Haloray Versions Save

Changed

• Changed equation used to calculate index of refraction from one provided in Stanley Gedzelman's paper Simulating Rainbows and Halos in Color to a polynomial fitted to data provided by Warren and Brandt in their paper Optical Constants of Ice from The Ultraviolet to The Microwave, which is what HaloPoint 2.0 uses
• HaloRay now remembers which folder you opened last when loading or saving files like simulation parameter files or images, and opens the file dialog picker in that same folder the next time

Fixed

• Fixed bug where writes outside texture bounds ended up inside the texture on some Intel GPUs on Linux
• Fixed guide marking shader to compile on Linux and Intel GPUs

NOTE: This release involves some minor breaking changes with respect to how save files are treated, hence the major version change. When the crystal geometry creation logic was rewritten, it was done to follow conventional numbering of prism faces of the ice crystal. So now when you tilt the ice crystal 90 degrees to a column Parry orientation, the prism face pointing up is face number 3. This is only relevant if you adjust prism face distances to crystal C-axis. In HaloRay 3.x the prism face distance slider for face 3 corresponded to a different prism face than in HaloRay 4.x.

Added

• Option to show 22r and 46r guide circles, horizon line, nadir and zenith

Changed

• Crystal geometry generation logic was rewritten to keep pyramid apex angle constant regardless of varying prism face distances to the crystal C-axis. This also changed the prism face numbering, which changes how prism face distances sliders in UI correspond to crystal prism faces in the actual simulation.

Changed

• When typing values into spinboxes, the change only takes effect after pressing enter or moving focus elsewhere.
• Increased maximum value of image brightness slider

Fixed

• Fixed bug where typing decimals into spinboxes wasn't working
• Fixed bug where sky was shown a second time outside field of view with equidistant and equal area camera projections
• Fixed missing prism face distances from save files
• Fixed bug with slightly incorrect crystal geometry causing uneven brightness distribution with Parry crystal halos

Changed

• Improved logging and error handling

Fixed

• Fixed bug where pyramid apex angle was set incorrectly based on crystal edge angle rather than face angle

Changed

• Improved logging and error messages in case shader compilation fails
• Population weight was changed from an integer to a decimal number for more granular control

Added

• Created a realistic sky and sun model based on Hosek-Wilkie and Preetham papers
• Simulation rate shown in status bar
• Ice crystals now have adjustable pyramidal caps
• Possibility to save and load simulations
• Added controls for prism face distances from the crystal C-axis
• Preview window for crystal shape and orientation
• Better logging and error handling
• Checkbox to enable or disable a crystal population

Changed

• Forced application to use native desktop OpenGL instead of ANGLE or software renderer
• Build system switched to qmake from CMake
• Rewrote most of the GUI code to use Qt model/view architecture
• Triangle normals are now cached during raytracing
• The settings groups in the side panel are now collapsible
• Adjusting sliders with arrow kys now uses smaller steps
• Light is now allowed to bounce inside ice crystal for a 100 times instead of 10

Fixed

• Fixed bug where intensity of halos changed with rays per frame setting
• Fixed a tiny raytracing artifact in the middle of the view

Added

• Show error dialog and exit if GPU does not support OpenGL 4.4

Fixed

• Bug where changing multiple scattering probability did not trigger a new render if maximum iterations were reached
• Crashing on Intel GPUs with Linux and Mesa3D

Fixed

• Fixed build configuration bug where resources were not being linked on Linux

NOTE: This version was broken on Linux. Use later versions instead!

Added

• Added menu bar with option to save simulation result as image
• Added slider for setting the probability of double scattering

Changed

• Replaced Add Population and Remove Population texts with icons