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1.8.4 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:29 pm
by emilk
Hello there!

We've been at work on polishing the user interface and fixing a few bugs, and the result is 1.8.2. This is still a beta, but we expect a public release soon. These are some of the changes:


=== Algodoo 1.8.2, 2010-11-04 ===
* Replaced old system of simple/medium/advanced mode with "expandables" (explained in detail here).
* Improved menus.
* Improved tutorials.
* Better access to tool options.
* Replaced some text in the menu bar with icons.
* Changed to always show update messages if the user clicks the "check for update" button.
* When being informed of a new version, a button "Don't remind me again" will be shown.
* Added suggestion to upgrade graphics drivers if frame rate is too low.
* Partially covered windows now fade out.
* Middle-clicking or double-clicking the panner/zoomer drag-buttons now resets the pan/zoom.
* Varius improvments for use on touch screens, including press-and-hold tooltips.
* Somewhat improved undo/redo.
* Changed behavior:
** Click an object on the move to freeze its velocity.
** Brush tool now also erases water.
** Click-holding a button will now ALWAYS click in on release, and NEVER before.
* Improved air friction calculation to use the true diameter of an object rather than a quick estimate (switch using Sim.airFrictionVersion).
* Fixed a CSG bug.
* Fixed scale center for lasers and tracers.
* Fixed bug with drawing a chain whith snap-to-grid.
* Fixed a bug where a laser would sometimes loose too much intensity when entering water.
* Fixed air switch not switching off air friction/buoyancy for water.
* Fixed size of fallback fonts with GUI.scale!=1 (Big Buttons).
* Fixed cloning moving objects (clone preview is now kept still).
* Fixed copy-pasting of planes.
* Added new skins.


=== Algodoo 1.8.3, 2010-11-26 ===
* IMP: With force visualization on, forces are now caluclated even when simulation is paused.
* IMP: Added maximum force arrow size.
* FIX: force/velocity settings now show up in options whenever an object has visualization on.
* FIX: Enabled auto-position of texture on planes.
* FIX: Attraction is now applied based on the center of geometries instead of composite bodies. The behaviour is kept for older scenes.
* FIX: Solved problem with button selectors (i.e. mirror, motor, ...).
* IMP: Major changes to expandables: better looking, with mouse-over cursor change and with a small button to toggle between default size and full size. Also, the expand-bar never moves to left/top anymore.
* NEW: Buttons for finding scene folder and saved plot files in OS.
* FIX: May have fixed the huge "Algodoo sometimes takes very long time to switch language/skin/scale" bug.
* FIX: Tool options button will no longer fade out underlying windows.
* NEW: Brush tool multidraw erase now erases selected first (if any).


=== Algodoo 1.8.4, 2010-12-01 ===
* NEW: Buttons for removing a bound button or geom controller.
* NEW: "Expand UI" button for expanding all expandables.
* IMP: More precision in slider values.
* FIX: Bug concerning "lucky aiming" of sliders, i.e. hitting a nice round value.
* FIX: Rare bug that would cause a slider to show another value than it was set to.


Downloads:

Windows: http://www.algodoo.com/download/Algodoo_1_8_4-Win32.exe
Mac: http://www.algodoo.com/download/Algodoo_1_8_3-MacOS.dmg
Debian: http://www.algodoo.com/download/algodoo ... inux32.deb
Ubuntu: http://www.algodoo.com/download/algodoo ... inux32.deb
Other Linux: http://www.algodoo.com/download/algodoo ... inux32.tgz


Anyway, give it a try and tell us what you think!

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:34 pm
by Mystery
Yay. This seem very interesting it seems Algodoo is getting a major face lift all round recently. :) Can't wait to try it out.

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 1:22 pm
by Kilinich
* Replaced old system of simple/medium/advanced mode with "expandables" (to be explained in upcoming algoblog post).

Expand buttons _must_ work on just a single click, or that interface makes usability much worse.

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 2:39 pm
by Kilinich
Please include Russian interface in next beta/release. I've upload it few days ago in Translations forum topic.
btw, Translation page of site is outdated, need to be cleaned and updated (add flag icon, remove help)

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 2:52 pm
by emilk
Kilinich wrote:* Replaced old system of simple/medium/advanced mode with "expandables" (to be explained in upcoming algoblog post).

Expand buttons _must_ work on just a single click, or that interface makes usability much worse.


I tried this, but I found users would then not discover that you can in fact drag the buttons, and so people would only have the widgets fully expanded or fully collapsed, making things, as you put it, much worse. Also, there was a problem with accidental clicks. To expand/collapse quickly you can double-click or just throw the button.

Now stop being over dramatic and give it a real try.

Edit: I'v explained this in a bit more detail at this blog post.

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:32 pm
by Rideg
I'm gonna try this out

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:46 pm
by Kilinich
- Now stop being over dramatic and give it a real try.

I did. IMHO it sux. Can be better with single click expand and "expand all" button somewhere.
Let's see what other people say about it...

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:57 pm
by electronicboy
toolbar buttons don't alway's select when clicking them.

Other that that, its fine.


@kilinich: i have nothing wrong with the double click to expand/compress the bar. But i think that a option to remove the expandable button (all icons and menu's will be shown) so we can have the UI how quite alot have gotten used too.

But i like the fact disable options hide.
E.g. Motor speed when motor/autobrake are both unchecked

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:13 am
by gradyfitz
I like this new interface, and it seems a good job to me :), though I think it seems a little confusing if the arrow switches sides in a multi-section menu such as the materials menu (I'm not entirely sure why this is). I really like the ability to minimize the tool bar to one tool to only show the selected tool. I think this is definitely an improvement, good job :).

I think it could be better if expansion buttons were the same icon and compression buttons were the same, but I'm not sure (as I haven't seen the difference), though this is probably something that in time I will end up preferring :). Both ways make sense, it may be because when compressing the menu from the top down removes things from the bottom rather than the top (which is desirable).

Good job :).

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:53 am
by emilk
Thanks all for the feedback!

gradyfitz: Yes, the arrow switching in the material menu is quite a bit confusing, but without it you can expand a menu that is on the bottom of the screen and vsv. One solution could be to have buttons on both end, but that would clutter things up.

Kilinich: yes, I can see how a "expand everything" button would be convenient, but it's really only for already very advanced users (i.e. people here), to save you all of what, 30 seconds expanding everything once, and so I think Algodoo can do without it. Being able to hide the expand buttons does make a bit of sense (they do clutter things up a bit), but I think I'm gonna try to slim them down instead. We're working on that!

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 11:20 am
by Kilinich
If you care about advanced users - just add "Expand all", because then I mess with my config and wonna reset it - it will takes a lot of nerves to expand everything back. Sorta "Expert mode" as it was.

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:24 pm
by Kilinich
What new tracer icon with border is not good idea - tracers i used in many scenes for visual effects and now it's not solid...

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:11 pm
by guyboy
Please just add a thyme variable that when set to true expands all menus and hides the buttons. Would there be any problem with that?

Expand all

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:50 pm
by tatt61880
I've noticed that I don't need "expand all" button.

We can recover our setting easily.
What we have to do is to rename config.cfg to myconfig.phn.
And then, we can recover our setting by opening myconfig.phn after resetting Algodoo. :)

Just for an example, I've created the scene which expand buttons.
expand_config.phn
(3.22 KiB) Downloaded 4031 times
(NOTE: This file is not what just renamed config.cfg but will work.)

I don't think my setting file is perfect, but I believe that advanced users can create it by themselves for their best setting. ;)

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:20 pm
by ianno
That's really cool, but i think i go back to 1.8.0, because 1.8.2 crashes sometimes

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 10:52 pm
by Paradigm 29
I believe there should be a big "Warning!" sign somewhere.

Users who expect this to be a preview of a cool upgrade with some optimizations are going to be disappointed. This version filled with bugs and not the hard-to-notice ones that you see Kilinich posting all of the time. Download this only if you want to test an unstable version.

Other than that, I think it's great you're posting this. Keep up the good work guys!

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:37 am
by KaLul
Youre making the best of it all emil . Well done so far!! I like the new interface style. i now let all disapear i dont want to use. makes it much easier and faster to use. Thx a lot!!!

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:00 am
by julioissk84life
omg im gonna killmyself i installed the 1.8.2 and all my scenes i have made and downloaded are gone

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:32 pm
by Rideg
is it possible to implement "apply force through script"? If not, how come?

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:01 pm
by KarateBrot
YES! Air Friction calculation got improved! Now I can continue working on my artillery scene. At least for me that's a big improvement, thanks.

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:41 pm
by ianno
@ emilk. Ehm maybe a idea. Make a blog and ask people to vote for there most used tool. You can use that information for when some tool go hidden. And let the standerd function be a full extended menu of everything. If it crashes you dont have to extent it all again.

GrZ Ianno.


Ps. Sorry for mij BAD english for the moment...

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:39 am
by Antotabo
Great Job!

Still no aerodynamics... :(

Re: 1.8.2 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 2:25 pm
by alpilotx
A 64bit Linux binary might be nice for paying customers (we didn't even get 1.8.0) ... I hope, at least for the next final you will have something.

Re: 1.8.3 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:36 pm
by emilk
=== Algodoo 1.8.3, 2010-11-26 ===
* IMP: With force visualization on, forces are now caluclated even when simulation is paused.
* IMP: Added maximum force arrow size.
* FIX: force/velocity settings now show up in options whenever an object has visualization on.
* FIX: Enabled auto-position of texture on planes.
* FIX: Attraction is now applied based on the center of geometries instead of composite bodies. The behaviour is kept for older scenes.
* FIX: Solved problem with button selectors (i.e. mirror, motor, ...).
* IMP: Major changes to expandables: better looking, with mouse-over cursor change and with a small button to toggle between default size and full size. Also, the expand-bar never moves to left/top anymore.
* NEW: Buttons for finding scene folder and saved plot files in OS.
* FIX: May have fixed the huge "Algodoo sometimes takes very long time to switch language/skin/scale" bug.
* FIX: Tool options button will no longer fade out underlying windows.
* NEW: Brush tool multidraw erase now erases selected first (if any).

This should HOPEFULLY fix both the "Algodoo freezes when switching language/skin/..." and the "Cannot click anything" bugs. At least I have failed to reproduced either in 1.8.3. Please confirm!

Re: 1.8.3 beta

PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:13 pm
by Kilinich
* FIX: Attraction is now applied based on the center of geometries instead of composite bodies. The behaviour is kept for older scenes.

Good but why you don't fix same bug with airFriction? Looks like it's the same...
http://www.algodoo.com/algobox/details/18011