BIG NOTE: Only some of the POV-Ray archives have needed changes since version 2.0, the others are remained at version 2.0. Here are the most current versions of each of the archives:
POVDOC.SEA - 2.0
POVMAC.SEA - 2.2
POVMNF.SEA - 2.2
POVSCN.SEA - 2.0
POVSRC.SEA - 2.2
What's new in version 2.2?
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There were many complaints that POV-Ray's "SmartMalloc" progress between renders was between 5 and 10 minutes! This is due to 2 factors: The use of Mac memory management (instead of C memory management), and the fact that auto-bounding was defaulted to ON which uses lots of memory. I have temporarily returned to C's memory management, which is faster but __doesn't completely free up memory__, and defaulted auto-bounding to be OFF. This is a temporary fix until we have no more memory leaks in the code and can do away with SmartMalloc altogether (v3.0)!
Core bugs fixed: (See also "WHATSNEW.DOC")
- Fixed problem with declared material_maps or declared objects with
material_maps (yet again)
- Eliminated unnecessary turbulence calculations in normals
- Fixed all known problems with height fields
Mac-specific bugs squashed:
-SmartMalloc somewhat faster, for a price (see above)
-A few template bugs/aesthetics were fixed
-Insert Template now deletes any existing selection before inserting the template.
What's new in version 2.1?
------------------------
There are almost no visible changes from 2.0 to 2.1, however, I took the time to fix up a couple of things, and Dave Harr managed to get POV-Ray to compile and run (I mean scream) on a PowerPC. It reportedly runs about 3 times faster than a Quadra 840AV.
The major update was to save the include path in the Application Preferences file in a more foolproof manner. The good news is you can move or rename the include file, and it will still be found. The bad news is that, once again, your application preferences will be rebuilt, and you will need to set them again.
Additional smaller preset image sizes were added to the Image Presets popup.
A few tweaks were made to the templates.
Core bugs fixed: (See also "WHATSNEW.DOC")
-some beziers crashing
-speckles on some surfaces with normal textures
-auto-bounding on Mac was read incorrectly and was always OFF
-Some Height fields had holes or rips in them, partially fixed.
Mac User interface tweaks & bugs squashed:
-RenderOpts auto-bounding now a popup
-Fixed a bug in adding System 7 custom icons, now works 100% instead of 98%.
-"save as default" moved from app prefs to file prefs
-Status window credits now show up at startup instead of upon 1st render
-status window info cleaned up a little bit
-balloon help updated
-if window was dragged onto 2nd monitor & saved, then brought up on
single monitor system it was placed up under menu bar, now fixed.
-Bug in menu-disabling logic accidently disabled the entire File menu
(including Open and Quit!) under System 6.
-Include folder position is saved in a much more foolproof manner.
-Out of memory errors handled in a more foolproof manner.
-Source code now updated to compile for PowerPC! (#if __powerc)
What's new in version 2.0?
------------------------
POV-Ray Macintosh version 2.0 is a fairly significant upgrade from POV-Ray 1.0. Although the general ray-tracing functionality is similar, the Macintosh application functionality and organization have changed dramatically. The main new features are:
-Much better organization of menus and dialog content
-Drag-n-drop of multiple files will queue and render each one; great for animation
-Automatic multi-frame animation using clock variable
-Added an “Insert Template” menu, can quickly insert any scene element in source
-Made Auto-shutdown NOT be remembered in preferences anymore (was dangerous!)
-If auto-shutdown during multi-file render, shuts down after last file rendered
-Added grow box & re-did size menu items for image window
-Added “please wait” progress bars to the two long pauses in POV-Ray:
#1.Garbage collection of memory (between renders)
#2.Creation of a virtual screen image buffer (low memory, big image)
-Can now copy text from the Status Window to the clipboard
-Can now save the Status Window contents to a text file
-Puts System 7 custom icon onto saved image file (thumbnail of image itself)
-“Select All” command in Edit menu added, selects all text in status or source
-Better support for multiple monitors, bug fixes, lots of testing
-Major cleanup of the source code, clarified global names, regrouped functions..
-Rewrote the preference file handling code, fixed some nasty bugs in it
-Reduced the size and number of global variables, returning to small data model
-Redid the balloon help for the new menu and dialog layouts
-Added custom palette menu, to optimize palette for displayed image window
-Multiple undo is better behaved
-Did a lot of testing under System 7.1 & QuickTime 1.61, seems to work just fine
-Out-of-memory conditions are handled much more gracefully now
