XenoDream v2.5 is released
#1
We are pleased to announce the release of XenoDream v2.502.
Upgrading from v2.0 or later is free. We have sent email to v2 owners (actually twice, the first time with some mistakes).
The price to upgrade from v1.x is still US$29.99. To upgrade from v1.x, first email us for a V2 Upgrade coupon to use in our store.

For a summary of what's new with some illustrations, see http://xenodream.com/xd2newfeatures.htm

Here is a full list of what's new in v2.502.

General

Added support for Windows themes (Windows XP and later).

Improved images for many buttons.

Changed appearance of memory spots to a glassy look.

Fixed an issue where changes in use of multiple monitors could result in some windows disappearing off the left of the screen.

The Main window - General

Added a Tip of the Day dialog when XenoDream starts. It is also in the Help menu.

The location of Personal Configuration files can now be specified in Setup and in the Preferences dialog.

The location of the Starter Shapes folder can now be specified in the Preferences dialog.

Resizing the Starter Shapes dialog now resizes the listbox, and adjusts columns to fit.

Added five shapes to the Add Holon popup menu in the Holon window (in the Torus, Cone and Cube submenus).

Improved method of Transparent Preview, for faster initial results and less saturation over time.

With Shaded Preview, turning the preview grid on or off no longer restarts the preview.

The Holon toolbar and Preview toolbar controls have been moved into one panel (for compatibility with Windows themes).

When you close XenoDream without saving changes, the parameters will be saved in Lastexit.xep in your My Home Files location.

Fixed a bug where using Shape drag mode Explore then changing it and using the Holon window popup menu to add a holon caused an access violation error.

The Main window - File page

Fixed tab order, and made Save/Restore Creator buttons tabbable.

The Creator field now defaults to the registered user, unless set otherwise.

Added a button after the Background field to indicate whether a parameter file includes a Pic Texture.

The Main window - View page

The view drag controls are no longer stretched for different screen DPI settings.

Added Camera Zoom key shortcuts so you can zoom without switching to the View page. Ctrl +/- adjusts the zoom by 10%.

Fixed a bug in v2.4 where setting Camera Z distance to 0 caused a Floating Point Division by Zero error.

The Main window - Shape page

Changed the method of rendering constructor holons, for faster rendering and more even distribution of points.

All Constructor metamorphs are now always pure constructors. The .Boxed, .Crystal, .Cylibal, .Planex/y/z and .Sphere constructors only care whether Amount is negative or not.

Renamed .Balled constructor to Balled and moved it to the Warp category, because it is not really a constructor.

Added 25 new metamorphs:

In the Constructor category:

.Ecctorus: eccentric torus (ring cyclide) with options for circular, square, airfoil or dumbell profiles.

In the Grid/block category:

Gridcube: an improved version of Gridcub, with better options for Special and negative Amount.

Gridcyl: moves points towards a cylindrical grid around the Y axis.

Gridsphr: moves points towards a spherical grid with poles on the Y axis.

Gridtorus: moves points towards a toroidal grid around the Z axis.

Laticub1: a cubic lattice of cubes or spheres connected by rods with modulated thickness.

Latticub2: a cubic lattice of cubes or spheres connected by one or two rods or springs.

Latticyl: a cylindrical lattice of cubes or spheres connected by rods with modulated thickness.

Obelisky: makes square spires in the Y direction.

Reedy: makes spines like reeds or hair in the Y direction with randomized waves.

Tunnelsz: makes a grid of walled tunnels in the Z direction.

In the Local category:

Borez: makes a walled tunnel in the Z direction, with bevelled ends.

In the Axial category:

Hairpoly: makes spines or hair that can bend towards poles on the Y axis.

Hairy: makes spines or hair that can bend around the Y axis.

Obelisks: makes square spires in grids aligned with the axes.

In the Radial category:

Bristler: makes bristles with knobby or helical options.

Hairwave: makes hair with randomized waves.

In the Rotary category:

Twisttop: twists one or both ends around the Y axis.

In the Noise category:

Molecule: makes a random network of spheres and/or connecting rods.

In the Fractal category:

JuliniumT: a variable power Julia, (z^n+c)/(z^n+1)

Five Julia quadratic rational formulas.

Fixed a bug in the Randomxz Tile metamorph where Amount 0 gave an incorrect result.

Fixed a bug with Optimize Density checked, where any holon with a product of scales and density above unity caused instability in the probability calculation, leading to unpredictable densities.

Fixed bugs when the Metamorphs button was off. Mesh export rendering did not give expected results when the Metamorphs button was off. Picture rendering did not give expected results with Metamorph coloring and the Metamorphs button off.

The Main window - Color page

You can now click the gradient strip to edit it.

Fixed a bug in Metamorph coloring where the Preview incorrectly showed Free holons as inheriting style when they also inherited color, although Map From was not set to inherit. Rendering did not have the problem.

Fixed a bug where selecting multiple holons with custom gradients, then editing the gradient and clicking OK without making any changes did not update the preview. It should do, because this sets all selected holons to use the same gradient.

The Custom Gradient Editor

In gradient sampling, added a rubberband/marquee while dragging a line or rectangle.

The Main window - Rendering page

Changed the color antialiasing to be more correct.

Fixed a bug in v2.4 where Render More before having done Render New in the session could cause a Floating point division by zero error.

The Hybrid render method does not always work perfectly with the v2.5 constructor implementation. With combined iterators and constructors, the iterated constructors may be incomplete in places. If this happens, try adjusting the holon scales of one or more constructors.

The Main window - Animation page

Added an option to Batch rendering to Use Current Lighting, ignoring the lighting saved in xep files.

Fixed a bug where any holon's Density would change incorrectly after any keyframe where it didn't start from 1.0

The Picture Window

Added Zoom in/out commands to the View menu, with Ctrl +/- shortcuts. The Fit Window option (renamed from 'To Fit') now has a checkmark and the other options no longer toggle.

In the toolbar, the Main, Lighting and Depth window buttons are now tabbable.

Fixed a bug where resizing with View 'To Fit' could size incorrectly, hiding some of the bottom of the picture.

Fixed a bug where resizing the window small enough to hide the picture could cause errors. The Picture window now has a minimum size.

Fixed a bug with View 'To Fit' where Render New with a different picture size, or Change Size, did not update the picture window scaling.

The Picture Window - DOF filter

Focused areas are no longer affected by leakage from more distant blurred areas.

Fixed incorrect coloring in the highlight boost.

Improved speed for dark blurred areas.

Changed the importance sampling method to avoid flickering while adjusting parameters.

The Pic Texture editor

You can now click the gradient strip to edit it.

The Lighting window

The Lighting preview pane is now centered whenever you Render New or change picture size.

Removed the manual Lighting Preview buttons. The preview is now always automatic.

Removed the Fast Preview lighting option, as being obsolete and a potential cause of freezes.

Screensavers are now disabled while applying lighting, for when it takes a long time.

The Mesh Export window

In the Mesh Info dialog, the maximum value of Min Vertices is now set to just less than the largest piece (to a maximum of 10 million.) You can click a line in the size distribution list to set Min Vertices to exclude those pieces.

Fixed a problem with Simplify where eliminating larger pieces did not work.

Fixed a bug where closing XD with an unsaved mesh prompts twice to save the mesh. The Cancel option is no longer available in the save mesh prompt after closing the main window - it only shows when closing the mesh window.
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