Change Log

V0.8.0.3

Changes:

• Keep Blender 3.6 as minimum while still having Blender 4.0 and beyond compatibility

v0.8.0.2

New Features:

• Give command for users to run when OS permissions stop an update from installing
• Better addon registration reporting in the terminal

Changes:

• Blender 4.0 compatibility

Fixes:

• UVs not working with Image Node
• Won't error out if node categories is already registered

v0.8

New Features:

• Load Noise Function. Button in the new NodeScapes Setting Menu to load all noise functions (only useful if Lazy Load is turned on in the Addon Preferences)
• NodeScapes Settings Menu in NodeScapes node tree area
• Slope and Normal Mask nodes now have eye-droppers to easily select a place on a mesh to target
• New Node: Convert Grid - Convert any mesh that is already a grid to use for NodeScapes. Must consist of only quads, have sequential numbering, shape of entire mesh is a quadrilateral (ignoring the z values), and the vertex with index 0 must be a corner vertex. Useful to take A.N.T. Landscape meshes or other generated grid meshes (like through Geometry Nodes) and use with NodeScapes.
• Apply Mesh - Now by default NodeScapes sort of behaves like a modifier. Height values are no longer applied to the mesh itself so entering into Edit Mode will not show you the same as Object Mode like modifiers do. When 'Apply Mesh' is toggled on it will apply height values to the base mesh like before. 'Apply Mesh' toggled on is marginally faster than toggled off
• If an error occurs due to nodes passing different count of coordinates to the same node the counts will show in the debug message
• Lazy Load toggle in addon preferences. You can say whether or not you'd like NodeScapes to load in all of the multithreaded noise functions at the start of Blender (Eager Loading) which will cause opening Blender to take longer, or not to load a noise function until a node is trying to use it (Lazy Loading)
• Get Vertex Weights/Colors have new way to edit their values when painting. Click the button on the node to enter into its respective painting mode. When mode is set back to Object the changes will be saved. The node also will correctly display the mesh depending on where in the node tree the node is connected
• Preset System overhaul.

• STORING: You can now store vertex weights, vertex colors, attributes, and even entire images in presets.
• WARNING: This may cause long saving of preset time if the image is large or there are lots of vertices.
• CREATOR: A name can now be assigned to a new preset so others know who built it.
• CATEGORIES: Presets can now be given categories that can then be used to filter presets.
• SOURCE: Presets will also display where they came from

• Default - shipped with NodeScapes
• Community - imported preset
• User - created on this computer, ie not imported and did not come with NodeScapes.

• EDIT: You can also edit any of these settings or see other settings about what version of Blender or NodeScapes a preset was made with

• Camera Mask now updates automatically when the camera is rotated, scaled, switching between orthographic and perspective, or the camera shift is changed. Padding now works with orthographic cameras
• New Node: Image Output - Output an image. Faster at previewing than mesh
• New Node: Interpolate - Resize and change density of NodeScapes mesh mid-nodetree
• Some data is transferred when changing the Grid node's settings (ie vertex weights, colors)
• New Node: Transform - Rotate, scale, and translate the terrain without affecting the object's transform data

• Useful for keeping scale and other transforms applied

• New Node: Curve Node now has a 'Fast Eval' toggle for multithreaded processing of the curve. Does sacrifice accuracy for speed.
• New New Node: Presets: Volcano 2.0, Mountains 2, Mountains 3,

Changes:

• Multithreading and M1 Macs now supported through Numba engine

• Multithreaded Nodes

• Curve - Fast Eval
• Hydraulic Erosion
• Interpolate
• Camera Mask

• Smooth
• Thermal Erosion
• All Noise Functions

• Auto-Update of node tree when any output node is connected instead of just the Mesh (Master) Output
• Removed the "Coords and Z" workflow. Now coordinate outputs only are what are transfered out of nodes.
• Removed the coloring section of the side panel
• Execute and pause updates were removed out of the side panel. Now are both in the node tree area's header
• Non-Array sockets now display as squares instead of circles
• Object Node is now Grid Node.

• BREAKS PRESETS - Fix Presets function in addon preferences will fix. Run that function before trying presets

• Image Node no longer has to have the Coordinates input connected to work. It's the only one like this but if left unconnected it will create a mesh and UVs based upon the selected image's resolution. One vertex for each pixel.
• Updates to the Grid Node are now roughly 3-5x faster
• Image Node is ~100x faster at applying transform data
• Debug will now show what nodes were executed through what sockets and what pulled from cached values
• Slope Mask works more intuitively
• Normal Mask now has falloff input and gives expected result when threshold is 0
• Value Mapping node category changed to Utility

Fixes:

• FIX: Normal/Slope masks will no longer affect the mesh if not connected to the Mesh Output
• FIX: Muting a node no longer throws an error
• FIX: Adjusting either radii of the Edge Fade node when Split was true no longer moves the center of the fade

v0.7

New Features:

• New Node: Object Data Input Node - Input transform data from another object
• New Node: Combine Coords and Z - Combine Z values from nodes not needing Coordinates with coordinates for nodes that do need Coordinate inputted - temporary until Vectors are implemented (see #19 below)
• New Node: Vertex Edits: When selected and entering and returning from edit-mode or sculpt-mode, this node will save the edits made while in either mode. Each node can save a new edit
• New Node: Group Node
• New Node: Get and Set Geo Nodes Attribute
• New Node: Get and Set Vertex Colors
• New Node: Get and Set Vertex Weights
• New Keymap: CTRL-Enter -> Execute Tree update
• Edge Fade: Rotation Input; Offsets are now inputs; Split Radius X/Y Inputs; Set Radius and then Falloff (set Radius to 0 and change falloff to get behavior as before); No longer affected by object transformations
• Camera Mask: Added Padding Input; Auto-Update when selected and the chosen camera is moved, scaled, rotated or the lens is changed; Better Camera picker
• Vertex Weight: Better weight map picker; Auto-Update when node is selected and painting in Weight Paint mode
• Noise: Offset, Scale, and Rotation are now all inputs, Rotation and Scale are always from object's center
• Image: Better Image picker; Better UV Maps picker; Transform Inputs; Display Resolution; Display chosen image toggle; Default to show chosen image in prefs;
• Gradient: Transform properties to inputs
• Math: New functions: Ping-Pong, Wrap, Smooth Max, Smooth Min, Truncate, Multiply Add (every function that shader nodes has, NodeScapes has now)
• Smooth: Edge mode 2x faster; Iterations is now an input;
• Master Node: Show full time it took to run the tree;
• Value: Option to change value type ['Float','Integer','Boolean'];
• Thermal Erosion: 2x faster; Removed unused setting 'Angle Threshold';
• New sockets and colors: Blue-er sockets are array types. These cannot be connected to their non-array types; Colors of non-array accepting sockets match Blender's sockets of same type
• Coordinate sockets are now the required socket for most nodes. This will pass the coordinates from node to node. Future-proofing for vector displacing
• Connecting a non-Coordinates socket to a Coordinates socket (blue) will auto create and try to link up a Combiner node
• NodeScapes editors switch to active object's NodeScapes node tree on selection (unless pinned)
• Default node setup now added when creating a new NodeScapes node tree
• Warning message and confirmation window shows now before deleting a preset
• You must click 'Overwrite' in the Add Preset Popup window now in order to overwrite. You're then given a menu to choose from of existing presets to overwrite
• NodeScapes node trees are named 'NodeScapes' by default now;
• Added a Warning to the snippets panel: Will be deleting Snippets in 0.8, convert snippets to group nodes
• Update documentation link to new docs
• Pause button next to main 'Execute' button to pause auto-updates; A second pause button will show up if an error occured while updating and the internal pause was not unpaused
• Separated the vertex colors and weights inputs from the Master Output node into own nodes
• Bug Report button in help will now open the Discord NodeScapes bug report channel in the brower

Fixes:

• Image: Error no longer thrown if file path is relative; Repeat no longer mirrors in the negtive X/Y axes;
• Smooth: Edge mode no longer cause errors
• Curve Node: Curve copies over when duplicated;
• Normal Mask: More accurate algorithm;
• When changing the number of inputs due to property change, previous links to sockets are remembered more reliably
• Changing the object node no longer erases applied transformations
• Presets and Snippets auto-load on Blender Load
• Export Presets throws up a message if no presets are selected
• NodeScapes trees won't update on opening of blend file. (Speeds up opening if NodeScapes tree runs slowly)
• Bug Fix: when adding or removing links Blender may crash
• Better handling of adding and removing links for more reliable catching of extra behavior (drag-drop to link, swapping sockets, moving existing link down when connecting to an already linked socket)

v0.6

Features:

• Auto-updates should be much more consistent
• Switched auto-preview from ctrl-shift-right click to ctrl-shift-left click
• Invalid/incompatible node links are rejected or turn red after execution depending upon preference setting
• Hydraulic Erosion at least 1000x faster
• Thermal Erosion at least 200x faster
• Smooth node at least 2x faster
• Noise node at least 2x faster
• New mask nodes': Camera, Normal, and Slope
• Added "Repeat Edge" to Image extensions menu.
• Vertex Color creation from the Master Ouput is much faster.
• Vertex Weight map creation now works from the Master Output
• Added Snippets
• Added a Preset/Snippets fixer for if updates break presets/snippets
• Smooth no longer triggers a full node tree update.
• Added an Execute button in the NodeScapes header
• You can now export multiple presets and snippets instead of 1 at a time
• Nodes will now show you if they error and what the error is if you have debug turned on in the preferences. You can also choose the color of the node when it errors
• Match Ratio for images - matches the plane's x/y ratio to the selected image's ratio
• Noise rotation
• Simplify Hydraulic Erosion node UI by hiding advanced properties under dropdown.
• Refresh Node button in Item >> Properties panel (helps with existing node trees after update)
• Refresh all button in preferences (see above)
• Auto Refresh for presets/snippets is now out of the dropdown menu
• Help Panel gives easy access to NodeScapes tutorials, documentation, bug reporting, and discord chatting!
• Math node now has different inputs other than value 1/2/3 depending on the setting
• Hydraulic erosion "bell curve" no longer needed
• New option in preferences for ignoring Fac inputs when auto connecting nodes (F hotkey, drag and dropping over an existing link, alt+click+dragging a node to disconnect)

Fixes:

• Hydraulic Erosion spelling error
• Noise node will now show correct Noise Base as a label with type is set to "noise"
• Curve Node curve saving is now more consistent and stable
• Fixed problem where previewing the curve node changed the mesh incorrectly and randomly every time clicked
• Hard input now triggers an update
• Power setting in the Math node gives correct results on non-integer numbers
• Image Extension method Clip now works in both the x and y directions
• Erosion no longer creates random spikes in lines when the object size is not a square
• Image node no longer tries to save image file path for presets/snippets. Caused errors when sharing
• Object node now saves UV and Smooth properties (toggle setting) for presets/snippets
• Math node no longer ignores clamping when Fac is set to 1.0 and unlinked
• When alt dragging a linked up node the nodes before and after will now reconnect instead of just completely removing the links