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Dynamite VSP Version 2.1 | Release Notes

Release Date

16th April 2005

New Features

  • Compatibility with Autodesk VIZ 2006.
  • The CSP Surface Parameters rollout has been completely overhauled:
  • The rollout is now tabbed into three separate parts in order to save space in the Dynamite VSP Explorer panel.
  • Additional information relating to the selected surface is now displayed.
  • Accuracy and reliability of bitmap draping process has been further improved.
  • Earlier memory problems when selecting draped bitmaps have now been addressed.
  • Earlier memory problems when displaying material channel assignments for large triangulation meshes have now been addressed.
  • New context sensitive right-click menu for each material channel allows material assignments and material tiling parameters to be easily manipulated.
  • The layout of the CSP Rail Parameters rollout has been improved and is now tabbed to save space in the Dynamite VSP Explorer panel.
  • The layout of the CSP Position Controller rollout has been improved and is now tabbed to save space in the Dynamite VSP Explorer panel.
  • The layout of the CSP Sky Parameters rollout has been improved, including the introduction of a new sky preview pane which instantly displays the effect of any parameter changes in this rollout. An issue which resulted in entire rollout being greyed out after the use of custom environment maps has been solved. All image types are now listed in the Sky Texture List. The panel previously only listed JPEG images.
  • The CSP Lighting Parameters rollout has been completely overhauled. It is now possible to create a Skylight object with a single button click. Skylights provide the easiest way to create a realistic simulation of daylight including shadow casting. However, beware of increased rendering times when using this feature.
  • New CSP Exposure Control rollout has been implemented in Dynamite VSP Explorer. This rollout provides instant and direct access to exposure controls in Autodesk 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ which can be useful when using advanced lighting techniques.
  • A new Parametric Gantry Object has been implemented for the South African market, but is available to all users. The gantry is similar to the existing New Zealand Gantry, but features a square section to the main gantry profile.
  • New Zealand and South African gantries supported by a single post may now be created by modifying the appropriate controls in the CSP Gantry Parameters rollout.
  • All Gantry objects are now fully and dynamically interchangeable in the CSP Gantry Parameters rollout. For example, South African gantry objects can be dynamically switched to a Dutch or New Zealand gantry style.
  • The performance of the Object Placement Style Editor and Feature Interpretation Style Editor panels has been further improved.
  • Additional DynamiteRails material channels may now be created instantly by selecting the desired bitmap file from the CSP Materials Browser rollout.
  • A new material channel has been added to the default DynamiteSurfaces material. Channel 34 is now Ground Type 4. This material is particularly suited for use in rugged terrain. The material projects a rock material onto near vertical faces and a grass texture onto near horizontal surfaces, with a blended effect between these two textures. The grass texture itself is also blended to provide a fully textured grass texture in the foreground which is blended into a less detailed ground texture in the distance. This material provides a much more believable effect on large expanses of ground than any of the existing ground textures in the DynamiteSurfaces material definition.
  • Selection of alternative tree and sign objects available from the CSP Tree Parameters and CSP Sign Parameters rollouts is no longer limited to sign definitions which have already been used in the current scene. Any tree or sign object definition from the current Dynamite VSP country kit may now be selected.
  • Object cloning from the the CSP Object List rollout may now be applied to objects which have been previously attached to other path controlled objects. This is particularly useful in order to clone a sign which has been previously attached to a gantry. The result of this would be two identical signs being attached to a single gantry object.

Issues Solved

  • The problem which caused Dynamite VSP licence files to expire prematurely has been solved.
  • The problem which caused Global Shift Values to be reset to zero in certain circumstances has been solved.
  • The error which occurred when opening the CSP Tree Parameters rollout in Version 2.03 has been solved.
  • Problems relating to Dynamite VSP object display settings in Autodesk VIZ 2005 have now been solved. These problems originally caused dynamic marker objects to be displayed in grey, and rail object geometry to appear incomplete in viewports.
  • Blur material settings for draped surfaces and tree materials has been modified to help prevent "walking textures" in rendered animations.
  • In the CSP Road Marking Parameters rollout, existing optimisation and offset parameters are now remembered after the APPLY button is pressed.
  • Road Marking geometry is now correctly applied to particularly short shape objects.
  • Performance improvements and a number of reliability improvements have been implemented in the Country Kit Resource Manager panel. Additionally, the panel design has been modified to indicate the file created and file modified date of the selected object INI file.
  • Vehicles placed in the Dynamite VSP country kit object libraries are no longer restricted to basic editable mesh objects. Other object classes such as “RPC plugin” based objects may now be used.
  • A problem relating to incorrect orientation being applied to path controlled objects has been solved. This problem affected Version 2.03 and occurred when both "shape longfall tracking" and "surface normal tracking" were selected from the CSP Position Controller rollout.
  • A problem which caused the feature interpretation process to fail if any style filename extension was created in upper case characters has been solved.
  • A problem relating to the selection of camera objects from Dynamite VSP Explorer panel whilst the Dynamite VSP Object Properties panel was open has now been solved.
  • When modifying the primary material channel of an Imported Surface from the Object Properties panel, the current mapping coordinates are now remembered.
  • A number of minor issues with the CSP Forest Parameters rollout have been solved.
  • Foliage objects may now be referenced from tree object INI definitions and subsequently placed from the Object Placement Style Editor.
  • Feature Interpretation Styles can now create renderable shape objects from imported MX strings. The diameter of the rendered shape and the number of sides may be specified. This functionality is not yet available in the Feature Interpretation Style Editor but may be added manually to feature interpretation styles using fields 9 and 10.
  • In MAX6/7 and Autodesk 2005/2006, the DXF Import Panel now takes account of global shift coordinates and correctly registers objects as imported surfaces and shapes within Dynamite VSP.

Supported Host Applications

  • Autodesk VIZ 4.x
  • Autodesk VIZ 2005
  • Autodesk VIZ 2006 (also released 16th April 2005)
  • Autodesk 3ds max 5.x
  • Autodesk 3ds max 6.x
  • Autodesk 3ds max 7.x