Ahoy, OpenCPN'ers...
OpenCPN Version 3.3 Beta Build 1824 will soon be available for download from
opencpn.org.
Monitor the opencpn.org Downloads page to find and download the latest Beta version binaries.....
Source is available now on github at:
https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN
Branch: master
Changelog:
273. Improve cm93 chart scale selection logic to preclude overzoom where possible.
274. Correct fault on Mac, AISTargetListDialog "Close" button
275. Implement user icons with transparent background for OpenGL
276. Correct vector chart outline colour.
277. Correct
AIS CPA
alarm acknowledge behavior when not using ACK timeouts.
278. Correct for very high CPU load factor on OpenGL systems.
279. Improve
AIS target list sorting logic for large target counts. (FS#1176)
280. Add "Wd" to S57 NATSUR lookup list (FS#1379)
281. Validate and correct Tide/Current data source on OCPN version upgrade
282. Improve Zoom-to-Cursor dynamics (FS#1414)
283. Correct rendering of "degree" symbol in OpenGL Texture Fonts (FS#1419)
284. Correct font identifier string duplication in non-en_US locales.
285. Correct Track Split logic (FS#1410)
286. Improve/Correct Windows "Dialog" font sizing logic.
287. Improve Windows Tide station time table layout.
288. Correct quilt layout on chart group change.
289. Correct default track width rendering in OpenGL. (FS#1424)
290. Refactor OpenGL raster chart caching logic.
291. Improve RouteProperties dialog layout.
292. Enable Menu font size changes for Windows platforms.
293. Enable font size/face changes for S57 Object Query dialogs
294. Apply Font style changes to persistent dialogs without restart.
Notes:
290. This is the major update for this Beta.
Texture caching of Raster
charts has been substantially updated. Here are the details.
a. When enabled, the texture cache is created dynamically, as
charts are visting in normal
navigation. Depending on your OpenGL
hardware capabilities, there may be some slight but noticable delay as a chart is accessed the very first time while the textures are created, compressed, and written to disk. Once a particular chart section has been cached, subsequent accesses are very fast. If the OpenGL
hardware texture buffer is capable, then rendering on-screen is virtually instantaneous.
b. The cache understands color scheme changes. Cache entries are automatically created for each of the 4 possible
BSB color schemes, as they are encountered in normal operation.
c. The cache understands chart Edition Dates. So, if one manually updates a chart (thus changing the chart's Edition Date), the old cache contents will be discarded, and a new cache will be built automatically as the new chart(s) are visited.
d. Using compressed texture caching retains all the benefits described earlier. It is very much faster on low spec hardware, at the expense of more disk space usage.
e. There is really no pressing need ever to manually create a texture cache of the full chart database. The previous texture cache
rebuild on chart database
rebuild has been eliminated.
f. But if you insist, there is a command line option which will build/update your compressed texture cache.
Your may execute opencpn like this: opencpn /rebuild_gl_raster_cache (-rebuild_gl_raster_cache on linux)
This may be fun to watch the mileage and rectangle counters click up, but is not a particularly good stress test, as there is only ever one chart open at a time, and it is carefully purged after the cache file is complete. But if you have nothing better to do, have fun.
I thank Sean for the basic concepts and code that are used in this evolution. We build upon each other...
There are several issues that came up in FLyspray, and on the Forum thread, which have not been addressed in this Beta. It was judged most important to stabilize the OpenGL display and GUI elements as soon as practical, and then carry forward with the less pervasive details on the next and subsequent Beta tests. Rest assurred that we are hearing your bug reports, and all will be addressed before a Production Release.
A point about bug reporting, please. If you report a bug that you suspect may be related to the new OpenGL enhancements, we need to know all about your OpenGL
environment in order to diagnose the trouble. As a minimum, we need to see the OpenGL relevant lines from your logfile. They will look like this:
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Renderer String: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Q35 x86/MMX/SSE2
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Detected Intel renderer, disabling stencil buffer
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Texture rectangle format: de1
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Using Framebuffer Objects
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> FBO Stencil buffer unavailable
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Using
Depth buffer clipping
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Using 3dfx fxt1
compression
12:42:42 EDT: OpenGL-> Compressed tile size: 128kb (6:1)
Please check and clear your Flyspray issues, if possible
Thanks, and good luck
Dave