Ab4d.SharpEngine
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Latest version: 3.0.9208

Ab4d.SharpEngine versions history

 

See related blog posts to get additional information about development history of the Ab4d.SharpEngine rendering engine.

 

Version v3.0.9208 - hotfix

  • Fixed ManualInputEventsManager, where its events were not triggered when no EventsSource was registered. This bug was introduced in v3.0.9175 RC3. The IsProcessingEvents property has also been removed from ManualInputEventsManager.
  • Prevented setting NaN values to the camera's position and distance when zooming in and out. This may happen when the camera's near and far planes are far apart.
  • When calculating the camera's near and far planes, use the camera's MinNearPlaneDistance and MaxFarPlaneDistance when provided.
  • Fixed PositionAndScaleSceneNode method in ModelUtils and TransformMesh method in MeshUtils by normalizing the normals. Before, the normals may not be normalized when scaling the object.
  • Improved AndroidBitmapIO when it is used in multiple threads and prevented scaling bitmap images based on screen density. This can be disabled by setting the new PreventAndroidBitmapScale to false.
  • Improved AndroidTextureLoader by adding a new optional name property to set the name of the created GpuImage. Also, the LoadTextureAsync method now takes StandardMaterialBase type as a parameter instead of StandardMaterial, so it can also be used to create a SolidColorMaterial.
  • Set GpuImage.IsDataWritePostponed when image data is scheduled for background transfer.
  • Added GpuDynamicMemoryBlockPool.FreeMaterialMemoryBlocks method that can be used to free the material's memory block in a custom Effect (see Ab4d.SharpEngine.Samples.Common/Advanced/FogEffect.cs DisposeMaterial method)
  • VulkanDynamicDescriptorSetFactory is now public instead of internal.
  • Improved TriangleMesh for Positions (Vector3[]) and PositionTexture vertex layout. Before, the VertexBufferDescription was not correctly set. Also, CalculateBoundingBox, GetPositions, GetTextureCoordinates and GetVertexDataChannels methods did not work correctly for those two vertex layouts.
  • Improved SolidColorEffect to correctly render meshes with only Positions (Vector3[]) and meshes with PositionTexture vertex layout. Before, only meshes with PositionNormalTexture vertex layout were correctly rendered (this layout is also used for StandardMesh).
  • Added CreateOutlinePositionsMesh and CreateOutlineStandardMesh to MeshUtils. See the new "Advanced / Mesh outlines" sample.
  • Ab4d.SharpEngine, Ab4d.SharpEngine.Assimp, Ab4d.SharpEngine.glTF and Ab4d.SharpEngine.AvaloniaUI assemblies for .Net 8 and .Net 9 are now marked as IsTrimmable and IsAotCompatible (updated code to prevent AOT analyzer warnings).

 

Version v3.0.9196

Major changes compared to v2.0.8956:
  • Added support for free open-source license. When this license is used, then for the first 1.5 seconds the "POWERED BY SHARP ENGINE" text and the SharpEngine logo is shown. During this period no other 3D objects are rendered. You can check if the logo is shown by checking the new SceneView.IsLicenseLogoShown property. To be informed when the logo is removed and when your 3D objects can be shown (for example to start an animation) use the SceneView.OnLicenseLogoRemoved Action. You can apply for free open-source license on https://ab4d.com/trial.
  • Added support for super-sampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) that can significantly improve the quality of rendered 3D lines and 3D text. On SharpEngineSceneView control the super-sampling is defined by the SupersamplingCount property. On SceneView object,the initial multisample count and supersample count is set by calling SceneView.Initialize method. To change the MSAA and SSAA, call SceneView.Resize method. Default value for super-sampling on dedicated desktop devices is 4, on integrated desktop devices is 2, on mobile and low-end devices the default value is 1.
  • Added support for hardware accelerated line caps rendering. This allows rendering of millions of lines with line caps. Also, added additional line cap types. Before only Flat and ArrowAnchor were available. Now the following new line caps are supported: WideArrowAnchor, WiderArrowAnchor, ShortArrowAnchor, StealthArrowAnchor, ReverseArrowAnchor, ReverseShortArrowAnchor, BoxAnchor, DiamondAnchor.
  • Added support for rendering hidden lines - lines that are rendered only when they are behind 3D objects. This can be used to render doted or thinner hidden lines (compared to visible lines).
  • Added support for async image loading and buffer upload. The following new async methods are added: TextureLoader.CreateTextureAsync, GpuImage.CopyDataToImageAsync, GpuBuffer.WriteToBufferAsync, BitmapFont.CreateAsync, BitmapTextCreator.CreateAsync, AndroidTextureLoader.CreateTextureMaterialAsync, AndroidTextureLoader.CreateTextureAsync.
  • Added loadInBackground and initialDiffuseColor to StandardMaterial and SolidColorMaterial constructors that also take texture file name or texture stream as parameters. When loadInBackground is true the material is initially set to the initialDiffuseColor. When the texture is loaded, it is shown instead of the initialDiffuseColor.
  • Added TrueTypeFontLoader and VectorFontFactory that can show vector text meshes and outlines from the glyph defined in TrueType font files (.ttf).
  • Added new SharpEngineSceneView constructors that also take Scene as a parameter. That can be used to create a single Scene object and show it with multiple SharpEngineSceneView objects. See the new "Advanced / Multiple SceneViews" sample.
  • Added BackgroundGraphicsQueue and BackgroundTransferQueue to VulkanDevice. They are created when EngineCreateOptions.EnableBackgroundResourceUpload is true (by default) and when GPU device supports more then one Graphics queue and when any Transfer queue is available. Note that when EnableBackgroundResourceUpload is true, the VulkanDevice.TransferQueue is not set (BackgroundTransferQueue is set instead).
  • Added MeshTrianglesSorter that can be used to sort triangles by camera distance.
  • Added support for rendering to bitmap without multi-sampling (MSAA) even if it is enabled in the SceneView. This is required to correctly render ID bitmap that can be used for hit-testing.
  • Significantly improved performance of initializing multiple buffers (for example creating 1000 pyramids each with its own mesh takes now 15ms instead of 200ms). This is implemented by a new GpuStagingBuffer class that can do a batch copy of multiple buffers so we wait only once for multiple buffers copy operations.
  • Added initial support for Uno platform.
See the changes for RC and beta 2.1 versions below to get the full list of changes.

 

Version v3.0.9195 RC4

  • Added support for free open-source license. When this license is used, then for the first 1.2 seconds the "POWERED BY SHARP ENGINE" text and the SharpEngine logo is shown. During this period no other 3D objects are rendered. You can check if the logo is shown by checking the new SceneView.IsLicenseLogoShown property. To be informed when the logo is removed and when your 3D objects can be shown (for example to start an animation) use the SceneView.OnLicenseLogoRemoved Action.
  • Improved exception handling when loading images.
  • When image file name cannot be found and file name is not rooted, then try adding AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory to the file name. This may be needed when the app is started from another directory, for example when started with "dotnet run" the CurrentFolder is not the AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory but the current console / terminal folder.
  • Fixed using OverlayTexture for PresentationType in SharpEngineSceneView for WPF (bug introduced in v2.1.9118-beta2).
  • Manually check for DpiScale changes in Avalonia to detect if the value is changed without calling SizeChanged event (this can happen on Linux with Wayland).
  • Fixed positioning sprites when the view is rotated (for example in Android or iOS).
  • Added IsProcessingEvents to ManualInputEventsManager to prevent processing (hit-testing) mouse events when there are no EventSources registered.
  • Fixed creating GpuBuffer when no HostCoherent memory is available (for example on older Mac computers with Intel CPU).
  • Added "Save rendered scene to Desktop" to Diagnostics window.
  • Prevented crash when vkQueueSubmit method returns "Unknown error (-13)" on AMD GPU when copying a rendered image to a shared Avalonia image and when Vulkan backend is used.

 

Version v3.0.9175 RC3

  • Added IsBackgroundImageUploadSupported and IsBackgroundBufferUploadSupported properties to VulkanDevice.
  • Fixed using async methods when the GPU device does not support background image creation, buffer upload or when disabled by the user (setting CreateOptions.EnableBackgroundResourceUpload to false).
  • Fixed using async methods when the SynchronizationContext.Current is null (in Console app). In this case it is not possible to continue the background task on the main thread.
  • When using TextureLoader set GpuImage.Name to only the file name and not to the full path.
  • When LineRasterizationMode is set to RectangularSmooth, then enable alpha blending to blend line edges with surrounding.

 

Version v3.0.9173 RC2

  • Fixed using SharpEngineSceneView in Avalonia with Vulkan backend on some computers.

 

Version v3.0.9169 RC1

  • Added support for async image loading and buffer upload. The following new async methods are added: TextureLoader.CreateTextureAsync, GpuImage.CopyDataToImageAsync, GpuBuffer.WriteToBufferAsync, BitmapFont.CreateAsync, BitmapTextCreator.CreateAsync, AndroidTextureLoader.CreateTextureMaterialAsync, AndroidTextureLoader.CreateTextureAsync.
  • Added loadInBackground and initialDiffuseColor to StandardMaterial and SolidColorMaterial constructors that also take texture file name or texture stream as parameters. When loadInBackground is true the material is initially set to the initialDiffuseColor. When the texture is loaded, it is shown instead of the initialDiffuseColor.
  • Added TrueTypeFontLoader and VectorFontFactory that can show vector text meshes and outlines from the glyph defined in TrueType font files (.ttf).
  • Added new SharpEngineSceneView constructors that also take Scene as a parameter. That can be used to create a single Scene object and show it with multiple SharpEngineSceneView objects. See the new "Advanced / Multiple SceneViews" sample.
  • Added BackgroundGraphicsQueue and BackgroundTransferQueue to VulkanDevice. They are created when EngineCreateOptions.EnableBackgroundResourceUpload is true (by default) and when GPU device supports more then one Graphics queue and when any Transfer queue is available. Note that when EnableBackgroundResourceUpload is true, the VulkanDevice.TransferQueue is not set (BackgroundTransferQueue is set instead).
  • Improved CreateExtrudedMesh method in Ab4d.SharpEngine.Meshes.MeshFactory. Now all possible combinations of shape orientation (clockwise, counter-clockwise), simple shape / shape with holes, isYAxisUp, isSmooth, flipNormals and coordinateSystem produce the valid mesh.
  • Improved EdgeLinesFactory for some cases when a triangle edge is only partially covered by another triangle.
  • Improved Triangulator to correctly triangulate some more complex polygons, for example, those with multiple holes on different shapes, like % char.
  • Improved optimizing positions in PolygonAnalyzer - now when more than one consecutive position lies on the same line, then all of those positions are removed.
  • Show RotationCenterPosition value in SceneView.GetCameraInfo. This method is also used by "Dump camera details" menu item in the Diagnostics window.
  • Added CustomCamera, CustomAmbientLightColor and CustomViewport to RenderingLayer. When set, then all RenderingItems in the layer will use the specified camera, ambient light color and custom Viewport.
  • Added ToCSharpString extension method to int[], Vector2[] and Vector3[] arrays - it produces a c# string that can be used to initialize the specified array.
  • Added Convert2DShapeTo3DPositions method to Ab4d.SharpEngine.Utilities.MeshUtils.
  • Added DepthBias property to LineBaseNode. This makes it much easier to set DepthBias to all line nodes.
  • Fixed calculating BoundingBox when positions to MultiLineNode or PolyLineNode are set in constructor.
  • Fixed rendering PolyLineNode when Positions are set to null or empty array after the PolyLineNode was already rendered.
  • Set default LogLevel to Warn (changed from None).
  • Prevented showing "the name DebuggerDisplay does not exist in the current context" error in Visual Studio when debugging Ab4d.Vulkan objects.
  • Fixed rendering when Scene.IsTransparencySortingEnabled is set to false.
  • Added SetCustomVertexBuffer and SetCustomIndexBuffer to MeshModelNode.
  • Fixed using CullCounterClockwise and CullClockwise - in the previous version, the culling mode was swapped: CullClockwise culled (removed) counter-clockwise triangles and CullCounterClockwise culled clockwise triangles. Now this is fixed. This also changes the Scene.DefaultRasterizerState from CullCounterClockwise to CullClockwise.
  • Make the Dispose method in the SharpEngineSceneView virtual, so derived classes can provide their own disposal logic.
Ab4d.SharpEngine.glTF:
  • Prevented throwing an exception when a material does not define pbrMetallicRoughness property.
  • Added support for showing a diffuse texture from data in the KHR_materials_pbrSpecularGlossiness extension.

 

Version v2.1.9118-beta2

  • Added support for super-sampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) that can significantly improve the quality of rendered 3D lines and 3D text. On SharpEngineSceneView control the super-sampling is defined by the SupersamplingCount property. On SceneView object,the initial multisample count and supersample count is set by calling SceneView.Initialize method. To change the MSAA and SSAA, call SceneView.Resize method. Default value for dedicated desktop devices is 4, for integrated desktop devices is 2, for mobile and low-end devices the default value is 1.
  • Added support for hardware accelerated line caps rendering. Before only Flat and ArrowAnchor were available. Now the following new line caps are supported: WideArrowAnchor, WiderArrowAnchor, ShortArrowAnchor, StealthArrowAnchor, ReverseArrowAnchor, ReverseShortArrowAnchor, BoxAnchor, DiamondAnchor. This allows rendering of millions of lines with line caps.
  • Added support for rendering hidden lines - lines that are rendered only when they are behind 3D objects. This can be used to render doted or thinner hidden lines (compared to visible lines).
  • Added MeshTrianglesSorter that can be used to sort triangles by camera distance.
  • Added support for rendering to bitmap without multi-sampling (MSAA) even if it is enabled in the SceneView. This is required to correctly render ID bitmap that can be used for hit-testing.
  • Added PointerWheelChanged event to ManualInputEventsManager. It can be used to get generic pointer or mouse wheel events.
  • Added VulkanDevice.CopyBuffer and GpuBuffer.CopyToBuffer methods.
  • Added new overloads to VulkanDevice.CreateBuffer method that takes custom bufferSize or Span as parameters.
  • Fixed running on Linux Wayland by enabling VK_KHR_wayland_surface instance extension when supported.
  • Added static GetDpiScale to SharpEngineSceneView.
  • Added optional name parameter to the SharpEngineSceneView constructor.
  • Added virtual GetDefaultMultiSampleCount and GetDefaultSuperSamplingCount methods to SharpEngineSceneView. The methods can be overridden to provide custom multi-sampling and super-sampling based on the used VulkanDevice.
  • Added SetCustomVertexBuffer and SetCustomIndexBuffer to Mesh. They can be used to set custom vertex or index buffer for the Mesh. This allows the buffers to be reused on different Scene objects (but the buffers need to be created by the same VulkanDevice).
  • Added CustomMesh which is defined by custom vertex and index buffers.
  • Added GetViewMatrix and GetInvertedViewMatrix methods to Camera class.
  • Added TorusKnotModelNode class and MeshFactory.CreateTorusKnotMesh method. They can be used to render torus and torus knot 3D objects.
  • Added EngineCreateOptions.Use32BitDepthFormat property (default value is false - this uses D24UnormS8Uint depth-stencil format that is recommended by NVIDIA).
  • Added support for setting memory priority and pagable device-local memory. This helps the engine work in situations where GPU memory is heavily used by many apps in the OS. See VK_EXT_memory_priority and VK_EXT_pageable_device_local_memory Vulkan device extensions for more info. This can disabled by new EnableMemoryPrioritiesFeature and EnablePageableDeviceLocalMemoryFeature properties to EngineCreateOptions. Also added IsMemoryPrioritiesFeatureEnabled and IsPageableDeviceLocalMemoryFeatureEnabled properties to PhysicalDeviceDetails.
  • Renamed CameraAnimatedProperties.CameraWidth enum name to ViewWidth. The ViewWidth is still available but is marked as Obsolete.
  • Fixed processing the change of CustomRenderingLayer property after the SceneNode was already rendered.
  • Fixed rendering poly-lines when VulkanLineRasterizer is used (on older ARM graphics cards that do not support geometry shader). Before, the first and the last positions were not rendered.
  • Added DefaultTransparentDepthStencilState, DefaultOpaqueDepthStencilState, DefaultBlendState and DefaultRasterizerState properties to Scene object. The DefaultTransparentDepthStencilState can be changed from CommonStatesManager.DepthReadWrite to DepthRead to solve problems with transparent objects in some cases.
  • Fixed rendering poly-lines when monitor dpi-scale is more than 1.
  • Added "HitTesting and imput processing / Rectangular Selection" sample.
  • Set BackgroundColor to Transparent by default.
  • Added IsCaptureFrameAvailable method to SceneView. Renamed CaptureNextFrameInRenderDoc method to CaptureNextFrame.
  • Added support for manually capturing a frame with RenderDoc on Linux. Frame capture is initiated by calling SceneView.CaptureNextFrame method.
  • Added RecreateVertexBuffer and RecreateIndexBuffer to TriangleMesh (base class for StandardMesh).
  • Fixed getting the correct value from IsDeviceLUIDValid and IsDeviceUUIDValid properties in PhysicalDeviceDetails.
  • Added support for checking memory budgets before memory allocations (requires API 1.1 and VK_EXT_memory_budget device extension). This can be disabled by setting VulkanMemoryAllocator.CheckMemoryBudget to false.
  • Added GetMemoryBudget and GetMemoryBudgetInfo methods to VulkanDevice. Also, calling Scene.DumpFullMemoryUsage or Scene.GetFullMemoryUsageInfo will get info about the memory budget.
  • SharpEngineSceneView control for WPF, AvaloniaUI and WinForms now implement IDisposable interface (the Dispose method was already available but the IDisposable interface was not specified).
  • Fixed GetAllHitResults that sometimes did not return all the hit results.
  • Added Log.IsLoggingToDiagnosticsTrace property that can enable SharpEngine logs to be written to the trace listeners in the System.Diagnostics.Trace.Listeners collection.
  • Renamed dataLength parameter to dataItemsCount in WriteToBuffer and ReadFromBuffer methods in GpuBuffer.
  • Fixed using EngineCreateOptions.DesiredInstanceExtensionNames.
  • The PreferredMultiSampleCount property on SceneView and SharpEngineSceneView is replaced by a new MultisampleCount property. The old property is marked as obsolete.
  • Marked the SceneView.UsedMultiSampleCount and SceneView.UsedMultiSampleCountFlags properties as obsolete. To set the initial multisample count and the supersample count call SceneView.Initialize method and set multisampleCount and supersamplingCount. To change the MSAA and SSAA, call SceneView.Resize method.
  • Updated the SceneView.Resize method that has all the parameters optional so you can update only the parameters that you want, for example, change multisample could and supersample count.
  • Improved ModelUtils.PositionAndScaleSceneNode method so that it does not produce an invalid transformation when it is called on SceneNode without a valid bounding box.
  • Improved handling of ErrorOutOfDate and ErrorSurfaceLost results that indicate that the current present surface is not valid anymore.
  • Set the default value of WaitForVSync to true.
  • Fixed updating LocalBoundingBox and WorldBoundingBox on MeshModelNode after the mesh is manually updated by calling UpdateMesh method.
  • Improved using BoundingBox.Undefined for BoundingBox when the mesh is empty.
  • Removed adjustForSupersamplingFactor parameter from GetRayFromNearPlane and GetRayFromCamera. This parameter is not needed because the x and y coordinates from SharpEngineSceneView and SceneView are not multiplied by super-sampling factor. Methods with that parameter will still work, but they are marked as obsolete.
  • Added AdditionalInstanceLayers list to EngineCreateOptions. It can be used to enable additional instance layers.
  • Use only 1 SwapChain image (instead of 2) when using SharedTexture or WritableBitmap. When rendering and presenting to a surface, the SwapChain images count is defined from the surface's images count min and max value. This also changes the default value of the EngineCreateOptions.PreferredSwapChainImagesCount to 1.
  • Updated BitmapTextSample by adding an option to align the text to the camera (so the text always faces the camera) and an option to set the text size in screen space coordinates (define how large the text will look on screen regardless of the camera's zoom level).
  • Added IsVulkanBackend property to SharpEngineSceneView in Ab4d.SharpEngine.AvaloniaUI.
  • Added initial support for Uno platform.

 

Version v2.1.9028-beta1

  • Significantly improved performance of initializing multiple buffers (for example creating 1000 pyramids each with its own mesh takes now 15ms instead of 200ms). This is implemented by a new GpuStagingBuffer class that can do a batch copy of multiple buffers so we wait only once for multiple buffers copy operations.
  • Added MeshUtils.CreateSmoothShadedMesh and MeshUtils.CreateFlatShadedMesh methods that can convert any mesh to a smooth shaded mesh (without any hard edges) or a flat shaded mesh (all edges are hard).
  • Improved generating edge lines - in some cases GetEdgeLines method generated too many edge lines (for example after Boolean operations) or to few edges (for example after slicing the mesh with a plane).
  • Fixed copying data to GPU memory on some Android emulators.
  • Fixed LineSelectorData that can produce invalid results when some of the lines are completely behind the camera.
  • Improved performance of LineSelectorData when the whole line is behind the camera - in this case the screen space positions are not calculated. Also added a new property IsBoundingBoxBehindTheCamera.
  • Added a new overload to LineSelectorData.GetClosestPositionOnLine method that takes screenPosition (mouse 2D position) as a parameter.
  • Updated setting memory type index when creating shared texture for WPF and Avalonia applications on Windows.
  • Added support for devices that use non-coherent memory (some older Android and older iMac devices).
  • Added support for VK_EXT_device_fault extension. This can provide some additional information on device lost on devices that support that extension.
  • Improved performance of copying rendered texture to CPU (used for PresentationType = WritableBitmap or for SceneView.RenderToGpuImage).

 

Version 2.0.8956 - hotfix

  • Fixed using correct memory type for some arm based devices.
  • Prevented recording commands buffer again when only bounding box is changed.
  • Added IsUnifiedMemory and IsDeviceLocalHostVisibleMemoryTypeAvailable properties to PhysicalDeviceDetails.
  • Added support for using DeviceLocal and HostVisible memory type when it is available (AMD GPU and newer NVIDIA GPU). This provides faster rendering. This can be disabled by setting EngineCreateOptions.UseDeviceLocalHostVisibleMemoryType to false.

 

Version 2.0.8951

Breaking changes:
  • Renamed all classes, methods and parameters with "mouse" text to use "pointer" instead, for example:
        MouseCameraController => PointerCameraController
        MouseButtons => PointerButtons
        MouseAndKeyboardConditions => PointerAndKeyboardConditions
        CameraZoomMode enum: MousePosition => PointerPosition (MousePosition is marked as obsolete)
  • Marked all methods in Color3, Color4 and BoundingBox that take parameters by ref as obsolete. There are new methods that take parameters by in keyword instead.
  • BoundingBox.Transform and protected Camera.SetCameraMatrices changed ref parameter to in parameter. This is automatically handled in .Net 8 and newer, but requires change in .Net 6 or .Net 7.
  • Marked MeshAnalyzer.CreateEdgeLines method as obsolete. It still uses the old much slower algorithm to generate edge lines. It can still be used in cases where the new method would not work correctly.
  • In StandardTransform and StandardQuaternionTransform the method GetTranslateVector3D was renamed into GetTranslateVector. The old method still works, but is marked as obsolete.
  • Ranamed Scene.HitTestOptions property to DefaultHitTestOptions. The old HitTestOptions is still available but is marked as obsolete.

New features:
  • Added PixelsNode, PixelMaterial and PixelEffect that can be used to render 3D pixels and point-clouds.
  • Added ModelMover that can be used to move selected 3D models in the 3D space.
  • Added ModelScalar that can be used to scale selected 3D models.
  • Added ModelRotator that can be used to rotate selected 3D models.
  • Added MultiMaterialModelNode that defines a SceneNode with a single mesh and multiple materials. It uses SubMesh objects to define which triangles in the mesh are rendered with which material.
  • Added InputEventsManager (platform specific) and ManualInputEventsManager (generic) that can be used to easily subscribe to pointer and mouse events on 3D objects.
  • Added PointCloudImporter sample with PlyPointCloudReader and PlyPointCloudWriter classes (in the Utils folder) that can import from .ply files and export to that file.
  • Significantly improved the performance of generating edge lines (can be more than 100 times faster than before). To use the new method create an instance of the EdgeLinesFactory class and call any of its public methods.
  • Significantly improved the performance of LineSelectorData that can be used to select lines with pointer or mouse. See updated "HitTesting / Line selection" sample.
  • Added SliceSceneNode, SliceGroupNode and SliceModelNode methods to ModelUtils. They can slice SceneNode objects by a plane.
  • GetClosestHitObject, GetAllHitObjects, HitTestSceneNode and GetHitSceneNodeBounds methods in SceneView and Scene now have an additional optional customHitTestOptions parameter that can be used to specify custom HitTestOptions.
  • Added OverlayRenderingLayer and BackgroundRenderingLayer properties to HitTestOptions. They can be used to increase or lower the priority of hit tested objects in background or overlay rendering layer. For example, the objects in an overlay rendering layer can be marked to be hit tested before other objects. (see "BG and Overlay rendering" sample for more info).
  • When there are multiple graphics cards, use device-level Vulkan commands instead of instance-level commands. This slightly improves performance.
  • Improved hit-testing by preventing the creation of new objects on each hit test.
  • Added UpdateInstancesData and SetInstancesRange methods to InstancedMeshNode class. The methods can be used to prevent recalculating the bounding box.
  • Added GetPositionFromVertexBuffer, GetTriangleFromVertexBuffer methods to MeshUtils. They get a position or a triangle (3 positions) from a genetic vertex buffer type, for example, from an array of PositionNormalTextureVertex items.
  • Added TrianglesCount property and GetTrianglePositions method to TriangleMesh.
  • Added GetPointToLineDistance method to MathUtils.
  • Improved performance of methods in Color3 and Color4 classes.
  • Added LineUtils.AddWireframeLinePositions that takes Mesh and Matrix4x4 as parameters (so it is not needed to convert Matrix4x4 to a MatrixTransform object). Also added an optional HashSet as an additional parameter to existing GetWireframeLinePositions methods.
  • Added WireframeRenderingEffectTechnique that can be in RenderObjectsRenderingStep.OverrideEffectTechnique to render all objects as wireframe.
  • Added a new constructor for VertexColorMaterial that also takes a hasTransparency property. It specifies if positionColors array defines any color with alpha value less than 1. This prevents checking the individual colors in the positionColors array before the material is used.
  • Improved using custom data channels on Mesh object. Added AvailableDataChannels and HasCustomMeshDataChannels properties. Added option to store GpuBuffer in each data channel. Renamed ClearDataChannel to RemoveDataChannel.
  • Added SetMetadata, GetMetadata and RemoveMetadata methods to Mesh object to add any metadata to the mesh (key is a string, value is an object).
  • Added IsBackFacing property to DXRayHitTestResult. It is set to true when a back-face of a triangle is hit.
  • Added new overloads to GpuBuffer.ReadFromBuffer and WriteToBuffer methods. New oveloads can be used to specify the data length and offset in the buffer. Also, single struct values can be written to buffer and read from it.
  • Improved performance of RenderToRawImageData (and RenderToBitmap) when the size of cached RawImageData or StagingGpuBuffer is bigger than the size calculated from the current view.
  • Prevented calling Render method from SceneUpdating event handler.
  • CameraAxisPanel is automatically disposed when parent SceneView is disposed.
  • Added ClearDepthStencilBufferBeforeRendering and ClearDepthStencilBufferAfterRendering properties to RenderingLayer. They can be used to render 3D objects behind all other objects or on top of all other objects. See the new "Advanced / BG and Overlay Rendering" sample.
  • Added SetTranslate method to TranslateTransform that takes Vector3 as a parameter.
  • In StandardTransform and StandardQuaternionTransform added overloards to Move, SetTranslate and SetScale methods that take Vector3 as a parameter (instead of individual x, y and z values).
  • Added GetScaleFactors method to StandardTransform and StandardQuaternionTransform.
  • Added GetRayRayClosestPoint to MathUtils.
  • Improved GpuImage.CopyDataFromImage with byte array as a parameter. The new method can copy data also from GpuImages that are DeviceLocal (its memory is not accessible from the cpu). In this case a staging GpuImage is created that can be copied to main memory.
  • Added GpuImage.CopyDataFromImage without any parameters that returns a new RawImageData object with the data from the GpuImage (it can also retrieve data from DeviceLocal GpuImage).
  • Added SetCustomRenderingLayer to Utilities.ModelUtils class. It can set the CustomRenderingLayer on all child nodes.
  • The Scene is now automatically rendered again when the properties in the RenderingLayer are changed (for example changing IsRenderingEnabled or ClearDepthStencilBufferBeforeRendering).
  • Added Version property to Camera. It is increased each time the camera is changed. This can be used to check if the camera was changed between two points in time.
  • Improved AddTransformation and CombineTransformations in TransformationUtils. In case when both transformation are StandardTransform or StandardQuaternionTransform than transformation values from transform2 are added to transform1 and transform1 is returned.
  • Added GetQuaternion method to StandardQuaternionTransform.
  • Added SimplifyNormalCalculation to PlanarShadowMeshCreator.
  • Improved VertexColorEffect so it can read VertexColors from mesh's DataChannel (set by calling Mesh.SetDataChannel(MeshDataChannelTypes.VertexColors, positionColors))
  • Added GetAverageScale method to ScaleTransform, StandardTransform and StandardQuaternionTransform.
  • Added PivotPoint property to AxisAngleRotateTransform, AxisAngleRotateTransform and ScaleTransform. It defines a custom center of rotation and custom scale origin. Note that StandardTransform and StandardQuaternionTransform already define the PivotPoint.
  • Added RemovePremultipliedAlpha method to RawImageData.
  • Added ItemType and ItemsCount properties to GpuBuffer. This helps understand what data are stored in the buffer. Those two values are now mandatory when creating a GpuBuffer.
  • New CustomFogEffectSample that shows how to create a custom effect with custom vertex and fragment shaders.
  • Show the current coordinate system in the Diagnostics window.
  • Added gltf export to Diagnostics window.
  • Prevented closing stream in SkiaSharpBitmapIO.LoadBitmap method.
  • Improved reading emissive materials and emissive texture - now SolidColorMaterial is used to show emissive material.

Fixes:
  • Fixed zooming when using Orthographics camera, ZoomMode is set to PointerPosition and user zooms to an area without any 3D object (before zoom to center was used).
  • Prevented "Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. (Parameter 'x')' exception when allocating a huge number of objects.
  • Improved using LineRasterizationMode when some modes are not supported by the system.
  • Fixed lazy loading DiffuseTexture in StandardMaterial that is created from a file stream.
  • In PngBitmapIO (build-in png reader) improved detecting transparent pixels in images that use a palette with alpha colors but do not define AlphaChannelUsed flag in the file header.
  • Fixed showing specular reflection when using CameraLight.
  • Improved hit-testing by preventing returning two hit results when the ray hits an edge that is shared by two triangles. This can be prevented by setting the new HitTestOptions.ReportAllHitTrianglesWhenEdgeIsHit property to true.
  • Fixed using transformation in LineUtils.GetNormalLinePositions. Also, added a GetNormalLinePositions method overload that takes Matrix4x4 as a parameter instead of Transform.
  • Prevented an exception that may occur when SceneView is disposed from the finalizer.
  • Fixed calculating 2D screen positions in ceneView.BoundingBox3DTo2D.
  • Fixed setting normalized normal to mesh that is used to display bitmap text.
  • Fixed setting RotationCenterPosition from CameraController when ZoomMode is set to PointerPosition (previously MousePosition) and when user zooms to an empty area (no 3D object is under the pointer).

Created a new Ab4d.SharpEngine.glTF library that can read 3D objects from glTF files and export an existing 3D scene to glTF file.

Created a new Ab4d.SharpEngine.WinForms library that provides helper classes (SharpEngineSceneView, MouseCameraController, InputEventsManager and SystemDrawingBitmapIO). There are also new samples for WinForms.

 

Version 1.0.8740 (compared to v0.9.20-rc1)

  • Added licensing code. Now license must be activated by calling SetLicense method.
  • Simplified GetChild, GetAllChildren and ForEachChild in GroupNode. Removed search by regular expression. The wildcard (using '*') search is now automatically determined from the specified name.
  • Removed SerializeToJson and DeserializeJson from Camera because they were rarely used. This removed reference to System.Text.Json assembly.
  • Added Camera.Name property that can be set when creating the camera.
  • Prevented throwing "Value cannot be null" exception when CreateOptions.ApplicationName was null or empty string.
  • Fixed rendering semi-transparent rectangles with SpriteBatch.
  • Fixed WpfBitmapIO to set HasTransparency property.
  • Fixed WinUIBitmapIO by converting to pre-multiplied alpha.
  • Changed default sampler type from Wrap to Mirror.
  • Documented many additional classes, properties and methods. See online help here: https://www.ab4d.com/help/SharpEngine/html/R_Project_Ab4d_SharpEngine.htm
Breaking changes:
  • Change the order of parameters in the VulkanDevice.Create methods - the EngineCreateOptions parameter was moved after surface parameters because it is now optional.
  • Removed IRotatedViewCamera interface and moved ViewRotation property from camera to SceneView.
  • Removed public VulkanInstance and VulkanDevice constructors. Now it is possible to create VulkanInstance and VulkanDevice objects only by using static Create methods (before both constructor and Create method were available).
  • Renamed some parameter names in some methods in transformation classes (uniformScale to scale).
  • Renamed FreeCamera.CalculateUpDirectionFromPositions to CalculateCurrentUpDirection.