[Wrf-users] VAPOR release 1.5.2

[Alan Norton]

The VAPOR team is happy to announce the release of the VAPOR 1.5.2 
desktop visualization platform.  This is primarily a bug fix release, 
however a few minor features have been added as described below.  Of 
particular interest to WRF users is the support for overlaying multiple 
semi-transparent geo-referenced images such as political boundaries and 
rivers over a satellite terrain image.

The VAPOR Team
www.vapor.ucar.edu <http://www.vapor.ucar.edu/>
e-mail: vapor at ucar.edu <mailto:vapor at ucar.edu>

1.5.2 Release Notes:


        New Features

/Improved support for transparency/ //

//VAPOR now provides limited support for display of semi-transparent 
surfaces. Multiple two-dimensional semi-transparent surfaces (Probe, 
2DData, and Image) will correctly display in a scene provided: //

    * // // //The surfaces do not intersect each other//
    * // // //All the surfaces do intersect the line from the camera to
      the scene rotation center//

//This capability enables users to apply multiple images upon a terrain 
surface image (e.g. political boundaries, rivers, etc.) by positioning 
the partially transparent surfaces slightly above the terrain image. If 
there are additional semi-transparent shapes in the scene (volume 
rendering, isosurface, flow lines) they may not render correctly. Best 
results are obtained by keeping semitransparent objects separated from 
one another and in the center of the view. //

//Improved diagnostics for OpenGL and for application startup. If the 
user sets the VAPOR_DEBUG variable, the console will report more 
extensive information about the graphics capabilities and the initial 
progress of the application. This can be useful in understanding many 
VAPOR failures. On Windows, these messages are reported to the log file. //


        //Bug Fixes//

//This patch release fixes several significant bugs://

//2895315 VAPOR crash on launch with some older graphics cards.//

//2884062 Failed conversion of NCL images, particularly on Cygwin-X 
platforms.//

//2861792 Failure to load some semi-transparent tiff images.//

// //

//2873771 Memory overflow with long sequences of terrain-mapped images//

//2877208 Corrupted images when probe and 2d images displayed together//

//2841152 OpenGL errors when probe is rotated.//

//A complete list of bugs fixed by this release may be found on the 
SourceForge VAPOR project web site: 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vapor/support//


        //Known Bugs and Workarounds//

//2210024 Unsteady flow integration results are incorrect if the domain 
is moving in time.//

//2877268 Changing region position can change its size as a side-effect 
(if position changed with slider in gui)//

//Various problems occur with older or less capable graphics cards. For 
example, many Intel cards will not render isosurfaces correctly. //

//A full list of known bugs can be found on the SourceForge VAPOR 
project web site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vapor/support.//

Alan Norton
National Center for Atmospheric Research
303-497-1260
alan at ucar.edu <mailto:alan at ucar.edu>
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