NEWS

New in Coin v4.0.0 (so far):
* new:
  - UTF-8 support
  - Notification system enhancements to provide information on the
    operational type of the Group node and multi-field changes
  - new methods: getTriggerOperationType(), getTriggerIndex(),
    getTriggerFieldNumIndices(), getTriggerGroupChild(),
    getTriggerReplacedGroupChild in SoDataSensor to access the
    aforementioned notification system enhancements

New in Coin v3.1.2 (2009-10-14):
* bugfixes:
  - removePoint() bugfix for SbBSPTree
  - divide-by-zero fix for SoNurbs
  - Fix SoLazyElement handling in SoPrimitiveVertexCache.
  - Refix NURBS picking according to the GLU specification.
  - ShadowGroup fixes
  - Bugfix for closed extrusions.
  - Bugfix for using SoPrimitiveVertexCache for other actions than SoGL RenderAction.
  - Increase upper limits for creating VBOs/caches.

New in Coin v3.1.1 (2009-09-08):
* bugfixes:
  - Fixed NURBS bugs
  - Fixed some issues in SoIndexedPointSet.
  - Fixed a configure problem which made it impossible to create release builds on Windows.

New in Coin v3.1.0 (2009-05-27):
* new:
  - shape node classes SoIndexedPointSet, SoIndexedMarkerSet
  - made build configurations available for building without
    manipulators, draggers, and nodekits, for slimmed down Coin
    binaries
  - support in SoRenderManager for superimpositions and multipass
    antialiasing
  - offscreen OpenGL contexts for Mac OS X now uses CGL, instead of
    the deprecated QuickDraw API
  - direct support for non-power-of-two textures if the OpenGL driver
    has it
  - SoOffscreenRenderer::getDC() available under MSWindows for fast
    transfer from internal buffer to Win32 bitmaps / DCs
* bugfixes:
  - font rendering through FreeType library functional again
  - SoQuadMesh rendering for PER_FACE bindings
  - SoCalculator engine's atan2() and dot() were not working properly
  - more robust and more capable SoToVRML2Action
  - node leaks when copying nodekits
  - name-dictionary memory fill (leaks) when copying scene graphs
  - more robust copying of VRML 2 scene graphs
  - ambigious typing under 64-bit MS Windows
  - some array out-of-bounds and other memory access errors in obscure
    corners of the API
  - SoProfilerElement API exported as part of the public DLL API for
    Windows builds
  - SoVRMLText, SoText3 and SoAsciiText's get primitive count operation
  - SoVertexAttribute::copy()
  - SoLineHighlightRenderAction polygon offset set-up
  - SoShadowGroup heeds SoClipPlane
  - handle transparency in all texture units when multi-texturing
  - SoNurbsCurve, picking on rational curves, and corrected for weighted
    coordinates
* optimizations:
  - use a lot less mutex resources for common case scene graphs, by
    using class-wide mutexes instead of per-instance mutexes for shape
    nodes
* build system:
  - C++ exceptions enabled by default
* other:
  - SoVRMLBackground, better depth buffer handling
  - SbString new methods lower() and upper(), for better Open Inventor
    compatibility
  - increased adherence to modern C++ conventions and programming
    practices
  - more robust offscreen GL buffer / context creation
  - various API documentation improvements
  - all environment variables heeded by Coin shown in API documentation

New in Coin v3.0.0 (2008-09-11):
* new:
  - Scene graph performance profiling subsystem
  - SoDepthBuffer node for constrolling Z-buffer settings
  - Shaders: SoVertexAttribute and SoVertexAttributeBinding nodes
  - Shadows: SoShadowSpotLight node
  - SoHeightMapToNormalMap texture conversion engine
  - SoPickStyle: new styles SHAPE_ON_TOP, BOUNDING_BOX_ON_TOP, SHAPE_FRONTFACES
  - New XML-based GL driver feature database for tagging buggy/slow features
    in specific drivers
  - Statechart XML engine (2007-draft based), used to implement examiner viewer
    mode at the Coin level
  - Foreign file format support through SoForeignFileKit w. example SoSTLFileKit
  - Draggers: minTranslation/maxTranslation fields in SoTranslate1Dragger and
    SoTranslate2Dragger
  - OS X: Coin has become more bundle-aware and will loads external libs bundled
    with Inventor.framework or the application bundle (better encapsulation)
  - SoLineHighlightRenderAction and SoBoxHighlightRenderAction now only
    supports one SoSelection node (performance and OIV-compatibility)
  - SoBumpMap will now detect height maps stored as rgb(a)
  - SoRayPickAction picking precision improvements
  - Include SoFieldContainer userdata when doing a deep node copy
  - Anti-aliasing is now done around the center of each pixel
  - Boost.Test-based testsuite
* bugfixes:
  - ATi driver workarounds (VBO rendering related)
  - Fixed SoToVRML2Action Transform handling bug
  - SoTimeCounter now handles frequency == 0.0
  - SoSceneTexture2 now properly restores the previous context
  - Fix for remote rendering in SoGLDisplayList
  - Workaround for nVidia texture format bug
  - SoPathList::uniquify() now properly removes all paths that goes through
    another path, not just one
  - SoVRMLAppearance now checks material on the state
  - SoComposeRotation. Default axis is now (0,0,1)
  - Various SoShadowGroup fixes
  - 3ds loader will no longer normalize the model (still not enabled by default)
  - Workaround for nVidia line pattern bug
  - Fixes for SoVRMLBillboard
  - SoFile-SoSearchAction bugfix
  - Correctly load bold/italic version of fonts with a single ttf file
  - Bugfix for anti aliasing with numpasses > 16
  - New Visual Studio 9 build files and other VS-related fixes
    ... and more

New in Coin v2.5.0 (2007-10-01):
* new:
  - geo nodes: SoGeoOrigin, SoGeoCoordinate, SoGeoLocation, SoGeoSeparator
  - shader nodes: SoVertexShader, SoFragmentShader, SoGeometryShader,
    SoShaderProgram, SoShaderParameter
  - shadow generation: SoShadowGroup, SoShadowCulling, SoShadowStyle
  - new camera node SoFrustumCamera
  - new node SoTextureCubeMap
  - a lot of new SbVec and SbBox classes
  - a lot of new field classes (mostly Vec and Box fields)
  - implemented stubbed SoSimplifyAction,
    added SoGlobalSimplifyAction and SoShapeSimplifyAction as stub classes
  - SoReorganizeAction improvements
  - SoFile:: setSearchOK(), getSearchOK()
  - SoGLRenderAction::setSortedObjectOrderStrategy()
  - SbTypeInfo.h template type information library
* bugfixes:
  - GlobalField cleanup bugfix
  - SoFaceDetail faceIndex bugfix
* optimizations:
  - more rendering optimized with VBOs
  - display list caching tweaks
* build system
  - initial pkg-config support
  - Visual Studio: build .pdb for release builds, tweaked optimization options
  - Visual Studio: doc-generation project

New in Coin v2.4.6 (2007-04-03):
* new:
  - implemented SbViewVolume::getAlignRotation()
  - added support in SoToVRML2Action for SoUnits and SoVRMLTransform
* optimizations:
  - fixed pathlist traversals, affecting most notably rendering w/transparency
    DELAYED_BLEND/ADD mode
  - added lazy shapehints evaluation to VRML97 rendering
  - avoid probing glGetError() much (unless specified) since it kills
    performance in certain remote rendering situations
  - some optimizations in the reading of ascii vrml/iv files
* bugfixes:
  - SoVRMLBillboard axis-of-rotation bugfix
  - global field and SoUnknownNode I/O fixes
  - SbDPMatrix::multVecMatrix(SbVec4f) bugfix
  - implemented missing notification-filtering in SoSwitch/SoVRMLSwitch
  - plugged more memory leaks
  - set same default depth function as SGI Inventor
  - VRML97 TimeSensor bugfix
  - VRML97 Billboard bugfixes
  - SoGroup offpath traversal bugfix
  - fixed AMD64 warning issues
* other
  - many Visual Studio build files improvements
  - remove the Inventor/system/gl.h configure-run dependency

New in Coin v2.4.5 (2006-04-30): The Better-Than-Doing-Tax-Returns Release
* bugfixes:
  - fixed 2D font "_" character
  - minor axis MIDDLE (i.e. center) justification for VRML97's
    FontStyle and Text nodes did previously not work as expected
  - policy change on normalizing null-vector warning
  - improved Inventor V1.0 import
  - improved cleanup code (plugged many static one-off leaks)
  - fixes for nurbs, VRML97 protos, routes...
  - and a multitude of other bugfixes (see docs/ChangeLog.v2.4.5)
* optimizations:
  - internal changes wrt use of vertex arrays and vertex buffer objects
* build fixes:
  - upgraded to new version of libtool
  - universal binaries support for Mac OS X
  - misc TGS compatibility fixes
  - added project files for Visual Studio 8 (2005)

New in Coin v2.4.4 (2005-09-19):
* improvements and optimizations:
  - further improvements to SoOffscreenRenderer performance
  - SoRayPickAction precision improvements
  - Visual Studio project now installs only selected build (including
    static configurations now)
  - misc minor details, build fixes, documentation updates
* bugfixes:
  - SoSurroundScale bugfix
  - hidden field enableTextureCompression access crashbug fix
  - misc minor robustness fixes

New in Coin v2.4.3 (2005-07-06):
* bugfixes:
  - SoText2 regression in 2.4.2; text would be too large on MS Windows
  - SoText2 regression in 2.4.2; if Coin was built multithread-safe,
    font rendering would hang the application
  - file import regression in 2.4.2; could no longer read binary
    Inventor 2.0 files

New in Coin v2.4.2 (2005-07-05):
* new features:
  - Support for compressed textures
  - Windows: build settings are easier tunable from the Visual Studio
    projects (edit include/setup.h), and also includes static library
    build options now
* optimizations:
  - major improvements to SoOffscreenRenderer performance,
    approximately 3x faster for simple scene graphs
  - OpenAL library now loaded only on demand, i.e. when sound is
    actually used
* bugfixes:
  - Postscript output for the SoOffscreenRenderer was erroneously
    disabled
  - SoFaceSet with SoShapeHints::faceType set to UNKNOWN_FACE_TYPE
    could come out wrong
  - 64-bit windows port issues believed to be resolved
  - Reinstanded missing default-2d-font characters
  - Inventor V1.0 .iv file import fixes
  - SoToVRML2Action fixes
  - Font/glyph handling fixes
  - and more...
* other:
  - reference doc improvements with file format examples and defaults
    sections for all scene objects.

New in Coin v2.4.1 (2005-05-12):
* new features:
  - minor: SoExtSelection RECTANGLE and LASSO selections can now be
    aborted by the end-user by hitting the 'END' key
* bugfixes:
  - SbString::sprintf() trusted some undocumented behaviour of the
    C-library function vsnprintf(), which at least failed with recent
    GNU libc versions on 64-bit platforms
  - SoOffscreenRenderer now properly handles multiple renderings
    interleaved with changes to viewport size
  - removed some possibilities for false positives with the mechanism
    for detecting multiple Coin DLLs in a process image on MS Windows
    platforms
  - fixed obscure SoOffscreenRenderer problem on scene graphs where
    renderCaching was explicitly set to ON for camera sibling
    SoSeparator
  - the SoIntersectionDetectionAction could cause asserts due to
    floating point inaccuracies

New in Coin v2.4.0 (2005-04-13):
* new features:
  - completely Cygwin-less build setup for MS Windows / Visual Studio:
    - Visual Studio 6 project file in build/msvc6/
    - Visual Studio .NET 2003 solution in build/msvc7/
  - some minor API additions for internal optimization purposes
* optimizations:
  - render traversal code improvements
  - file i/o
* bugfixes:
  - too many to mention; see ChangeLog

New in Coin v2.3.0 (2004-06-22):
* new features:
  - new node SoTextureCombine (for multi-texturing)
  - new texture coordinate mapping nodes SoTextureCoordinateCube,
    SoTextureCoordinateCylinder, and SoTextureCoordinateSphere
  - vertex buffer objects support
  - correct "sorted layers blend" transparency mode
  - improved thread safety 
* bugfixes:
  - loading of engine networks from file with default field values
  - misc bumpmapping bugfixes
  - plugged various memory leaks
  - offscreen renderer fixes: alpha channel support, robustify
  - improved library cleanup
  - sensor fixes: delayqueue timeouts handled in Coin instead of in SoGui
  - corrected scene redraw logic not to depend on realtime field updates
  - and lots more...
* optimizations:
  - file reading should be noticable faster
  - more/improved use of vertex array rendering and vertex buffer objects
* other:
  - build setup updates, doc updates, Mac OS X packaging fixes

New in Coin v2.2.1 (2004-01-15):
* bugfixes:
  - debug build SoBumpMapTransform::initClass() assert fix
  - fixes for VRML97 PROTO setup and file export

New in Coin v2.2.0 (2004-01-14):
* new features:
  - multi-texturing (new node SoTextureUnit)
  - bump-mapping (new nodes SoBumpMap, SoBumpMapCoordinate, SoBumpMapTransform)
  - render-to-texture (new node SoSceneTexture2)
  - much improved font support, can now load and use TrueType fonts
    for all 3D text primitive types
  - SoTexture2 now supports REPLACE texture model
  - SoOffscreenRenderer now uses GLX pbuffers for accelerated
    offscreen rendering on X11, WGL pbuffers on MS Windows, and AGL
    pbuffers on Mac OS
  - MS Windows HTML help reference documentation support
* bugfixes
  - engine SoWriteAction bugfix (assert failure in debug version)
  - SoFile::getBoundingBox() and SoVRMLInline::getBoundingBox()
  - fixed problem reading gzipped files on Mac OS X
  - misc FreeType fixes on Linux and Mac OS X
  - SoNode/SoEngine copy() bugfixes
  - SoVRMLBackground now reacts to camera movement
* misc minor optimizations, various documentation updates

New in Coin v2.1.0 (2003-07-09):
* new features:
  - new SoIntersectionDetectionAction class for collision testing
  - import and export of files with gzip and bzip2 compression
    (new methods SoOutput::setCompression() and
    SoOutput::getAvailableCompressionMethods())
  - hard-copy support: vector output to Postscript
  - FreeType support for importing TrueType fonts to SoText2
  - native Win32 support for importing TrueType fonts to SoText2
  - new SoInput::setStringArray() convenience method
  - new SoAction::apply() convenience method
  - So[Box|Line]HighlightRenderAction highlights selections under
    all SoSelection nodes, not just the first one
  - SoSFImage::setValue with CopyPolicy::NO_COPY implemented
  - autodetection of some common Win32 Coin-linking problems
  - ensure [u]intptr_t C type is present
* bugfixes:
  - SoCube PER_FACE material binding bugfix
  - I/O: string quoting bugfix, binary file padding bugfix, ++
  - field-conversion setup for new field types from 2.0
  - misc SoOffscreenRenderer fixes
  - SoOffscreenRenderer large image support
  - environment mapping when lighting is enabled
  - import and export operations on iv- and wrl-files for some locales
  - SoResetTransform SoGetBoundingBoxAction handling
  - SoNodeSenor (re)attach
  - So[Box|Line]HighlightRenderAction antialiasing rendering
  - and more...
* build fixes:
  - upgraded to new versions of autoconf, automake, and libtool
  - fixes for building with the MKS environment

New in Coin v2.0.2 (2003-04-03):
* bugfixes in
  - using OpenAL on Windows (used wrong calling convention)
  - SoGetPrimitiveCountAction on the SoVertexProperty node
  - Extension elements. State is recreated in actions when a new
    element has been enabled
  - VRML export. The VRML node prefix will now not be skipped
    when the file header is != #VRML V2.0 utf8
  - SoQuadMesh PER_FACE material binding rendering
  - GL texture coordinate projection enable/disable

New in Coin v2.0.1 (2003-03-12):
* bugfixes in
  - SoClipPlaneManip
  - SoPathSensor
  - the notification mechanism
  - ROUTE-connections in PROTOS
  - import code
* run-time binding of shared library symbols on Mac OS X, and HP-UX 10
* a few minor optimizations
* coin2.dsp file generation improvements
* improved support for building with gcc/g++ on Cygwin
* implemented SoGLLazyElement::sendAllMaterial()/sendNoMaterial().

New in Coin v2.0.0 (2003-02-27):
* legal issues
  - Coin beyond Coin 1.* switched to being licensed under the GPL
* new features
  - platform-independent thread-handling abstraction classes
  - thread-safe action traversals possible with --enable-threadsafe
  - VRML97 support
  - 3d-textures
  - audio support
  - dynamic loading of extension nodes possible on selected platforms
  - SoExtSelection: can also select only the visible polygons in a model
  - SoOffscreenRenderer: now handles generating arbitrarily huge images
  - new SoTransparencyType node, with support for setting SoTransparencyType
    in the scene graph.
  - exports base class SbClip for general polygon clipping routines
  - application data sharing through SoMField::setValuesPointer()
* optimizations
  - display list render caching
  - optimized LazyElement traversal
* compile/build/install
  - Inventor/C/ include hierarchy for C ADTs in Coin
  - man-page for coin-config.1
  - more standard build setup for generated documentation
  - MS Developer Studio project files generation
  - Linux/Debian package setup
  - Mac OS X/Darwin support, with custom framework installation
* and the usual batch of bugfixes, optimizations, documentation updates,
  and build setup improvements

New in Coin v1.0 (2001-08-13):
* speedy Cygwin builds with new, simpler wrapmsvc.exe compiler wrapper
* SoOffscreenRenderer::writeToPostscript(fp, pagesize)
* minor bugfixes
* minor documentation updates

New in Coin v1.0 final beta (2001-07-22):
- beta release made for the Web3D SDK CD, for SIGGRAPH 2001 distribution
* full Open Inventor 2.1 source code compatibility
* miscellaneous extensions:
  - SoPolygonOffset node
  - SoImage node
  - SoExtSelection node
  - SoMarkerSet node
  - SoClipPlaneManip manipulator
  - SoMouseButtonEvent::BUTTON4, BUTTON5 for wheelmouse events
  - SoKeyboardEvent::DELETE is portable even for MS Windows
  - SoAction::IN_PATH is portable even for HPUX
  - SoCamera::setStereoMode()
  - SoCamera::pointAt(target, upvector);
  - SbImage class
  - SoGLRenderAction::SORTED_OBJECT_SORTED_TRIANGLE_* transparency modes
  - SoGLRenderAction::addPreRenderCallback()/removePreRenderCallback()
  - SoCallbackAction::setViewportRegion()/getViewportRegion().
  - SoInput::searchForFile()
  - SoInput::isFileVRML1() / isFileVRML2() (soon)
  - SoOffscreenRenderer::writeToFile() and friends
  - SoFile::getFullName()
  - and more [to be mapped down later]