Build 4045 ‘Hurricane Ridge’

Release Candidate

This final development release for Hurricane Ridge builds on version 4044 by including numerous improvements and bug fixes. One of the most noticeable updates is the new eyedropper color picker, which lets you select any color on your screen with a single click. Many of the other enhancements focus on making macro authoring smoother and more intuitive.

This build is expected to be the first to transition into the stable release channel for Hurricane Ridge.

Full Changelist

Significant New Features

New Eyedropper Tool:

• A new eyedropper has been added to the color selector widget. Now you can click any color anywhere on your screen to select it—this feature was highly requested!

Project History Indicator:

• The project now tracks the “last saved history entry” and marks it with a disk icon, making it easier to see which changes have not yet been saved.

Additional Upgrade-All Buttons:

• New upgrade-all buttons have been added to streamline updating your project components.
• Upgrading the project file now automatically applies updates to devices that can do so perfectly.

Updated External Parameter Display:

• Parameters that are controlled by another device will now display their current settings again.

Workview Wiring Improvements:

• When wiring an input to another input, the system now intelligently connects to the proper output (as if you had clicked on the wire).
• Similarly, wiring an output to another output will automatically reassign existing connections to the new device (again, as if you had clicked on the wire).
• You can now quickly wire by connecting directly to the device for unique ports (such as control, placement, or single-input devices).

Shortcut for Renaming Devices:

• The new “N” workview shortcut key allows you to quickly rename a device without triggering invalidation.

Enhanced Navigation Shortcuts:

• Arrow keys and the “+”/“–” keys can now be used to navigate within both the 3D view and the workview.

Permanent Typenames for Macros:

• Macros can now be assigned a permanent typename, ensuring consistency across your projects.

Blueprints and Macros Packaging:

• Blueprints and macros are now packaged internally in a manner similar to example worlds. This change simplifies the process of updating, organizing, or removing them between editions.

Minor

• Library Enhancements:
  • A new “show only builtin” filter has been added.
  • The full version name is now displayed in the edit box.
  • Folders that currently do not contain any items are hidden.
  • The Save command now displays (disabled) additional content, so you have a clearer idea of where you’re saving your macro.
  • A warning now appears if you attempt to save a blueprint/macro when a blueprint/macro isn’t selected.
• Lookup tags have been added to devices such as Combiner, Thermal Weathering, and Dissolve/Probability.
• Macros:
  • Macro numbers can now be toggled between numeric value / distance / elevation without having to recreate it
  • Macros now have the option to opt-in to required/optional port requirements.
• Various tooltips and font settings have been refined.
• The Colorizer’s contrast parameter is now marked as advanced.
• The width of WM edit boxes has been adjusted in many areas.
• The About dialog text has been tweaked, shows the licensed user.
• Some device colors have been slightly tweaked.
• The time estimator in project settings is now more accurate.
• Devices now include a “Rebuild” action.
• Checkpoint ports are now correctly colored as optional ones
• Various devices have had their upgrade severity adjusted, as well as their auto-upgrade paths (such as Gauss blur and “precise” mode)

Device Changes

• Macros:
  • The internal parameter setup device now lets you adjust the parameter values, not just create them.
• Dissolve / Probability device:
  • Renamed to “dissolve” for a more intuitive name (matches typical photoshop naming)
  • Spatial parameters have been added, and parameter names have been updated to be more intuitive.
• Constant device:
  • The value is now a spatial parameter. This seems a bit silly at first, but this is actually the primary way to “instantiate” a spatial parameter into a heightfield inside of a macro.
• Ramp device:
  • The Ramp device has been updated to include spatial parameters.
  • The Ramp device can now clamp when values exceed the 0..1 value range, in addition to the standard rollover or mirror modes
• New “Modify Spatial” Device:
  • A new, special-purpose device has been introduced that is similar to the Composite device, but it is focused on extracting or replacing a spatial mask from a parameter pack.
• Clamp device:
  • You can now control the soft clipping range.
  • Soft clipping can be applied to the upper boundary, the lower boundary, or both.
• Parameter arithmetic:
  • This update now allows you to work with ranges beyond the standard 0–1 scalar.
• Multi chooser:
  • An equal-area mode has been added to ensure that inputs are spaced so that they are equally represented in the output, rather than being spread as far apart as possible.
  • A cyclical mode has been added so that the control input loops smoothly from the highest back to the lowest value. This is especially useful for features like the “Seasonality” slider in the new Vegetation Layer macro.
• Material device:
  • Now has a mask input for directly constructing masked materials.
• Integer Generator:
  • Can now be controlled by a scalar.

Macros

• Bedrock&Soil : provides geologically-based colormaps/materials
• Vegetation Layer: grows vegetation based on your soil layer (or any other map you provide). Easily customize the season, colorfulness, (spring, fall, etc) and much more!
• Coastal Layer: provides for undersea and coastal colormaps/materials
• Extra Channels: deepens and intensifies erosion channels for particular types of terrains

Examples

• Many example worlds have been updated to use 4045.

Bugfixes

Major

• Fixed crash bug that was causing WM to fail to close. This would then cause further issues (see next crash bug) because of the stuck app state.
• Fixed crash bug that can occur on startup
• Fixed crash bug that can occur when converting polygon<->path shapes
• Fixed significant memory conservation issue where macros would fail to re-build
• Fixed paste-settings on macros sometimes breaking previews until project reload
• Fixed variety of issues in Tiled settings where the changed were being applied to the wrong scene, or otherwise setting widgets were going astray.
• Fixed Tiled settings issue where resolution was not being updated properly
• Fixed bug where hidden layout panel was still interactive(!)
• Fixed issue where even the selected default output was being dumped by memory conservation
• Fixed bug where you can’t load the macro/blueprint from browsing the filesystem
• Fixed bug where macros would lose optional configurations when paste-setting was used

Minor

• Fixed bug where Select Wetness with some precipitation masks could have blocky output
• Fixed bug to hide file input placement controls in localspace mode
• Improved Layer combiner, Random tiler now support materials with masks
• Fixed bug where water, guide colors not being serialized
• Fixed bug where opening a file wouldn’t move it to the top of the recent list
• Fixed bug where opening a macro was accidently un-showing non-preview results everywhere
• Fixed crystallize rotation not working without external parameter
• Fixed scalar generator losing param range on load
• Fixed Adjust color for out-of-range output colors
• Fixed 3d view not showing global settings (waterlevel, etc) on project load
• Fixed viewport presets keeping Current Settings as a selectable viewport preview
• Fixed ambient occlusion bug where max/min distance set to same
• Fixed bug where toggling a dependency would sometimes show parameters it shouldn’t
• Fixed reordering bug for macro parameters
• Fixed issue where extra window not initialized
• Fixed erosion soft-clipping when it shouldn’t
• Fixed bug where parameter ports were not getting updated on dev upgrade
• Fixed bug where 2D view was only displaying small results
• Tweaked highlighted wire color show up better (waiting to fix thin wire issue)
• Improved material-heights quantization issue
• Tweaks to layer material handling
• Tweaked various dialog background colors to make checkbox more visible