
Thank you for downloading the HD Instance 1.8.1 upgrade!  You can view the latest documentation here: http://www.happy-digital.com/hdinstance_docs/hd_instance.html


System requirements:

HD Instance 1.8.1 requires LightWave 9.3 or higher.


Installation instructions:

1) Copy your "hd_instanceXXX.p" file into the folder containing the "hdinstance_win32_181.exe" file.
2) Double-click the "hdinstance_win32_181.exe" icon.

This should create a new file called "hd_instance_win32_181.p" after a brief pause.  It will not delete your previous file, which you may keep for backup purposes.

3) Copy the "hd_instance_win32_181.p" file to your Lightwave/Plugins/Effect folder.
4) Open up Layout and add the new plug-in using the Layout->Plug-ins->Add Plug-ins menu.


Remember, as this product is delivered electronically, you should keep a backup on a floppy, or burned onto a CD-ROM.

If you have any problems, simply contact Happy Digital at the following e-mail address:

  happy@happy-digital.com

Thank you for purchasing HD Instance

- Graham Fyffe


Version History:

version 1.8.1 fixes some embarrasing critical bugs!
- doesn't crash anymore when you have no objects in the scene
- fine line at center of image gone now

version 1.8.0 is a major LW 9.3 compatibility update!
- pretty much rewrote the whole thing for LW 9.3
- most render issues under LW 9.3 fixed!
- basic node support! (most node textures work)
- volume stack support! (though objects with air polygons don't work anymore... time to delete those air polys!)
- much, much faster than previous versions!

version 1.7.2 improves compatibility with LW 9.2!
- it doesn't crash so much!
- still some appearance issues, which will be addressed soon in version 1.8.0

version 1.7.1 has new features and bug fixes!
- gradient control works on LW 8.5
- takes slightly less RAM!
- non-planar polygons now render without any holes.  Tripling is no longer required.  Woohoo!
- treatment of coplanar polygons now matches LightWave more reliably
- ray recursion depth now matches LightWave
- reflection and refraction blurring are now disabled in the same cryptic modes as LightWave
- fixed instances that were casting shadows onto LightWave geometry even with cast shadows off
- fixed bounding box preview to work properly in all transform modes
- fixed some weird red lighting caused by certain arrangements of spotlights

version 1.7.0 adds great new features and several important bug fixes!
- depth of field now works in pixel filter mode!
- negative lights work now!
- disabling lights works now!
- light exclusion for objects works now!  Woohoo!
- object shadow options (cast shadow / self shadow / receive shadow) work now!  Holy crap!
- rendering non-raytraced transparency is much faster!  This is great for transparency mapped leaves and such.
- some compatibility problems with LW 8.2 have been resolved
- texture filtering now matches LW's filtering settings exactly, even with the new AA modes
- texture filtering on environment maps now matches LW
- shadow coloring is fixed when using light intensity other than 100%

version 1.6.4 adds features and bug fixes!
- aligning to polygons had some major stability problems with non-flat polygons
- in Pixel Filter mode, all surface alpha options work now except for Shadow Density (volumetrics can't have alpha)
- added a Point at Shortest rotation option, which points the instances towards the shortest edge of a base polygon in polygon mode.
- added a Parking Lot rotation option, which is similar to Point at Shortest, but considers the two shortest edges and uses the one that results in the least rotation.  This is a nicer setting to use with rectangles that have opposite sides of the same length.  Great for parking cars and the like.

version 1.6.2 adds one feature and a bug fix!
- there were some bugs in the PointAt modes
- added a Point Downhill rotation option, which is similar to the old way instances were aligned in Polygon mode

version 1.6.1 fixes a major bug that sometimes caused polygon mode to render totally black.  Yuck!

version 1.6.0 takes even less RAM (!), is slightly faster, has new features and fixes several major bugs!
- NOTE!  The Polygon mode alignment has been altered to be more stable and pretty.  So your existing scenes will be slightly different!
- finally works with FX_Emitter partigons!  Woo!
- added Particle Direction mode for rotation
- added Point At mode for rotation.  You can point at the camera for easy billboarding!  Or point at a null or whatever.
- added Orientation settings.  Now you can choose between fixed random orientations or random spinning!
fixed bugs:
- colored transparent shadows weren't rendering properly
- area light and linear light quality didn't match LightWave
- alpha channel wasn't rendering with pixel filter
- texture filtering wasn't working behind transparent polygons (caused "dancing" in some cases)
- instances rendered with pixel filter did not self-shadow with radiosity
- sometimes crashed when switching to bounding box preview

version 1.5.1 fixes a major bug that sometimes caused crashing when multiple objects were instanced.

version 1.5.0 adds some great new features and a bug fix!
- NOTE!  The Random number generator has been changed, in order to look more random.  So your existing scenes will be slightly different!
- new Random Seed option allows user to specify random seed, for better control over the randomness.
- you can now define multiple objects to be instanced on one control object, each with its own settings.
- the GUI has been changed a little to make room for future features.  The rotation and scaling settings now have their own panels.
- vertex color maps are now supported
- weight maps can be used to control the densitiy of the instances.  Woo!
- a bug involving bounding box previews and pivot points has been fixed.
- you can now apply the transformations before, after, or replacing the base transformation

version 1.4.0 adds one new feature and two bug fixes!
- a new Density feature allows you to vary the percentage of points / polys that will get an instance placed on them.
- the bounding box preview did not show transformations that were applied to the base object.  This has been fixed (but bone and displacement deformations still don't show in the bounding box preview)
- surface normals were rendered somewhat incorrectly when random scaling was applied.  This has been fixed.

version 1.3.0 adds bounding boxes for the instances!

version 1.2.0 adds exciting new features!
- a new Pixel Filter allows compatability with other popular Pixel Filter plug-ins, like ones that render hair and fur.
- a new Shader lets you randomly tint the instances' surfaces different colors, with complete control over which colors.

version 1.1.2 fixes a critical bug that caused some polygons to be omitted in renders.

version 1.1.1 fixes several critical bugs:
- random rotation / scaling differed on screamernet nodes
- polys with no smoothing had incorrect normals when rotated
- texture maps had incorrect blurring / antialiasing strength
Another bug has been reported, which has not been fixed:
- moving objects around in the scene editor sometimes causes HD Instance to forget which object to clone

version 1.1.0 adds rudimentary support for placing clones aligned to polygons.

version 1.0.3 fixes several bugs in HD Instance regarding clip maps and transparency maps and surface names.
It also adds an "about" button so you can see which version of HD Instance you have installed.



NOTE: LightWave 3D is a registered trademark of NewTek, inc.

