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2009

Added Customize IRender Toolbar
Fixed problem with Kanji characters in texture and image file names
Fixed problem with Edge lines not rendering
Fixed problem with RPCs not rendering
Fixed a problem with Auto Load setting not being saved properly
Plant Size was not working unless Use Binary Batch Format mode is checked. (Now fixed)
Tree Editor returns "Tree Editor was Canceled", if File/Open is used during edit.
Fixed bug where we were creating too many "sub lights" when making a light from a curved surface.
Fixed bug with improper display of SketchUp Images
Fixed problem with auto load not working when starting SketchUp

Added new, optional, rendering settings dialog before rendering.
Added new, simpler material editor for simple changes
Panoramic Views
Added Gather Indirect Lighting method
Added MonteCarlo and Gather reflection to individual objects
Added setting for Automatic Sky Saturation (used or Daylight portals)
Cut the time required to extract a model by 50%
Fixed Auto Daylight Portals to work properly (with Interior/W sun preset)
Camera Lights
Fix for Twilight plugin conflict
Added new Icon selection to Setup dialog
Fix for remote batch plotting
Fix for groundplane materials
Fix for Material Editor not closing correctly
Material Editor now always a top-most dialog
Fix for RPC objects, appearing upside down and opaque
Fix for Material Editor not finding material with right click
TreeEditor fix for some users
Fix for Sandpaper Bump
Animation fix for scene from top view

Tree placed in front of rendering, rather then in SketchUp model.

Example of clay render mode

Don't apply Quick Draft setting to animations

Allow folder for animations to be entered manually.

Fixed Material Editor selector to get the correct material when selecting a face which is displaying the group texture.

Fixed minimum and maximum height calculations for AR3 plants.

Fixed Material Editor selector to always get the correct material.

Fixed an error in the Select Material to Place or Edit dialog, when using the Edit button.

Added Tone Operator Lock for Animation, on settings tab, to help with lighting changes.

Fixed animation regression in Aug. 11 Beta.

Fixed saving rendering settings in saved jpegs.

Fixed a bug where animation transitions were skipped when there was a very small change in the view

Fixes for these Animation bugs in the Batch Renderer:

Images were often corrupted

Saving each scene as a separate movie wasn't working

Loop to Start wasn't working

Saving Animation images will now name files using the original SketchUp transition number.

This allows the files to be generated by smaller animation batches, but still be automatically numbered correctly, so you can easily stitch them together in the proper order.

Render progress bar fix
Fix for material textures whose UV coordinates were more than 10,000 inches from the origin
Fix for corrupted images when using Auto Save.
Added support for 2-point Perspective

Added ability to create a visible light path - See: Visible Light Paths
Added thumbnails to the List mode of the "Select Material to Place or Edit" dialog.
Fixed a bug where some materials would not import back into SketchUp after being edited in the Render Window, throwing a "Material not found" error. This affected materials like "Color_000", where the "real" name of that material is "[Color_000]", with brackets.
Fixed an error being thrown when the Material Edit "Clear" button was used for SketchUp materials that did not have an IRender Material assigned to it.
Fixed a bug where we weren't properly redisplaying the Material Editor after editing a material.
Fixed for importing materials back into SketchUp which had characters in the material names which could not be used for file names.
Fixed a regression, for distorted textured materials, where more that 1 distorted position was used for the same material. We were only picking up one texture image for all the faces using that material.
Fixed the Season for Plants box on the Options/nXt dialog tab.
Fixed problem with trial period ending July 1
Added Self Glow to the Material Wizard
Improved logic to reload changes made in Batch Renderer back to SketchUp
Added displacement maps (In Advanced material editor)
Fixed problem specifying Auto Image folder.
Added feature to double click in Rendered Image to edit a material
Added feature to read changed materials back into SketchUp
Putting SketchUp version of the Material Wizard into the Batch Material Editor so they will be the same.
Added Draft Render Quality which renders about 4 times faster with some loss of image quality.
First Beta Test version of nXtRender
Two new output formats - HDR and EXR which can illumination information and can be used in PhotoShop of other post processing editors for quick image adjustments (e.g. shadows and highlights) without re-rendering the image.
Loads a dialog after saving a rendered image making it easy for you to launch the image with a special program.
fix problem processing Edge lines
added instancing for trees which are used multiple times - See Instancing
created version of batch renderer which does not require Microsoft .NET
New toolbar for Batch Renderer - See: IRender Render Toolbar Functions

Teapot with Metallic refection and Glossy enabled.

Improvements in lighting algorithm
Added Glossy Reflection
Added a slider for Fresnel Reflection
Fixed bug where options settings were not always "sticking"
Added checkbox to setups to toggle use of artificial lighting
Fixed Translucency and lamp shade defaults

Better processing of lights which are close to another surface
Fix problem with alpha transparent faces which are lights. They were getting a black background
Fix problem with large model extracts

Fixed to extract and process models about 3-5 times larger then previous version

Make Batch the default rendering mode
Allow Batch rendering for IRender Lite
Fix problem with the bulbs in table lamps
Fix problem with ceiling lights not working when lamps are turned off
Fixed problem with lights set using Object Properties, in Batch Render mode.
Fixed a problem with resampling PNG images, which incuded an alpha channel, when applying Image Size limits.
Fix problem with daylight portals and daylight portals in batch mode
Improvements to license and validation
Added direction to diffuse object lighting - and made other fixes

Fixed default glass type (default is now Thin), and changed material and object overrides to say "Thick". This may mess up some existing models if they were using thick glass. See: Transparent Settings
Fixed problem with materials where the back material was transparent - but not the front. It should work correctly now.
Fixed some other problems rendering faces with different materials on both sides of the face.
Fixed some problems with locating and creating SketchUp Components for RPC Objects. See: RPC
Fixed a problem where value boxes were not intrepreting values without units (e.g. 12.5) in the current SketchUp units (e.g. cm)
Add a compression vs quality factor for JPEG images to the Image Tab.
Fixed some problems with texture positioning in groups and mirrored groups.
fixed saving alpha-transparent files from batch mode

2008

Fixed a problem with the Sun/Shadow location in Batch mode.
Fixed a problem with Always Face components nested in Groups and Components.
Added option to render 2 sided faces, to the Option/Special tab.
Fixed a problem with the locations of the lamps in SketchUp Light Components, when they were rotated.
glowing surfaces with materials now glow properly which can be used for illuminated signs or Stained Glass
fixed problem where point lights were only shining down
fixed a problem where neon lights were glowing too brightly.
Added support for ArchVision RPC objects.
Fixed problem with round ceiling lights.
Added auto Daylight Portals

Added layer on/off to animations. See: Animation
Added default quality settings to Animations.
Reworked some of the logic for ambient/lamp light balance. See: Light Setup .
Added ability to load settings from a .JPG file
Added Palm Tree to Tree Editor
Fixed a bug with reflected HDRI skies not appearing

Fixed a bug with ground planes in batch mode
Added a default check box for opaque ground planes
Added options to close batch rendering application, or animation, when done.

Fixed a problem with smoothness in animations
Added support for the Tree Editor
Changed some of the tabs on the Options Wizard to make them easier to use.
)Unfortunately it will make some things harder to find the first time you use the new version.

Added circular ceiling lights.
Ceiling lights are diffuse rather then directional for better light emission.
Fixed a bug with views in animation
Added saving notes and rendering parameters to JPG files.

Fixed a problem with batch rendering clearing batch folder.
Fixed a problem with section planes when 'none' was checked on the nXt setup dialog tab.
Fixed a problem with Object Properties not setting properly.
Fixed a problem with section planes in Batch mode.
Fixed problems with finding textures in Batch Rendering.
Added a separate batch file, "start_irender_batch_64_bit.bat", to launch the batch rendering on a 64 bit machine.

A Beta Test version of Animation has been included in this release. This can be used to create Movies and Fly Througs of your model.
(Not available in IRender Lite)

See: Animation

A Beta Test version of Batch Rendering has been added in this release. This can be used to render larger models, or to render models on a different computer.
(Not available in IRender Lite)

See: Batch Rendering

Got rid of the second and third extract passes which will speed up some renderings.

Other Bug Fixes

Fixed a problem where mirrors from the mirror wizard weren't reflecting properly
Fixed a problem where lights placed with the AR3 version weren't working properly

We fixed a big problem with indirect lighting.
You can now use SketchUp Section Planes to expose the ineternals of your model.
See: Section Planes

Added offset and scale to background images.
See: Background Image

Added ability to add textures, water ripple, etc. to the ground plane material.
Added support for transparent and reflective ground planes.
Added an alpha Channel ground plane for pasting shadows onto other images
See: Ground Planes

Fixed a problem where edge lines weren't rendering in the proper color.

Added the ability to set, save and reload default values.
See: Defaults

Fixed a problem with skies
Improved Background images - added cylindrical and spherical mapping,
Fixed a problem with Daylight Portals and transparent materials

Rendering with a sky background.

Place a Background image behind your model.

See: Background Image .

Also, you can save the rendering with a transparent background, and paste it over a background with a paint program.

See: IRender Alpha Images .

Object Properties are properties placed directly on SketchUp entities, using IRender to specify rendering properties of the entities.

See: Object Properties .

Soft shadows cast by spotlight.

Creates softer shadows from lights - see Soft Shadows
Allows you to save the rendering with a transparent background - See IRender Alpha Images

Has new defaults for spotlight field angles, and thick glass.

Has a much improved options tab dialog - making it easy to set the options you need most - Lighting defaults and render paramaters, while still keeping the power of the other options available.

See: IRender_nXt Options

Tabs have been added to the Material wizard to make it easier to view and set IRender nXt Options .

See: Material Wizard

Allows you to easily create a new material from our Select Material to Place dialog.

See: Select Material

Improved the Material Editor Texture tab functionality, allowing you to set the Color Strength when using AutoBump.

See: Auto Bump

Fixed the watermark for Trial mode.

The default materials and glow settings are set on the new IRender nXt Material Wizard.

New features outlines in red.

Here is an Auto Bump example of a wall with SketchUp's stone material, and two spot light shining on the the material:
(Bump maps have their best effect when there is lighting at an angle to the material, because the bump map 3D effect is more pronounced when there is light shining on the material.)

No Auto Bump Map

With Auto Bump Map and 100% color strength

Glow is now working
Glow can be implemented as a glow, or as a light source.

The interface to place AR3 plants and materials has been temporarily removed.

However, you can place plants and materials using IRender and render the in IRender nXt

These will be restored soon.

We have rewritten the interface to handle materials better, and render more reliably (with fewer Bug Splats).