SurfaceExplorer Files

Which file do I need?

• macOS 14.4 or later (arm64) — SurfaceExplorer-v1.5-macos.dmg. Drag the app to Applications; it is signed and notarized.
• Windows and Linux: no 1.5 build yet; use v1.4.

Requirements: a GPU with Metal.

New

• Image (REC → Image): saves a PNG at the size you choose, rendered off screen, so its sharpness does not depend on your monitor. Pick the aspect ratio and the size in pixels or, on desktop and iPad, a print size and dpi; a frame on the view shows what will be in the picture. Wireframe lines are scaled to the image (Thin, Normal, Thick). Up to about 36 megapixels on phones and 100 on tablets.
• RESET asks what to reset only when both the view and the motions have changed; with the camera on a path it resets the motions directly.
• Sounds: clicking in the Library the sound that is playing removes it from the scene; a second click loads it again from the start.

Fixes

• Saving: when there is nothing to save (no surface, no texture, an empty scene, no sound) the app says so instead of opening the save dialog, and a background texture keeps its own colors and framing. Choosing a texture in the Library asks to save only the texture it replaces (surface, background, border or a single mesh), and an edited texture is no longer considered saved after another one is loaded.
• Empty scene: after NEW, START, RESET and Projection just say that the scene is empty; a record with only a background or a sound opens as an empty scene.
• Image and video: thin lines and soft edges, such as the Ray Marching Wireframe texture, keep the look of the screen in pictures larger than the view. Screen Upscale at a fixed resolution no longer stretches the video, and fills the whole frame on Retina displays.
• Very large images (over about 67 megapixels) now load as textures and backgrounds, scaled to 8192 pixels on the longer side; before, they were reported as possibly corrupted.
• Background shape: opening a Shape after a record with a Sphere, Cylinder or Cube background resets it to Fixed, so textures applied afterwards are no longer hugely magnified.
• Multi-mesh: a mesh in wireframe is always drawn opaque, and its own texture comes back when it returns to solid, without an unexpected save prompt.
• Camera and Ray Marching: RESET → View restores the camera direction the record opened with, also after rotations have replaced a camera path; Fast and Precise no longer stay disabled after NEW.

Source code · Bug reports