Dear Friends of 3DE!

The 2nd beta version of 3DE4 Release 3 has been completed. During the last months we were focused on lens distortion - once again!

Here is a brief summary of R3b2's new major features:

• A new, generic distortion calculation requester which is much more robust, able to handle every possible lens distortion model and allows to make use of multiple gridshots for calculating a lens object's distortion parameters.
• Two new standard distortion models - one for radial the other for anamorphic distortion. Especially our new "Standard Anamorphic Degree 4" model seems to be a real breakthrough. Parameters "Squeeze X & Y" allow to address pixel aspect changes caused by lens breathing artifacts very easily, whereas parameter "Lens Rotation" solves a longtime mystery of anamorphic distortion: badly mounted lenses (thanks to Wolfgang for the useful discussion!).
• Vastly improved distortion matrix snapping routines in terms of speed and quality (especially at the edges of the FOV). In addition, there is a new script for smart snapping the initial triple of matrix points.
• A new, interactive script for animating dynamic lens distortion parameters by hand, in case no (series of) gridshots are available.
• A new script for exporting lens distortion information to Nuke v7 which is based on "gridwarp" - Nuke's out-of-the-box warping node. This removes the immediate need for installing any 3rd party Nuke distortion plugins.
• Two new tutorials. The first one covers 3DE's basic lens distortion handling. The 2nd one concentrates on how to address anamorphic lens breathing problems.
• An overscan rendering feature integrated into overview controls.
• A new, alternative calculation requester for identifying badly tracked (autotracking) points.
• 3DE's main window timeslider can now be zoomed in and out by the help of the mousewheel.
• All editors and browsers can now be combined in so-called auxiliary windows.

Please see changelog below for more details - let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers, Rolf

r3b2

• introduced a new window for calculating distortion parameters out of the matrices of multiple ref. frames ("generic" lens distortion models)
• introduced new standard lens distortion model for anamorphic lenses which includes new parameters "lens rotation" & "squeeze x/y"
• introduced new standard lens distortion model for radial lenses which includes new (stereo rig related) parameters "cylindric direction & bending"
• introduced new, universal calculation engine for determining lens distortion parameters out of a matrix
• improved quality and speed of 3DE's matrix snapping routines (distortion edit controls)
• added script "animate distortion tool" which provides interactive controls for animating distortion parameters
• added new python commands for retrieving a lens model parameter's default value and range information
• added new python commands for manipulating a widget's foreground-, background
• and highlight colors
• added feature for displaying the aspect ratio of the current selection rubberbox (distortion edit controls)
• 3DE now evaluates env. variable "LD_PLUGINS_3DE4" for a colon separated list of directories to look for additional lens distortion plugins
• added new python command for calculating the distortion related jacobian matrix of a given 2D point
• updated the lens distortion plugin header file by adding method getJacobianMatrix() (v1.0.5)
• added a new script for exporting a gridwarp node to Nuke v7 which contains the current camera's (dynamic) distortion information
• added a new setting for defining the units being used for displaying focus distance values (preferences)
• added a new python command which allows to run 3DE's matrix point snapping routine for a single point
• added a new script for resetting a camera's matrix and snapping an initial triple of points at the same time ("smart reset matrix")
• fixed a bug which prevented 3DE from properly adjusting a lens object's (static) focus distance parameter (parameter adjustment window)
• added new python commands for reading & writing a lens object's focus distance parameter
• 3DE now immediately displays the attribute editor tab related to the object which has become selected most recently (preferences)
• added a feature for overscan rendering within 3DE's overview controls (overview controls->view)
• updated script "save out rendered frames" by a new option which allows to save overscan images (v1.1)
• fixed a bug which caused python command "saveRenderCacheFrame()" to create bad image files (tiff format only)
• introduced a new feature for identifying bad tracking points (main window->calc->find badly tracked points)
• added python command "checkPointConsistency2D()" for checking a point's 2D tracking consistency by comparing 2 specific frames
• added a script for checking a 2D tracking curve's gaps in terms of consistency (motiontracking controls->tracking)
• added new python commands for accessing a point group's lineup control poses
• added new python commands for reading & writing a camera's sync mode attribute
• introduced new python scripting tag "3DE4.script.startup:true/false" which forces 3DE to run a script automatically during startup
• added new python command "getCurrentScriptCallHint()" for retrieving information about how a script has been invoked
• fixed a bug which caused function "center models" not to work properly in all cases (lineup controls)
• updated script "transform curves" by providing features for scaling and translating a curve along the x axis (v1.1)
• updated function "filter points..." now allowing to select "lineup only" points as well (object browser->point context menu)
• 3DE's timeslider can now be zoomed in/out by using the mousewheel (main window pane)
• editors and browsers in external windows now keep their "config menus" allowing to build up complex pane structures (auxiliary windows)
• 3DE's overlay grid now centers on 3D reconstructed points as well (motiontracking controls->view->overlay grid)
• fixed a problem with all object browser create functions generating multiple objects through single shortcuts (object browser->edit->add...)
• added buttons "
• all"/"+ all" for manipulating the ranges of all to be adjusted parameters at once (parameter adjustment window)
• added a new display option "(show) active points only" (deviation browser)
• fixed a bug which could cause 3DE to crash when using an image sequence as autotracking mask
• improved the behaviour of mutual exclusion toggle menus when invoked through shortcuts
• updated script "python command help" by providing a larger textarea for displaying a command's help text (v1.1)
• fixed a problem with warp4 which caused distortion parameters to be displayed not correctly (v1.3b2)
• fixed a bug which caused warp4 to crash while processing certain openEXR files (v1.3b2)
• crashsave files of "" projects are now being created in "/tmp/" (unix only)
• added script "export tracks to flame" written by Helder Tomas at Rodeo FX (thanks a lot!)
• added script "export 3d models as obj" that writes out all currently selected 3d models into a single obj file which is oriented/backed in world space (v1.3)
• fixed a minor bug in script "export fbx" (v1.1)
• fixed a large number of calculation core bugs (especially related to r3's new dynamic parameter curve calculation routines)

r3b1

• added a new infrastructure for calculating dynamic parameter curves such as zoom, focus and interocular distance (curve editor)
• improved the behaviour of mode "view all" (curve editor)
• added a new function to store rendered frames in 3DE's image buffers for a later realtime playback (overview controls)
• added a new python command for saving a rendered frame to disk
• added a new python script for saving out a sequence of rendered frames to disk (overview controls)
• added a function to remove all rendered frames from 3DE's image buffers (main winodw->playback->clear render cache only)
• added a python command for removing all rendered frames from 3DE's image buffers
• added a new dynamic distortion mode which allows to control distortion through focus distance (instead of focal length)
• added new python commands for modifying a lens' dynamic distortion mode
• updated python scripts "import/export lens" to make use of 3DE's new dynamic distortion modes (v1.4)
• added new python commands for adding and removing parameters from 3DE's parameter adjustment window
• added new python commands for manipulating its near & far clipping planes
• added a textarea for entering project notes (attribute editor->project)
• added new python commands for manipulating the project notes
• added a new feature which allows to specify an arbitrary first frame number to be displayed in 3DE's user interface (attribute editor->camera)
• added new python commands for manipulating a camera's frame offset attribute
• added new python commands for manipulating a 3d model's point snapping attribute
• added a new python command for centering the first selected item of a list widget
• function lineup controls->edit->project points on model now indicates how many points have been successfully modified
• fixed a bug with 3DE's python comsole window (crash upon 2x cursor down)
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE not to ask for overwriting an already existing project file (main window->3de4->save project as, rare)
• fixed a minor gui update problem in connection with sync
• and camera-constraints (attribute editor)
• set default settings for distortion grid to "red" & "checkerboard" (attribute editor->camera)
• set default distortion model to "3de4 radial standard, degree 4"
• fixed a bug which caused 3DE to create "weird" pos/rot edit curves (curve editor, rare)
• implemented a new toolchain for compiling 3DE under bloody windows (eventually improved stability)