DigitalRune Graphics now includes support for large-scale, tile-based terrains using height fields. The terrain system is designed to cover anything from small game worlds up to large terrain databases.

Figure 1: Terrain sample consisting of 2 x 2 tiles with 1024 m x 1024 m each

Features:

• Continuous level of detail (no mesh preprocessing, no hardware tessellation required)
• Materials using diffuse maps, specular maps, normal maps, height maps
• Customizable effects (including parallax occlusion mapping)
• Flexible material blending (blend maps, height-based, slope-based, etc.) using any number of layers
• Collision detection
• Decal rendering
• Roads
• Procedural terrains
• Holes

Figure 2: Blood decal on terrain

Figure 3: Road carved into terrain

For more details, check out the new terrain samples and the Terrain chapter.

This release adds builds and samples for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).

The license requirements for the Unity game engine have been relaxed: Previously, a DigitalRune Engine Professional license was required to use the DigitalRune libraries in Unity. From now on Indie and Professional licenses work with Unity. (If you own a DigitalRune Indie license: You can use your existing DigitalRune license key in the Unity project.)

When importing a model for use in the DigitalRune Engine, two files are required: The model (e.g. the FBX file) and the model description (the DRMDL file). The model description is an XML file that contains preprocessing settings and references the material to be used.

To import the model, the FBX file needs to be added to an XNA or MonoGame content project. Due to certain limitations in the XNA content pipeline it was not possible to add the .drmdl file directly to the content project. This has been solved in the new release: Instead of adding the FBX file to the content project, it is now possible to directly add the DRMDL file to the content project.

This seemingly minor change solves a long standing problem with the XNA content pipeline: To import a model multiple times, the model had to be duplicated on disk. Now, multiple DRMDL files can reference the same model. The model can be imported/processed multiple times with different settings.

• NEW: Builds for Window 10 - Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
• NEW: Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.dll updated from version 1.2 to 1.3.
• NEW: DigitalRune libraries built for Unity game engine can now be used with Indie licenses. (Previously a Professional license was required.)

• NEW: NamedObjectCollectionT now raises CollectionChanged events.
• NEW: Methods InsertRange and RemoveRange added to NamedObjectCollectionT
• FIX: NotifyingCollectionTRemoveItem is not called when calling RemoveRange.

• CHANGE: Minor performance improvements.

• NEW: HeightField now uses a 1-dimensional array. See new height field properties: Samples, NumberOfSamplesX, NumberOfSamplesZ.

  HeightFieldArray (float[,]) is obsolete. Instead, the height field data should be set using a 1-dimensional array. Please note: The property Array can still be used - but don't forget to call Invalidate if the data in Array is changed after the HeightField was created.

• NEW: HeightField can have a local origin (see OriginX, OriginZ).
• NEW: Support for holes in height fields (using NaN values in the height array).
• NEW: GeometryHelperMergeDuplicatePositions added.
• FIX: Cloned ConeShapes had correct Radius and Height but derived properties (e.g. AABB) were incorrect.
• Minor other improvements.

• FIX: Particle systems with reference frame World should not be scaled when the particle system node has a scale.

• NEW: Terrain rendering. See Terrain for more details.
• NEW: Method overload GetFogColor with elevation angle parameter added.
• NEW: The tag GenerateTangentFrames can now be set per model, per mesh, and per submesh in the model description (.drmdl file).
• NEW: Added support for adding .drmdl files directly to content project.
• NEW: The DigitalRune model processor now runs vertex cache optimizations on the meshes - a feature previously missing in MonoGame.
• NEW: DigitalRune texture processor supports new surface formats, which have been added to the MonoGame content pipeline: PVRTC1 2bpp/4bpp for iOS, ETC1 for Android
• NEW: Property RenderContextObject added. (Stores current data object during rendering.)
• NEW: Effect parameter semantics DefaultEffectParameterSemanticsNaN and SceneEffectParameterSemanticsLodCameraPosition added.
• NEW: GraphicsHelperRasterizerStateCullClockwise, GraphicsHelperRasterizerStateCullCounterClockwise, GraphicsHelperRasterizerStateCullNone added. Identical to built-in rasterizer states in XNA, except that MultiSampleAntiAliasing is set to false, which improves line rendering when MSAA is disabled. GraphicsHelperRasterizerStateWireFrame now also sets MultiSampleAntiAliasing = false. The DebugRenderer uses the new rasterizer states to produce cleaner lines.
• NEW: Method NoiseHelperGetNoiseTexture added.
• CHANGE: Forward.fx is now more customizable. Features (diffuse texture, specular texture, opacity texture, vertex colors, etc.) can be turned on or off using preprocessor directives.
• CHANGE: Improved height fog rendering. If height fog was combined with distance fog and camera was in a low position, the skybox could get fogged ignoring the fog distance values (FogStart, FogEnd).
• CHANGE: Improved normal and tangent frame calculations.
• CHANGE: DigitalRune texture processor automatically resizes textures to power-of-two or multiple-of-four, if required by the output format.
• CHANGE: Water rendering: Improved projected grid resolution when camera is near water surface and looking horizontally. Minor other improvements.
• REMOVE: RenderContextKeysShadow is now marked as obsolete. The current shadow map can be found in RenderContextObject when the shadow map is being rendered.
• FIX: Fog with high height falloff could result in no fog or NaN values caused by numerical errors.
• FIX: Bounding shape of ParticleSystemNode needs to ignore scale if the reference frame is World.
• FIX: AMD DX9 graphics driver crash on Win8.1 caused by cloud layer.
• FIX: Effect parameter bindings were not created for arrays in MonoGame.
• FIX: Minor pixel artifacts at the border of last shadow cascade. (Problem appears only in Direct3D 11 on NVIDIA Geforce cards.)
• FIX: No OceanWaves were rendered if EnableCpuQueries was false.
• Minor other improvements.

• NEW: GameObjectCollection now raises CollectionChanged events.

• FIX: Auto-generated key map contained wrong characters for Portuguese (and maybe other) keyboard layouts.

• NEW: Windows 10 samples.
• NEW: Terrain samples (see graphics samples).
• NEW: CustomCommandSample added (see Game UI samples.
• NEW: Added more properties to FogObject: ApplyFogToSky, AttachToCamera
• NEW: Added fog properties to DynamicSkyObject.
• CHANGE: When a model is used multiple times, the DRMDL files are added to the content project instead of the FBX file. The DRMDL files reference the same FBX file, which reduces the required disk space.
• CHANGE: Changed slider ranges in FogObject GUI.
• CHANGE: Removed use of obsolete property HeightFieldArray.
• FIX: Minor fixes in parallax occlusion mapping sample. Light direction tangent was not normalized. Mip level checks must use < instead of <=

• CHANGE: Retarget MonoGame Windows 8 project from Windows 8.0 to Windows 8.1.
• FIX: VertexStride was not set in VertexContent if a model contains only a position vertex channel.
• FIX: Mesh tangent space was not computed correctly.