
IRIS 3DView client development releases
=======================================

Release v1.0.0 (Aug 31st, 2010)
--------------------------------

* New features & fixes:

- Background task
  - Stability and error tolerance improved significantly.
  - Rotation of log files added. A new logfile is opened every time task is 
    restarted (/home/iris3d/iris3dviewd.log). Up to 50 newest log files are kept 
    in /home/iris3d/.iris3d/log.
  - Problems related to file permissions fixed. Incorrect file permissions caused 
    background daemon to terminate on SIGTERM signal.
  - Choice "(none)" added to the list of possible 2D layers.

- User interface
  - Minor user interface fixes and improvements.

* Known issues:

- Animation
  - Performance is highly dependent on data file size, disk I/O speed, disk caching,
	and rendering parameters.
  - Best performance/quality ratio is achieved in surface rendering with 1/4 
    horizontal and full vertical data resolution and data smoothing in 1.0.
  - Stopping animation affects when the frame currently under work is processed.
  - Animation speed control is really a delay before visualizing next frame. The actual 
    time spent between frames is really delay plus visualization time.

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
	window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
	system. Read more about the issue: 
	http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- User interface
  - Slider tick marks are missing. This is a Qt bug:
    http://qt.nokia.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=196302
  - On the main GUI, combo box vertical scroll bars do not appear, if all list
    items are not visible. This is a style sheet related issue, and under 
    investigation. Work-around: use mouse wheel or keyboard up- and down-arrows 
    to browse hidden items.

- Night mode
  - Night mode feature is currently removed from the GUI and not available for user
  - There are a lot of references to night mode in source code and config files
    left. These are not removed due to possible future use.



Release sprint-20-34-2010 RC1
-----------------------------

* New features & fixes:

- Building
  - Updated build system to support 32bit i386 and 64bit x86_64 architectures.
  - Release builds without debug stuff.
  - All build warnings fixed.
  - Changed library install path from /usr/local to /usr/local/Vaisala

- Vaisala branding
  - splash screen image updated, header bar changed
  - product name changed IRIS/3D -> IRIS 3DView
  - executable names chaged
    - iris3dview: interactive GUI
    - iris3dviewd: background daemon process
  - configuruation file name change: iris3dgb.conf -> iris3dviewd.conf

- Terrain conversion
  - Empty blocks are now filled by self-generated empty sea blocks
  - Clear GEO cache button added to settings dialog.

- Visualization colors and styles
  - Color and style definitions for visualization elements are now loaded 
    from a config file.
  - IRIS3DVisStyles.conf file is installed to system directory by default:
      /etc/xdg/Vaisala/IRIS3DVisStyles.conf
  - User can override these settings by placing his own file in his home:
     ~/.config/Vaisala/IRIS3DVisStyles.conf
  - See the default config file for format and default values

- Cursor tool
  - Terrain elevation value added and updated when cursor moves
  - North and East values renamed -> North/south and East/west	

- Export tool
  - User can control the layout of export image. Color bar,
    legend text and compass ring can be included/excluded, and 
    image size and format can be controlled.
  - 'Print to file' and 'save image' functions use same default
    path, which is changed every time user selects new directory 
    from save dialog. Also, name of the saved file is now unique 
    and depends on the selected data cube. 
  - 2D data layer shown with a 3D data type can be set on 
    background output tab. 
	
- Directory edits (general settings, export tool)
  - A disk space indicator linked to each directory name edit field.
    There is a separate indicator for each entry, because directories
    may locate on physically separate disks.
  - Edit field text is shown in red color when text does not designate
    a valid directory.
	
- Background task notes:
  - By default background task is run as user iris3d
  - Background username can be configured in iris3dviewd.def file
    in /etc/sysconfig
  - System administrator must ensure that background task has 
    read access to all data repositories (3D data directory, 
    2D data directory and GEO data directory)
  - Also, task must have write access to output directory
  - Easiest way to configure background task is to log in as 
    background user and use iris3dview for configruation.
   	
	
- Other
  - Many user interface related bugs fixed.
  - Stability significantly improved.
  - Other fixes.
		
		
* Known issues:

- Animation
  - Performance is highly dependent on data file size, disk I/O speed, disk caching,
	and rendering parameters.
  - Best performance/quality ratio is achieved in surface rendering with 1/4 
    horizontal and full vertical data resolution and data smoothing in 1.0.
  - Stopping animation affects when the frame currently under work is processed.
  - Animation speed control is really a delay before visualizing next frame. The actual 
    time spent between frames is really delay plus visualization time.

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
	window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
	system. Read more about the issue: 
	http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- User interface
  - Slider tick marks are missing. This is a Qt bug:
    http://qt.nokia.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=196302
  - On the main GUI, combo box vertical scroll bars do not appear, if all list
    items are not visible. This is a style sheet related issue, and under 
    investigation. Work-around: use mouse wheel or keyboard up- and down-arrows 
    to browse hidden items.

- Night mode
  - Night mode feature is currently removed from the GUI and not available for user
  - There are a lot of references to night mode in source code and config files
    left. These are not removed due to possible future use.


- Documentation
  - Not complete yet.


Release sprint-19-32-2010
-------------------------

* New features:

- Radar rings layer
	- Maximum range is determined by the extents of the data cube: next value
	  with 20km/NM steps from the range to cube corner.
	- Range granularity and steps depend on unit settings
	- Units are shown in metric or imperial system depending on settings	

- Latitude-longitude grid layer
	- Uses proj library for correct conversion to 3D data's projection
	- Renders labels to grid borders for each line
	- Grid automatically resizes according to the 3D data size
	- Grid spacing automatically adjusts so that the whole grid and cells 
	  are near square (lon grid can be more than 1 degs on polar areas)
	- Special handling for polar areas.

- Terrain conversion re-implemented
	- Uses proj library for correct conversion to 3D data's projection
	- Supports multiple formats: DTED1, SRTM1, and SRTM3
	- Uses texture mapping for adding surface detail. Texture is based 
	  on terrain elevation map (color and shade).

- Terrain group removed from GUI
	- 3D Terrain layer moved under the Geo layers group

- Performance tuning
	- 3D data loading performance significantly improved
	- Worst-case scenario where the file is not in disk cache now ~3x faster.

- Splash screen
	- Splash screen with Vaisala graphics and version info shown during startup

- Animation
	- Speed control for animation added

- Cursor tool improved
	- Added landmark list to cursor tool's homepoint selection combo box.
	- Added text label for home location altitude.
	- Calculations improved, works correctly on polar areas as well.
	- Added tooltip instruction for moving cursor along one axis only.
	
- New program argument
    - new argument --user=username allows to use settings from another
      user's configuration space. This is useful for adjusting 
      background process's configuration (usage: --user=iris3d).
    
- Automatic background image generation
    - Added instructions for background output configuration.
    - New button for copying user's active settings to background task. 
    - Background task activity indicator was restored. It has bee unavailable 
      since bg-task implementation was changed. Export tool icon turns 
      to red color when bg-daemon is running and image generation is 
      activated from export dialog. Both of these conditions must be true.
      'service' shell command is used to check the daemon status. The command
      must be installed to target system.
	
- Localization
	- Sample localization to Finnish is provided. The translation is just 
	  provided for testing the localization and it is not mentioned for 
	  production use.
	- Program option --language for choosing the language
	- The Finnish version is run: $ ./iris3d --language=fi  
	- Guide for localization (found in iris3d/doc/localization.txt)
	- Translation file generation is included in the build system. See 
	  doxygen documentation for that.
	- Strings displayed in visualization window cannot use international
	  characters. This limitation is because of the VTK package. Limitation
	  will be removed in the future with VTK updates.

- Help configuration
    - New help configuration system. Help function may consist of zero to many
      help items. Each item is configured separately so that it launches some
      external program with configured arguments. 
    - Help configuration is placed on system scope configuration file IRIS3D.conf.
    - If only one item is configured, help icon will launch the command 
      directly when clicked
    - If several items are configured,  help icon will open a help menu when clicked.
    - Configuration can contain menu separators.
    - Place configuration file to system directory /etc/xdg/Vaisala/IRIS3D.conf
    - Configuration file format given below. One must specify the items count
      and for each item title, viewer command and arguments. For separator 
      items use only title SEPARATOR.
    
	  [HELP]
      HELPITEMS\size=3
      HELPITEMS\1\title=Item title shown in menu
      HELPITEMS\1\command=shell command e.g. /usr/bin/evince
      HELPITEMS\1\arg=argument for command e.g. file name
      HELPITEMS\2\title=SEPARATOR
      HELPITEMS\2\command=this item generates menu separator
      HELPITEMS\2\arg=
      HELPITEMS\3\title=Sample configuration
	  HELPITEMS\3\command=/usr/bin/evince
	  HELPITEMS\3\arg=/home/iris3d/pdf/help3.pdf

- Bug fixes, etc.
	- Live mode product selection bug fixed.
	- Cursor tool without 3d visualization bug fixed.
	- Preview image in export tool is scaled to fit the window completely.

- Qxt library removed
	- Qxt library is removed from the list of required external packages

- Doxygen document generation is included in the build system. 
    - documentation can be generated as custom make target (no included
      in ALL targets)
    - command to generate documentation is (in build directory)
          $ cmake .. && make doc    

* Known issues:

- Animation
  - Performance is highly dependent on data file size, disk I/O speed, disk caching,
	and rendering parameters.
  - Best performance/quality ratio is achieved in surface rendering with 1/4 
    horizontal and full vertical data resolution and data smoothing in 1.0.
  - Stopping animation affects when the frame currently under work is processed.
  - Animation speed control is really a delay before visualizing next frame. The actual 
    time spent between frames is really delay plus visualization time.

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
	window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
	system. Read more about the issue: 
	http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Terrain cache directory. Now uses hardcoded path, shoud probably
	be configurable.
	
- Documentation
  - not complete yet.


Release sprint-18-30-2010
-------------------------

* New features:

- Extra 3D window popup
	- User can launch a popup tool window that shows the copy of the current
	  visualization.
	- The visualization keeps the same independent of user's actions in the
	  main window.
	- User can use normal camera controls in the extra window as well
	- Extra window shows overlays for compass widget, color scale, and 
	  legend text.			  
- Animation
	- Animation sequences are supported both in archive and live mode
	- User can select animation length (3, 6, 12, or 24 hours back)
	- User can select animation frame interval (5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes)
	- User can set animation loop mode (play once, loop)
	- In archive mode, when user selects archived data file from 3d data selector, 
	  a new animation sequence is generated of data files available that are in
	  the selected time frame. Minimum frame interval is defined by the animation
	  frame interval setting.
	- In live mode, a animation sequence is generated of latest data files that
	  are in the selected timeframe. Minimum frame interval is defined by the 
	  animation frame interval setting. Animation sequence is updated real-time
	  when changes occur in the data directory (e.g. new data arrives).
    - Animation playback can be controlled by play, prev, next buttons and the
      slider control.
	- User can control camera and use cursor tool while animating	
- Geo labels
	- Application now loads list of geological landmarks for a config file
	  and shows them as 3d labels (Geo layer)
	- The config file contains information for all landmarks in Qt settings file
	  format that is also used for defining color scales. The landmark file is
	  installed to ~/.config/Vaisala/IRIS3DLandmarks.conf
	- Landmark data file can be configured to contain desired set of locations.
	- Configurable parameters for each landmark are: label text, location and
	  altitude, color, priority (size)
	- Currently, the data file contains a small set of cities from Turkey area.
- Tick marks added to 3D outline		
	- Vertical axis has tick marks between every 2500m/10000ft depending on
	  the selected unit setting.
	- There are no horizontal tick marks, because the data is in azimuthal 
	  equidistant projection and thus horizontal dimensions are not linear.
- Radar site marker
	- Radar site is marked with purple ball in the 3D visualization
	- Cursor tool home position is marked with a yellow text label
- Vaisala branding
	- A bar with Vaisala IRIS3D logo and colors added
- New icons
	- New icons from Fusion for opening 3d data and extra window features.

* Known issues:

- Animation
  - Performance is highly dependent on data file size, disk I/O speed, disk caching,
	and rendering parameters.
  - Best performance/quality ratio is achieved in surface rendering with 1/4 
    horizontal and full vertical data resolution and data smoothing in 1.0.
  - Animation speed control is not implemented.
  - Stopping animation affects when the frame currently under work is processed.

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
	window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
	system. Read more about the issue: 
	http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Background rendering
  - Rendering parameters are copied to background process every time 
	user acknowledges 'Background output' dialog. In the future there 
	will be a separate button for copying parameters. 
  - Background activity indicator (in the toolbar) is temporarily 
	broken. 
  - There is no indicator if the user does not have sufficient 
	privileges for changing background parameters.
  - Selecting 2D product for background output is not possible?
  - Black empty window appears when each data frame is visualized (ubuntu)
  - Terrain cache directory. Now uses hardcoded path, shoud probably
	be configurable.


Release sprint-17-28-2010
-------------------------

* New features:

- Major changes in rendering and visualization pipeline architecture
	- Readiness for new features that require multiple instances of data
		- Live mode, Background rendering, Multi-window support, Animation
	- Allow export tool and background rendering to re-use same code as 
	  the main GUI for visualization and rendering.
	- Less code, better performance, better stability, easier to maintain 
	  the code, easier to add new features, etc.
	- Bloated main UI class a lot simpler now.

- Live mode
	- Application monitors changes in 3d and 2d data directories.
	- If user manually opens or closes data while in live mode, application
	  switches automatically to archive mode.
	- Live mode selections (site, 3d product, 2d product) are stored in 
	  settings and application is started up next time using previous settings.

- Layer visibility icon changed 	
	- "disabled" look -> "cross-over" look

- Background rendering
	- Uses now same rendering and visualization code as the main UI, no 
	  duplicate copy/paste code anymore.
	- View angle preset support added
	- Added compass
	- BG rendering has not been tested much, may not work properly in this release

- Terrain caching
	- Now each site has its own cached terrain files. This is to enable projections
	  that are referece location (site) specific.
	- Terrain data is now loaded and converted lazy in the visualization thread so
	  it wont block the main UI thread anymore.
	
* Known issues:

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
    window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
    system. Read more about the issue: 
    http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Background rendering
  - Rendering parameters are copied to background process every time 
    user acknowledges 'Background output' dialog. In the future there 
    will be a separate button for copying parameters. 
  - Background activity indicator (in the toolbar) is temporarily 
    broken. 
  - There is no indicator if the user does not have sufficient 
    privileges for changing background parameters.
  - Selecting 2D product for background output is not possible?
  - Black empty window appears when each data frame is visualized (ubuntu)
  - Terrain cache directory. Now uses hardcoded path, shoud probably
    be configurable.


Release sprint-16-26-2010
-------------------------

There is no binary RPM provided in this spint. Release is tagged as 
iris3d-sprint-16-26-2010 and is buildable from the SVN
  
* New features

      - Background rendering task is now run as detached system 
        service. The service installed during RPM installation and 
        started in the post-installation phase. Also, it is started at 
        system boot-up, if not explicitly disabled. Virtual frame buffer 
        X Server is used (Xvfb) for background rendering.
	  
      System level configuration
      - Background user: default username is iris3d, can be changed in 
        /etc/sysconfig/iris3dviewd.
      - Background user group: default iris3d.
      - The service 'iris3dviewd' is run as user iris3d:iris3d. 
      - The service can be configured using standard configuration tools 
        (chkconfig, service). It should start at system boot.
        $ chkconfig iris3dviewd  on|off
        $ service iris3dviewd start|stop|reload|status
        - Virtual frame buffer (xvfb) provides a virtual X Display to 
          iris3dviewd. It is also run as system service.
      - Signals: iris3dviewd handles following signals:
        - HUP: closes and reopens log file. Can be used for log 
          rotating.
        - TERM: terminates
      - Root privileges is required to start/stop the background service 
        (sudoers)

      Application level configuration:
      - Background task uses a settings file of its own for background 	               
        options:
        /home/iris3d/.config/Vaisala/iris3dviewd.conf
        (by default, background user's home directory determines the 
        actual path)
      - Rendering settings are in the file
        /home/iris3d/.config/Vaisala/IRIS3D.conf
      - Background options can be controlled from the IRIS/3D GUI 
        (Export tool/Background Output), if user has write privileges to 
        file.
      - All users belonging to user group 'iris3d' can change background 
        settings. (Implemented by appropriate file system permissions. 
        Settings file is installed with rw-rw-r-- permissions).
      - All other users can view current settings in GUI.
      - Switching background task to active/inactive does not stop the
        actual process. When marked inactive from the GUI, the task 
        remains alive (watching incoming data) but no visualizations are 
        generated. 
      - Background task checks the activity status every time a new data
        file arrives. Rendering parameters are also reread before 
        visualization starts. It is, communication between GUI user and 
        background task is done totally via settings fil
D: Read preset: #0es. 
      - IRIS/3D GUI provides a possibility to make a copy of all 
        visualization parameters (isosurface levels, view angles, etc.) 
        for background rendering. When a copy is made, the visualization 
        settings from an active IRIS/3D GUI are copied to background
        settings. Next background visualization is done using these
        settings. 
      - Only users belonging to group 'iris3d' may copy visualization 
        settings.

      RPM installation changes due to the background task 
      (package iris3d)
      - iris3d requires now package xorg-x11-server-Xvfb, which is to be 
        installed before iris3d. RPM dependency checking takes care of 
        the installation.
      - RPM installs startup scripts for Xvfb and iris3dviewd to 
        /etc/init.d and a related options file to /etc/sysconfig
      - As a post-installation task, the user account for the background 
        task is created (if it does not exist already). The account is 
        by default inactive (not possible to log in). 
      - Installation takes care of setting correct file permissions that 
        allows all users belonging to 'iris3d' group to change 
        background visualization 
        parameters.
      - The services xvfb and iris3dviewd will be added to systems service 
        configuration (chkconfig) and will be started.
      - Installation takes care that services start after next boot.
	  
* Known issues:

- 3D data visualization
  - Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

- Tool dialog placement
  - There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring              
    window positions behave unpredictable depending on the 
    system. Read more about the issue: 

    http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Background rendering
  - View angle presets are not yet used when background image is 
    rendered.
  - Rendering parameters are copied to background process every time 
    user acknowledges 'Background output' dialog. In the future there 
    will be a separate button for copying parameters. 
  - Background activity indicator (in the toolbar) is temporarily 
    broken. 
  - There is no indicator if the user does not have sufficient 
    privileges for changing background parameters.



Release sprint-15-24-2010
-------------------------

* New/changed features:

- Terrain loader/converter improved significantly
	- Terrain converter integrated to the main application, no separate terrain 
	  converter command line tool anymore.
	- Terrain data directory is scanned for .dt1 files at startup and list of 
	  available terrain files is maintained in memory.
	- Terrain block information is read from DTED1 file headers, no hardcoded
	  values for Turkey data used anymore.
	- When 3D data file is opened, up to 16x16 terrain blocks are loaded 
	  around the radar site location (if available).
	- If the terrain block has not been converted yet, conversion is done 
	  on-the-fly when needed.
	- Converted files are stored in cache dir: ~/.iris3d/cache/terrain
	- Conversion of one block takes ~0.7 sek. E.g. converting 82 terrain blocks 
	  for Turkey data takes ~60s (0.7 s/file). Loading 82 converted files from 
	  the cache takes around ~0.2s total.
	- Size of original DTED1 datafiles are around 2MB each, while converted 
	  VTK files are around 150k each.
- New navigation compass
    - Compass ring on the upper right corner can be used for rotation the 
      current visualization. It also gives a hint about the viewing direction.
    - There is also a joystick-type zoom slider beside the compass. 
    - When mouse is moved away from the widget, only the compass ring is
      shown. When viewing direction is changed by moving the mouse, the ring is 
      rotated accordingly.
- Camera movement calculations improved


Release sprint-15-23-2010
-------------------------

This release an intermediate release for the usability test round.

* New/changed features:

- History window output extended
- Naming change: Snapshot -> Export tool
- Background output activity indicator
	-Export tool icon turns to red when the 
	 background output task is active 
- Volume rendering parameters
	-Volume parameters are placed in the product information dialog
	-Visible when volume rendering mode activated
	-Settings define how volume density (opacity) changes as a function
	 of the scalar value of a data point in 3D space.
	-Low and high bounds define data scalar value and opacity factor for the 
	 opacity transfer function.
	-Values should normally be set so that the lower value is near minimum
	 data value with low opacity and high value is near maximum data value 
	 with high opacity.
	-Default values are data type dependent: Low bound value is data type's
	 minimum value with opacity 1.0, and high bound value is data type's
	 maximum value with opacity 100.0.
- Default rendering parameters now determined for each data type separately
- Added tool tip texts to majority of UI components to improve usability
- Minor improvements & fixes
	-Desktop menu entry fixed: name spelling, category Network -> Graphics
	-QToolButton style: uses arrow icons from resources.
	-Main UI product selection: "CAPPI-Z" style naming changed to more human 
	 readable format e.g. "Reflectivity".	
	-etc.

* Known issues:

-3D data visualization
	- Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

-3D terrain visualization
	- Works currently for pre-converted Turkey elevation data only.
	- Terrain block sizes are calculate with fixed coordinates of the
	  Turkey data radar site (lat=40, lon=30). (No projection change
	  to azimuthal equidistance projection applied).

-Tool dialog placement
	- There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes storing/restoring window 
	  positions behave unpredictable depending on the system. Read more about 
	  the issue: http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Background rendering
	- Empty black window appear every time to user's display when 
	  background task renders new image. This is a X-window system feature
	  and is currently under investigation.
	- View angle presets are not yet used when background image is rendered.


Release sprint-14-22-2010
-------------------------

* New/changed features:

- Display state preset manager
	- User can store own display state presets
	- Current display state is stored between sessions
- View angle preset manager
	- User can store own view angle presets
- Camera positioning improved
	-Camera position is now remembered between data type changes.
	-Initial camera position is determined based on data cube size
- Data selection window expands now automatically showing
  the current selection
- 3D data loading and filtering options
	-User can now control balance between quality and performance
	-Data scaling has a huge impact on loading times but only minor
	 impact on visual quality.
	-Down scaling settings in horizontal and vertical directions
		-User can choose full, half, 1/3 or 1/4 size in horizontal
		 direction and full or half size in vertical direction.
		 When loading 3D data, the original data is downscaled by
		 these factors. This significantly improves loading, filtering, 
		 and rendering performance, but also has some effect on 
		 visualization quality. Since the original vertical resolution
		 is much lower than horizontal, recommendation is to keep the
		 full vertical resolution and downscale the horizontal resolution.
		 Even 1/4 horizontal downscaling gives good visual results.		 
	-Data smoothing setting
		-Controls gaussian smoothing filter that is applied to 3D data
		 during the loading process. Smoothing affects both on performance
		 and visual quality. Recommendation is to set the smoothing to
		 around 1/3 to filter noise from radar data.
- Background rendering task
    - Background off-screen rendering task can be launched/stopped from 
      Export dialog.
    - Background task notices all changes in 3D- and 2D-directories 
      (set from hte General Settings dialog) and renders a new image  every time 
      new 3D file arrives.
    - Contents (display state), format (output format, view angle) and location 
      (output directory) of background output files are controlled from 'Background 
      Output' tab of the Export dialog.      		 
- Bug fixes & improvements
	- GUI issues fixed
	- Volume rendering with terrain ON and outline OFF works now.
- Main program argument changes, 
    - --version argument prints also build type: release/debug
    - log messages are available also in release build 
    - new command line argument: --log level
    - logging level can be 0-3 
      (0 error, 1 warning, 2 notice, 3 debug)
    - bigger the level, more log messages will be generated
    - debug messages are available only in debug build.

* Known issues:

-3D data visualization
	- Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F

-3D terrain visualization
	- Works currently for pre-converted Turkey elevation data only.
	- Terrain block sizes are calculate with fixed coordinates of the
	  Turkey data radar site (lat=40, lon=30). (No projection change
	  to azimuthal equidistance projection applied).

-Tool dialog placement
	- There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes it very difficult
	  to store/restore window and dialog positions. Behavior depends
	  on system and can be unpredictable. Read more about the issue:
	  http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities

- Background rendering
	- Empty black window appear every time to user's display when 
	  background task renders new image. This is a X-window system feature
	  and is currently under investigation.
	- View angle presets are not yet used when background image is rendered.


Release sprint-13-20-2010
---------------------------------

* New/changed features:

- Volume rendering
	- Uses now 3D texture based approach instead of ray casting
	- Significantly faster (runs on GPU, not CPU)
	- Looks better
- Stability improved
- Product drop-down menus (3D radar, 2D radar) are now 
  functional. Only existing products that match the selected 
  3D data can be selected from these drop-down.
- All unimplemented / partially implemented features are disabled.
- GUI fixes and improvements
	- Main GUI, product info, cursor tool, etc.
	- Usability issues
	- etc.
- Environment variable IRIS_ROOT is now known to the build system. 
  If variable is defined, IRIS/Radar header file needed for 
  IRIS/3D compilation are searched from that location. 

* Known issues:

-3D data visualization
	- Transparent iso surfaces have some rendering artifacts.	
	  http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/FAQ#How_to_display_transparent_objects.3F
	- Volueme rendering visibility bug when terrain is enabled, but the 
	  3d outline is disabled.

-3D terrain visualization
	- Works currently for pre-converted Turkey elevation data only.
	- Terrain block sizes are calculate with fixed coordinates of the
	  Turkey data radar site (lat=40, lon=30). (No projection change
	  to azimuthal equidistance projection applied).

-Tool dialog placement
	- There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes it very difficult
	  to store/restore window and dialog positions. Behavior depends
	  on system and can be unpredictable. Read more about the issue:
	  http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities


Release sprint-13-19-2010
---------------------------------

* New features:

- Night mode
- Visualization improved
	- Renders smoother, loads faster, looks better
- Stability improved
	- VTK memory leaks fixed
	- Minor bug fixes and improvements
	- Product info dialog crashes fixed
- Scene lighting and coloring
	- Day/night lighting
	- 3D data easier to see on terrain
	- 3D outline thicker and easier to see
- Cursor tool
	- Visibility issues fixed
	- Home point location marker added (white ball)
- Spectrum width, Rainfall rate, Radial velocity
    - nyquist velocity/width calculation added
    - isosurface generation and coloring fixed
- Desktop menu entry
	- IRIS/3D can now be launched from desktop menu
 
* Known issues:

-3D data visualization
	- Transparent 3D surfaces have some rendering artifacts.

-3D terrain visualization
	-Works currently for pre-converted Turkey elevation data only.
	-Terrain block sizes are calculate with fixed coordinates of the
	 Turkey data radar site (lat=40, lon=30). (No projection change
	 to azimuthal equidistance projection applied).
 
- Volume rendering is disabled
	- Severe performance issues
	- volume rendering is not in the feature list for this release

-Tool dialogs
	-There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes it very difficult
	 to store/restore window and dialog positions. Behavior depends
	 on system and can be unpredictable. Read more about the issue:
	 http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities


Release sprint-12-18-2010 (BETA)
---------------------------------

* New features:

-3D terrain visualization layer added
-Color map handling
	- Program is now using color map definition file from 
	IRIS/Radar. The file (IRIS3DColor.conf) must be installed in folder
	which is in QSettings scope. See Qt manual for further information.
	Binary rpm installation installs the file into a correct folder. 
-Export tool features
	-Snapshot has color bar included
-Latest GUI style sheets from Fusion
-3D visualization improved
	-3D scene lighting improved
	-Smooth shading for 3d data
	-Vertical scaling factor
-Settings
	-Settings affect now instantly after applied.
-Tool dialogs
	-Can be kept open even if 3d data is not loaded
	-Expand/collapse button added
	-Storing/restoring window position
-A lot of bug fixes
	-Improved stability
	-Visualization pipeline improved
	-GUI & usability issues fixed
	-Conversion factor between m and ft units fixed
	-etc.

* Known issues:

-3D data visualization
	- Transparent 3D surfaces have some rendering artifacts.
	- Support for other data types than dbZ is not working correctly.
	Faulty colors and surfaces will appear. 1-byte velocity data type
	lacks Nyquist velocity calculations.

-3D terrain visualization
	-Works currently for pre-converted Turkey elevation data only.
	-Terrain block sizes are calculate with fixed coordinates of the
	 Turkey data radar site (lat=40, lon=30). (No projection change
	 to azimuthal equidistance projection applied).
	-Performance issues with terrain.

-Cursor tool
	-point widget ball color is not changing.
	-Cursor tool cross-hairs are lost sometimes. They can be got back 
	 by toggling cursor tool off/on.	
	 
- Volume rendering is disabled
	- Severe performance issues
	- volume rendering is not in the feature list for this release

-Tool dialogs
	-There is a "feature" in Qt on X11 that makes it very difficult
	 to store/restore window and dialog positions. Behavior depends
	 on system and can be unpredictable. Read more about the issue:
	 http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/geometry.html#x11-peculiarities


Release sprint-11-15-2010
-------------------------

* New features:

New external libray proj-4.5.0 must be installed. 

-Cursor tool home point calculations 
		
	-North: distance (homeLat,homeLon)->(cursorLat,homeLon)
	-East: distance (homeLat,homeLon)->(homeLat,cursorLon)
	-Range: distance (homeLat,homeLon)->(homeLat,homeLon)
	-Slant: length (homeX,homeY,homeZ)->(cursorX,cursorY,cursorZ)
	-Bearing: initial bearing (homeLat,homeLon)->(homeLat,homeLon)
	-Elevation: Elevation angle of the slant vector
	-Home location: Home point (lat,lon) coordinates
	-Value: Data value at cursor
	-Height: Cursor height
	-Lat/Lon: Cursor point (lat,lon) coordinates
	-Elevation: (Not implemented. Elevation data not available)

	-Home and cursor (lat,lon) coordinates are derived from azimuthal
	 equidistant coordinates using Proj.4 library.
	-Distances between (lat,lon) coordinates are calculated using:
		http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula
	-Bearing is the initial bearing of the haversine arc		

-New mouse & keyboard navigation controls

	LMB + Mouse move: Rotate around target
	RMB + Mouse move: Pan (move)
	MMB + Mouse move: Zoom
	Ctrl + LMB + Mouse move: Rotate around viewer
	Shift + LMB + Mouse move: Pan (move)
	Mouse wheel: Zoom
	Arrow keys: Pan (move)
	Shift + Arrow keys: Rotate around target
	Ctrl + Arrow keys: Rotate around viewer
	+/-: Zoom

	-LMB=left mouse button, MMB=middle, RMB=right
	-"Target" is a point where camera vector intersects ground level (Z=0).
	-"Viewer" refers to camera position.

-New camera & view angle rotations

-Display state preset manager

-2D product layer reintroduced after GUI changes 
    - 2D layer is enabled by default
    - User must configure 2D directory on program settings    
    
-Program stability improved
	-memory leaks removed by introducing object management by smart pointers.
	
	
* Known issues:

-Display state presets manager
	-Does not remember presets between application sessions.
	-Does not allow renaming preset entries.
	
-Cursor tool
	-Terrain elevation is alwayas 0 since data is not available
	
-2D layer
    - Only the first 2D data that matches the selected 3D data is shown.
    - 2D data moment must mach exactly to the one of 3D data. Time window
      will be introduced in later release.
      
	
Release sprint-10-13-2010
------------------------

New external libray qxt-0.5.1 must be installed. A rpm is provided by
Symbio.


New features:
- Cursor tool
- Vaisala style sheet: Initial Vaisala style sheet from Fusion
is now used.
- printing and image saving functions added.
- Help button launches an external pdf viewer (acroread is the 
current default. Help viewer and file can be 
configured to settings file ~/.config/Vaisala/IRIS3D.conf

  [HELP]
  command=/path/to/pdfviever
  file=/path/to/help/file.pdf


Changes to previous version:
- Save button removed from the product information dialog. 
Parameters are saved when 'Apply' is pressed. 'Reset'
gives you the parameters that were active when the 
dialog was opened. 


Known issues:
- The program is very unstable.
- Visalization pipeline is still leaking memory.
- See alse the known issues from last sprint.
- Chances of parameter values or data set are not
propagated to open tools yet. User must close the tool
and/or the program in order to get changes into effect.
- Cursor tool values: only data value and cursor height
are somehow correct values. Other values are just
reflecting the cursor movement, but data values are
dummy. 
- colorbar is still missing from print outs and saved
images.



Release sprint-9-10-2010
------------------------

This is an intermediate release. Program has been renew heavily 
'behind the scene'. Visualization pipeline is redesigned and 
reimplemented to support user interaction from Fusion designed 
GUI elements. Settings-component has been reworked to support new 
features such as saving display states and view angles.

New features:
- Changes of rendering parameters (isovalue, surface opacities) 
have effect on the visualized image.
- Volume rendering introduced.

Known issues:
- When changing rendering parameters from product information
  window, one must fist save parameters and then apply 
  changes to display. Direct apply crashes the program.
- When datafile is changed, updated product information is not 
  shown on open product information dialog. User must close 
  and reopen the dialog.
- Vertical scaling factor changes on dialog are not propagated 
  to visualization pipeline. Pipeline uses constant value 5.0.
- A lot of memory leaks due to the new pipeline design.
- Animation is temporarily disabled (in this release, due to 
  pipeline redesign).
- 2D layer is temporarily disabled (in this release, due to 
  pipeline redesign).
- Display state manager cannot load/save data yet.
- Volume rendering uses constant opacity transfer function. 
  (not user-definable on product information dialog yet).


Release sprint-8-08-2010
------------------------


New features:
- Dialogs have been modified to conform GUI design
  - old Settings-dialog removed.
  - new Export Window, Product Information Window and Settings Window
  dialogs.
- Mainwindow design modified.

Known issues:
  Product information dialogs: 
  - Expansion handle is missing. Dialog can be expanded and 
    collapsed by double clicking the light gray area
  - Labels of the color scale are not correct
  - Apply function is not implemented.
  - Save function is not implemented  
  Export window
  - Print function is not implemented
  - Save function is not implemented
  - Default settings function is not implemented
  
  
Terrain demo:

Release contains a terrain rendering demo program (testTerrain) 
that shows the whole Turkey area rendered from DTED1 files. 
This demo is provided for evaluating the quality of the terrain
presentation of the coming product. To run the demo program one
must use pre-processed elevation files (*.vtk). Program takes 
the location of these files as first argument. 

	$ ./testTerrain /path/to/vtk/elevation/files

Navigating with the Terrain Render demo:
- all the navigation are made by using the mouse:
  1- Zoom In= Right click + move the mouse forward
  2- zoom out = Right click + move the mouse backward
  3- Shift the terrain = Press and hold the mouse
     Wheel + moving the mouse
  4- Free Rotation= Left Click + moving the mouse

  Some Keyboards keys:
  W= wireframe
  S= shaded
  Q= Quit/exit


Release sprint-7-07-2010
------------------------

New features:
- 'live mode' and background offscreen rendering implemented in
  dirwatcher test program. To be integrated to new GUI once that
  is available
- Main window GUI changes. Looks a bit more like in Fusion's design. Quite a
  lot changes are still required.
- Animation support has improved. User can play/pause and set playback
  speed.   


Release sprint-6-05-2010
------------------------

New features:

- Paths can be configured from settings dialog.
- Added --version and --help commandline options.
- Version is also show on main window title.
- Started implementing animation support, it is not finished yet tho. 
Multiple files can be selected and they are loaded, processed and shown on
screen but animation control is still missing. Also processing of data
still needs some reshaping.
- Fixed scaling bug that caused y-dimension to disappear. The bug
was visible with 3D data with x-scale unequal to y-scale.
- New filters added to data selection dialog. These should remove
'blank product name' problem. Also, undisplayable products are
not displayed.
  * Only CAPPI products with z-scale > 1 are picked to data selection 
  dialog.
  * Only 2D products stated in MRD document (PPI, CAPPI, VIL, MAX, and
  SRI) are accepted for 2D layer.

Known problems:
Changing paths during program run introduced some bugs and problems with
current implementation. Some of them is fixed now but there are still
problems and the in-memory directory still needs some enhancements and fixes
to be fully functional.


Release sprint-5-02-2010
------------------------

RPM packages are included in the release now. RPMs are build on
Centos5, but those should work on RHEL5 too. If you have problems 
installing contact Symbio.

Installing libraries needed by iris3d:

1) become root (use 'su' and enter root password or if you have 
sudo rights prepend each command with 'sudo' and enter your own 
password when requested)
2) go to directory where libraries are (3rdparty/rpm/RPMS/i386)
and enter the following commands:

rpm -i boost-1.40.0-1.i386.rpm
rpm -i qt4-4.5.3-1.i386.rpm
rpm -i vtk-5.4.2-1.i386.rpm

Libraries will be installed to /usr/local/ and thus should not
conflict any official RHEL5 libraries.


Installing IRIS3D binary:

1) become root
2) go to directory 'rpm' and execute:
rpm -i iris3d-2010.02.sprint5-1.i386.rpm


New features:

These are actually demo programs, not tests.

- testNav: A program demonstrating 3D navigation functions. The
program take name of a DTED1 file as a parameter. See file 
navigation.txt in src/test/testNav subfolder for explanation. 
Navigation functionality is bound to keyboard only in this 
version. There is still some constraints missing, so user can 
navigate to 'impossible' places (below the earth surface etc.)

- testCursor3D. A program for demonstrating 3D cursor 
functionality. The program takes 3D data directory location
as command line parameter. The first data file of the directory
is visualized. 3D cursor appears when 'i'-key is pressed on 
keyboard. By default the cursor is located in the center of the
data cube and three axis are shown. User can grab any axes and 
slide the midpoint to a new position. The interaction can be 
constrained to one axes only if 'shift'-key is pressed. The ball
at the cursor midpoint changes color according to the 
value of data at that point.

-testViewCube: Demonstrates one possible look of the navigation 
cube Fusion is suggesting. It has only the 'look'-part of the 
'look-and-feel'.

Release sprint-4-01-2010
------------------------

New features:
- Color bar is shown in main window and Vaisala's default 
color mapping is used in color bar and isosurface rendering. 
Labels are not shown yet. 
- 2D layer can be selected as base layer. User can set base 
layer on from the settings dialog. Program searching 2D
data directory for matching 2D data sets (site and data time
mathces selected 3D data). The first matching data set is 
shown (the final way of selecting data will be implemented 
once GUI design is ready). It uses the same colormap 
as 3D data. User must give 2 parameters to 
the program: name of 3D data directory and 2D data directory.
These must not be the same.
- Handling of configuration parameters is rewritten.



Release sprint-3-50-2009
------------------------

The release contains necessary changes to make possible rendering 
of 1-4 isosurfaces of desired isovalues from a selected data set.
The actual GUI implementation is waiting for results from the
GUI design team. 


New features

- Data selection dialog added (File-> Open 3D Data)
  - data set is selected form four level dircetory 
- Settings dialog added (Edit -> Settings)
  - settings are stored to settings file and remembered
    from one session to another (see QSettings documentation)
  - selected data can be revisualized by changing visualization 
    settings and pressing 'Apply'
  - user can select 1-4 isovalues for visualization
  - Base layer, volume rendering and Environment settings are not 
    yet working.
- Previous visualization is cleaned when new data set is selected
  or new
  settings are applied
- Visualization pipeline is executed in a background thread. A 
  wait cursor is shown while data is processed.
  
Known problems
- Isovalues are all in dBZ although quantity is not shown
- Valid range is from -31.5 to 95 dBZ. It is not shown anywhere,
  but the range is checked
- Program segfaults at exit. Possible memory management problem.
- Settings dialog does not obey program quit signal.


