Omegalib 3.0 Released

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Omegalib 3.0 is a major improvement over the 2.0 distribution. It is the version used on the first public demos of the CAVE2 virtual reality system. It greatly improves performance and stability on cluster display systems, and integrates an extended python API for application developement. C++ and Python omegalib applications can now be accessed in the omegalib applications repository. omegalib 3.0 also integrates a new version of Porthole.

Major Changes

  • omega
    • new Sound Server API from omicron (C++ and Python)
    • script commands can be queued for later execution from within a python script using the queueCommand function
    • improved wand navigation
    • Per-tile camera support
    • 2d drawing support in python (draw callback)
    • refactoring: removed RenderState RendererBase ServerBase
    • panoptic stereo can be toggled at runtime
    • per-tile stereo mode
    • Kinect depth texture accessible from python API
    • Interleaved stereo now implemented using a stencil buffer technique
    • Scene objects can expose custom ray intersection techniques
    • orun :? now supports listing of object menbers
    • Camera and Light are now full scene nodes. They use the standard node transform API and can have children
    • Added a custom statistics display derived from the one in Equalizer. Specific statistics can be enabled or disabled at runtime through thetoggleStats python function.
    • Improved logging on custer systems
    • Improved garbage collection, initialization and shutdown code
    • The mouse curor is hidden in fullscreen linux windows
    • Added an option to disable the equalizer configuration generator (to use custom equalizer configs)
    • Added image asynchronous loading support
    • Added the mcsend command line tool to send python commands to remote omegalib instances through the Mission Control protocol
    • Scene query API exposed to python
    • Merged Camera and Observer classes. Camera supports head tracking directly (for simple unfiltered tracking there is no need to use a separate observer update service anymore)
    • Application config can be redirected using SystemManager::setAppConfig
    • Added EngineModule::handleCommand
    • Improved and standardized config for desktop systems
  • omegaToolkit
    • Added support for multiple independent user interfaces
    • Extended python API
    • Basic support for widget style descriptors (similar to CSS)
  • cyclops
    • extended python API
    • forward pipeline supports backface illumination
    • Re-added bump mapping shaders, integrated with effect system
    • Improved tracked object and wand support
    • Improved support for transparent objects
    • Refactoring: Entity >> AnimatedObject, DrawableObject >> Entity.
    • Added BoxShape
    • Effects can specify cull mode
    • Shadows can be toggled at runtime
    • Improved animation support

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