Re: [Visualpython-users] question on version 4 beta 26

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Here is an important announcement from March 10, a copy of which you'll 
find in the "Recent developments" section of vpython.org:

"A major redesign for Visual-4 Beta is underway. The central goal of the 
new design is to create an architecture which is more robust, easier to 
maintain and to extend, and easier to install and to use. The principal 
architects are David Scherer and Bruce Sherwood. Steve Spicklemire and 
Ruth Chabay have also been involved in discussions. As a result, a 
number of changes to the current beta version are likely. Support for 
textures will change. Rather than creating a texture bitmap, a 
programmer will be able to specify a material (such as wood). 
Transparency will be supported. At this point it is unclear exactly what 
support there will be for bitmapped images; they may be supported only 
as "decals" which can be applied to flat surfaces. Lighting options may 
change; it is likely that spotlights will not be supported at first in 
this version. You can look forward to higher-quality rendering of scenes 
on computers with modern graphics cards. A Macintosh version which does 
not require X11 or Fink will be created. Both the Windows version and 
the Mac version will no longer depend on the large GTK libraries, which 
will however still be the foundation for Linux."

So feel free to play with the beta version, but expect problems, and 
also expect the details of how to use the new features to change, so 
don't write lots of code that will need rewriting.

Here is a brief update for everyone:

Major progress has been made toward improving performance and fixing 
bugs, and there is now a Carbon-based version for the Mac that does not 
use X11 or the Fink package manager. None of this is ready for release 
because 1) there remain some bugs and performance issues and 2) not all 
changes have been made to the language as discussed above. I can't yet 
estimate when there will be a real release of Visual 4.

Hugh Fisher created a partial implementation of a Carbon-based Mac 
version of Visual 3 (the older, production version that does not support 
transparency, etc.). Starting from what Fisher built, David Scherer, 
assisted by me, created a Carbon-based Mac version of Visual 4. Scherer 
also made a number of important structural changes to Visual 4, 
including using a single rendering for all windows rather than separate 
renderings for each window, thereby making it much easier to apportion 
time between your Python calculations and the graphics rendering. 
Scherer also implemented support for unicode text in labels on Windows; 
new code was necessary after abandoning GTK on Windows.

Bruce Sherwood

CL wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've tried the latest beta version on Windows XP and have some questions.
>
> The latest version is quite slow on my PC as compared with the 3.2.11,
> without using the new features. Any suggestions to make it run faster
> or I shall wait for next beta release ?
>
> Also, I am not able to run texturetest.py and texture_and_lighting.py.
> I am able to run hanoi.py and see the base with wood texture.
>
> vPython is great, especially with the version 4 features !  I would
> like to use the version 4 asap. What is the latest progress and
> release schedule ?
>
>
>