ArtMatic Voyager CTX version details

Voyager CTX 1.5 highlights

-Compiled with ArtMatic engine 8.5. The engine has now 740 component for 2721 total functions. Many new RGBA textures and DF primitives and DF curves greatly expands modeling possibilities : ArtMatic 1.5 new and expanded components. As usual Voyager 1.5 needs to be used with AM 1.5.
-A new illumination model (set in preferences) allows a better and more realistic repartition of light transport physics.
-improved sea illumination model
-Add preference to open last used file at launch
-Voyager 1.5 now supports the free run loop animation mode. In free run the animation loops at a rate given in hertz independently of animation length.
-improve terrain self shadow accuracy. Note that if artefacts are visible in good quality better or best will likely fix them.
-DF shadows are now previewed in draft mode
-ArtMatic parameters UI dialog is larger
-fix problems with view point vector handling when animating (length was reset using replace keyframe and camera offsets/tilt)
-fix some problems with DF render optimisation
-Fixed Frequency filtering in preview mode
-Examples updated and expanded:
Components/DF PathSweeps, Components/DF Curves, Terrains & Landscapes ...
1.5 specific Examples are located in Voyager Examples/VY15 Examples/

Voyager CTX 1.2/1.1 Changes

-1.2 Implements a new and faster workaround to fix Appkit redraw problems. Voyager 1.2 works on any Mac OS including Big Sur.
-New DF object shaders for transmissive materials
-Faster draft mode : Draft mode will turn off true reflections and refractions and use the environment map in place. Use draft mode when positioning elements to for interactive speed, especially in complex scenes.
-Compiled with AM engine 8.08. See ArtMatic Designer releases notes for additions. VY 1.2 needs to be used with AM 1.2.
-Object/sprites/element browse scene pick list added for positioning. You can select the target from main ui.
-The Camera home button can now focus the camera on the target sprite or object.
-Add smooth and ramp color buttons in Animation params inspector
-Fix shadows computation for DF lights with light direction provided in xout 1 or 2. Note that the light vector can have a 4th element which is interpreted as a shadow maximum distance.
-Rendering time readout now in Hours/Min/Sec
-Sky illum gain now affects the luminosity of haze as well
-and several bug and problem fixed
-Implement a new skin “Paper blueprint” and fine-tune various skins in all CTX family
-Memory management consolidation

Voyager CTX 1.0 Changes

• Vastly improved UI, customizable, resizable with self adaptive rendering resolution for better responsiveness, generalized numeric entry and non-modal inspectors for a more efficient workflow.
• Improved rendering both in speed and quality for Volumetric and built-in Clouds, Terrains rendering and DF light shading
• Improved Animation control
• Added animatable lights sources and additional suns
• Full support for 16 bits per pixel images and of the high quality codec Apple ProRes 444 (10 bit per pixel)
• ArtMatic Engine 8.07 : now has 2382 total functions for 734 components with 168 new functions and 14 new components
• Multiple Undo steps are now possible

The UI has been completely redesigned and reimplemented in a 64 bit C++, Cocoa framework. it can be resized with real-time feedback and the skin mode theme is changeable in the preferences. The workflow and screen organization have many deep modifications. Most of the important dialogs are no longer modal and will appear on the side without hiding the main view. The main UI is still accessible while using a specific Inspectors

Modeless "inspectors" are used for Objects, Sprites, Lights, Animation and Environment parameters. They can be open using the icons on the top right of the UI. The one specific to timeline "Animation parameters" is located in the timeline section. Some functionality that were in the dialogs were moved to the main UI because the non modality make them usable even when a particular "inspector" is open. For example the new section "Positions" below the "Camera" handle the positioning of every elements in a VY scene which meant the position slider became redundant in the dialogs.

Most of the sliders give you a real time preview at an adaptive resolution. You can click on any map and drag seeing the real time result of the camera's or object's change of position. When rendering the scene is slow this real time preview will be at a very low resolution but enough to have a useful look. As soon as you release the mouse a better rendering is starting, a rendering that can be interrupted at any moment to tweak another parameter.

Position Controls:

Almost every Voyager entity have now coordinates that can be moved using the new Position Area section in the main UI. The old "ArtMatic sky coordinate" is thus no longer needed as clouds coordinates are now common for any kind of clouds and can be directly changed in the "Position" section when in "clouds and sky" mode. Even main planets terrain can be moved. Suppose you have a great sky at some point but the foreground of the terrain is annoying. You can use the position sliders to offset the planet laterally or in depth, or the absolute coordinates numeric fields to completely change the terrain position. Inversely you can have a great scene but the clouds cast an unfortunate shadow. Just move the cloud layer until the problem is fixed. Layer and VL clouds do cast a shadow even in fast preview low-res mode so you can interactively move the layer and see the shadows move.

Only Lights and Clouds position are part of the VY context that can be keyframed and stored in places. Terrain and Texture position are global to the scene (only one value for all places and keyframes).
Sprites and Objects position are also global to the scene but they can be animated within ArtMatic.

Direct editing of ArtMatic files Published parameters:

"Published" parameters are accessible for modification directly within Voyager when using the "Quick Edit ArtMatic params & shaders" inspector. If no particular parameters were published it will present the first 6 founded parameters.

• Terrain rendering has been improved and further optimized in particular for non-cylindrical projections.
  
• Clouds (both layers and Volumetric) shading and rendering has been rewritten. Older scene clouds may not look the same. Volumetric clouds are faster and render usually better at good quality. You can also interactively more easily drag the camera inside a 3D cloud field. For animation they may be problematic as the sampling is not fine enough to avoid temporal aliasing. The Gaz & cloud object shader shall be use for animation instead with DF volumetric clouds, but it will be much slower. Clouds defining ArtMatic trees can now be set in Absolute coordinate mode. It is still optional and can be set in the "Environment setting" dialog. Clouds tree located in the "Absolute clouds" folder will make voyager automatically switch to absolute mode for clouds.
• A new mode for Volumetric clouds "Volumetric unbounded" does not limit the density in the heights (it still does below zero) and can be used to create vastly more complex volumetric skies.
• Built-in Volumetric clouds have been changed to be much less regular in density at large scale. So don't expect the density to be constant and region that did had clouds before may be empty. Just move the entire clouds coordinates until you find a region with the proper density.
• A new sky/sun mode offer a more realistic approximation of atmospheric scattering, called "Automatic with scattering" for a lack of better name.
• Atmospheric scattering hue can be changed to non-oxygen worlds in the "Environment settings" dialog.
• DF lights fields illumination model has been partially reimplemented to avoid cases where field derivative estimates will overflow the shaders.

All animated parameters curve can be directly edited and all specific parameter can be turn on/off for animation individually, even the camera position. That way if you animate several parameters and objects you can watch the animation from any point of view just by turning off the camera motion. and alternatively you may watch the same camera motion without animating context variables like haze or sun color/position.

Lights are now part of the context and are fully animatable. They support additional rendering modes and can become additional suns so Voyager can now render multiple sun worlds. Clouds and general illumination model has been rewritten to handle several suns.

Additional ArtMatic Designer, Explorer, and Engine Information

ArtMatic Designer and Explorer CTX 1.0 presentation