EDGE v2.1_BETA_100120 Release Notes

On this page… (hide)

1. 1. Patches
2. 2. Upgrading (please read)
3. 3. Summary of Changes
   1. 3.1 Updated benchmarks
   2. 3.2 Dynamic LOD support
   3. 3.3 Planet2 Updates
   4. 3.4 Stars
   5. 3.5 Sim data variable server
   6. 3.6 Preliminary Mac OSX Snow Leopard support
   7. 3.7 Speedtest3
   8. 3.8 Remote commanding
4. 4. Installation
5. 5. Known Issues
6. 6. Fixes and Enhancements

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NOTE: These are the release notes for EDGE version v2.1_BETA_100120. You can find the release notes for other versions here.

1.  Patches

No patches exist for this version yet.

2.  Upgrading (please read)

If you are upgrading from a previous version of EDGE, please be aware of the following:

• Snow Leopard Support

  • Give it a shot. This stuff is in its infancy, so it is expected to be unstable

• Mac Leopard deprecated

  • We are moving to snow leopard… due to the problems developing for both, we are planning on dropping support for regular leopard.

• Environment files

  • We have started the process to remove all of the environment files and move everything to config files. This means files such as the .doug_cshrc will go away. See Issue 00154 for info.

• run_graphics script

  • The run_graphics script has been renamed to run_standalone and does not utilize a manager. If you wish to run a manager for other clients to connect to (such as a sim), run a separate manager process (use run_manager) and then run_client for graphics. See Issue 00183 for more info.

• Comm port

  • To avoid conflicts, the default comm port has been changed to 8000. See Issue 00175 for more info.

• SYNC_TO_VBLANK

  • The SYNC_TO_VBLANK directive for the NVIDIA driver has been changed to default to off. You can change this in your user_env.csh if you are having problems with screen tearing.

3.  Summary of Changes

We are excited to release EDGE v2.1_BETA_100120. For the full list of changes, please see the section at the end of this document. Notable changes include:

3.1  Updated benchmarks

We are excited to test out the latest code on the latest hardware. Once the full 2.1 release comes out, be prepared to send in those results and compete for the highest score!!! That last benchmark test is now a doozy! Wanna get a sneak preview of your score before the release? Try out "./run_benchmarks" in the beta.

3.2  Dynamic LOD support

The idea of this feature is to have a user specify a desired minimal framerate. Then, as frame rates drop below this number, DOUG will dynamically swap out to lower detail models trying harder and harder to maintain the desired minimum framereate.

3.3  Planet2 Updates

Lots of new features are available on the planet, such as enhanced lighting, city lights, better clouds, sun blooming, and even lightning storms with configurable storm locations.

3.4  Stars

Some really great stars have been added and they are configurable to look however you want!

3.5  Sim data variable server

This release intends to start the process of moving over to variable server based communication with TRICK simulations. This will allow EDGE to easily communicate with TRICK sims with no modifications to the sim whatsoever.

3.6  Preliminary Mac OSX Snow Leopard support

This is a preview, and we expect you will have problems. But hey, give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

3.7  Speedtest3

This new version of the speedtest plugin bring many new features and performance enhancements. Shadows and environment reflections are supported although with costs in performance. Nodes can be excluded from rendering, and blooming is now supported.

3.8  Remote commanding

EDGE has a remote commanding server that allows external programs to execute just about anything that can be done locally, such as switching camera views, changing overlays, or anything else that can be done in a local tcl script. An example client tcl program is included in the delivery.

4.  Installation

To install:

1. Untar the "EDGE_v2.1_BETA_100120.tgz" file. Notice there is a "gisdata" link in that directory that defaults to "/dougdata/gisdata_2.1". This is because it is preferable that the gisdata_2.1 folder reside on the local machine where doug is running. It is not required however.
2. Extract the "EDGE_data_pack_v2.1.tgz" (referred to as data pack) somewhere (it is recommended that this be somewhere on the local machine where doug will be run and not on a network path such as a home dir). Optionally, you can also extract the additional data pack files such as EDGE_mars_data_v2.1.tgz and EDGE_hadley_data_v2.1.tgz into the same directory.
3. Modify the gisdata link to point to the location where you extracted the data pack.

That's it. To run, cd into the EDGE directory and type "./run_standalone".

To integrate into your sim:

This has changed. See this article for the new way of doing things.

5.  Known Issues

Will add this in when we make a full release

6.  Fixes and Enhancements

Will add this in when we make a full release

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