The following are the software development tasks that are scheduled for possible release this year.
It is doubtful that every one of them will be added, but as many of these as possible will be completed.
Biome Update
The completion of initially three different Biome Devices.
These Devices will make creating Weightmap and Splatmap sets significantly easier.
The Weightmaps and Splatmap will also fully support the maximum heightmap size of 1 million pixels.
The goal is to provide a high resolution interface display of the splatmap up to 16384 pixels.
And to be able to automatically display the splatmap in the editor Colormap material, and allow for Color ID export (see the File Format Update).
This requires the ImageArray Update.
Camera Update
The Camera Update includes adding an orthographic view camera, and providing numeric edit controls for entering in the camera position for all view modes.
Bookmarks are also on the list of camera features.
Command-Line Update
The Command-Line system will allow for batch file scripting of a subset of features in the software.
This includes the conversion of file formats, and a limited set of modifiers during the conversion such as normalize and resample.
DEM CRS Support
The ability to extract the Coordinate Reference System from the header or meta tags of Digital Elevation Model files for the purpose of auto-scaling the terrain to its real world elevation range.
File Format Update
This update will add a number of new file formats to the software.
It is proposed to add EXR, FBX, IMG, PCX, and USD, although it is possible that not all of these formats will make it into the first update release.
The FBX file format will include exporting the heightmap as a mesh including splatmap Color IDs for use with Blender etc.
Generator Update
Additional Generator Devices are planned including Gradient Pyramid, Gradient Triangle, Gradient Slope, Texture Granite, Texture Wood, and others.
Geology Update
Additional Geology Devices are planned including Chasm, Crater, Dozer, Faultline, Fold, Mountain, Shelf, and Volcano.
ImageArray Update
This system is to provide a memory RGBA Image array that supports up to the maximum heightmap resolution of 1 million pixels.
The Windows APIs for images only supports bitmap arrays up to 2GB which is a 23170 x 23170 resolution RGBA image.
Project Open Update
This task is to set the editor properties for all scene objects to the values stored in the Project file.
This will set the main editor scene back to the settings that were saved, such as Camera position, Background properties, Fog properties, Material setup, etc.
This will allow for the editor to resume exactly where the project was last saved.
This update requires that the Camera Update be completed as well.
Quick Mask Update
A quick mask editor for the Terrain Stack is planned, that will allow for drawing basic mask shapes.
Splatmap Device
The Splatmap Device is a new Terrain Stack Device that will allow for selecting four masks or weightmaps on the Terrain Stack and saving them as a Splatmap file.
This requires the ImageArray Update.
V-BASIC Update
The V-BASIC Interpreter is a traditional BASIC style scripting tool built right into the editor.
It will allow for running scripts to perform most all of the functions available in the software.
Additional Updates
Additional partially completed updates will be completed as time allows, which includes the Multi-Thread Update, SIMD Update, and others.
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