Texture.asset
- l3dt-grass1_Texture.asset
- l3dt-grass1-dry_Texture.asset
- l3dt-grass1-lush_Texture.asset
- l3dt-rock1_Texture.asset
- l3dt-rock1b_Texture.asset
- l3dt-yellowsand1_Texture.asset
- red-circle-gradient_Texture.asset
- splatting_grass_Texture.asset
- splatting_rock_Texture.asset
- red-circle-gradient_Texture.asset
Textures that have asset definition files that include properties of TerrainDecal and/or TerrainTexture, with value of true, will be listed in the World Editor texture picker dialog.
The 1.0 server does not properly read the 1.1 World Editor files.
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World Editor
- Open World Root has been added to the file menu. This loads the root world without loading the collections, the first level of collections are listed in the tree view.
- Load/Unload collection has been added to the right click menus and context sensitive buttons on the button bar for collections.
- Add/Remove from scene has been added to the right click menus and the context sensitive buttons on the button bar for collections.
- When you click world files (.mvw) in Windows, they will open the world editor with the file loaded.
- If you drag a world file onto the World Editor it will open it.
- Added lock camera to object to the View menu to lock the camera to a sphere around the object and stays pointed at the object. This can be toggled with 'Ctrl+L'. This works for objects, roads, markers, boundaries, terrain decals and point lights.
- Added the ability to move the camera on a plane that is 90 degrees off the direction of the camera view. This can be activated by holding down the 'P' key on the keyboard.
- Added Orientation to Objects.
- Particle effects now follow the orientation of their parent.
- Added Recently opened files to World Editor file menu.
- Added repeated position changes when the position panel buttons are held down.
- Fixed multiple undo entries for a rotation track bar drag. Now the undo entry is created when you release the mouse button.
- If a collection is selected in the tree view, when objects are pasted they will added to that collection. The collection must be the only object that is selected at the time for this to work. If, a collection isn't selected, or not the only selected object, they will be pasted into the collection they were copied/cut from.
- Terrain Decals have a perception radius property.
- Added to control if the camera accelerates or not this can be toggled with the "/" key.
- Added the ability to adjust the speed when the camera is moving without acceleration. You use the ".", to increase speed. You use "," to decrease speed.
- Added the ability to adjust the rate at which the camera accelerates. You use Add(number pad +) and Subtract(number pad -)
- Added precise picking for objects in the world view. Objects will no longer be picked if camera to mouse ray intersects the bounding box of an object, but not the object.
- Added ability to place a Marker, Point Light, or Object on another object. Requires the new AcceptObjectPlacement (only available on Objects) property to be true on the object you are placing on.
- Added additional camera controls. Keyboard keys for turning camera. Presets for camera speed, acceleration rate, and mouse wheel multiplier. Keys for adjusting speed and acceleration rates.
- Added drop down buttons to the button bar that allow you to select preset camera acceleration rate or speed depending on the camera mode and one to select preset mouse wheel multipliers.
- Added the WorldViewSelectable property to Markers, Points, Point Lights and Objects that prevents them from being selected in the World View when set to false. The default is true.
- Changed the preferences panel to a tabbed presentation.
- Added additional preferences for camera controls.
- Added a texture picker dialog for terrain decals and terrain textures.
- Added commands to expand/collapse tree view nodes, also to move between tree view nodes.
- Added the ability to work with multiple asset repositories.
- Moved the change asset repository option to the View panel of the preferences dialog. This now launches a new window that will allow you to manage multiple asset repositories. Order of this list is important because the higher the repository is in the list, will effect the order in which it will look for the asset in question. So the top item on the list will be the first searched, then the second, and so on.
- World Editor Command Mapping
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Model Viewer
- When you click mesh files (.mesh) in Windows, they will open in the Model Viewer.
- The Model Viewer can now handle file names with spaces in them, if they are properly quoted and escaped
- Model Viewer now has the capability to display the model using only materials contained in a particular material scheme. Click the menu item View | Material Scheme to display a dialog box that enables you to select the scheme to view. If the material has no schemes defined, the menu item will not be enabled.
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ConversionTool
- The ConversionTool is now much stricter in its interpretation of input sets for texture coordinates and other similar inputs. This may mean that the texture coordinates are not available at texture coordinate set 0.
- The ConversionTool now has the option to optimize the submeshes to remove unused vertices. This is enabled with the
--optimize_meshoption. - The ConversionTool can now handle file names with spaces in them, if they are properly quoted and escaped
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Asset Importer
- In the Asset Importer, it is now possible when defining a material asset to supply dependencies on other material assets. This is useful when performing material copying.
- The asset importer now has a dialog that allows you to edit properties on an asset.
- Textures can now be added as top level assets.
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Asset Packager
The AssetPackager has a new command-line argument,
--source_repository, to specify the asset repository from which
assets will be copied. Using the command-line argument eliminates the
requirement to designate the the asset repository, which is useful when dealing with more than one asset repository.
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Bug fixes
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Version 1.1 Update 3
- Fixed World Editor Name Value editing. Edit and Delete now work properly.
- Fixed Terrain Generator's height map editor circle-shaped brushes. Circles brushes of any size now work properly.
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Version 1.1 Update 2
- Fix: COLLADA Import Tool does not install images with relative paths: Fixed bug in which the COLLADA Import Tool failed to find image files specified by a relative path in the .dae file.
- COLLADA Import Tool will import SketchUp (.kmz) files: The COLLADA Import Tool now unpacks .kmz files, converts the unpacked .dae file, and installs the conversion results along with referenced image files into the repository.
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Version 1.1
- World Editor did not display particle effects attached to marker points properly when a file was loaded with display of marker points turned off. This has been corrected.
- In World Editor, particle effects now follow the orientation of their parent.
- In the 1.0 release, the Asset Packager was inadvertently changed to be a console application. It has been changed back into a Windows application in this release.
- Corrected a bug that led to autosave files over writing second and lower tier collection files.
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Known problems
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Model Viewer
- Looped animations show a slight stutter when the animation hits the end and loops backed to the beginning.
- There is currently no option when reading COLLADA files to convert from "Z-Up" to "Y-Up" coordinate system, which may result in some models appearing on their side when loaded into the Model Viewer. The command line Conversion Tool has an option (--3ds) that does this conversion. A future release of Model Viewer will provide this option.
- If a texture referenced by a material is not available, the Model Viewer will abort. This problem is actually an issue for all of the tools, as well as the Multiverse Client, but it is most likely to be an issue with the Model Viewer.
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Terrain Generator
- Large seed maps are difficult to edit.
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World Editor
- Using the Auto Splatting method for terrain texturing, the values for SandToGrassHeight, GrassToRockHeight, and RockToSnowHeight should not be negative. Use of negative values will produce incorrect results.
- Tree billboards (lowest level of detail for far away trees) are not lit properly.
- Tree leaf billboards occasionally don't point at the camera.
- When a road and a boundary share the same terrain tile, the road is not drawn on that tile. These display correctly in the client.
- Server does not support Spawn Generators on regions.
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Conversion Tool
- The COLLADA to Mesh conversion tool creates material scripts for 3D models. The generated material should be considered a prototype: You may need to edit it by hand for it to work properly. For more information, see Creating Material Scripts and Editing materials files (Platform Tutorial).
