Dear Friends of 3DE!

my six week trip to New Zealand went very well - many thanks to Weta! While working on two "real" productions, I found a lot of bugs and inspiration for new features... 3DE's latest beta (R2b5) is already a good indicator for that:

• an all new autotracking engine which is purely based on our manual pattern tracking algorithms. The overall quality of this new engine is way better than 3DE's classic one, compensating for perspective displacement of tracking patterns as well as automatically creating new keyframes.
• motion blur rendering of 3D Models and Line Geometry in Lineup- & Overview Controls.
• a massive Python update featuring three new user interface widget types, new commands for reading/writing a large number of point/camera/point group/curve attributes, etc. In addition, scripts can now be placed in Object Browser's context menus. Finally, there are a number of very cool new scripts, such as for editing 2D tracking curves; defining default point attributes; automatically finding a point's 2D position in the current frame, based on its tracking in the other camera of a stereo project; and much more.

See below changelog for more details!

Cheers, Rolf

r2b5

• introduced a new autotracking engine (auto keyframing, perspective displacement of tracking patterns)
• added a motion blur rendering feature to lineup
• and overview controls
• added a "shutter angle" attribute to camera objects for configuring motion blur rendering (attribute editor>camera)
• added a "samples" attribute to project settings for configuring motion blur rendering (attribute editor>project)
• added new script "edit 2D tracks tool" which allows comprehensive editing of 2D tracking curves (motiontracking-/lineup-controls>edit menu)
• nudge 2D scripts are now integrated into lineup controls, new match frame option (v1.6)
• fixed a bug with functions "extract line/polygon" not working properly for object point groups (lineup controls)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to center not exactly on a 2D tracking point (lineup controls, undistort mode)
• focal length scale extended to 300 mm (lineup controls)
• removed "store/recall camera" scripts (lineup controls)
• added new "store/recall pose" functions to lineup controls (properly working with obj pgroups, poses stored in 3DE4's database)
• added new "remove all poses" function (lineup controls>edit menu)
• added point editing "undo/redo" functions to lineup controls (edit menu)
• added "toggle endframe" function to lineup controls (edit menu)
• added new "project points on 3d models" function to lineup controls (edit menu)
• fixed a problem under windows with env. variable "PYTHON_CUSTOM_SCRIPTS_3DE4" separating multiple dirs by ':' (using ';' instead, windows only)
• added "configure point infos" menu (object browser, point listing)
• introduced formatted rendering of object browser's point listing for improved reading
• added a new point attribute "spline tracking boxes", which if disabled prevents 3DE4 from animating tracking boxes between keyframes
• added a set of new funtions for displaying an overlay grid in motiontracking controls (view>overlay grid)
• introduced the ability to add scripts to all of object browser's context menus
• added two new python commands for retrieving the object (and its parent object) over which a context menu has been opened
• added script "group points" (object browser>context menu point)
• added script "create plane" allowing to create a ground plane 3d model primitive (3D orientation controls>3d models>create menu)
• fixed a problem which caused 3DE4 to "freeze" when attempting to adjust many brute force parameters (parameter adjustment window)
• introduced new attribute "show 3d model", which allows to surpress the rendering of 3d models (attribute editor>3d model)
• 3DE4 now automatically adds all of its python scripting dirs to python's "sys.path" variable
• added a new script for browsing 3DE4's own python commands (main window>python>python command help)
• fixed a problem in script "reverse reel in points" converting lineup only points to exactly surveyed (v1.3)
• fixed a bug with python command "deleteGeo()" not working properly
• added two python scripts for scaling locator geo objects up and down (3D orientation controls>geo menu)
• added a script for creating a "maya like" 3D "cross" locators (3D orientation controls>geo>create menu)
• added a script for converting geo objects to 3d models (3D orientation controls>geo menu)
• added two new scripts for showing/hiding all points within a set (object browser>context menu set)
• updated a few existing scripts now showing up in object browser's context menus (import/export lens/2D tracks)
• added new python commands for creating text area widget objects
• added new python commands for creating and handling curve area widget objects
• added new python commands for creating menu/bar widget objects
• added a number of python commands for precisely arranging widgets within a custom requester
• added an additional parameter to python command "postCustomRequesterAndContinue()" allowing to define a python function which is called each time a GUI refresh is needed
• fixed a bug in connection with dynamic distortion (parameter adjustment, calc/finetune zoom curve)
• added python commands for reading & writing camera
• and point group "enabled" attributes
• improved performance of 3DE4's internal "create point" database function
• added new function "select all points in set" (object browser>context menu set)
• added a new script for adjusting the playback range to the currently selected point's tracking curve (main window>playback menu)
• added a new script for resetting the playback range of the current camera (main window>playback menu)
• added a new script for scaling a (survey based) stereo project in order to match a certain interocular distance value (main window>calc menu)
• added a new script for reloading the content of 3D model objects (3D orientation controls>3d models menu)
• added a new script which determines a point's 2D position in the curent frame, based on its tracking in the "other" camera of a stereo project (motiontracking controls>tracking menu)
• added new script "define point defaults" which allows to define a number of default settings to be used for newly created points (motiontracking-/lineup-controls)
• added a new script for creating keyframes within the current lens object's dynamic distortion curves based on its static settings (curve editor>edit menu)
• added new script "align point to explicit frame" (motiontracking controls>tracking menu)
• fixed a problem which caused newly created points to be placed inside a set if the previously selected point belonged to that set, as well
• added new python scripting meta tag "# 3DE4.script.hide:true" which prevents a script from showing up in 3DE4's user interface
• extended the "far clipping plane" range scale by a factor of 10.0 & increased its default value (attribute editor>project)
• updated script "track homologous stereo points" enhanced and compensate luminance changes options enabled by default (v1.3)
• added new python command "splinePointPositions2D()" for recalculating "splined" frames of a point's 2D tracking curve
• 3DE4's license manager "add.." function now strips any potential white characters from entered license strings
• fixed a problem with warp4 when manually entering start/end parameters (v1.2b4)
• improved 3DE4's overall performance especially when being used on busy LANs
• increased the cache for 3DE4's point undo feature by a factor of five
• 3DE4 will now no longer loose any point selections when selecting curve segments (timeline editor, ALT-click/drag LMB)
• added a large number of python commands for reading/writing point attributes
• added python command "setLensSelectionFlag()"
• python command "getCameraLens()" now returns "None" instead of "0" when there is no lens linked to the specified camera object
• added new python commands for creating & deleting curve objects
• added new python commands for reading/writing the "vertically fixed" keyframe attribute (curve objects)
• added new python command "getPrevCurveKey()" (curve objects)
• added new python command "setCreateNewPointCallbackFunction()" which allows to run a custom python function each time a new point becomes created
• added new python command "pushPointsToUndoStack()" which forces 3DE4 to push all currently selected points to its undo stack
• added new python command "setWidgetShortcut()" for assigning a shortcut to a specified widget
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to crash while executing the python command "runTrackEngineProcedure("TRACK_ENGINE_CALC_TRANSFORM_FROM_SCRATCH")" (rare)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to crash while executing python commands "load/saveProject()"
• fixed a problem with python command "create3DModel()" (initial scale set to 10.0, instead of 1.0)
• fixed a number of calculation core related bugs (postfilter, interpolation, stereo/regular/sync calculation)

r2b4

• added missing python scripts "reel in points (current frame)"
• modified "(reverse) reel in points (current frame)" scripts so that they show up in lineup controls as well (v1.3)
• fixed a bug which caused 3de4's interlacing display modes not to work properly
• functions found under main window>calc>frame range calculation do now handle multi camera setups properly (stereo-/sync-projects)
• fixed a problem with python command "calcPointBackProjection2D()" not always being able to calculate "with distortion" (rare)
• modified "push points" script so that it shows up in lineup controls as well
• added python command "setPointWeight()"
• fixed a problem with export script "softimage XSI" (v1.5, naming conventions)
• added a number of new python commands for creating & modifying 3d model objects
• fixed a number of calculation core related bugs (mostly sync related)
• improved script "move points to another point group" (v1.2)
• added some minor GUI improvements for lineup controls

r2b3

• added hidden line rendering option for individual 3d model objects
• added backface culling rendering option for individual 3d model objects
• added an option to lineup controls which forces 3de4 to display all other 3d cameras
• added a new function "center models" which moves the camera so that all survey models become visible (lineup controls)
• added new functions for extracting 3d survey coordinates from lines or faces of a 3d model (lineup controls)
• added a scale to modify distortion while maintaining rot/pos consistency of current camera (lineup controls)
• added a remove keyframe function to lineup controls
• added a new feature for dragging special "lineup only survey" points, which provides rapid 3d lineup of cameras (lineup controls)
• added a new feature which allows to create and drag a new "lineup only" point in one step (lineup controls, "extract" enabled, CTRL+click/drag)
• improved importing speed and memory efficiency for (large) obj files
• added a "reference only" attribute for 3d models which forces 3de4 not to embed 3d model data into its project files
• fixed a minor display problem within 3de4's license manager requester ("r1 only" licenses, "manage only" mode)
• disabled "automatic keyframe" option by default for newly created points
• added an option to show/hide the deviation tracking bar (motiontracking controls>view>configure point infos>show tracking deviation)
• improved speed when opening large project files
• added a number of python commands for retrieving 3d model attributes
• added a number of python commands for modifying geo line objects
• added a number of python commands for creating and manipulating list widgets
• generally improved behaviour of 3de4's calculation core for frames with less than 4 tracking points
• a number of bugfixes and improvements for 3de4's calculation core
• added a lens distortion option to script "export nuke cornerpin stereo stabilization" (v1.4)
• improved autocenter options, now operating on subpixel accuracy (motiontracking-, lineup controls)
• added script "create regular points from matrix" to 3DE4's standard set of scripts (distortion grid controls)
• added so-called "equisolid angle" fisheye compensation routine to distortion model "Radial
• Fisheye, Degree 8"
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to fail when calculating a zoom curve (lock channels constraint activated)
• fixed a bug which caused warp4 to clip bright rgb pixels to 1.44043 (openEXR, v1.2b3)
• fixed a bug which caused warp4 to connect to an X server (Linux/OSX, command line mode)

r2b2

• added a deviation bar which displays the current's frame tracking quality during 3DE4's manual tracking procedure (pattern tracking)
• added an option which forces 3DE4 to create new 2D keyframes automatically based on tracking deviation (pattern tracking)
• added an option which forces 3DE4 to stop the tracking procedure in case of too large tracking deviation (pattern tracking)
• fixed a bug which caused the timesliders of cameras not to be sync'ed to each other (sync and stereo enabled)
• added a script for copying mocap point animations from one sequence to another (object browser>edit>copy mocap anim. data)
• added a script for exporting full 3D solve data to After Effects
• improved script "export nuke rolling shutter compensation" (v1.2, better lens distortion support)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to produce relatively large deviations in the first frames of a mocap project
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to calculate bad results when combining survey free points with three survey points
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to calculate bad results within frames where less than 4 points have been tracked (stereo, object point groups)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to badly align survey free solves to the global coordinate frame
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to put animation data into the wrong point group object (empty camera pgroup, object pgroup)
• added a feature which indicates that any non standard advanced options are being actived (parameter adjustment window)
• added a new option to warp4 which allows to crop footage to original FOV resolution (reapply distortion option, v1.2b2)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE4 to crash (calc all from scratch, sync, witness/object pgroup)
• a large number of minor bugfixes and improvements for 3DE4's calculation core

r2b1

• implemented camera synchronization feature (witness camera setups, mocap setups)
• added the ability to embed attribute editor, parameter adjustment, python console, image controls into main window's pane structure
• included up/down/left/right buttons into embedded editors & browsers for quick repositioning within pane structure
• improved performance when creating new object browsers
• added new autocenter function which centers a point's inner tracking box
• added additional information to 3DE4's display area such as current camera's stereo/sync mode and proxy footage
• changed 3DE4's preferences file format to ascii
• added a new option to 3DE4's prefs for hiding duplicate python scripts (older versions)
• added a new option to 3DE4's prefs for storing buffer compression files into a custom dir
• added a new option to 3DE4's prefs for saving the current window layout when exiting 3DE4
• added a new default setting to 3DE4's prefs for enabling/disabling luminance compensation tracking mode
• added a new function for saving the current window layout (main window>options>save current window layout)
• added an option to script "filter curves" for filtering the currently selected keyframes only (v1.4)
• fixed a bug in lineup controls which could cause weird behaviour (rare)
• improved rendering of 3DE4's list widgets
• prevented curve editor's "curve list" widget from overlapping the actual curves area
• added a new option to python commands getNext/PrevPoint() now taking gui order into account (& updated scripts)
• fixed some minor bugs within 3DE4's file browser
• fixed a problem in python script "import lens" (vertical filmback now always set to "fixed", v1.2)
• added new python commands for manipulating playback
• and calculation range
• added a new python command for executing lineup control's "match frame" function
• added a new python script which executes "match frame" on all frames within a camera's calculation range
• added new python commands for setting deviation values (point-, point group
• and average deviation)
• added a new python script for resetting deviation curves
• added new python commands for modifying a point's gui hide status
• added new python scripts for hiding and unhiding points
• added new python script "export multiple tracks to nuke"
• added pivot and offset parameters to python script "transform survey" (v1.1)
• added new python script "export convergence distance" which writes out the distance between a stereo camera and its convergence point for each frame
• added "undistort footage" function to lineup-, distortion edit
• and overview controls
• improved python script "reel in points" to take point keyframe information into account (v1.2)
• added python script "reel in points current frame"
• removed rotation postfilter
• added collection of python scripts to nudge a survey point in 3D space (main window>python>nudge 3d)
• fixed a bug which could cause weird display of autotracking masks
• improved memory management of 3DE4's image buffer infrastructure
• removed obsolete stereo option "interocular distance>static calculated"
• added a warning mechanism which becomes active as soon as multiple cameras with incompatible image ratio are linked to the same lens object
• added new python commands set/getCameraFocalLengthMode()
• improved the behaviour of several python commands (GUI consistency of lens objects)
• fixed a bug which caused the curve editor to display wrong curve segments between linear CVs
• added several python commads for setting attributes of a camera's matrix
• added python scripts for importing and exporting a camera's matrix
• added new command line options to flcinfo4 for adding/removing licenses and output a server's system id (linux only)
• added the ability to define the FOV for each of a camera's proxies separately
• added the python command setCameraFocalLength()
• fixed a display bug which caused 3DE4 to display 3D reconstructed points as "floaties" (show 3d points with distortion)
• introduced a new parameter "custom focus distance" to 3DE4's lens object (used by external ld plugins)
• added the ability to animate "focus distance" dynamically (camera object, curve editor)
• added several python commands for manipulating all "focus distance" related attributes
• added new python commands for locking a point's 2d tracking curve
• added new python scripts for locking and unlocking point tracking curves
• patched a problem which caused 3DE4 to not correctly display reconstructed 3d points (perspective mode, rare)
• added an option to 3DE4's nudge scripts which allows to toggle between sequences of a stereo project (v1.5)
• fixed a bug which could cause 3DE4 to crash when calculating a zoom curve from scratch (rare)
• added python commands for reading/writing survey 3d mocap point positions
• added a new point attribute which allows to filter a mocap point in z-direction
• added a pair of python scripts which allow to store and recall a camera's 3d orientation for the current frame (lineup controls>edit)
• tracking boxes now always rotate around its center (and not around its corresponding tracking point)
• added python commands for manipulating a camera's static interocular distance, depth
• and vertical shift parameters
• introduced "+" & "-" buttons for each to be adjusted parameter allowing to widen/narrow its range interactively
• extended rolling shutter display mechanism to visualize a witness/mocap camera's timeshift
• added another option to lineup controls which prevents 3DE from doing a "match frame" operation when assigning survey to a point
• added the ability to change the order of sequence camera-, lens
• and point group objects in the object browser (click-drag middle mouse)
• added an additional consistency option to lineup controls which rotates around all axis and translates the camera along z only
• added python script meta tag "3DE4.script.gui.button" which allows to create custom buttons within 3DE4's display area
• fixed a number of bugs and added improvements to nuke export script (v1.3)
• added preset feature to image controls window which allows to store 10 different sets of image controls settings
• added script for exporting Weta's nuke distortion node as a .nk file which can be directly opened within Nuke (v1.4)
• improved rendering performance of python console window
• updated script "convert to surveyed" to support mocap point groups (v1.2)
• 3DE4's timeslider now displays 2D tracking information for all reference frames (motiontracking controls, single point selection)
• added 2 scripts for merging the objects of two projects (import/export project as *.equalizerMerge)
• parameter adjustment window now displays current best parameter values
• added an option to curve editor's view menu which allows to hide all tangents
• improved function "merge points" (motiontracking controls, multiple cameras, fw vs. bw tracking)
• added new python commads for setting the selection flags of cameras and point groups
• added new python script "reverse reel in"
• introduced v2.0 of python script "push points", featuring non-blocking panel window & left/right/up/down pushing
• added several new python commands for developing non-blocking windows & dynamically changing user interfaces
• fixed an update bug which caused a lens object to be inconsitent (obj. browser, camera context menu>modify>lens)
• added new python script "convert to stereo"
• added new python commands for manipulating a camera's rolling shutter attributes
• added a new python script for exporting a nuke corner pin node which provides rough rolling shutter compensation