7.0 Changes

LightWave

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6.5B Changes Table of Contents

7.0 Changes

September 24, 2001

This is a list of the changes in the LightWave 7.0 release that affect the SDK. The changes include a new Layout tool class and two new globals, as well as extensive enhancement of many of the info globals defined in lwrender.h. Layout supports 51 new commands of its own plus another 46 that it now propagates to the various editors.

One change and one bug fix were made to the SDK for the LightWave 7.0B patch. These have been marked here with "[ B ]".

Structures associated with the ShaderHandler class and the Preview Functions and Item Info globals were changed, but the shader version number and the global name strings weren't incremented. In all cases, the changes involve members added to the ends of structures, so they have no effect on existing plug-ins. New plug-ins can use the Product Info global to verify that they're running in at least LightWave 7.0 before they use the new structure members.

lwcustobj.h

  • LWCUSTOMOBJ_VERSION (CustomObjHandler) has been incremented.
  • A quad function for drawing solid quad polygons has been added to LWCustomObjAccess.
  • Quads can be image-mapped using new setTexture and setUVs functions. setTexture accepts a square image in GL_RGBA format, and setUVs sets the UV coordinates at the corners of a quad.
  • The text function accepts a new justification argument, 0 for left, 1 for center, 2 for right.
  • The color argument to setColor now takes a fourth array element for the color's alpha level.
  • Since custom objects can draw semi-transparent primitives, viewPos and viewDir vectors have been added so that plug-ins can depth-sort their primitives.

lwdisplay.h

  • The header now defines _WIN32_WINNT.

lwdisplce.h

  • LWDISPLACEMENT_VERSION (DisplacementHandler) has been incremented because of changes to LWMeshInfo.

lwenvel.h

  • LWCHANNELINFO_GLOBAL (Channel Info) has been incremented to "Channel Info 2".
  • serverApply and serverRemove functions have been added to LWChannelInfo. Also added were serverFlags and serverInstance functions that return the flags and instance data of a channel handler.
  • A new event code, LWCEVNT_VALUE, has been added to signal changes to channels.

lwlaytool.h

  • This is a new header file containing the definition of a new plug-in class, LayoutTool.

lwmaster.h

lwmeshes.h

  • A polFlags function has been added to LWMeshInfo.
  • pntVIDGet and pntVPIDGet functions have been added to LWMeshInfo. These are like pntVGet and pntVPGet, but they don't require a preceeding call to pntVSelect, making them more reliable when called from threaded code.
  • Because of LWMeshInfo changes, LWOBJECTFUNCS_GLOBAL (Scene Objects) has been incremented to "Scene Objects 4".

lwmonitor.h

  • A new global (Layout Monitor) has been created to provide a standard monitor for Layout. The server name is LWLMONFUNCS_GLOBAL.

lwpanel.h

  • A new global (Context Menu) has been created to provide context menus in Panels. The server name is LWCONTEXTMENU_GLOBAL.
  • LWPANELS_API_VERSION (Panels) has been incremented. Panels using the new PANF_NOBUTT flag will not have Continue or Cancel buttons. PANF_RESIZE panels can be resized.

lwpreview.h

lwrender.h

  • Due to an error, LWSCENEINFO_GLOBAL (Scene Info) was defined as "LW Scene Info 2" in the public version of lwrender.h released with LightWave 6.5B. It should have been "LW Scene Info 3". The correct definition has been restored in the LightWave 7.0 headers.
  • Four functions (flags, lookAhead, goalStrength and stiffness) have been added to LWItemInfo (Item Info).
  • LWOBJECTINFO_GLOBAL (Object Info) has been incremented to "LW Object Info 4".
  • Eight new functions (boneSource, morphTarget, morphAmount, edgeOpts, edgeColor, subdivOrder, polygonSize and excluded) have been added to LWObjectInfo. The excluded function returns TRUE if the object has been excluded from the given light.
  • The LWObjectInfo flags function returns new flags LWOBJF_UNAFFECT_BY_FOG, LWOBJF_MORPH_MTSE and LWOBJF_MORPH_SURFACES.
  • LWBONEINFO_GLOBAL (Bone Info) has been incremented to "LW Bone Info 3".
  • Four new functions (strength, falloff, jointComp and muscleFlex) have been added to LWBoneInfo.
  • The LWBoneInfo flags function returns new flags LWBONEF_JOINT_COMP, LWBONEF_JOINT_COMP_PAR, LWBONEF_MUSCLE_FLEX and LWBONEF_MUSCLE_FLEX_PAR.
  • LWLIGHTINFO_GLOBAL (Light Info) has been incremented to "LW Light Info 3".
  • Eight new functions (falloff, projImage, shadMapSize, shadMapAngle, shadMapFuzz, quality, rawColor, intensity) have been added to LWLightInfo.
  • The coneAngles function now includes a time argument (since the angles can be enveloped) and returns values in radians rather than degrees.
  • A time argument has been added to the LWLightInfo range function.
  • The LWLightInfo flags function returns new flags LWLFL_FIT_CONE and LWLFL_CACHE_SHAD_MAP.
  • LWINTERFACEINFO_GLOBAL (Interface Info) has been incremented to "LW Interface Info 3".
  • The LWInterfaceInfo itemColor function returns the color used to draw the item in the interface. The new boxThreshold field contains the bounding box threshold, and alertLevel contains LWALERT_BEGINNER, LWALERT_INTERMEDIATE or LWALERT_EXPERT.

lwshader.h

  • replacement_percentage and replacement_color fields have been added to LWShaderAccess (ShaderHandler). Use these to set the surface color when your shader calculates lighting and you therefore don't want LightWave to overwrite your color.
  • [ B ] reflectionBlur and refractionBlur. fields have been added to the shader access structure.

lwsurf.h

  • Two new channel definitions for reflection and refraction blurring have been added (Surface Functions).

lwtool.h

  • A text function and pxScale (pixel scale) field have been added to LWWireDrawAccess.

lwtxtr.h

  • LWTEXTUREFUNCS_GLOBAL (Texture Functions) has been incremented to "Texture Functions 2", and four new functions have been added to LWTextureFuncs. texture returns a texture ID, given the ID of a texture layer. name, type and context return information about a texture.

lwvparm.h

  • Due to an error, the public version of lwvparm.h (Variant Parameters) released with LightWave 6.5 and 6.5B contained an incorrect definition of the LWVParmFuncs getEnv function. This definition showed getEnv taking a single argument and returning a single envelope ID. The correct definition shows getEnv returning void. It writes up to three envelope IDs in an array passed as the second argument. This definition has been restored in the current header.

Commands: Layout

  • The file written by SaveCommandList now includes Graph Editor, Image Editor and Surface Editor commands, and Layout now dispatches those commands to their respective components.
  • The Refresh command now defers its work until the system is idle, for improved interactivity. A RefreshNow command has been added for cases in which synchronous updates are desired. The new Redraw and RedrawNow commands are similar except that they don't cause motions and geometry to be recomputed.
  • The PluginOptions command has been replaced by MasterPlugins, to reflect the fact that the name of the panel it invokes has changed in the interface.
  • Other new commands:
    RecentScenes           ItemActive             PolygonSize
ReplaceObjectLayer     ItemLock               UnaffectedByFog
SquashTool             ItemVisibility         BoneStrengthMultiply
ShowTargetLines        ItemColor              BoneMinRange
BoundingBoxThreshold   RadiosityType          BoneMaxRange
VIPER                  RecentContentDirs      BoneJointComp
Presets                AlertLevel             BoneJointCompParent
EnableDeformations     AddButton              BoneJointCompAmounts
MatchGoalOrientation   Generics               BoneMuscleFlex
KeepGoalWithinReach    ClearAudio             BoneMuscleFlexParent
LimitH                 LoadAudio              BoneMuscleFlexAmounts
LimitP                 PlayAudio              LightQuality
LimitB                 RayTraceTransparency   ShadowMapFuzziness
HStiffness             LoadObjectLayer        ShadowMapFitCone
PStiffness             MorphMTSE              ShadowMapAngle
BStiffness             MorphSurfaces

Commands: Modeler

  • The new setcontent command sets the content directory.

Commands: Common

  • New (or newly available) Graph Editor commands include: 
    GE_OpenWindow         GE_DeleteSelKeys        GE_MoveKeys
GE_SetWindowPos       GE_ReduceKeys           GE_CreateExpression
GE_SetWindowSize      GE_LockKeys             GE_AttachExpression
GE_ApplyServer        GE_CopySelKeys          GE_AttachExpressionID
GE_RemoveServer       GE_PasteKeys            GE_SetGroup
GE_GetLayoutSel       GE_LeaveFootprints      GE_SetEnv
GE_SelectAllCurves    GE_PickupFootprints     GE_SetEnvID
GE_FilterSelection    GE_BacktrackFootprints  GE_LoadExpressions
GE_BakeCurves         GE_CopyTimeslice        GE_SaveExpressions
GE_SnapKeysToFrames   GE_PasteTimeslice       GE_ClearBin
GE_SelectAllKeys      GE_MatchFootprintAtFrame
  • The newly available Image Editor commands are: 
    IE_OpenWindow
IE_SetClipTable
IE_SetWindowPos
  • The surface system supports a new Surf_SetBakerImage command.

Miscellaneous

  • When the user changes the item order, plug-ins are now notified of the new IDs only after the item data have actually been rearranged. Globals that take item IDs as arguments should now behave correctly when called from within a handler's changeID callback.
  • In LWSN, master plug-ins now receive a LoadScene command event at the end of scene loading. Since the issuing of commands is not supported in LWSN, the LWMasterAccess structure contains dummy functions in this situation.
  • Attempts by plug-ins to trace rays during Wireframe or Quickshade renders were causing crashes. This has been fixed (the ray tracing functions now always return -1 in those modes).
  • The Directory Info global now returns the correct result for "Content" in Modeler.
  • Low and high angles are now returned by the Item Info limits function even if the corresponding limits are turned off.
  • A condition that could cause mesh info queries to fail after an object is cleared from the scene has been fixed.
  • All enabled environment plug-ins are now evaluated (although this can be a waste of time since each one will overwrite the results of the previous one).
  • The PreviousItem and NextItem commands now skip over locked items.
  • When Adaptive Sampling is on and Antialiasing is off, the minSamplesPerPixel from the Scene Info global is now zero, since some pixels may be totally skipped.
  • The Item Info controller function now returns correct values.
  • Button names specified by generic plug-ins are now used if present.
  • The envelope commands are now safe to use when there is no current item.
  • Object serial numbers are now computed during rather than after cloning so that plug-ins can get the final object names as they are created.
  • Since they may draw semi-transparent primitives, custom objects are now processed after all other 3D elements (including the grid).
  • [ B ] During scene file loading, newline characters after plug-in server names were not being read before the plug-ins loaded their data. This has been fixed.
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