Sujet - Avoyd 0.7.2 - Reduced CPU rendering overhead, Voxel Editor Docking & External Windows, Updated Minecraft & Image import, multi monitors fixes

Graphics and performance

Significantly improved CPU performance when rendering complex scenes with high detail, with over 3x reduction in CPU time and fixed many issues when using multiple monitors.

Voxel Editor User Interface

We added child window docking and the ability to move them outside the main window (using Dear ImGui docking). This should help keep the main viewport free of obstructions by tool windows.

Docked windows

External and docked windows

Minecraft map importer

Voxel Editor menu File > Import... > Minecraft Map

We've added support for importing the latest Minecraft maps with chunk formats introduced in Minecraft versions 1.13 and 1.16. Old Minecraft formats are still supported.
The importer is a work in progress: currently not all Minecraft materials are defined in Avoyd. In addition Avoyd doesn't render textures so Minecraft maps viewed in Avoyd lose some details.

Minecraft Map King's Landing by WesterosCraft imported into Avoyd

The functionality is based on our open-sourced C and C++ Minecraft Importer library enkiMI.

Import image as heightmap

Voxel Editor menu File > Import... > Image as Heightmap

It is now possible to choose both the material and material amount when importing an image as heightmap. In addition you can set the height scale and the position and orientation in 3D.

Import image as Heightmap

Camera and Anchor controls

Voxel Editor menu Tools... > Camera...

• Added shortcut 'X' to toggle Camera alignment to axis off/automatic/x/y/z. It can also be toggled using a new toolbar button or the context menu or through the Camera window. The status bar (bottom left) shows the Align to Axis status.
• Added shortcut 'C' to toggle between First Person and Arcball camera. This can also be set from the toolbar, context menu or Camera window.
• Each saved cameras can now have a custom description.

Camera align to axes controls

Edit tool

Voxel Editor menu Tools > Edit Tool...

• Materials can already be added to the palette individually but we've now added the ability to add/remove entire Material Types to the Palette. The Palette width can be adjusted to show the continuous material types pattern better.
• Symmetry planes can now be positioned with half voxel precision
• Added shortcut 'Alt+A' to toggle the anchor on or off (the Edit Tool must be open for the anchor to be visible)

Add/remove material type to Palette

Half-voxel plane intersection for symmetry

Documentation

Voxel Editor menu Help

• All the shortcuts are listed and indexed both by functionality and alphabetically. (menu Help > Controls Documentation)
• The documentation has been extended to describe Materials (menu Help > Tutorial > Materials, etc.)

World Properties

Voxel Editor menu View > World Properties

We added the ability to include freeform notes to any Avoyd world. From the World Properties screen you can also get information about the world dimensions (size in voxels) and space taken in memory by the octree. Note the file size is always smaller than this value.

World Properties

Read about the full list of additions, changes and fixes in the Change Log