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WHATSNEW
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WHATSNEW
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What's New
==========
This file summarizes OMNeT++ changes in each release. For changes related to
simulation model compatibility, see doc/API-Changes. For more detailed info
about all changes, see include/ChangeLog, src/*/ChangeLog, and ide/ChangeLog.
OMNeT++ 5.3.1 (August 2023)
---------------------------
This is a modernized maintenance release of omnetpp-5.3.
Changes:
- Source code updated to eliminate warnings issued by modern C++ compilers.
Backported several smaller fixes.
- Updated the 'setenv' and 'configure' scripts, to make them more consistent
with those in more recent or modernized releases. This includes:
1. 'configure' now mandates having 'setenv' sourced before it runs.
2. 'setenv' now sets OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH, in order to prevent model
frameworks from accidentally making omnetpp's bundled icons unaccessible
from Tkenv by simply appending to OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH.
3. 'configure' now creates 'configure.user' from 'configure.user.dist'
if it does not already exist.
- Allow running tests in other than "debug" mode.
OMNeT++ 5.3 (April 2018)
------------------------
Highlights of this release are an improved message compiler (required for INET 4),
much improved histogram support, a more powerful cMessagePrinter API and its
implementation in Qtenv, and better support for smooth animation in Qtenv.
Details follow.
Core:
- Revised message compiler, added import support and more.
See src/nedxml/ChangeLog for details. Use --msg6 to turn on
the new features.
- cPar: integer representation changed from long to int64_t.
See src/include/omnetpp/ChangeLog for details.
- Evaluation of NED expressions now uses integer arithmetic when operands
are integers. Conversions that incur precision loss should now be explicit:
converting a double to integer requires the int() cast; also, converting
an int to double will raise an error if there is actual precision loss,
and you can suppress that error by explicit double() cast. There are many
smaller-scale changes related to this change -- see include/omnetpp/ChangeLog
for details.
- cHistogram has been replaced with new implementation. (The old one is still
available under the name cLegacyHistogram.) The new cHistogram is more
general (supports arbitrary bins), more configurable, and produces much
higher quality histograms even in the default setup due to newly introduced
techniques such as adaptive precollection, bin size rounding and bin edge
snapping, auto-extension with new bins, bin merging to keep the number of
bins optimal, etc. Histogram operation can be customized via histogram
strategy classes (cIHistogramStrategy); several histogram strategies are
provided.
- In recording histograms with @statistic, the number of bins can be specified
by adding numBins=nn: @statistic[x](record=histogram;numBins=100). The actual
number of bins produced might slightly differ, due to auto-extension and
bn merging during result collection.
- cMessagePrinter: API was extended with tags and column names
- cCanvas: added getAnimationSpeed(); better documentation for
setAnimationSpeed() and holdSimulationFor().
- cHistogram, cNedValue: minor changes in the public API
- Result recorders: Added "timeWeightedHistogram" recorder
Qtenv:
- Implemented support for the improved cMessagePrinter Options API, and added
a respective configuration dialog.
- The log viewer now supports ANSI control sequences for text styling:
foreground/background color, and bold/italic/underline text. Styling is
supported in both message history view and log view, i.e. it can be used
in text returned from cMessagePrinter and logged by the EV and other logging
macros.
- Rewritten the controller for smooth animation. The new algorithm is now able
to scale linearly, as long as the simulation can keep up.
- Usability improvements in the Animation Parameters dialog, e.g. it now
also displays the current simulation speed, and it is colored red if the
simulation cannot keep up with the requested animation speed.
- Histogram inspector: visualize outlier bins (drawn with a different
color than normal bins), and show info about them. Setting up the bins while
in the precollection phase can be forced from the GUI.
Fix numeric overflow when large numbers (>= 2^64) are shown.
- Histogram result objects are easier to locate on the GUI, and are now
also found by the Find/Inspect dialog.
- Made statistic recorders "findable" from Qtenv
Tkenv:
- The Tcl/Tk based runtime interface is now deprecated and turned off by
default. It will be removed in future OMNeT++ versions. You can still enable it
in configure.user by setting WITH_TKENV = yes, but we strongly suggest using
Qtenv instead.
Toolchain and dependencies:
- Updated toolchain on Windows (clang 5.0.1, gcc 7.3, gdb 8, osgEarth 2.7)
- Updated toolchain on macOS (OpenSceneGraph 3.2.3, osgEarth 2.7)
- OMNeT++ now requires osgEarth 2.7 or later (check the Install Guide for
further instructions on how to upgrade osgEarth.)
Tools:
- opp_runall, opp_fingerprinttest, opp_test: portability fixes for Windows
and macOS
- opp_fingerprinttest: fix: error messages from the simulation did
not appear
- 'march=native' and 'mtune=native' compiler options are no longer used
by default for a release build, because on certain CPUs this caused rounding
differences so simulations ran on a different trajectory depending on the
actual CPU used.
Samples:
- canvas: Added smooth animation with CarAnimator::refreshDisplay().
- osg-earth, osg-satellites: Switch from ObjectLocator to GeoTransform.
The former was removed after osgEarth 2.8, and the latter has been
around for quite some time now.
Documentation:
- Documented smooth animation in detail, and updated the section on statistical
data collection classes (cStdDev, cHistogram) in the Simulation Manual.
Plus several bug fixes.
OMNeT++ 5.2.2 (August 2023)
---------------------------
This is a modernized maintenance release of omnetpp-5.2.1.
Changes:
- Source code updated to eliminate warnings issued by modern C++ compilers.
Backported several smaller fixes.
- Updated the 'setenv' and 'configure' scripts, to make them more consistent
with those in more recent or modernized releases. This includes:
1. 'configure' now mandates having 'setenv' sourced before it runs.
2. 'setenv' now sets OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH, in order to prevent model
frameworks from accidentally making omnetpp's bundled icons unaccessible
from Tkenv by simply appending to OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH.
3. 'configure' now creates 'configure.user' from 'configure.user.dist'
if it does not already exist.
- Allow running tests in other than "debug" mode.
OMNeT++ 5.2.1 (December 2017)
-----------------------------
This is a maintenance release.
- Minor bug fixes and improvements in Qtenv.
- Other minor bug fixes.
- Updates to the C++ Development and Launcher chapters of the User Guide.
See ChangeLogs in individual folders for details.
OMNeT++ 5.2 (September 2017)
----------------------------
Highlights of this release are the fine-tuning of result recording and processing
(especially around weighted statistics); many bug fixes and improvements in Qtenv;
makefile changes to allow DEBUG and RELEASE builds of models to co-exist, and
several related changes in the IDE.
Core:
- Figure zIndex is now additive: the effective zIndex is now the sum of the
zIndex values of the figure and all its ancestors up to the root figure.
This provides more flexibility, as the stacking order of figures
is no longer constrained by their position in the figure tree.
- Added cPanelFigure, a new figure type that turns off zoom for its children.
cPanelFigure is handy when one needs to do relative positioning unaffected
by zoom, for example when adding decorations next to submodule icons.
- Statistics recording: added support for collecting time-weighted
statistics. This is useful for variables like queue length. Add
timeWeighted=1 or timeWeighted=true to a @statistic to make it collect
time-weighted statistics. timeWeighted=1 affects the operation of the
following filters/recorders: "mean", "stats" and "histogram". The "timeavg"
recorder always computes time average; an additional recorder "avg" has
also been added that always computes unweighted mean. "mean" emulates
either "avg" or "timeavg", depending on the presence of the timeWeighted=1
option.
- Changed result filters/recorders so that they interpret NaN as "missing data"
and ignore it. The change affects "count" (which now also ignores nullptrs),
"sum", "min", "max", "avg", "timeavg", "sumPerDuration", "stats", "histogram".
For the time weighted case, NaNs mark intervals to be ignored.
- cResultFilter: added an init() method to allow filters access the content
of the @statistic property they occur in.
- The packetBytes/packetBits filter now throw error if object is not a cPacket.
They still accept (and ignore) nullptr.
- Added support for weighted statistics to histogram classes and to cStddev
(the cWeightedStddev class is no longer needed.) The primary motivation
for weighted statistics is the existence of variables where time average
makes much more sense than arithmetic mean, e.g. queue length.
- The OSG viewer was factored out from Qtenv into a separate support library
which is only loaded at runtime on demand. Core OMNeT++ no longer has
any dependence on OSG or OSGEarth. This change improves simulation
startup times and also debugging experience, as it eliminates the loading
of the huge number of shared libraries that OSG and OSGEarth depends on.
(The library loading overhead was also present in simulations that did not
even contain 3D visualization.) The only API change is that one must use
cOsgCanvas::EarthViewpoint instead of osgEarth::Viewpoint when using
the cOsgCanvas::setEarthViewpoint().
Build:
- opp_makemake: IMPORTANT CHANGES regarding debug/release-mode builds:
- Models are built in RELEASE mode by default. Until now, DEBUG was the
default, which resulted in casual users always running their simulations
in DEBUG mode, i.e. much slower than possible.
- RELEASE and DEBUG mode binaries can now co-exist, so users do not have
to recompile when they switch modes (e.g. when they want to debug a
simulation.) This is a significant gain especially for large models
like INET. The goal was achieved by adding the "_dbg" suffix to the
names of DEBUG-mode binaries so they don't collide with RELEASE-mode
ones.
- Binaries are now hard-linked from the build directory (out/) to the
target directory instead of being soft-linked. This leaves the copy
in the target directory intact when the one in the build directory
is deleted.
- Refinements on the build process of OMNeT++ itself: generated files are
created only once, even when using parallel build; do not copy build
artifacts if not actually changed; Makefiles in the samples/ folder
are re-created only if they are missing; etc.
- The samples/ folder is now optional: deleting it in an OMNeT++ installation
will no longer break the build.
IDE/Base:
- The Eclipse platform was updated to the latest Oxygen build (4.7.1)
IDE/Build:
- Makefile generator: follow changes in the command-line opp_makemake tool
IDE/Launching:
- The Run, Profile and Debug launch types now automatically trigger build.
- The launcher now switches the project (and optionally all projects it
depends on) to the appropriate build configuration if necessary: Run
and Profile will perform RELEASE build, Debug will perform DEBUG build.
- For Debug launch, the "_dbg" suffix is added implicitly to the target
name (only for the exe files). The simulations will also load the "_dbg"
versions of libraries when compiled to DEBUG.
- A new "Build before launch" section was added to the Launch config
dialog, which allows you to control whether to switch build configuration
automatically or to ask before the build. The scope of build can also
configured; options are: "None", "This project", or "Project + dependencies".
- If the launch is configured as "Ask before build" (default), a
confirmation dialog is shown on launch (and before the build), asking
whether to switch the active build configuration to the appropriate one.
The dialog allows you to set the decision as permanent and reconfigures
the launch config accordingly.
- Better progress reporting and cancellation for batch runs. Internally,
this is the result of switching to the new JobGroups API of Eclipse.
IDE/Analysis Tool:
- Added support for "statistic" items and for weighted statistics.
Background: Specifying "record=stats" in a @statistic NED property, or
or calling the record() method on a cStddDev object saves a "statistic"
object in the output scalar file. A "statistic" object includes fields
like the count of observations, mean, standard deviation, minimum
and maximum value. "statistic" objects so far have been blown up to
several unrelated scalars upon loading into the Analysis Tool. Now they
are loaded as objects, and appear in the Histograms and All tabs of the
Browse Data page. Statistics fields continue to be available as scalars
as well, so they can be used as chart input.
Also, weighted statistics (like those saved from cWeightedStddev) were
not properly displayed in the Analysis Tool. This has been rectified
as well.
Details:
- The Histograms tab on the Browse Data page now includes "statistics"-
type results as well.
- The Histograms tab now has new table columns: "Kind", "SumWeights",
"#Bins", "Hist.Range", all displayed by default. "Kind" indicates
whether a result item is a "statistic" or a "histogram", and whether
it is weighted or unweighted.
- Individual fields of "statistic" and "histogram" result items are
no longer displayed on the Scalars page.
- Properties for "statistic" and "histogram" result items now includes
"Kind" ("weighted"/"unweighted") and "Sum of weights".
- On the All tab of Browse Data page, result item fields are now in
natural order (i.e. no longer alphabetically sorted).
- Export dialog refined: Added "Open exported file afterwards" checkbox,
better filename generation and validation, etc.
- Changed the syntax for accessing iteration variables in filter
expressions. Before, they could be accessed like run attributes,
with the "attr:" prefix. Now, one needs to use the "itervar:" prefix,
which is more explicit.
- Properties view: properly display attributes, iteration variables and
parameter assignments for runs
- Better display of histogram bins in the Properties view.
The display format of bins was changed from "a..b" to "[a,b)", in order
to clearly indicate that "a" is inclusive and "b" is exclusive.
- The "Variance" line has been removed from Properties view because
it's not too useful and can be easily computed as the square of the
standard deviation.
- Missing or unavailable data in table cells is now displayed with a
hyphen instead of "n.a."
- New icon for scalar items on the All tab of Browse Data page
Qtenv:
- OSG Viewer is now a separate library, loaded only on demand.
- Improved the appearance and usability of the Animation Parameters dialog.
- Show (debug) or (release) in the window title based on NDEBUG.
- Completely overhauled figure rendering. This should improve performance
and fix many issues.
- The size of arrowheads on connections and line figures is now more
reasonable with many combinations of zoom level, line width, and the
"zoomLineWidth" property.
- Implemented cPanelFigure support and cumulative zIndex.
- Figures without a tooltip inherit it from their nearest ancestor
that has one. Empty strings break this inheritance, but are not shown.
The own tooltip of the figure now overrides that of its associated object.
- The special value "kind" is now also accepted as a color in the "i" tag
of display strings of messages as well.
- A large number of miscellaneous improvements, fixes and cleanups;
see src/qtenv/ChangeLog.
Envir:
- EnvirBase: changed the lifecycle of several plugin objects to per-run,
i.e. those objects are now deleted and re-created between runs. Affected
plugins: event log recorder, output vector file recorder, output scalar
file recorder, snapshot recorder, future event set (FES).
The corresponding configuration options have also become per-run options:
eventlogmanager-class=, outputvectormanager-class=, outputscalarmanager-class=,
snapshotmanager-class=, futureeventset-class=.
Side effect: in output vector files, vector IDs now start again from 0
at the start of each run when running multiple runs. Before, they continued
from where the previous run left off.
Scavetool:
- Added --list-itervars option
- Removed obsolete export commands 'vector' and 'scalar'
- Do not export itervars as scalars by default; added -y,
--add-itervars-as-scalars option to turn exporting itervars back on
- Sort runs by runId, for consistent query output
- JSON and CSV exporter changes (applies to IDE Analysis Tool as well):
- Python export changed to JSON export with optional Python flavour
- CSV export renamed to "CSV for spreadsheet" and significantly improved
(also saves iteration variables for better run identification, etc.)
- another CSV export added ("CSV Records"), provenly suitable as input
for the read_csv() of Python Pandas
Result recording and processing:
- Switch to new scalar/vector file recorders: The default values for
the outputscalarmanager-class= and outputvectormanager-class= config
options are now the new classes OmnetppOutputScalarManager and
OmnetppOutputVectorManager. These classes rely on the new result
file writer classes in common/.
The old classes cIndexedFileOutVectorManager and cFileOutScalarManager
still exist. They will be removed in a later version of OMNeT++.
- Save iteration variables separately from run attributes ("itervar"
lines). NOTE: This changes result file format!
- omnetpp recorders: ensure order of "param" lines in the file mirror the
order in the ini file
- Output scalar file recorders: sum and sqrSum are no longer saved for
weighted statistics. This is to follow recent cStddev/cWeightedStddev
change.
- Output scalar files: do not save numeric iteration variables (of
parameter studies) as scalars. Instead we'll add them (as scalars)
at load time, if needed.
- Proper loading and exporting of weighted statistics
- Added StatisticsResult (HistogramResult sans histogram). Until now,
statistic results in scalar files were loaded as several unrelated
scalars, and were not available as a single object.
- OmnetppResultFileLoader: fix: 'run' line is mandatory since version 4.0
- SqliteResultFileLoader: updated: histBin table was renamed to histogramBin
- SqliteResultFileLoader: loading of vector attrs and run params was missing
- SQLite recorder: slight changes in file format
Bugs fixed: see http://dev.omnetpp.org/bugs/changelog_page.php?project_id=1
OMNeT++ 5.1.2 (August 2023)
---------------------------
This is a modernized maintenance release of omnetpp-5.1.1.
Changes:
- Source code updated to eliminate warnings issued by modern C++ compilers.
Backported several smaller fixes.
- Updated the 'setenv' and 'configure' scripts, to make them more consistent
with those in more recent or modernized releases. This includes:
1. 'configure' now mandates having 'setenv' sourced before it runs.
2. 'setenv' now sets OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH, in order to prevent model
frameworks from accidentally making omnetpp's bundled icons unaccessible
from Tkenv by simply appending to OMNETPP_IMAGE_PATH.
3. 'configure' now creates 'configure.user' from 'configure.user.dist'
if it does not already exist.
- Allow running tests in other than "debug" mode.
OMNeT++ 5.1.1 (May 2017)
------------------------
This release contains only minor bugfixes.
- The IDE on Windows now can be started directly from a shortcut. Previously
the IDE was not able to load its native library if it was started from a
shortcut instead of the MinGW shell.
OMNeT++ 5.1 (March 2017)
------------------------
This is the final version of OMNeT++ 5.1. This release significantly improves
and builds upon functionality introduced in version 5.0, and also raises the
bar in other areas.
Highlights:
- A matured Qtenv that now replaces Tkenv as the default runtime GUI.
- Support for smooth custom animation and video recording.
- Better support for simulation campaigns in managing and performing a large
number of runs and in result recording/processing.
- Experimental support for SQLite-based result files.
- Updated toolchain and libraries on Windows including 64-bit Windows support.
- Updated Eclipse base for the IDE (Eclipse v4.6.3).
For further details see the preview version announcements below.
Changes since OMNeT++ 5.1 Preview 3:
Result Analysis:
- Data export functionality in scavetool and the IDE has been reimplemented.
Currently the following export formats are available: CSV, Python source,
OMNeT++ scalar/vector files, SQLite scalar/vector files. The new exporter
interface allows for defining new exporters (including UI) without any
change to scavetool or the Analysis Tool in the IDE, and for more flexible
output formats.
In scavetool, the new 'export' command replaces the now-deprecated 'vector'
and 'scalar' commands.
Qtenv:
- Added graphical inspectors for output vectors and histograms. They are
enabled for cOutVector and cStatistic-based histogram objects, i.e. they
are currently not available for @statistic-based output vectors and
histograms.
Build:
- The configure script no longer detects and tests for the presence of the
'pcap' library. If models need it, they have to implement their own method
to detect and configure it.
Samples:
- The routing example was modified to demonstrate the new, built-in packet
animation in Qtenv. Packets are displayed as arrows along the connection
showing the actual packet length on the wire. Added parameter to be able
to switch between cut-through switching and store-and-forward. Also added
a parameter study into its omnetpp.ini.
Bugs fixed: see http://dev.omnetpp.org/bugs/changelog_page.php?project_id=1
OMNeT++ 5.1 Preview 3 (February 2017)
-------------------------------------
This version is expected to be last preview version before releasing
OMNeT++ 5.1 final.
Core:
- Ordering of 'platdep/sockets.h' and 'omnetpp.h' is no longer important.
It is recommended to include 'omnetpp.h' first.
- Changes in the Canvas API: the insertBelow()/insertAbove() methods
have been added to cFigure; cFigure's parse(cProperty*) and
getAllowedPropertyKeys() methods are now public API; the first argument
of the recently introduced Register_Figure() macro must now be quoted.
- Added opp_get_monotonic_clock_usecs(). This function should be used for
measuring wall-clock time intervals in schedulers and other places instead
of gettimeofday() which is not monitonic.
- opp_run (and all executable simulations) now support the '-h configvars'
to print the list of dollar variables that can be used in configuration values.
- Other minor improvements.
Documentation:
- Install Guide has been updated and covers the installation procedure on
the most recent operating system versions.
- The Simulation Manual has been heavily updated. Look for the (new) symbol
to see the updated content.
- User Guide now has a new chapter about the Qtenv runtime environment.
Build:
- omnetpp.h is now treated as a 'system header', so it will no longer generate
warnings in case a model specifies more stringent checking for the compiler.
- The 'configure' script now accepts WITH_XXX=yes/no options on the command line.
Look into the configure.user file to see the supported variables.
- Cross compilation of OMNeT++ for Windows on a Linux host is now supported.
IDE:
- Fixed an issue when generating NED documentation on Windows
- IDE can now generate a makefile that is exactly the same as the one
generated by the opp_makemake tool.
Qtenv:
- Numerous bug fixes and enhancements.
Tools:
- scavetool: the -f option for the 'query' command adds statistics fields (min,
max, sum, etc.) as scalars.
- msgc: Message compiler now correctly generates 'override' keywords for certain
functions.
- The message compiler now generates code which produces no warnings even
when -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic is used as a compiler command line option.
Samples:
- osg-earth now has a configuration where off-line map tiles are used instead
of an on-line map tile provider. (Note that this may not work on current
Debian/Ubuntu distros, because they contain an osgEarth library version
that is too old.)
Bugs fixed: see http://dev.omnetpp.org/bugs/changelog_page.php?project_id=1
OMNeT++ 5.1 Preview 2 (December 2016)
-------------------------------------
This release significantly improves and builds upon functionality introduced
in version 5.0, and also raises the bar in other areas. Highlights include:
a much-improved Qtenv that now replaces Tkenv as the default runtime GUI;
support for smooth custom animation and video recording; better support for
simulation campaigns in managing and performing a large number of runs and in
result recording/processing; experimental support for SQLite-based result
files; updated toolchain and libraries on Windows; 64-bit Windows support;
updated Eclipse base for the IDE.
Note:
1. There are now separate downloads for Linux, Windows and macOS. A fourth
package labelled "core" comes without the IDE, and can be used on all other
systems.
2. 32-bit Windows and Linux are no longer supported.
Known Issues:
1. The manuals have not yet been updated.
2. Documentation generation on Windows is currently not working.
Changes since version 5.0:
Core:
- Support for smooth custom animations. The goal was to allow models to visualize
their operation using sophisticated animations while the simulation is running
under a GUI (Qtenv). The key idea is that refreshDisplay() is called repeatedly
at a reasonable rate to render frames. refreshDisplay() knows the animation
position from the simulation time (which is now interpolated between events)
and the "animation time", a variable also made accessible to the model.
Animation-to-simulation speed ratio (sec/simsec) is determined by an "animation speed"
variable (or rather, several such variables) that can be set explicitly from code.
Different animation speeds can be chosen dynamically to adapt the animation
to the current time scale of the interesting events or processes in the simulation.
Animations that need to take place in zero simulation time are supported
with "holds", i.e. holding up the simulation for a certain animation time period.
The actual playing speed of the resulting animation can be controlled in Qtenv
using the "Speed" slider on the toolbar. Note that this feature is only available
in Qtenv (and not in Tkenv which is more-or-less in maintenance mode from now on).
- If a model implements such full-blown animations for a compound module that
OMNeT++'s default animations (message sending/method call animations) become
a liability, they can now be programmatically turned off for that module with
a setBuiltinAnimationsAllowed(false) call.
- Support for self-refreshing figures. cFigure now has a refreshDisplay()
method which is called on every display refresh as long as the containing
canvas is open in the GUI. Overriding that method in custom figure classes
allows the figure to update itself according to the state of the simulation.
The self-refreshing feature is especially useful for figures that implement
various meters, gauges, plots or charts, because this way they don't require
an additional helper module to update them. Note this feature is only available
in Qtenv.
- Custom figure classes are now registered using Register_Figure(), not with
Register_Class(). This allows for more flexibility and a cleaner handling of
C++ namespaces.
- The stacking order of figures is now jointly determined by the child order and
a new runtime-settable cFigure member called zIndex, with the latter taking
priority. In @figure properties in NED files, "zIndex" replaces "childZ" which
was only used at parse time but not stored in figures afterwards.
- A figure can now have a tooltip text set.
- A figure can now be associated with a simulation object, for example a module
or a packet. Association means that the figure more-or-less "stands for" (or
visually represents) the other object in the GUI. For example, when the user
clicks or double-clicks the figure under Qtenv, the associated object is
focused or opened in the GUI. The figure also "inherits" the tooltip of its
associated object, provided it does not have its own tooltip.
- For text figures, one can now optionally turn on a "halo", which makes the
text more readable on all backgrounds.
- Support has been added to load custom images for use by cImageFigure/cIconFigure
and in display strings (cEnvir::loadImage()). It is also possible now to
programmatically add new directories to the image path (cEnvir::appendToImagePath()).
- The dimensions of images used by cImageFigure/cIconFigure can now be determined
programmatically (getImageNaturalWidth() / getImageNaturalHeight() methods).
- Support for measuring the text has been added to cTextFigure and cLabelFigure
(getBounds() method). Note that getBounds() assumes zoom level 1.0.
- Support for accessing the coordinates of auto-layouted submodules (cEnvir::
getSubmoduleBounds()). This functionality is needed by some visualizers in
INET, where nodes of a wired network are typically not explicitly placed.
- In cObject and subclasses, info() has been renamed to str(). The old method
still exists and delegates to the new one. The detailedInfo() method has been
deprecated due to lack of usefulness.
- In NED statistic declarations (@statistic), signal names in the "source"
attribute can now be qualified with the name of a submodule. This will cause
the signal listener to be added to the given submodule instead of the module
containing the @statistic. Example: @statistic[foo](source=a.b.foo). Note that
there is no syntax to specify modules above or outside the one containing the
@statistic, as that would limit the module's reusability (encapsulation
violation).
- In cModule, the arrived() method has been made public API. arrived() is
invoked as part of the send() protocol, and its default version inserts the
message into the FES after some bookkeeping. Overriding arrived() allows one
to perform custom processing at the destination module of a send() call
immediately, still within the send() call.
- cPacket's default getDisplayString() method now falls back to returning the
encapsulated packet's display string, instead of just returning an empty string.
- When formatting error messages, location/time information is now placed *after*
the exception text, not before. The goal was to improve readability, as user
now needs to go through less blabla before getting to the actual error message.
Individual error messages have also been revised for brevity and consistency
(capitalization, use of quotation marks, etc.)
- Several things have been made inspectable at runtime (e.g. from Qtenv):
simulation results being collected (i.e. result filter/recorder objects
added via @statistic); per-signal listeners lists; values of XML module
parameters and cXMLElement trees.
- Unit conversion now knows about C (coulomb) and related units As, mAs, Ah, mAh.
- Many other smaller-scale changes, fixes and refactoring, in part related to
the ones above; see ChangeLogs under src/ for details.
Qtenv:
- Qtenv has reached maturity and it is now the default GUI for simulations.
- Qtenv now requires Qt5.4, and optionally OpenSceneGraph 3.2-3.5 and
osgEarth 2.5-2.7.
- You can use your own Qt bundle by setting the QT_PATH variable in
configure.user before running ./configure. (This may be needed if your Linux
distribution comes with an older version.)
- Added support for smooth custom animations. This means that simulation time is
interpolated between events, and the animation can be stopped between events.
In the event number display, the event number is prefixed with either 'last:'
or 'next:' to make it unambiguous. A new 'Animation Parameters' window has
been added where one can view the current animation speed, framerate, and
other metrics.
- One-stepping now stops right before events so pressing F4 will execute the
next event instantly. For consistency, after initialization, the simulation
time will be set to that of the first event (not always to 0s).
- The simulation time display now has digit grouping and units turned on by
default for better readability. Settings can be changed in the context menu.
- Added built-in support to record animation into a high quality video.
(Press the record button on the toolbar for instructions.)
- Improvements on built-in animations: Messages sent with a nonzero propagation
delay are now animated properly (not instantaneously). Packets of nonzero
length are now displayed as "strips" when transmitted on a link with a
transmission rate and propagation delay. The animation of method call
hierarchies now represents the call graph better.
- Two-way connections are now drawn as two half-length lines so that they
don't cover one another.
- Module layouts are now shared among all graphical inspectors of the same
module. Layout seeds are now persistent between runs.
- The Configuration/Run selection dialog now accepts run filters from the
command line and will display the matching runs on the top of the list.
- Inspector windows made persistent between runs and will be re-opened on
simulation restart.
- Other improvements, including tweaks to the Preferences dialog, context
menu usability in inspectors, updated application and toolbar icons, a new
'Rebuild network' button on the toolbar, and many bug fixes.
- Experimental support to run as a native Wayland client (start the simulation
with the QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland environment variable set).
Tkenv:
- While Qtenv is now the default runtime GUI, simulations can still be
launched under Tkenv by adding "-u Tkenv" to the command line. Tkenv is
being maintained, but it is not actively developed any more. This means
that most new features, including the ones added in this OMNeT++ release
(smooth custom animations, self-refreshing figures, etc) will not be
available under Tkenv.
Envir:
- Run filtering: The -r option of simulations now also accepts a run filter
expression as an alternative to a list of run numbers and run number ranges.
This makes it possible to use the values of iteration variables for filtering,
instead of the artificial and more-or-less meaningless run number. The new
-q option (see below) can be used to query the list of matching runs.
Example: ./aloha -c PureAlohaExperiment -r '$numHosts>5 and $numHosts<10' -q runs
- To query the list of matching runs, the new -q <what> option can be used
together with -c <config> and -r <runfilter>. The argument to -q can be
any of: "numruns", "runnumbers", "runs", "rundetails", "runconfig",
"sectioninheritance".
- The nesting order of iterations has been made configurable, and the default
has changed: the repeat counter has been switched from being the innermost
loop to being the outermost one. This is more practical, as it allows one
to get early results for all data points, then refine the picture as more
runs are being completed. The nesting order (also among iteration variables)
can be specified using the new iteration-nesting-order configuration
option.
- Bugfix: the constraint option did not take effect when specified on the
command line (--constraint=...)
- The -s (silent, i.e. non-verbose) option has been added, partly to facilitate
machine processing of -q output.
- By default, error messages are written to stderr. A -m (merge output) option
has been added that redirects errors to stdout; a practical benefit is that
it preserves the relative order of the output.
- Default result file naming scheme been changed to be more practical. The
traditional naming scheme contained the run number, which has now been
replaced by the values of the iteration variables and the repetition
counter. Example: old: Aloha-16.sca, new: Aloha-numHosts=10,mean=0.9-#3.sca.
Illegal and inconvenient characters are encoded in an urlencode-like manner.
This naming scheme applies to cmdenv output files, eventlog files and
snapshot files as well.
- Experimental support for SQLite as result file format. SQLite result files
can be browsed using existing GUI tools (SQLite Browser, SQLite Studio),
can be queried using SQL, and can be accessed and manipulated from all
major programming languages including Python and R. These benefits are
in exchange for slight performance penalty. SQLite result files contain
the same information as OMNeT++ native result files, they can co-exist,
and OMNeT++ tools and the IDE understand both. To switch to SQLite as
default result file format, compile OMNeT++ with PREFER_SQLITE_RESULT_FILES=yes
set in configure.user. To use SQLite only for specific simulations,
add the following lines to their omnetpp.ini files:
outputvectormanager-class="omnetpp::envir::SqliteOutputVectorManager"
outputscalarmanager-class="omnetpp::envir::SqliteOutputScalarManager"
- In output scalar files, when run attributes (iteration variables, etc.)
are saved as scalars, the module name they are saved with has been changed
from "." to "_runattrs_".
- The cpu-time-limit option has been fixed to work as expected; a new
real-time-limit option also has been added.
Cmdenv:
- All changes described in the Envir section above apply, plus:
- When performing multiple runs, Cmdenv now stops after the first run that
stops with an error. This behavior can be controlled with the new
cmdenv-stop-batch-on-error=<bool> option.
- When performing multiple runs, Cmdenv now prints run statistics at the end.
Example output: "Run statistics: total 42, successful 30, errors 1, skipped 11"
- The cmdenv-output-file option can now be specified per run, and now has a
default file name that follows the naming scheme of result files (but with
the .out extension). Since saving the output can no longer be
disabled by omitting the cmdenv-output-file setting, new option
cmdenv-redirect-output=<bool> has been added for that purpose.
- The cmdenv-interactive option can now be specified on per-run basis.
Tools:
- scavetool: The command-line interface (options and help) has been redesigned
for usability.
- scavetool: The tool now supports querying the contents of result files
in a user-friendly way, via the new "query" subcommand. This subcommand
has also been made the default operation mode. For example, a simple
"scavetool *.vec *.sca" command reports the number of runs, vectors and
scalars found in the specified files.
- scavetool: CSV and other tabular export has been improved: run attributes
(iteration variables, etc) are now added to the output as columns.
Note that scavetool currently cannot export to SQLite.
- opp_makemake: OMNeT++ and generated model makefiles now use compiler-
generated dependencies (gcc/clang -MMD option) that are saved in the
out/ directory in *.d files. "make depend" is no longer needed.
- opp_makemake: Support for deep includes (automatically adding each
subfolder to the include path) has been dropped, due to being error-prone
and having limited usefulness. In projects that used this feature,
#include directives need to be updated to include the directory as well.
- opp_makemake: Removed support for generating nmake-compatible makefiles,
as we now use GNU Make on all platforms.
- opp_featuretool: Symbols for enabled features (e.g. WITH_IPv4 for the IPv4
feature in INET) are now placed into a generated header file, instead of being
passed to the compiler via -D options. The name of header file can be
specified in the feature definition file (.oppfeatures).
- opp_runall has been reimplemented in Python, and its command-line interface
has been redesigned to not only allow using multiple CPUs but also several
runs per Cmdenv instance. (This change allows one to execute a large number
of short simulation efficiently by reducing process startup overhead.)
Internally, opp_runall now uses the new "-q" option of simulations to
expand a run filter expression to a list of runs.
- opp_test: export "run" script and "retest" scripts under work/ for each test,
to facilitate running tests manually. Minor bug fixes.
- Removed unused utilities like opp_makedep, lcg32_seedtool, abspath, and
some others.
IDE:
- The IDE is now based on Eclipse 4.6 Neon and CDT 9.0 (Java 1.8 required).
IDE/C++ Build:
- The "Collecting includes..." phase of project build (that could take quite
a significant amount of time, and was often seen as a pain point) has been
eliminated. The key was to switch from IDE-generated dependencies to
compiler-generated dependencies (see corresponding opp_makemake change)
that made include analysis in the IDE redundant.
- Change in "Project Features" feature: Preprocessor symbols for enabled
features (e.g. the WITH_IPv4 macro for the IPv4 feature) are now placed
into a generated header file, and not added to the build configuration
(Paths & Symbols page) as macros to be passed to the compiler via -D
options. The name of header file is part of the feature definition file
(.oppfeatures). Using a generated header file reduces the number of things
that can go wrong during indexing and project build, and also has the
advantage of being seen from derived projects.
- The "Export build tester makefile" button has been removed from the
Project Features property page. The INET Framework project now has an
opp_featuretool-based shell script for the same purpose (tests/featuretest)
that can be easily adapted to other projects as well.
- Support for deep includes (automatically adding each subfolder to the
include path) has been dropped from the IDE as well, due to being error-
prone and having limited usefulness.
- Improvements in the Makemake Options dialog that opens from the Makemake
project property page. For example, an "Include directories" listbox has
been added to the Compile tab page, and less frequently used options
on the same page have been moved under the More>>> link.
- CDT integration: renamed the default C/C++ project configuration names
from "gcc-debug"/"gcc-release" to simply "debug" and "release".
IDE/Simulation Launching:
- In the Run/Debug Configurations dialog, the "OMNeT++ Simulation" form page
has been revised for usability and to better support simulation campaigns.
The launcher (code that schedules and actually runs the simulations and
arranges feedback in the Progress view and the Console) has also been
improved. Details follow.
- The "Runs" form field now accepts a run filter expression that can refer