A critical memory leak in MonoGame has been fixed. The problem was caused by the following methods:

• VertexBuffer.GetData
• IndexBuffer.GetData

These methods pinned the data arrays and thereby prevented these objects from being garbage collected.

The following DigitalRune methods were affected by this bug:

• TriangleMeshFromModel
• MeshHelperMerge
• MeshHelperToTriangleMesh

A new sample demonstrates weighted blended order-independent transparency, which is a technique for rendering transparent objects. In contrast to traditional alpha blending, it does not require geometry to be rendered in sorted order (back-to-front).

Figure 1 shows an opaque tank model (reference), the model rendered with alpha blending (α = 0.8), and the model rendered with weighted blended order-independent transparency (α = 0.8). Triangles are submitted unsorted, which results in wrong visibility when using traditional alpha blending.

Figure 1: Opaque model (top), alpha blended transparency (middle), weighted blended order-independent transparency (bottom).

(Note: The shader used during weighted blended order-independent transparency uses a different lighting model, therefore the shading does not match exactly.)

For more information:

• McGuire and Bavoil, Weighted Blended Order-Independent Transparency, Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (JCGT), vol. 2, no. 2, 122--141, 2013. Available online http://jcgt.org/published/0002/02/09/

The documentation is now generated using the latest Sandcastle presentation style.

• CHANGE: Documentation uses latest Sandcastle presentation style.

• CHANGE: TriangleMeshFromModel now supports models with 32 bit indices.

• NEW: Support for processing additional texture formats. Formats supported in previous release:
  • R32G32B32A32_Float,
  • R8G8B8A8_UNorm,
  • R8G8B8A8_UNorm_SRgb,
  • R8_UNorm,
  • A8_UNorm,
  • BC1_UNorm,
  • BC1_UNorm_SRgb,
  • BC2_UNorm,
  • BC2_UNorm_SRgb,
  • BC3_UNorm,
  • BC3_UNorm_SRgb,
  • B8G8R8A8_UNorm,
  • B8G8R8A8_UNorm_SRgb,
  • B5G6R5_UNorm*,
  • B5G5R5A1_UNorm*,
  • B4G4R4A4_UNorm* (* loading only)
  Formats added in this release:
  • R32G32B32A32_UInt,
  • R32G32B32A32_SInt,
  • R32G32B32_Float,
  • R32G32B32_UInt,
  • R32G32B32_SInt,
  • R32G32_Float,
  • R32G32_UInt,
  • R32G32_SInt,
  • R32_Float,
  • R32_UInt,
  • R32_SInt,
  • R16G16B16A16_Float,
  • R16G16B16A16_UNorm,
  • R16G16B16A16_UInt,
  • R16G16B16A16_SNorm,
  • R16G16B16A16_SInt,
  • R16G16_Float,
  • R16G16_UNorm,
  • R16G16_UInt,
  • R16G16_SNorm,
  • R16G16_SInt,
  • R16_Float,
  • R16_UNorm,
  • R16_UInt,
  • R16_SNorm,
  • R16_SInt,
  • R8G8B8A8_UInt,
  • R8G8B8A8_SNorm,
  • R8G8B8A8_SInt,
  • R8G8_UNorm,
  • R8G8_UInt,
  • R8G8_SNorm,
  • R8G8_SInt,
  • R8_UInt,
  • R8_SNorm,
  • R8_SInt,
  • A8_UNorm,
  • B8G8R8X8_UNorm,
  • B8G8R8X8_UNorm_SRgb
• NEW: Effect parameter bindings will throw an exception if the value type is not compatible with effect parameter.
  (Additional checks are necessary because MonoGame does not fully validate effect parameter values.)
• NEW: Properties EffectName and EffectParameterName added to EffectBindingException to provide additional information when a binding fails.
• NEW: FormsPresentationTarget is now also available in MonoGame.
• CHANGE: Presentation targets refactored. It is now possible to implement custom presentation targets. (Methods IPresentationTargetBeginRender and IPresentationTargetEndRender added. IPresentationTarget.Handle is no longer needed and has been marked as obsolete.)
• CHANGE: Conservative shadow caster culling improved.
• CHANGE: Some "false positives" removed in progressive shadow caster culling.
• CHANGE: Clamp large (infinite) AABBs to camera/light AABB in OcclusionBuffer. Automatically handle infinite objects. Improve performance for large objects.
• CHANGE: Calculate exact view-normalized distance in OcclusionBuffer. (Currently shader computes position from AABB instead of scene node origin.)
• CHANGE: MeshHelper.ToTriangleMesh now supports meshes with 32 bit indices.
• REMOVE: Method GraphicsManager.Present() has been marked as obsolete and will be removed in future version.
• FIX: ArgumentNullException in DigitalRune Model Processor if skinned model is exported without any materials. (XNA only.)
• FIX: When a skinned model without textures and without material definition (.drmat file) is processed, the wrong effect may stored in the .xnb file.
• FIX: When skinned model is exported without any materials, a SkinnedEffect is set as default.
• FIX: Content processors try to automatically find resources if models contain invalid paths. (For example, when a FBX file contains an invalid texture file name (path does not exist), the model processor will search in the content folder and in the current directory for a matching file.)
• FIX: The DigitalRune Texture processor may throw an exception ("Surface format is not supported.") even if no processing is required.
• FIX: Minor floating-point rounding issues in SpriteRenderer.
• FIX: Effect parameter bindings for XNA stock effects (AlphaTestEffect, BasicEffect, etc.) fail when using Vector3F/Vector4F instead of Vector3/Vector4.
• FIX: OcclusionBuffer does not handle partially infinite shapes (e.g. ocean's PlaneShape) correctly.
• FIX: OcclusionBuffer did not cull shadow casters that were occluded from the light's point of view when "progressive shadow caster culling" is enabled.
• FIX: OcclusionBuffer may uses wrong MaxDistance when culling shadow casters.
• FIX: Wrong order of gamma correction and premultiplication in Billboard.fx.
• FIX: Wrong opacity when rendering semi-transparent textures with Forward.fx. (Premultiplication and gamma correction are calculated in the wrong order, which results in a low opacity.)

• NEW: WeightedBlendedOITSample added, which implements weighted blended order-independent transparency.
• CHANGE: InteropSample (XNA) and WpfInteropSample (MonoGame) merged (shared source code).
  The folder InteropSample now includes two Visual Studio projects: InteropSample-XNA.csproj and InteropSample-MonoGame.csproj.
  The folder WpfInteropSample has been removed.
• FIX: WpfInteropSample does not end when WPF window is active and ALT+F4 is pressed. (This bug was introduced by a change in MonoGame.)
• FIX: Mesh name not set in ProceduralObject.cs.

• MonoGame 3.4 Release Notes
• BREAKING CHANGE: MGFX uses a new preprocessor for effect files. Include files now need to end with a newline character, otherwise compilation fails.
• BREAKING CHANGE: Effect files (.fx) need to be rebuilt.
• CRITICAL FIX: Memory leak in VertexBuffer.GetData and IndexBuffer.GetData.
• FIX: It is now possible to import skinned models from FBX files where the root bone has a transformation pivot.