Please read:
http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Imaging.834.0.html
Or in short:
- adding MultiLayer Image support
- recoded entire Image API
- better integration of movie/sequence Images
Was a whole load of work... went down for a week to do this. So, will need
a lot of testing! Will be in irc all evening.
Sequencer:
Removing feature that allowed live updates of render progress while using
scene strips. In 2.41 and older this also happens invisible, and ESC from
it works now anyway.
Two reasons:
- it is quite annoying, especially on quit renders
- new 'render to window' conflicts too much with the sequencer window
option that shows previews (in code as well as functional!)
ESC wasn't supported for sequence-based rendering yet.
Solved it with correctly initializing the sequence render with all
render callbacks, including render updates (which it didn't do yet).
Cleanup:
- Bug in ghostwinlay code: the get_mbut() function reads from the window
struct if a mouse is pressed. However, when you press the mouse in the
sequencer, which causes a render, this value was hanging because then
the active window was a render window.
- The new render display options (image window) didn't work for sequence
render OK. There was a recursion even, because a sequence draw command
calls a render, which in turn now calls redraws.
Next to the "DispWindow" there are now two new choices:
- Display render output to Image Editor
- Display render output to Screen-sized Image Editor
Both options won't open a 2nd window anymore, which makes work quite more
smooth even, especially because 'focus' isn't lost. Further it fits in the
'single window UI' paradigm of Blender. Should have been done 10 years ago!
Lastly it might bypass issues with X11... having 2 windows with opengl
context is not always stable in Linux.
This option uses an identical trick as for the Compositor viewer, using an
Image block with a fixed name ("Render Result").
The flow, when invoking a Render, goes as follows:
- first it checks if there's an Image Editor visible displaying the "Render
Result", if so then it uses that area-window.
(Use this option for dual-monitor setups for example, a render will always
go to the same location then)
- else it checks if there's an Image Editor open in general, it then
assigns that window the "Render Result" Image.
- else: it searches for the largest Area in the screen, and turns that into
a temporal Image Editor showing render output.
After a render, an ESC will push back the former view, if the Area type has
changed.
Same rules apply for the "Full Screen" option. Here an ESC will always go
back to the regular Screen, and restore Area type if required.
While rendering, the queue for the renderwindow isn't handled yet, so you can
not zoom (nor get full redraws), as for the regular render window.
Existing conflicts:
- in FaceSelect mode, the Image editor enforces to display the face texture
after rendering again.
- when using an Image window for compositing, you'll lose the Viewer output
on a render.
Implementation note:
While rendering updates, nothing is drawn in frontbuffer anymore. That's
good news for b0rked OpenGL drivers (and faster). However, for the few
OpenGL cards that don't do a "swap copy" but a "swap exchange" you get
issues... has to be worked on. I'm afraid we have to drop frontbuffer
drawing altogether.
Other fixes:
- Hotkeys NumPad 1, 2, 4, 8 will set zoom levels (was half coded only?)
Use SHIFT to zoom out (smaller).
- Rendering Tile updates still had draw errors on edges of tiles, in OSA
only. (Caused by commit 4 days ago)
A full detailed description of this will be done later... is several days
of work. Here's a summary:
Render:
- Full cleanup of render code, removing *all* globals and bad level calls
all over blender. Render module is now not called abusive anymore
- API-fied calls to rendering
- Full recode of internal render pipeline. Is now rendering tiles by
default, prepared for much smarter 'bucket' render later.
- Each thread now can render a full part
- Renders were tested with 4 threads, goes fine, apart from some lookup
tables in softshadow and AO still
- Rendering is prepared to do multiple layers and passes
- No single 32 bits trick in render code anymore, all 100% floats now.
Writing images/movies
- moved writing images to blender kernel (bye bye 'schrijfplaatje'!)
- made a new Movie handle system, also in kernel. This will enable much
easier use of movies in Blender
PreviewRender:
- Using new render API, previewrender (in buttons) now uses regular render
code to generate images.
- new datafile 'preview.blend.c' has the preview scenes in it
- previews get rendered in exact displayed size (1 pixel = 1 pixel)
3D Preview render
- new; press Pkey in 3d window, for a panel that continuously renders
(pkey is for games, i know... but we dont do that in orange now!)
- this render works nearly identical to buttons-preview render, so it stops
rendering on any event (mouse, keyboard, etc)
- on moving/scaling the panel, the render code doesn't recreate all geometry
- same for shifting/panning view
- all other operations (now) regenerate the full render database still.
- this is WIP... but big fun, especially for simple scenes!
Compositor
- Using same node system as now in use for shaders, you can composit images
- works pretty straightforward... needs much more options/tools and integration
with rendering still
- is not threaded yet, nor is so smart to only recalculate changes... will be
done soon!
- the "Render Result" node will get all layers/passes as output sockets
- The "Output" node renders to a builtin image, which you can view in the Image
window. (yes, output nodes to render-result, and to files, is on the list!)
The Bad News
- "Unified Render" is removed. It might come back in some stage, but this
system should be built from scratch. I can't really understand this code...
I expect it is not much needed, especially with advanced layer/passes
control
- Panorama render, Field render, Motion blur, is not coded yet... (I had to
recode every single feature in render, so...!)
- Lens Flare is also not back... needs total revision, might become composit
effect though (using zbuffer for visibility)
- Part render is gone! (well, thats obvious, its default now).
- The render window is only restored with limited functionality... I am going
to check first the option to render to a Image window, so Blender can become
a true single-window application. :)
For example, the 'Spare render buffer' (jkey) doesnt work.
- Render with border, now default creates a smaller image
- No zbuffers are written yet... on the todo!
- Scons files and MSVC will need work to get compiling again
OK... thats what I can quickly recall. Now go compiling!
Render:
- New; support for dual CPU render (SDL thread)
Currently only works with alternating scanlines, but gives excellent
performance. For both normal render as unified implemented.
Note the "mutex" locks on z-transp buffer render and imbuf loads.
- This has been made possible by major cleanups in render code, especially
getting rid of globals (example Tin Tr Tg Tb Ta for textures) or struct
OSA or using Materials or Texture data to write to.
- Made normal render fully 4x32 floats too, and removed all old optimizes
with chars or shorts.
- Made normal render and unified render use same code for sky and halo
render, giving equal (and better) results for halo render. Old render
now also uses PostProcess options (brightness, mul, gamma)
- Added option ("FBuf") in F10 Output Panel, this keeps a 4x32 bits buffer
after render. Using PostProcess menu you will note an immediate re-
display of image too (32 bits RGBA)
- Added "Hue" and "Saturation" sliders to PostProcess options
- Render module is still not having a "nice" API, but amount of dependencies
went down a lot. Next todo: remove abusive "previewrender" code.
The last main global in Render (struct Render) now can be re-used for fully
controlling a render, to allow multiple "instances" of render to open.
- Renderwindow now displays a smal bar on top with the stats, and keeps the
stats after render too. Including "spare" page support.
Not only easier visible that way, but also to remove the awkward code that
was drawing stats in the Info header (extreme slow on some ATIs too)
- Cleaned up blendef.h and BKE_utildefines.h, these two had overlapping
defines.
- I might have forgotten stuff... and will write a nice doc on the architecture!
(adding)
#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif
also the Makefile.in's were from previous patch adding
the system depend stuff to configure.ac
Kent
--
mein@cs.umn.edu
