Hey folks,
I’ve let the beta testers in on my schedule for the remaining period of time before the release of WM 2. We’re still some months out, but the good news is that the schedule is measured in weeks and months rather than months and years. 🙂
In another month or so I’m going to start building the new website for WM 2 that shows off the new features. At some time after that I’ll also open up the upgrade pre-sales for existing WM users. The actual release of WM 2 will occur early this fall. There’s a LOT that has changed, and some changes to come that even the beta testers haven’t seen yet.
Speaking of which, one of the “Big 4” tasks that are remaining for me to do was improvements to the Layout&Explorer view. The last week has been spent mostly working on this, and the first results are starting to appear. When complete, the new LM/EM core will enable:
- Far greater zoom ratio
- Seamless display
- Improved stability
- Improved performance at extreme zoom
There’s a lot of work to be done in the next month of coding especially that will bring WM 2/Pro to a ready state.
Here’s a taste of the improved LM/EM core showing off some of the increased zoom ratio. What follows is a sequence of 6 pictures taken at different zooms — in reality, the display seamlessly transitions between them of course. With a couple other changes, the allowed zoom range will actually be several times greater than this still (changes mostly needed are increased sensitivity when zoomed extremely close to the terrain, as well as clipping checking to make sure the camera doesn’t get buried)
9 replies on “Countdown to Big Things”
Wow!.. Very nice! I can almost see my house from here!
Looks extremely promissing..
I cannot wait for the release, I reall hope it will be affordable enough to buy! The university is taking all of my money! This zoom looks great though. Will this sort of zoom ratios increase the build times (I do not think it will)? WM2 is just getting better and better.
I am thinking of a combination of WM, modo, zbrush, and photoshop will do wonders!
Hi Brent,
The Standard Edition of 2.0 will most likely cost only a modest amount more than 1.25. There will be upgrade discounts available for existing WM users who are moving to 2.0 Standard or 2.0 Professional.
No, the layout mode improvements are purely a workflow/visualization aspect, and won’t effect terrain build times at all.
Remnant,
Thats great to hear! Now the only thing I wish would come about is a OSX version ;). I will be wating for the next blog entry, have a great day.
Thanks Remnant for the news, this will so great. Automatic upgrade to WM2.0 PRO!
That looks all very good and promising. I’m looking forward for WM2.0.
I’ve seen the early build of the zoom (in my capacity as a tester) and it’s pretty awesome! 🙂 🙂
Hey, just a suggestion, but I think you should put the “development diary” near the top or even include it in the navigation feature near the top. I didn’t stumble onto the dairy for a long time, and I think if more people realized that you are really working hard on WM2 there would be alot more interest in the upcoming release. Tis my opinion at least.
Will the new world machine support OS X?