Art of Illusion Version History

v1.3, Nov. 24, 2002

- Added Beanshell scripting (requires Java 1.2 or later).
- Added UV mapping.
- There is now a "Shininess" texture property for setting the strength of
specular highlights independent of specular reflections.
- The raytracer now offers Russian Roulette sampling as an advanced option.
- Implemented Ken Perlin's "improved" noise function.
- The .obj importer can now import textures from .mtl files.
- Added POV-Ray export (implemented by Norbert Krieg).
- Lots of bug fixes.

v1.2, Aug. 9, 2002

- Added procedural distortions (Bend, Twist, Scale, Shatter, and Custom).
- Added Tube objects.
- Position and Rotation tracks can apply to any joint in the skeleton of
an object.
- Animations can be saved as Quicktime movies (implemented by Ken McNeill,
requires Java Media Framework).
- Added "Bind to Parent Skeleton" command.
- Added a Preferences window for setting global options.
- Added a freehand selection mode in object editors.
- Object editors now let you independently hide or show the control mesh,
object surface, and skeleton.
- You can set a template image to use as the background in editing windows.
- Started the (very long) process of internationalizing all text in the
program, so it can be translated into other languages.  Spanish translation
provide by Julio Sangrador Paton.
- Bug fixes and speed improvements.

v1.1, May 5, 2002

- The raytracer now supports global illumination.
- Can now import and export Wavefront .obj files.
- Revised the inverse kinematics algorithm so that bones now move more
easily, and meshes deform more smoothly around joints.
- Added grids to the object editors.
- The object editors now allow you to view other objects in the scene,
and to work in either local or scene coordinate systems.
- Added procedural position and rotation tracks.
- Textures may now be applied to only the front or back surface of
a mesh.
- Added contextual popup menus on the item list in the main window, and
the list of tracks in the score.
- Added Frame Scene With Camera and Frame Selection With Camera commands.
- Added a preview to the Bevel/Extrude window in the triangle mesh editor.
- Added a 1D random noise module to the procedure editor.
- Revised the interpolating subdivision algorithm for triangle meshes so
that changing the smoothness of vertices now works in a more useful and
intuitive way.
- Lots of miscellaneous user interface improvements, including new keyboard
equivalents for lots of commands.
- Lots of bug fixes.

v1.0, Feb. 10, 2002

- Added Pose tracks, which allow you to animate the shape and other
internal parameters of objects.
- Adding a Pose track to a Spline Mesh or Triangle Mesh will convert it
into an Actor.  This allows you to create predefined gestures for the
object, which can be blended in arbitrary combinations and automatically
morphed between.
- Every Spline Mesh and Triangle Mesh now has a skeleton.  This can be
used as a tool for shaping the mesh (with forward and inverse kinematics),
and also allows morphing between gestures to happen in a more natural way.
- Added an Array tool (written by Rick van der Meiden) for creating evenly
spaced copies of objects.
- Position, Rotation, and Constraint tracks can now be relative to any
object (or, if it is a mesh, to any bone in its skeleton), not just to the
immediate parent object.
- Texture parameters can now be specified on a per-object basis, as well
as per-vertex.
- Added Texture Parameter tracks which allow you to animate the values
of per-object texture parameters.
- Texture mapping coordinates can now be bound to the vertices of a mesh,
so that the texture will distort with the mesh.
- The Move, Rotate, and Resize tools, as well as the Transform Object
command, offer new options to specify how they interact with parent-child
hierarchies and to set the center for rotation/scaling.
- The file format is now finalized.  This means that files created with this
version are guaranteed to be openable by later versions.
- Many, many bug fixes and other minor improvements.

v0.9, Aug. 25, 2001

Where do I begin?  This version introduces animation, which touches (or
will touch) almost every part of the program in one way or another.
- Each object may have any number of animation tracks, which are applied
according to their individual weight curves.  Current track types include 
Position, Rotation (XYZ and quaternion), Visibility, and Constraint.
- The Score provides a user interface for viewing and editing tracks and
keyframes.
- A Preview Animation command allows you to quickly render and view
wireframe tests of animation sequences.
- Animations can be rendered to a series of image files.  Multiple
subframes per image can be used to create motion blur.
- Various bulk keyframe editing commands allow you to simultaneously 
modify large numbers of keyframes at once.
- A Set Path from Curve command allows you to create animation paths
from curve objects.
- Any object can now be made a child of any other object by dragging it
within the Object List, which is now a hierarchical display.
- I have eliminated the Group and Ungroup commands.  They caused problems
for animation, and the parent-child relationships described above offer
a more powerful way of doing the same things.
- There are several new modules in the procedural texture and material
editor.  The most important of these is the Expression module (written
by David Turner), which allows you to enter arbitrary mathematical
expressions to be evaluated.  Others are Min, Max, Lighter, and Darker
(the last two also by David Turner).  In addition, the Cells module now
offers a choice of three different distance metrics.
- Added a "tolerant selection mode" in the triangle mesh editor.
- The Textures and Materials dialogs now allow you to import textures
and materials from files.
- Added Null objects.
- Thanks to Carmen DiMichele for the beautiful new icons!
- Bug fixes and miscellaneous user interface improvements beyond all
reckoning.

v0.8, April 5, 2001

- Added Raster renderer.  Features include: Gouraud, Phong, and Hybrid
shading methods; antialiasing; fog; bump mapping; displacement mapping;
and environment mapping.
- Added Lathe tool.
- Added Extrude tool.
- Added Skin tool.
- Added Boolean Modelling tool.
- Added lots of new commands to the triangle mesh and/or spline mesh
editors: Clear, Select Boundary, Extend Selection, Close Selected Boundary,
Join Selected Boundaries, Extract Selected Curve, and Invert Surface
Normals.
- All editing tools in the object editors now respect the mesh tension.
- Added a tool for moving vertices inward or outward along the local
surface normal.
- Any camera in a scene can now be specified as the viewpoint in a scene
window.  (Removed the "View Through Camera" command, which was no longer
needed.)
- In the "Align Objects" command, can now specify the precise coordinates
to align to.
- Lots of bug fixes and user interface improvements.

v0.7, Jan. 15, 2001

- Added a graphical editor for creating procedural textures and materials.
- Added displacement mapping.
- Can now save rendered images as TIFF files with transparency information.
- Assorted bug fixes, etc.

v0.6, Oct. 5, 2000

- Split the old "Material" class into two new classes: Textures, which
describe surface properties, and Materials, which describe bulk properties.
- Any Texture can now be used as an environment map.
- Added layered textures.
- Added per-vertex texture parameters.
- Completely rewrote routines for raytracing Materials to add support for
nonuniform Materials, Materials with internal scattering, and Materials
which cast shadows.
- Added "Ambient" and "Decay Rate" parameters for point lights and spot
lights.
- Implemented plugin API for procedural Textures and Materials.
- The usual crop of bug fixes, etc.

v0.5, July 15, 2000

- Added interactive rendering (wireframe, flat shaded, smooth shaded, 
and transparent views).
- Replaced the old Line and Spline objects with a new Curve object.
- Added Spline Mesh objects.
- The VRML exporter now saves explicit normals for IndexedFaceSets.
- A few bug fixes and user interface improvements.

v0.4, May 3, 2000

- Rewrote the triangle mesh smoothing code to use subdivision surfaces.
This also involved many changes to the triangle mesh editor.
- Can now load and save scenes.  However, the file format is NOT final.
Later versions will NOT be able to open files created with this version.
- Material previews can now be rotated by dragging the image.
- Added a "solid" checkbox to the Set Material dialog.
- A few bug fixes.

v0.3, Feb. 18, 2000

- Added image mapped materials.
- Added bump-mapping to the raytracer.
- Rewrote the adaptive distribution raytracing code.  It now does a much
better job of figuring out when to send more rays, and can use up to 256
rays/pixel.
- Added spotlights.
- Added soft shadows to the raytracer.
- A huge number of bug fixes, optimizations, and user interface improvements.

v0.2, Dec. 23, 1999

- The raytracer can now directly render spheres, ellipsoids, and cylinders
without having to break them into triangles.
- The raytracer now supports antialiasing, depth of field, and
gloss/translucency effects.
- Added "Render Preview" command to the triangle mesh editor.
- Added automatic preview feature to the material editor.
- Rendered images can now be saved as JPEG files.
- Added a tool for creating circular and elliptical spline curves.
- There is now a "specular color" material property.
- Can now export scenes to VRML files.
- Many bug fixes and user interface improvements.

v0.1, Oct. 29, 1999

The first public release.  After six months gestation, a new program has
come into the world!

April 21, 1999

The very first line of code was written (in Vec3.java).
