Zhu3D 4.0.0

[Heinz van Saanen]

Name: Zhu3D
Version: 4.0.0
Type: KDE Scientific
Depend: Qt 4.x
License: GPL
Homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zhu3d/
More Info:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=43071

Description:
 Zhu3D is an interactive OpenGL-based mathematical
function viewer. You can visualize explicite
functions, parametric systems and isosurfaces. The
viewer supports zooming, scaling and rotating as
well as filed lighting or surface properties.
Special effects are animations, morphing,
transparency, textures, fog and motion blur.
Equation systems can be solved with a fast
adaptive random search.

You have up to 8 lights, background settings,
wire-modes or illumination models. For picture
rendering and textures all common formats are
recognized. User-defined functions can have any
amount of parameters, can be nested or recursive.
For special purposes if-clauses and boolean
operators are supported. Isosurfaces can use
different volume-based algorithms.

Zhu3D runs under Linux/Unix, Windows XP-Vista and
Mac OS X and is fully localized for English,
German, Spanish, French and Chinese. API's like
KDE, Gnome, Motif, Mac OS or Windows are supported
natively. All these settings can be changed
dynamically at runtime. The application comes with
extended help files and a lot of examples. A
precompiled and ready-to-go Windows version is
available.

HARDWARE:

For basic viewings even a slow PC without
HW-OpenGL may be sufficient. However, goddies like
motion blur or animation are a challenge for every
GPU. Isosurface tessellation needs a lot of
CPU-power and automatically utilizes up to 16
parallel threads therefore.

COMPILING:

All unnecessary dependencies are strictly avoided.
You just will need Qt >=4.3 and OpenGL >=1.2
whereas OpenGL may be a software implementation
like Mesa. The qmake easily can be taylored for
special needs, what supports packagers.

VERSIONS:

Versions with odd numbers are considered as "pre".
These are not intended to be buggy, but the
testing facilities are limited. So packagers are
advised to wait for an even number.


Have fun, Heinz van Saanen

Changelog:
 PACKAGERS: Please note this is a major update

What is new in 4.0.0

- The legends-editor is fully featured now. You
can add up to nine labels. Each of them can be
positioned, coloured, enabled or resized
individually
- Raised the maximum number of user-defined
functions to 64
- Switched zhu-file format to XML. The new format
is not backward compatible, but you still can read
old formats down to version 2.8.0 from November
2006
- Added more specific error messages for file
loading
- Moved debugging switch to zhu3d.pro and excluded
error class from compilation when turned off. This
results in faster compile time and a smaller
executable
- Changed all examples to the new 4.0.0 format
- Added legend examples
- Slight code optimisations in regards to
zhu-conventions
- Note that all labels are scaleable nearly as
precise as a PDF whether it is done in pure OpenGL
with a bit Qt4. No complicated subclassing, no
funky texture tricks, no extra libs. Developers
may take a look at the source and wonder how easy
it can be
- Fixed a major bug which was introduced in 3.4.8,
where you could not reload files after saving
- Versions >=3.4.6 lost the ability to render
textures into pictures and to printer. Fixed
- Updated English and German help-files

What was new in 3.4.8

- John reported a crash which is caused quite
likely by a weired system and not Zhu3D. But it
helped to discover a copy/paste error in the new
legends editor. Fixed and improved this. If you
have no problems, you may skip this update.
Packagers should play it save and update however

What was new in 3.4.6

- Added a first version of a new legends editor.
For now you can edit axes-labels. More
sophisticated stuff will follow in future releases
- Changed settings-variables to more meaningful
names. NOTE: When you have installed Zhu3D yet,
you have to reconfigure your preferred settings
like window sizes or paths. Do not hesitate, this
is done quickly and a one-time action only
- Cleanups/simplifications for file stuff. Spent
an extra file-io class in preparation for a new,
cleaner and more versatile file format
- Added a more elaborate file version check. Zhu3D
rejects to load files prior version 2.8.0 (from
November 2006) now
- Completely reworked default window positions and
sizes. So 1.st time users should get a
configuration more suitable for many cases
- Significant code reductions/simplifications in
texture parts
- Reduced complexity in some examples for speed
reasons and better support of older hardware
- Spent extra and/or more sounding icons for
animation and window stuff
- Some more cosmetic changes in
sources/translations/readme's
- Updated/shrinked translation files. Thanks to
Victor for Spanish again