Build 265, March 05, 2001

Feature

Initial implementation of alpha channel masking for raytrace image backgrounds. Feature is set in
Environment DB. Alpha channels are currently only saved for .tif and .tga files.

Change

Simple models with complex backgrounds, such as background images, will render the background more
correctly when using the High Dynamic Range tone operator.

Bug Fix

In AutoCAD 2000i, a crash will not occur when returning from editing a batch job.

Build 264, February 18, 2001

Change

Significantly reduced memory usage for photometric image buffer.

Bug Fix

In AutoCAD 2000i, a crash will not occur when switching to animation mode.

Build 263, December 20, 2000

Feature

Added support for RPC preview mesh representation in AutoCAD.

Bug Fix

RPC not working properly during radiosity and subsequent raytracing of radiosity solution. A crash may
occur during the raytrace phase.

If the RPC file cannot be located, a crash may occur when attempting to edit the RPC object.

Build 262, November 13, 2000

Feature

Initial implementation of ArchVision® RPC® product.

Build 261, October 11, 2000

Feature

Added “Hotspot” tab to material editor. Provides independent control of glossiness. Be aware when using
this feature photometric accuracy may be compromised.
Added “Angular Blend” material pattern. Pattern mediates between two materials based on view angle.

Bug Fix

Plant Library Browser does not crash intermittently.

When using General Purpose tone operator—background is correct when default Brightness/Contrast
values are set before raytracing.

Build 260, September 05, 2000

Bug Fix

Additional memory leaks fixed related to materials.

You now can change object type (i.e. Thin, Solid, etc.) if multiple objects are selected.

Several bugs fixed that were introduced during 259.

Build 259, August 17, 2000

Bug Fix

Memory leak does not occur when decompressing jpegs.

Build 258, August 06, 2000

Change

Backgrounds colors are now handled differently. This should help the two situations in which background
and luminance are combined in a single pixel—antialiasing along an object-background edge and
reflections or refractions of the background in an object. Many internal changes were required.

Build 257, July 18, 2000

Bug Fix

Multiple light source shadows handled correctly in simple raytrace mode.

Build 256, July 13, 2000

Bug Fix

Reflections of the background are being correctly calculated.

Attempting to add a wave to an object does not causes a crash.

ar3_setvar codes 1405 and 1406 are working properly.

Build 255, June 19, 2000

Feature

Some lighting dialog boxes now contain support for simple (non-photometric) raytrace rendering method.
This method is currently available only through the API.

Build 254, May 23, 2000

Bug Fix

Canceling during model load or screen grid generation will not cause a crash.

Build 253, May 18, 2000

Bug Fix

Deleting Clear Finish material pattern from a material does not causes a crash.

Build 252, May 12, 2000

Bug Fix

Landscape preview performance fix..

Build 251, May 9, 2000

Bug Fix

Total internal reflection ray has correct direction.

Feature

Added new procedural material pattern called “Clear Finish”. Material models any compound material
with a clear top layer or binder. Reflectivity is view dependent— extra reflectivity occurs at glancing
angles. Changing the transparency properties of the top coat, such as IOR, change this behavior. Such
things as automotive paint, porcelain and other ceramics, plastics, varnished woods, can be modeled with
this new material. View-dependent color shifts are also possible.

Build 248, Mar 7, 2000

Bug Fix

Depth of field is not working if 2-point perspective is selected.

Feature

Added some additional AutoLisp api. See api.doc.

Build 247, Jan 27, 2000

Bug Fix

Certain models with many transparent surfaces may crash when bounces are set very high—e.g. > 15.

Build 246, Nov 18, 1999

Bug Fix

Spherically mapped decals project correctly.

Build 245, Nov 2, 1999

Bug Fix

When canceling out of the Adjust Exposure DB, the Indirect Lighting value is restored to its previous
state.

Indirect Lighting is being properly handled when reflected or refracted. One symptom includes masked
decals, such as people, having visible silhouette edges when a non-default Indirect Lighting value is used.

Background reflections are now not too dark. This fix may require additional calibration.

Build 244, Oct 20, 1999

Bug Fix

When editing a planar (Standard) decal using the Adjust Size and Position interface, the Move option will
not result in invalid coordinates.

Using AccuRender with multiple documents will not produce unexpected results or instability—
particularly when raytracing radiosity solutions.

When loading schemes, the on/off status of the sun is properly handled.

When rendering seasonal sun studies to single frame output, the frame numbering is correct.

Valid AVIs are being produced by all Codecs. Indeo 5.x was particularly sensitive.

AccuRender will not hang when raytracing a WalkAbout image immediately after exiting the Raytrace
Settings DB. The problem is related to some video cards in “True Color” configurations.

Build 243, Sept 28, 1999

Bug Fix

Materials which have 0.0 for a red channel value will change colors during antialiasing. Pure green
materials become black.

Build 242, Sept 22, 1999

Feature

Added "No Blurry Reflection" and "No Blurry Transparency" checkboxes to prevent generation of these
effects. Checkboxes can be set globally, under Raytrace Settings—or in the Material Editor to exclude
them for a particular material only.

Build 241, Sept 20, 1999

Feature

Added ar3_getcolor and ar3_setcolor AutoLisp entry points for manipulating material by color
information.

Build 240, August 25, 1999

Bug Fix

Large background bitmaps now showing properly in WalkAbout.

Build 239, August 24, 1999

Bug Fix

Under Japanese Win98 only—lock up does not occurs when loading model.

Build 238, August 2, 1999

Bug Fix

Antialiasing artifacts do not occur on edges between background and objects when looking through a
transparent surface.

Build 237, July 29, 1999

Bug Fix

Canceling out of Adjust Exposure DB does not cause raytrace ambient to be incorrectly set—usually to
0.0.

Antialiasing will not result in odd color artifacts if a material has one or more RGB channels set to 0.0.
Antialiasing is improved when a matte black material is used (RGB 0,0,0).

Change

Adjusted the High Dynamic Range tone operator slightly.

Build 236, July 28, 1999

Bug Fix

Trace instability in ray tracer fixed—crash more likely to show up in large animations.
Build 235, July 25, 1999

Feature

Added zoom capability for animation paths. See Edit Path Segment-> End Lens Length (mm).

Bug Fix

Animations do not render black if "General Purpose" tone operator is selected.

Build 234, July 23, 1999

Bug Fix

AVI file writing working correctly (introduced in Build 227).

Animations do not exhibit inconsistent exposure calibration.

When creating a new animation, indirect lighting is correctly set to 0.0.

Build 233, July 21, 1999

Bug Fix

AutoCAD 2000 does not cause a crash when doing certain file operations under Win95/98. Most
noticeable is when the radiosity warning dialog box text is read from file. Also appears when saving
certain configuration info, such as materials, lighting setup, etc.

Occasional artifacts have been eliminated when using the High Dynamic Range tone operator in
conjunction with specular materials which reflect or transmit the background color. These artifacts show
up as intermittent dark pixels.

Sun and sky tabbed dialog box is set to correct size when switching from specifying sun angles directly to
specifying by Date/Time/Place. Also dialog box may not properly show last tab accessed.

Build 232, July 19, 1999

Feature

Added additional components to material bitmaps—see Advanced Tab. Reflectivity and transparency can
now be altered by the map.

Bug Fix

WalkAbout background image show correctly if an offset is used.

When editing Object Properties of a multiple selection in which all the objects already have their material
assignment type set to By Object, changing Materials via the Browse button works.

Notes on AccuRender 3.1 (build 231+)

Some substantial and exciting changes were made to AccuRender since the last incremental release.
Because of the nature of the changes, users are cautioned to treat this incremental build as a Beta version.
In other words, if you have a pressing deadline, you may want to use the previous build. Although there
are currently no known problems, this new configuration has not been extensively tested. If you do decide
to install it, and we hope you do (we obviously rely heavily on user testing), please be prepared to
"downgrade" to a previous release if problems are encountered. If you decide not to install it, you may
wish to wait for several weeks to see if any problems do surface.

Real-time Exposure Adjustment

The most significant change in the current release is that internal raytrace images now contain luminance
information. Previous to this release, the raytrace images contained only RGB color information. The
most obvious practical benefit of this is that the Adjust Exposure controls can now work without re-
raytracing an image. An Apply Now button has been added to the dialog box for a near realtime update of
the image. Tone operators can be swapped, Brightness and Contrast can be adjusted—all without
repeating the rendering. The mapping from luminance to RGB, what we are calling a tone operator, now
happens only when the image is displayed on the screen, or saved to a file.

We've also added some additional information to the image, which allows you to adjust something we're
calling Indirect Lighting, in the Adjust Exposure dialog box. This control tends to have a more
pronounced effect on shadows than the other controls. Please let us know if it's useful.

There are many other potential (future) benefits to having an image in luminance. In the future we will
likely support file formats which store luminance and therefore permit the same sort of image adjustments
as the Adjust Exposure controls. There are some emerging standards out there for this sort of thing.

Some consequences of the new architecture include:

1. Images will require more substantially more memory. We're moving from 4 bytes per pixel to 9 bytes
per pixel. We think it's worth it— we'd like to hear from you, though.
2. Raytrace images will display (not render) more slowly. I.e. it may take several seconds for AccuRender
to paint the image on the screen. This is because the tone operator mapping is occurring as it
constructs the image.
3. I had to rework antialiasing to operate with luminance information. This may have performance and
image quality implications. My test images are looking good and the models are performing well—
this may not be true for all images. Please let us know.

There may of course be other, unforeseen consequences.

New clouds

This new version substantially alters how the procedural clouds work. The intent is to provide much more
flexibility, control and interactivity in designing clouds. A known consequence is that your models which
make use of the current Cirrus clouds will look different.

AccuRender contains two different cloud technologies— a textured plane (called Cirrus clouds in previous
versions) and 3D textured ellipsoids (previously called Cumulus clouds). Since the ellipsoids have proven
very difficult to work with, I've decided to concentrate on the former (and simpler) of the two
technologies. The Cirrus clouds have been renamed Sheet Clouds and are now the only ones on by
default. Their controls have been greatly enhanced and moved to the prime real estate in the dialog box.
It's now possible to model many different cloud types using Sheet Clouds alone. The Cumulus clouds have
been renamed 3D clouds, moved to a less prominent location, and otherwise left alone. A real time cloud
previewer has also been provided.

Rendered Plant Preview

Pretty self-explanatory—a simple rendering directly on top of the wireframe in near real-time for most
plants. You don't have to wait for the rendered preview to finish if the wireframe is adequate—you do
have to wait for the wireframe to generate (this may take slightly longer since the translation is producing
more stuff).

Please let us know what you think of the new stuff. Remember we don't have the resources in-house to
extensively test the software. We rely almost completely on your comments to work out the kinks.

Roy Hirshkowitz

Build 231, July 13, 1999

Feature

Major overhaul of procedural clouds.

Build 228, June 17, 1999

Feature

Major overhaul of procedural clouds.

Build 227, June 21, 1999

Bug Fix

R13 version will not crash when a WalkAbout viewport rendering follows an AutoCAD viewport
rendering.

Bitmap material will not show very intermittent odd shading artifacts. These are obvious errors, not
subtle ones.

Feature

Raytrace images now store luminance information instead of RGB color information. The Adjust
Exposure dialog box provides near realtime control over Luminance->RGB mapping via an Apply Now
button-- i.e. re-rendering is not necessary when changing the exposure.

Added an additional exposure control called Indirect Lighting. This takes the place of Ambient for
raytracing and can be applied in near realtime. For radiosity model display exposure control, the old
Ambient setting has been renamed "Residual X" (it really is a residual multiplier). A true raytrace
ambient multiplier can still be found under Lighting->Ambient. New exposure controls have been added
in to Animation, Panorama Networks, and Sun Studies as well.

Added a two point perspective option for animation.

Change

The Animation lens lengths controls now permit a broader range of lenses-- 5 mm to 1000mm.
The High Dynamic Range tone operator is now the default selection for new drawings.

Build 223 May 10, 1999

Bug Fix

Some background colors may cause black pixels when "High Dynamic Range" tone operator is
selected. This is seen most often when procedural clouds are used.

In AutoCAD 2000 the following sequence causes a crash. (1) open a drawing and render
(2) open a second drawing and render (3) type "ar".

Build 222 May 07, 1999

Feature

Preliminary work on a new tone operator choice, called "High Dynamic Range".
See Adjust Exposure dialog boxes. Old tone operator is called "General Purpose".
New tone operator may be more appropriate for scenes with "rich" and varied lighting.
Images tend to have more contrast, with better color saturation.

Added a Lock Exposure control to the Adjust Exposure dialog box. This will "lock in" the
current exposure settings, even if the lighting or view changes. This may be useful for
instances where the relative nature of the tone operators is producing undesired effects.
This setting is not saved-it is per session only and has no effect until a tone operator
is calculated-i.e. a rendering is started.

Build 221 April 28, 1999

Bug Fix

Background image disappears in WalkAbout view if negative offsets are used

(e.g. image is moved left or under current view.)

Background image is not properly located in WalkAbout when non-zero

offsets are used.

In Environment dialog box, Background Image page, red rectangle

indicating planar bitmap position is not initially drawn correctly
if offsets have been used.

Many API entry points will cause a crash if AR control window has
never been brought up for the current document.

Build 220 April 21, 1999

Bug Fix

A bug occurs when modifying the basic object properties of multiple

objects, such as Molding and Trim, if the objects have different
properties. Although the checkbox correctly indicates a gray, or
"varies" state, clicking OK without any further action will cause all
the objects in the selection set to take on that property.
Upon re-entering the dialog box, the checkbox will no longer be grayed.
Build 219 April 08, 1999

Bug Fix

In certain Spanish versions of AutoCAD, inserting groundcover does

not work properly.

Build 218 April 06, 1999

Bug Fix

Rendering a window in the AutoCAD screen does not work properly

if the raytrace scale is set to anything other than 1x Viewport.
The final display is OK-incremental displays are not properly
located in the viewport.

API function (ar3_getvar 1051) returning incorrect values.

Build 217 April 04, 1999

Bug Fix

With Windows 9x and IE 5.0 installed, the library screens

(material, plant, light fixture) will not cause a crash.

Build 216 March 24, 1999

Bug Fix

Memory leak of approximately 90K bytes per animation frame.

Changing views in a batch rendering will fail if REGENAUTO is off.

Under rare circumstances, crash may occur during Screen Grid generation.

Build 215 March 15, 1999

Feature

Added support for Japanese version.

Build 213 February 25, 1999

Feature

Initial AutoCAD 2000 support, including Multiple Documents.

Required substantial changes to the boilerplate code for all platforms.
This should be considered a Beta release-be prepared to step back to 212
if necessary for production purposes.

Build 212 January 25, 1998

Change

Reduced the minimum allowed for WalkAbout angular motion increments

to 0.0005 radians or approximately 0.03 degrees. This allows for
finer motion controls. Ctrl key cuts this in half to 0.015 degrees.
Added an AutoLisp command (use_screen_buffer on). Setting on to 0,
effectively disables screen buffer generation. Setting it to non-zero
turn buffer generation on (the default). This may be useful for certain
users who have encountered long screen buffer generation
times, relative to rendering times. Rendering time will increase
for most drawings. This is intended as a temporary work-around only-a
better solution will be looked at for a future update. The setting is
not saved with the drawing.

Feature

Added a Scrollbar Multiplier setting to WalkAbout Setup->Motion. This

modifies the standard WalkAbout behavior-- to move both the camera and
target by either 0.01 (small increment) or 0.1 (large increment) * the
model's Z extents.

Added (ar3_ar2convert flags) Lisp entry point for doing batch AR2
conversions. Flags control what is converted. Valid value for bit
flags are any combination of:

1 - layer material assignments

2 - lights
4 - object properties
8 - environment settings
16 - plants

If flags is 0 or omitted, the Convert AccuRender2 Drawing Info dialog

box is shown.

Build 210 January 14, 1999

Bug Fix

Changing a spot light's zone does not cause the beam angle to be reset
to 0.0.

Loading a light configuration file is now forcing an automatic re-translation of the light
sources. May appear to have no effect.

Build 209 January 08, 1999

Bug Fix

Tree branches which extend across the view will appear in the raytracing.

Memory leak does not occur in drawings with large number of polylines. Additional memory leak fixed
related to decal processing.

Repeat translations will not cause a memory leak under certain circumstances.

Feature

In Plant Editor, added "Spherical Base" option to branch geometry. This can help plug gaps which may
occur between parent and child branches.

Build 208 January 04, 1999

Bug Fix

Using the ar3_object_properties command will not cause the Control Panel to remain visible.
This happens when points are selected for mapping or decals.

The Help button is hooked up in the New Panorama Network dialog box.

Repeat translations will not cause a memory leak.

Build 207 December 11, 1998

Feature

Zone settings are now saved in lighting config files and scheme files.

Build 206 December 11, 1998

Bug Fix

Restarting a radiosity solution will not cause a crash under rare but unpredictable circumstances.

An animation path segment which contains both Target and Camera splines will not crash if the
target spline has somehow been deleted.

An errant, out of scale, branch will now not be seen on certain complex tree definitions. This
branch will be the first instance of the level, the problem occurs when the parent
level has a non-zero flare setting and is most pronounced for large levels of flare.
Correction of the problem may require manually modifying certain complex tree definitions.

Build 205 December 07, 1998

Bug Fix

When editing a rectangular goniometric light, length and width controls are enabled
until Rectangular geometry is re-selected.

When inserting a linear goniometric light, the radius control is operating properly.

Editing a linear goniometric light brings up the correct dialog box, rather
than the Edit Goniometric Light dialog box.

Restoring a view gives slightly different results if done in a Batch Rendering operation.

Phantom faces will not appear in some drawings. This bug is rare and tends to occur when
xrefs and lwplines are used frequently. Note : This appears to be a bug in the ent2face
mechanism, and I'm not sure my workaround solves all instances of the problem. Would
appreciate additional feedback.

Feature

Added support for optional lighting zones. Checking the box will result in an expanded
Lighting DB. Lights can be dragged and dropped into zones-each zone has an independent
"dimmer" control.

Added right-click context menus to Light list.

Build 204 October 20, 1998

Bug Fix

Sun and sky intensities are now being saved with the radiosity solution.

Continuing a previously saved radiosity solution will not cause the program to hang.

Under batch rendering, the task Load Configuration File is working properly for
certain file types, notably Adjust Exposure (*.ex) files.

Build 203 October 19, 1998

Bug Fix

After attaching a mapping to an object via the Pick 3 Points method, the reference
planes and rotation angles may change when returning to the Mapping tab.

Build 202 October 16, 1998

Bug Fix

When editing the task list of a saved batch rendering job, the Move Up button doesn't
function properly and may cause tasks to be deleted.

International versions may crash if string table entries are missing.

Feature

Added Material Assignment by ACI (color index) to support sub-objects of initial release
of Architectural Desktop.

Material Assignment dialog box uses new list view control-column widths, descending and
ascending sorting are supported.

Build 201, October 9, 1998

Bug Fix

Error in IES data sampling (goniometric sources) introduced in Build 200 fixed.

Potential error in IES file parsing when files have lines greater than 130 characters fixed.

Certain IES files for downlights may incorrectly display small uplight values fixed.

When using background bitmaps, checking Fit to Viewport (planar projection) does not cause
the spherical projection's vertical angles to become inoperative.

Build 200, September 21, 1998

Change

Radiosity solution generation is more efficient. Memory usage is down approximately 15%.
Shooting secondary sources is much faster for most models.

Build 199, September 04, 1998

Some additional WalkAbout enhancements:

1. Screen buttons can be held down like cursor keys for continuous motion.
2. Screen buttons now respond to <Shift> and <Ctrl> keys (faster/slower).
3. Right clicking on the screen motion buttons brings up the View Setup tab with the
Motion page forward for easy adjustment of motion increments.
4. Right clicking on the Orbit/Walk icon brings up the Main page of the View Setup tab for
fast modification of FOV, etc.

IVR file (panorama) support has been enhanced-we now support the new LivePicture® format a
s well as spherical projection for both the new and old file formats.

Build 198, August 28, 1998

Bug Fix

Selecting No from the Save Material As dialog box will not cause subsequent instability. This
is true for plants and light fixtures as well.

Feature

Background bitmaps now show up in the WalkAbout window (planar mapping only). Masking is
ignored. This feature can be disabled by unchecking WalkAbout->Setup->Advanced->Show Planar
Bitmap.

A background color can now be selected in the WalkAbout window. See WalkAbout->Setup->
Advanced->Background Color.

Build 197, August 15, 1998

Bug Fix

Plants inserted with "low" Level of Detail show trunks or branches.

Build 196, August 4, 1998

Bug Fix

Creating a dimension with AccuRender loaded may cause a crash.

Saving, while in Tilemode 0, may cause a crash.

With Haze enabled, a black and white raytracing may result. Repeating the raytrace usually works.

Build 195, July 31, 1998

Bug Fix

Materials which have bitmaps in which both bump-mapping and tile mirroring are enabled will not cause
a
crash during ray tracing.

Changing Tilemode with AccuRender loaded does not crash.

In the Save Light Fixture as dialog box, selecting Library->New shows the ligthing libraries.
Build 192, July 4, 1998

Bug Fix

After running a quick mode rendering, running an animation, batch, or panorama network will not result
in "quick mode" style renderings.

Build 191, July 3, 1998

Bug Fix

When rendering to the AutoCAD viewport in Windows 95 and requesting a render window before any
other
rendering operation, the AccuRender dialog box hides properly.

Octagon and hexagon mask files are working properly.

Build 190, July 2, 1998

Bug Fix

Render Frames button is not always enabled for animation when in radiosity mode-even when no solution
is
present.

Applying cylindrical and spherical decals to arbitrarily oriented objects have predictable results.

Adding new animation paths, or grip editing existing ones does not trigger a model reload.