Ok, ShapeShop B1 (the first beta of version 003) is available on the download page. I am planning on doing beta releases on a monthly-ish cycle, although if some critical bugs pop up (and I fix them) I will publish a new version ASAP. This first beta has not been heavily tested (surprise! it’s a beta…), but it is based on the code I have been using for the last year. So hopefully nothing bad will happen for you. Any existing save files should load without problems, if they don’t, drop me an e-mail (and the zipped-up save file, if you can).
Ok, now for the good and bad news.
Good News (aka new and improved stuff):
- Support for AMD Athlon processors, and installer now works in Vista (I hope!)
- Massively improved view/camera controls (described in this post)
- More shape parameters exposed as UI widgets
- (most) UI widgets now give user some feedback
- Simplified mesh refinement tools, including adaptive subdivision (see the manual)
- Updated manual, now included in installer (this is a work-in-progress, so not everything is updated yet…)
- Simplified menus and toolbars (aka I got rid of all the research cruft)
- Delete-Everything menu item (File Menu->New Scene)
- Initial image plane support (Shapes Menu->Add Billboard. Currently cannot be saved…coming soon!)
- Titlebar actually says “ShapeShop” now…
Bad News (aka old stuff that is currently broken):
- Decal texturing
- NPR rendering
- “Surface Tubes” (if you used this, let me know and I can add it back. I just think it didn’t work very well…)
That’s it for now. You might notice that there aren’t many significant new features listed up there. That will change. There are some major new features in development, but they aren’t quite ready to be released yet. I’m going to hold back on new features until I feel like they are stable enough. In the meantime, you benefit from the UI and stability improvements.
Now head over to the download page and try it out!
