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Gaea Documentation
The documentation is being updated for version 1.3. Some sections may be incomplete.

Released on 30 May 2020

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What's new in Gaea 1.2.0.3?

A major leap forward for Gaea

Gaea 1.2 represents one of the largest sets of features added to Gaea since the original 1.0 release.

FULL ARTICLE ON WHAT'S NEW FORTHCOMING

Complete Changelog

BREAKING CHANGES

  • Some nodes may require upgrading to work properly.
  • Light node will need to be recreated.
  • All existing Erosion Studio projects will not work because of the complete overhaul.
  • "Base" height, part of the terrain definition, has been removed. All terrains now start at 0m for easier consumption.
  • Due to unavoidable changes in our randomizer some nodes - namely SlopeNoise, Noise, LineNoise, and Rocks - will no longer be able to create the same shape as in previous Gaea versions. If those shapes are crucial, please save them to file using the older Gaea version and use them in the new Gaea project as a file input.

New

  • Gaea 1.2 UI overhaul.
  • Erosion Studio 1.2 UI and systemic overhaul.
  • Improved startup experience.
  • Portals 2.0.
  • Infinity Graph: Divide your graph into multiple tabs.
  • Infinity Graph: Import and export partial graphs.
  • Viewport: Overhauled viewport and render system.
  • Viewport: Preview mesh density/LOD.
  • Viewport: Alt + MMB zooming option.
  • Viewport: Q + E vertical navigation.
  • Viewport: Optional grid and compass in viewport.
  • Cache session on exit.
  • Toolbox: New docking options for toolbox: full height, top only, bottom only, and hidden.
  • Toolbox: New expert mode in Toolbox for veteran users.
  • Toolbox: Quick switch to shift between Most Used and all nodes.
  • Fourth node style: Filament.
  • Passive Optimizer for improving memory management.
  • Session cache manager.
  • RAM and HDD cache indicators.
  • Descriptive tooltips for all nodes in the toolbox.
  • New Preferences dialog.
  • New About dialog.
  • Build Manager UI simplified, and merged with main UI.
  • Node bookmarks menu
  • Highlight node chains with H (all), LCtrl + H (left), and RCtrl + H (right)
  • Linchpin based loading for Baked Nodes
  • Pin / Underlay buttons added to graph toolbar
  • Thumbnails in Recent Files
  • Experimental Skybox mode added
  • Redesigned Post Process stack
  • "Pin for color" renamed to "Underlay"
  • Statistics Dialog (Experimental)
  • Further categorization for easier access.

Node Updates

  • Autolevel: Multiplier mode
  • Blur: is 10x faster
  • Blur: minimum value
  • Bomber: can force Proportional scaling
  • Bomber: now accepts "ground" as primary input
  • Coast: moved to new Water category.
  • Coast: option to get value from viewport.
  • Coast: value limits increased.
  • Combine: has Abs mode
  • Constant: can now produce height or color.
  • Crater: Inner Scale minimum reduced
  • Details: Enhance mode removed, now intrinsic.
  • Displace seed added to all post process stacks
  • Draw: 2.0 with new options.
  • Dunes: Chaotic mode reworked.
  • Dunes: minimum reduced (further changes coming)
  • Erosion: Inverse option added for height and slope biases.
  • Erosion: Minimum feature size lowered to 5 meters from 50m.
  • Erosion: Obsolete 'Debris' setting removed.
  • Erosion: Random Sedimentation setting for Selective Processing.
  • File: RAW input was broken.
  • Flow: 2.0 with flow separation.
  • Gradient: improved.
  • Improved naming for ports.
  • Lakes: can force lake/ocean floor level
  • Lakes: improved, new surface option (hidden port)
  • Light: can render without color map
  • Light: now further options
  • Light: now out of preview. Quality settings and preset support added.
  • Light: right-click sun to get sun position from scene
  • LookDev category added
  • Mask: can now be copy-pasted between files.
  • Mountain: new style options
  • New Anastomosis node.
  • New Badlands node.
  • New Canyonizer node.
  • New Cartography node.
  • New DWarp node.
  • New Ice Floe node
  • New Lakes node.
  • New MultiCombine node.
  • New MultiFractal node.
  • New Ridge node.
  • New Rock Maps node.
  • New Sand node.
  • New Shatter node
  • New Shear node.
  • New Stacks node.
  • New Surface node
  • New Worselands node.
  • Nodes can now have hidden ports.
  • Noise: iterations were broken
  • Output: can receive full filename as variable again
  • Output: did not change filename properly
  • Output: save entire node, removing the need for an output node per output.
  • Output: would break output in automation situations
  • Redesigned editor for Draw node.
  • Redesigned editor for Islands node.
  • Redesigned editor for Mask node.
  • SatMaps: Improved favorites system.
  • SatMaps: Sampling density option.
  • Selectors category merged with Data Maps.
  • Snow: renamed to Snowfall, moved to new Snow category.
  • Snowfall: Fixed stepping artifacts.
  • Speed improvements for several nodes
  • Surfacer: node renamed to SurfTex to avoid confusion
  • Swirl: XY incorrectly used negative values.
  • Texture: speed improvement
  • Transform: Edge Fill.
  • Vegetation: upgraded, fixed bug for Chaos 0.

Erosion Studio

  • Redesigned system for better performance.
  • Undo was broken.
  • New Erosion tools.
  • New Snow tools.
  • Custom brush shapes.
  • Faster execution and project loading.
  • Reverted the UI back to Erosion Studio's classic layout with fixed sidebar.
  • Advanced mode for each brush to configure your own settings.

Improved

  • Suspend button moved to status bar, ~ tilde key shortcut.
  • Mesher and Output would not work properly with cached data.
  • Right-click 3D button to dock/undock viewport.
  • Ctrl + Shift + P can convert portal connections to normal.
  • New default terrain template.
  • Viewport color rendering improved.
  • Sliders now allow decimal display for percentage.
  • Expose dialog improved.
  • Remapping option for Output Range in Build Manager.
  • Cancellation (ESC) system improved.
  • Obsolete toolbox icon style removed.
  • Automation changes (see docs).
  • Specify CPU limit in build command line.
  • Several improvements for Houdini Bridge (plugin available when Gaea is production ready).
  • Hit SPACE to focus on terrain center
  • Mask display uses selected gradient in all situations
  • Filament node style improved, now default
  • Filament node style shows port name on hover
  • Ctrl + Tab lets you cycle through tabs
  • Ticks for integer sliders
  • Post Process stack memory impact reduced
  • Search popup honors zoom factor from main window
  • Out-to-Out connection now support same node
  • Graph grid / snap improved
  • BASE setting in Terrain Definition removed
  • Cache cleanup options improved
  • Node upgrade message made modal
  • Passive memory optimizer now frees up memory more aggressively
  • Hit area for Gaea main menu extended
  • Right-click on Recent Files to see open options
  • Build Output Range options renamed for better understanding
  • Unity and Unreal resampling options merged into single dropdown
  • Gaea window title now shows current filename
  • Right-click New Project in Startup Screen for more templates
  • Remember preview resolution for saved files.
  • Loading options for files: forcing low resolution, suspending engine.
  • Baking resolution limit increased to 8K.
  • Faster loading of baked caches.
  • Connecting two "out" ports creates a Combine.
  • Search for portals in node searches.
  • Options: Cache Limit and warning system.
  • Options: Sensitivity customization for stylus users.
  • Options: Hide node categories in node drag-out menus.
  • Progress bars move to bottom right corner for improved visibility
  • New colors for progress bars to clearly indicate progress of current task vs all tasks.
  • Gaea now correctly recognizes 2D maps in a chain and switches from terrain to mask view as required.
  • Viewport lighting presets.
  • (Enterprise only) Gaea TORX file format version now synced to actual build used.
  • Sliders with unchanged values displayed with slightly muted colors.

Fixed

  • Build Path was not saved in Build Tab
  • Data Map connection color was incorrect
  • Cached color maps were saved as grayscale
  • Incremental save for TORX would create TOR instead
  • Autosave does not save .RESOURCE files
  • Font rendering was broken in some situations
  • Bleeding Edge does not use its own Docs folder
  • Graph options were not saved in some situations
  • Port placement optimized
  • Mutating did not mark file as dirty
  • Build Swarm did not return console colors to normal
  • Nodes created while searching were placed incorrectly.
  • Search text would not clear in some situations.
  • Collapsed toolbox did not behave properly.
  • Viewport toolbar was not visible when window was floating.
  • 3D viewport could not be maximized when floating.
  • Duplicating bookmarked node created extra bookmarks.
  • Terrain Definition could break with older files.
  • Portal search did not behave as expected.
  • Some node styles were colored incorrectly.
  • Removed obsolete Build warning for ports.
  • Unnecessary file format warning on file load.
  • Preview update issues when mutating or refreshing.
  • Dozens of minor improvements.
  • Several performance bottlenecks removed.
  • Forcing refresh/invalidation of nodes should not affect baked nodes.
  • Unbaking a node did not refresh the editor.
  • Color nodes exported as TIFF would be grayscale.
  • Accidental double-clicking of title bar area fixed.
  • Progress would not update in some situations.
  • Light node preview was not consistent in both viewports.
  • MultiMix (F8) would require manual node refresh in many situations.
  • Autolevel Mask post process function was broken.
  • Setting "Display As" for a node would not refresh preview.
  • Post Process stack did not update properly when resetting node.
  • 20+ other bugs fixed in Erosion Studio.
  • 20+ other bugs related to lighting and preview caching in 1.0.29.
  • 30+ other bug fixes for baking related issues.
  • Addressed 57 bugs that could potentially crash Gaea in some situations.
  • 60+ minor bug fixes
  • Most Used nodes now include favorites regardless of usage stats.
Gaea 1.2.0.4 Gaea 1.0.29.5




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This documentation is licensed under the MIT License, a very permissive open-source license.