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EDGE v2.4 Release Notes

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1. Patches
2. Upgrading (please read)
3. Summary of Changes
4. Installation
1. 4.1 Linux and Mac
2. 4.2 Windows
3. 4.3 To integrate into your sim:
5. Fixes and Enhancements
6. Known Issues

NOTE: These are the release notes for EDGE version 2.4. You can find the release notes for other versions here.

1. Patches

No patches exist for this version yet.

2. Upgrading (please read)

While EDGE v2.4 is considered a fairly significant release in terms of new features and compatibility issues, most projects should be able to use their 2.3 userdata directories without much interruption. Follow the install instructions in this document and use the "USERDATA" environment variable to point to your userdata directory before starting EDGE (exactly as was done in previous versions). For windows users, the USERDATA directory is usually pointed to in the .bat file used to startup EDGE.

EDGE is now 64 bit only
- While the transition to 64 bit has been slow, now that we are on the train, we don't have enough resources to support both 32 bit and 64 bit builds. The good news is very few (if anyone) is still running 32 bit machines or operating systems any more so the impact of this should be low, but it should making installing dependencies much easier. However, if your userdata includes custom plugins, you will need to rebuild those as 64 bit plugins.
Base cache updates require deleting USERDATA update caches
- With the base model cache being updated, the update cache files that user's will have in their $USERDATA/cache folders will not be compatible with EDGE v2.4. As you bring over your existing USERDATA to EDGE v2.4, be sure and delete this update cache file to allow it to be rebuilt the next time you gracefully exit EDGE. If you don't do this, symptoms will include odd geometry with odd colors or crazy lighting. Delete your $USERDATA/cache/user_cache.update files if upgrading to EDGE v2.4! Keep in mind, to rebuild your cache file, all of the model files referenced in the scene requires that those model files be present and readable. Future cache files should be written with a version in them to avoid conflicts.
The latest ISS model requires more resources
- The ISS model in EDGE has been updated to the latest configuration which includes more modules and tons more cables and things like that. All of that adds up to more polygons and a bit more resource requirements on EDGE. This would only apply to scenes that load the ISS model.
The CCTV plugin has been removed from loading by default.
- If you were relying on the CCTV plugin (for example to enforce a 4:3 aspect ratio) and not specifically adding it into your display context, you will need to make sure to add it into your display context in the plugins block. It is still there commented out in cev.cfg and blank.cfg so you can use that as a guide.

3. Summary of Changes

We are excited to release EDGE v2.4 (codenamed "snead"). Changes are many. See the full list in the "Fixes and Enhancements" below. Some of the most notable changes are:

Lunar regolith in EDGE v2.4 when MOON_EFFECTS are turned on

3.1 Procedural Noise Capability on Planet Layers

Often time, pseudo-random noise is used to add detail procedurally in shaders. This capability now exists in EDGE v2.4, and it has a sample implementation delivered for the Moon ground layer. You can enable this effect from the Moon shader by making the node "MOON_EFFECTS" visible. For more details, see issue Issues.00507

3.2 Performance Profiling Capability

Running EDGE with the "-timing" command line switch will print out timing metrics on exit. You can also print timing information and reset it using tcl commands. Finally, you can instrument a specific section of code with a simple macro in your plugin. For more details, see issue Issues.00204.

3.3 64-bit DCOMM Libraries for Mac and Windows

DCOMM libraries for Mac and Windows are now available in 64 bit! Actually, all of EDGE is now 64 bit. :)

3.4 Higher Performance from Caching Web Commanding Server

For folks running the Web Commanding Server where they may be a high number of requests, or a large number of clients, a new caching capability has been added. If the same request comes more than once before the expiration period has elapsed, the cached result will be returned. Many default callbacks have expiration times appropriate for how often the data changes. Similarly, users constructing their own web resources can set the expiration for each resource however they want. For more details, see issue Issues.00486.

New menu allows the user to toggle the menu bar and fullscreen.

3.5 Toggle Fullscreen at Run-time

Running EDGE with the "-fullscreen" and "-noborder" command line options will allow you to run in a complete fullscreen mode with no window decorations. However, if you wish to also retain keyboard and mouse window focus, this is not effective. A new interactive method has been added in the right-click menu to let the user toggle the menu bar and fullscreen while retaining the ability to use the mouse and fly the camera with the keyboard. For more details, see issue Issues.00502.

3.6 DCOMM Debugging Capability Added

Two of the most common issues when dealing with DCOMM are nodes not being sent out when they are expected to be, or nodes being sent out when they aren't expected (sometimes leading to a performance issue). With this new capability, you can now make a call to set a "debug node" and see a printout any time that node is sent out over DCOMM. You can also set a special node name to see all outgoing nodes printed out. See issue Issues.00504 for more details.

3.7 New Wavefront (OBJ) Model Loader Capability

Wavefront models (usually a .obj extension) are very popular. With the release, we include a new model loading capability to support loading obj files and the associate material (.mtl) files. This capability is in beta and has some limitations, but the source is provided for you to enhance and fix as needed. For more details, see issue Issues.00541.

New coneatron plugin to dynamically draw cones

3.8 Dynamic Cone Drawing Capability

Often times in scenes, especially those with space vehicles, it is nice to be able to visually inspect some envelope or corridor. The new dsp_coneatron plugin in EDGE v2.4 allows the user to use a GUI to dynamically draw a cone in the scene and then export that cone to a model file for use later. To see more info on the coneatron plugin, read here: Graphics.EDGEConeatronPluginReference

3.9 Trick 15 support

Support for Trick 15 simulations has been added to the simdata plugin. This should allow users to hook up to live Trick 15 simulations as well as load recorded data. As Trick 15 is only beginning to be used, there has been limited testing so please let us know if you run into any issues.

3.10 New dsp_info plugin

Sometimes more information about a node is needed than the doug.node command can provide. With the dsp_info plugin and the "dsp_info.node" tcl command you can now query things such as what model filename(s) a node is using, what .str file it was loaded from, what the relative position of the node is relative to another node, and what the model scale is. You can find documentation on using the new dsp_info plugin here: Graphics.EDGEInfoPluginReference

Node Order field in dialog for non-PYR nodes.

3.11 Node dialog changes to indicate node attitude order

It is common for most nodes in EDGE to use PYR sequence for Euler angles. However, occasionally nodes will use other sequences, such as PRY for the EARTH_BODY_REF node. This update causes the node edit dialog to show an extra field when the order is not PYR. Otherwise, it will look the same.

3.12 Configurable anti-aliasing for offline dsp_poster2 images

The poster2 plugin is used for offline images for things like screenshots, and for frames of movies. The latest update let's user configure super-sampling and multi-sampling of the images, which is very useful for rendering high quality posters and movies. See Issues.00544 for more information and the tcl commands that are available.

3.13 Low latency Video Streaming

Previous releases of EDGE introduced video streaming such as the MJPEG stream to a web browser. In this version, a new low-latency version of streaming is added via the PixelStream plugin. It has the advantage of having a very low latency, however, as the packet format is not a particular standard, it will require a custom client to be used to render the received video. There is an example client included for linux and mac. You can read more about the PixelStream capability here: Graphics.PixelstreamPlugin.

Example distortion using the dsp_distort2 plugin.

3.14 Image Distortion Capability

Occasionally you may want to distort the images coming out of EDGE - for example to perform distortion correction, or to model the characteristics of a particular camera. A completely configurable image distortion capability (both from offline images from the dsp_poster2 plugin and real-time images in the EDGE window) is provided via the dsp_distort2 plugin. You can read about the dsp_distort2 plugin here: Graphics.PerformImageDistortion.

4. Installation

To install:

4.1 Linux and Mac

Unzip the "EDGE_v2.4.zip" file.
Change into the EDGE_v2.4 directory and run "./run_graphics"
Optionally, run "./run_benchmarks" to get a performance assessment and mail in the results

That's it. As mentioned above, Linux and Mac users can also type "./run_benchmarks" to get a performance assessment of your machine. Email in your benchmark results to help us measure the effects of different drivers, kernel versions, etc., or just to brag about your fancy new hardware.

NOTE: Obviously the support libraries that are installed can vary widely from machine to machine. For example, some common packages you may need to install are (package names taken from red-hat based flavor - you may have adjust for debian or others):

glibc
avahi-libs (sometimes called avahi-devel)
mesa-libglu (sometimes called mesa-libGLU)
libXmu (sometimes called libXmu)
libXScrnSaver (sometimes called libXScrnSaver)
libXft (sometimes called libXft)
libjpeg (sometimes called libjpeg)
glx-utils

If EDGE gives you an error about a missing library, you can find what package provides them using yum commands such as "yum whatprovides libXss.so.1" and installing the 32 bit version.

4.2 Windows

Eventually we want to have a nice installer for Windows. For now, do the following:

Unzip the "EDGE_v2.4.zip" file.
Double click "run_graphics.bat" to start EDGE.

4.3 To integrate into your sim:

For simple desktop integration with a TRICK simulation, try using the simdata plugin found under the "Options" menu. You can read more about this on the Graphics.DspSimdataNew page. This supports both live sims and post-sim visualization of recorded data.
If you want to integrate a Trick simulation, or any other external program using the DCOMM library, see the DCOMM Light Client page.

5. Fixes and Enhancements

00134 - procedural noise capability in shaders for terrain
00204 - performance profiler troubleshooting tool
00352 - initial focus issue on mac
00416 - DOUG provided mouse coordinates not reliable
00421 - 64 bit native build of DOUG
00422 - 64 bit DCOMM library for Mac OSX
00473 - add crossplatform smarts for transform shared lib extension
00477 - libjpeg requires newer glib than RHEL 4.x boxes have
00478 - Incorrect planetary shading on some systems
00479 - EDGE version reported incorrectly as 2.2 when running in windows
00480 - EDGE WCS sometimes has error on Windows
00481 - Add ability to capture tcl output when running in windows
00484 - improve performance in cev_overlay_comm.tcl
00485 - WCS should deliver xsl and xslt files as application/xslt+xml
00486 - implement WCS caching to handle back-to-back requests
00488 - dsp_jpeggrab can segfault if large images are requested after a small one
00489 - modify WCS so that requests are not accepted until DOUG is fully running
00490 - add in mrest 2.0 resources to web commanding server
00491 - better support for Intel graphics chipsets
00492 - add comments to material definitions in speedy.cfg
00494 - Documentation for Tcl functions in canvas plugin
00495 - Ambient Occlusion feature not working in 319.xx series of NVIDIA driver
00496 - register_local_service corrupting entries if service name has spaces
00498 - add in RCS function examine env variables
00499 - 64 bit DCOMM library for windows
00500 - Add 3D TV support
00502 - Simple method for running fullscreen while maintaining keyboard focus
00504 - add debug capability to DCOMM to know when a node is sent out
00505 - add simple example of a DCOMM light client
00506 - src.dist makefile updates to address warnings on Mac OSX
00507 - lunar soil and regolith effects
00509 - problem when DEFINES expand to greater than 500 characters
00510 - bug when selecting user defined playback speed in simdata during dov playback
00511 - Simdata timebar does not update progress during image capture to disk
00515 - crazy lightning may occur with some driver versions
00516 - Add DCF_ClientConnectionAvailable to d_comm.h
00517 - Update headers for Trick 13 compatibility
00518 - add ability to get node model scale from tcl
00519 - update tcl RTD (radians to degrees) constant to have more precision
00520 - EDGE v2.3 appears to be incompatible with NVIDIA driver 340.24
00521 - bug in dsp_planet2.info -planets and -planet_layers tcl commands
00522 - bug when loading a state file where a node has only a parent change
00525 - Erroneously culled planet geometry when planet has large elevation deviations
00527 - DCOMM bug where unchanged nodes are still sent out over network
00529 - Scaling a model doesn't apply to graphics model frame
00530 - rendering accuracy issue in CCTV plugin
00531 - typo in lighting_effects_menu.tcl
00532 - src.dist transforms makefile needs mac and windows support
00533 - orbital transform for new JEOD3 is needed
00534 - allow speedy.cfg to be removed from startup
00535 - optimize string stream operations in simdata transforms
00536 - add in new JEOD3 quaternion version of transform
00537 - simdata does not search for transforms in userdata on win32
00538 - update simdata to support Trick 15 sims
00539 - make integrated debugger capability compatible with lldb
00540 - deleting a canvas deletes more than intended
00541 - add capability to load obj wavefront models
00542 - increase drawstar plugin performance
00544 - Upgrade poster2 to support configurable multisampling and supersampling
00546 - NVIDIA 355.x series driver has issues with ambient occlusion
00547 - add ability in tcl to get node position relative to another node
00548 - add tcl command to query filename of model that a node is using
00549 - dynamic cone drawing capability
00550 - ability to mirror a node position and attitude into another
00551 - Update node edit dialog to indicate node order
00553 - improve performance on Quadro cards
00554 - remove cctv plugin from default loads
00555 - Update benchmarks to work with latest NVIDIA drivers
00556 - update ISS model to latest version
00557 - add in json tcl package
00558 - simdata should check the sim rt cycle and warn if it is too slow
00559 - add plugin logging functions that accept variable argument lists
00560 - add logging function for printing out a matrix
00561 - fix compiler warnings about deprecated conversions of string constants
00562 - low latency video streaming
00563 - update defns.mk to allow redefinition of c files spec
00564 - add undo flags button to edit models GUI
00565 - userdata user.cfg has error in TEXTURE_MAP_PATH
00566 - add WCS information to show USERDATA version information
00568 - avahi-client and avahi-common should be included for linux
00570 - EDGE/DOUG interfaces issues under El Capitan
00571 - Trick 16 units change breaks EDGE variable server interface
00572 - EDGE surface shader plugin not working under El Capitan
00573 - potential memory issues in dcomm library
00574 - earth imagery looks a bit bleached out
00575 - request for plugin that will show any node changes
00576 - image distortion capability
00577 - output frames directory not being shown on simdata GUI
00579 - user cache filename should be version specific
00580 - jpegsave filenames should default to jpg instead of jpeg
00581 - bug with transparent textures when close to the earth
00583 - manager default tcl precision is too low
00584 - make get_global_var support arrays
00585 - change simdata default to Trick 1x sims
00586 - EDGE is broken on OSX Sierra
00587 - add more lightning storms
00589 - change default anti-aliasing settings for linux
00590 - add ability to scale a color channel in a canvas
00591 - retrieving canvas foreground and background colors doesn't work
00593 - DSF_LogStatusQ in PixelStream does not work on the Mac.
00594 - Increase initial window size
00595 - Add a new Input Device Framework (IDF) camera controller
00596 - Compile EDGE for Win64
00599 - Change point of contact to Eddie
00600 - Add config defines for window size
00601 - Create an edge-config utility
00604 - Enable anti-aliasing on the Mac

6. Known Issues

00074 - problems with the -timing command line option
00086 - possible trackcam bug
00100 - script plugin doesn't handle toggles with flags other than HIDE flags
00102 - ztile boundaries show up as lines in planet2 textures
00103 - weird planet2 shading issues
00114 - comm connection error message can cause seg fault
00121 - DSF_GetMapData() may be returning grey when it shouldn't
00173 - Fix DCF_GetRelPosAtt for double precision
00219 - one canvas per viewport when using associate_canvas helper function
00349 - Record plugin cannot handle command arguments with spaces
00350 - figure out why anti-aliasing looks poor on newer nvidia drivers
00351 - dsp_simdata plugin hangs when attempting to unload it on windows
00366 - BASE_ISS state has typos for JimboCam and JIMBO nodes
00387 - CP_7 camera model doesn't rotate with pan/tilt
00403 - poster2 images don't work well with ambient occlusion and blooming
00414 - Simdata stuck while initiating connection
00415 - dsp_hslloader does not error gracefully on unsupported str files
00420 - dcomm library on Mac gives warning
00427 - ac3d loader may be loading some texture coordinates incorrectly
00433 - Sometimes -ztile produces artifacts at or near the boundry between slices
00439 - switch to dynamic allocation for routines that process config file strings
00487 - WCS mobile pages not updating correctly in Internet Explorer
00493 - trackcam causing flickering problems when recording frame images for a movie file
00497 - autocollapse command line option broken
00512 - Simdata dialogue window interferes with image capture
00513 - Jittery Camera Tracking with Simdata Image Capture
00545 - redefining STARS_CONFIG_FILE does not remove drawstar plugin
00552 - lod should hide nodes that are below minimum size or above max distance
00578 - time based lod animation doesn't work on windows
00592 - doug callbacks on nodes seem to be getting called twice
00598 - transparent models not showing correctly on Macs with AMD graphics
00603 - Ugly underlines for menu accelerators on Ubuntu 16.04
00606 - DCOMM on Windows no longer working
00607 - EDGE seg faults on some linux systems
00608 - MJPEG video streaming from WCS not working on linux
00612 - tkcon command console up arrow for history no longer works
00613 - tkcon command console has error on mouse over of err msgs
00616 - weird problems with WCS from browser
00617 - dsp_jpeggrab crashes during startup on the Mac
00620 - warning for indirect rendering no longer working
00621 - POST to dandelion web server in WCS not working
00623 - Toggling ATV on and off doesn't seem to do anything
00624 - Tcl/Tk headers missing
00626 - default_stars_ files missing from src.dist area
00627 - dsp_drawcanvas has error if all views are disabled

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