Zerene Stacker Modification History

Improvements in T201008081620

- Reworked retouching for improved performance on some computers
that previously misbehaved when display hardware acceleration
was set too high.

- Added Preferences > Look & Feel option to control beeping
when mouse or keyboard actions are ignored due to click-ahead
prevention.

- While retouching, "busy" status is now indicated by changing
the brush color to gray in addition to enabling the operating
system's "wait" cursor.

- Error logs are now written automatically even if the application
hangs so severely that it cannot be exited normally.

- Bug fix: add warning dialog if application is closed while
retouching is active.

- Bug fix: Click-ahead while retouching is now prevented for
keystrokes as well as mouse actions.

- Bug fix: eliminated timing dependent exceptions in retouching
due to navigating with shift-drag.

- Bug fix: corrected obsolete version numbers in Help > About
and Macintosh pinfo.

Improvements in T201004151335

- Console logs are now saved on exit, as either LastNormalLog.txt
or ErrorLog<timestamp>.txt in the application data directory.

- Added extended diagnostics around strange exception
in retouching (MaskMergePyramidsManager).

- Added name and version of operating system to emails generated
by Help > Email Zerene Systems.

- Improved error checking for batch mode save images and projects.

- Bug fix: extended trial "from first use" licenses can now
be installed by users.

- Bug fix: retouching brush now remains active if 'shift'
is pressed when using output image as source.

- Bug fix: "Expired Trial" watermarks are now removed immediately
when a valid license is installed, rather than requiring
exit and relaunch.

Improvements in T201002141655

- Bug fix: remove a superfluous warning, introduced in
T201002062230, that prevented unattended operation
in batch mode if projects were being saved.

- Bug fix: fix exception in retouching, if performed
in a project that had been closed and re-opened with no
further stacking operation and the output name template
used the mininp/maxinp pattern.

Improvements in T201002062230

- Bug fix: potentially catastrophic replication of files
and/or deletion of existing project data if the
"in specified directory" location for new projects
was the same as a parent of the Save As directory
for old projects.

- Bug fix: avoid popping source window to front on each new
source file selection.

- Improved registration for some stacks requiring significant
brightness correction.

- Bug fix: add warning dialog if application is closed while
an operation is in progress.

- Bug fix: avoid null pointer exception when retouching
with an expired trial licence.

- Bug fix: in output image name templates, some instances of
mininp with ":charpos" were being ignored.

Improvements in T201001201425

- Image display windows now automatically resize when the main
application window is resized.

- Two new Look & Feel preferences have been added.

One of them is to automatically restore the default layout
whenever a project is created or opened.

The other is to automatically set display scale
for the source and output windows so that full images
are shown until you explicitly select another scale.

These options are turned on by default.
To get the old behavior, you must explicitly turn them off
by unchecking the boxes in Options > Preferences > Look & Feel.

- New projects are silently placed in the application default
directory if they are specified to go with source images
but that location cannot be written.

- Improved diagnostics if there are unexpected problems
in new project placement.

- Bug fix: New Folder button now works in filechooser dialogs.

- Bug fix: screen preview images are now updated correctly
if preprocessing scale is changed after the stack has been
processed.

Improvements in T200912272255 (Version 1.02)

- Options > Preferences now allows to save and load preferences.

- Batch scripts can now be saved and loaded.

- When a directory or zip archive is loaded that contains
a file named "ZereneBatch.xml", that file is automatically
executed as a batch script.

- Command line arguments have been added to:
   . suppress the usual splash screen,
   . run with the GUI minimized,
   . force execution of a specified batch script,
   . automatically exit on completion of a batch script.

These arguments and program-generated batch files provide
a basic API (application programming interface) that allows
other programs to launch and control Zerene Stacker,
essentially using it to extend their own operations.

- Order of processing (front to back, back to front) is now
automatically determined to avoid "streaky edges".

- Image pre-sizing and pre-rotation can now be changed
when a project is open.

- Rules for generating output image names can now be specified
by flexible templates for selecting and rearranging timestamp,
method, source image names, output sequence numbers,
and user-provided text.

- When a project that contains multiple output images is opened,
now none of them is selected automatically. This avoids
unnecessary delay, particularly with large images.

- Configuration is not saved if exit is forced while operation
is in progress.

- The amount of physical memory can now be provided by hand,
even it was determined automatically. This allows manual
correction of the rare case where an incorrect value is
determined by the automatic process.

- In batch mode, output image disposition can now be set
independently for each task to be performed.

- Tooltips have been added for Options > Preferences > Image Saving.

- Clickable links are now supported in update notifications.

- Priority of computational threads is reduced one more notch
to improve responsiveness of interactive programs running
at the same time.

- Batch tweak: output images disposed as "Save in source folders",
will be placed with the first source image if the operation is
specified as applying to "%CurrentProject%".

- Bug fix: when retouching, pressing the shift key now
does not clear the selection of an output image as source,
unless the cursor is dragged.

- Bug fix: properly handle scale change on new project in batch.

- Bug fix: clear output window when project closed.

- Bug fix: parameters were not always saved properly after
"Reset to default".

- Bug fix: incorrect version was shown by Mac OS X system menu.

Improvements in T200911231310:

- Image files can be read directly from .zip archives.

- Drag-and-drop now accepts directories and .zip archives.
For ordinary directories, all images in the directory itself
are added, but not any in subdirectories. For zip archives,
images one level down are added also. (This convention means
that the same files are accessed in an ordinary directory
of images as when the .zip archive is created by Windows
using "Send <folder> to Compressed (zipped) Folder".)

- More robust memory management: allows working with larger images
near the limits of available memory.

- Updated to the most recent version of Sun JVM.

- Increased default alignment limits to 20% to allow proper handling
of more cases especially for handheld stacks.

- Added a "Reset to Default" button for alignment limits.

- UI tweak: "Abort" button changed to say "Cancel".

- Bug fix: ignore "non-breaking space" injected into license keys
during certain email transfers.

- Bug fix: avoid hang in certain rare cases where alignment limits
are exceeded.

- Bug fix: on Windows 7, filechooser icons are no longer missing.

- Bug fix: on Windows 7, the Abort button now looks like a button.

- Bug fix: in batch mode, properly diagnose source directories
that cannot be read or that do not contain at least two image files.

- Bug fix: remove confusing entry from list of zoom factors.

T200909262115 was the first release of version 1.0, marking the end of the public beta period.
Improvements included:

- Change default license key to be 30-days-from-first-use free trial.

- Automatically stop stereo previewing when project is closed.

- On Macintosh, give proper instructions if browser cannot be opened
to download a new version.

- Bug fix: when retouching, completely reset edit mask on source file
changes to avoid accumulating brush effects on nearby edits.

- Bug fix: properly handle non-ASCII characters in license keys.

Improvements in T200909130840:

- A new option has been added for handling TIFF files:
Options > Preferences > Preprocessing > Use External TIFF Reader.

This option is now used by default on Intel Macintosh computers,
where it fixes the problem that many kinds of TIFF files used
to be very slow to read (minutes per image). Well-behaved
TIFF files will read somewhat more slowly with this option
selected, so if you were previously getting good results with
TIFF on Macintosh, you may prefer to de-select the new option.

- Gray-scale images are now supported.

- Added time-from-start stamps to each line of console log.

- Batch mode is included with Student licenses.

- Added Cancel option if new project cannot be created where specified
by Options > Preferences.

- When selecting image files using the mousewheel, each selection event
is now shown immediately instead of only when input stops.

- Stereo/rocking selection is now turned off when Zerene Stacker
is launched. It is also turned off in saved projects.

- "Paste from clipboard" button is provided in registration dialog.

- License key validation can now handle lines being merged
due to email reformatting.

- Bug fix: avoid rare silent hang in brightness correction.

- Bug fix: correctly handle pre-rotation in filechooser preview images.

- Bug fix: in batch mode, "Save in project folders" now creates the
SavedImages directory if required.

- Bug fix: in batch mode, folders of image files can now contain
subfolders and Zerene Stacker projects.

- Bug fix: menu entries for retouching and stereo operations are now
interlocked to avoid conflicting selections.

- Bug fix: File > Close Project now clears output window in all cases.

- Bug fix: Mac version now does not truncate leading digits of zoom factor.

- Bug fix: removed spurious sequence number from the names of retouched
image files.

Improvements in T200908150945:

- Run heavy computations at reduced priority, for better responsiveness
on multi-function systems.

- Much faster retouching brush with large images.

- Changed appearance of "unable to check for updates" popup dialog
from error to informational.

- Updated license terms to cover purchased licenses.

- Bug fix: avoid bogus popup diagnostics caused by "s" and " "
getting directed to scale boxes during retouching.

- Bug fix: changes to presizing were sometimes not honored until next
program execution.

Improvements in T200907311550:

- Added menu entry to run both PMax and DMap in a single command.

- Multiple output images can now be written to image files in a single step.

- Stacks can now be synthetically skewed by a few degrees before stacking.
This can be used to generate stereo pairs from a single stack, or to
create a sequence of frames to make a "rocking" animation, or both.

- Added stereo preview tool to pick best two frames from a skew sequence.

- Added "Make Stereo Pair(s)" tool to construct side-by-side
stereo pair images.

- Images can now be pre-rotated as well as pre-sized. This is particularly
useful when generating stereo pairs from images shot in vertical format.

- Improved speed when not pre-sizing.

- Reduced memory requirement when aligning and stacking in one pass.

- Reduced memory requirement even farther when aligning and stacking
as separate operations.

- Improved reliability when short on memory.

- Produce diagnostic popup when drag-and-drop fails to add a file
because the file is not an acceptable image type.

- Report detailed diagnostic when drag-and-drop fails to add a file
because of some unexpected problem.

- Convenience tweak: automatically select the output window when
it is popped to front.

- Changed filechooser labeling to clarify that "raw" image files
cannot be handled directly.

- Progress bar and hourglass now shows when adding files.

- Drag-and-drop to input files list now works on Linux and Macintosh.

- Options > Preferences > Memory Usage now works on Linux.

- Added name of licensed user to title bar.

- Linux 32-bit and 64-bit for Intel and compatible processors
are now standard build versions.

- Bug fix: physical memory size is now detected on Mac OS X 10.4.

- Bug fix: in Macintosh native look-and-feel, files that are not acceptable
image types can no longer be selected for additions.

- Bug fix: in Preferences > Color Management, changes to the profile selection
were sometimes not saved.

- Bug fix: Linux version now accepts drag-and-drop.

Improvements in T200907112235 include:

- The user can now specify pre-scaling of images before stacking. See
Options > Preferences > Preprocessing.

- Options > Preferences > Memory Usage is now used to specify memory allocation.
This replaces manual editing of the file 'zerenstk.ini' (Windows)
or Info.plist (Macintosh), as required in previous versions.

- Macintosh version is extended to run in 64-bit mode on systems that
support 64-bit Java. (This includes Intel Core 2 Duo and higher,
but not Intel Core Duo and lower.)

- Placement of the zerenstk.cfg configuration file has been modified
so that program settings are specific to the individual user
and will be retained across future updates.

On Windows, it is now consistently placed in %appdata%\ZereneStacker,
even if the program is installed to someplace other than Program Files.
For this update only, advanced Windows users who installed Zerene Stacker
in a writeable directory may wish to copy or move zerenstk.cfg from that
directory into the new location, %appdata%\ZereneStacker\zerenstk.cfg

On Macintosh, it now resides in the user's Library/Preferences directory.
For this update only, advanced Macintosh users may want to copy or move
zerenstk.cfg from their current Zerene Stacker application bundle:
      ZereneStacker.app/Contents/Resources/Java/zerenstk.cfg
into the new location:
      ~/Library/Preferences/ZereneStacker/zerenstk.cfg

- On Windows, the launcher is now much more robust. It now automatically
falls back to "safe mode" if the current parameters do not give
a successful launch. This prevents undiagnosed failures when more memory
is specified than can be obtained.

- On Windows, an explicit "(Safe Mode)" icon is now provided. This icon
launches the program with a very conservative memory allocation.
It also ignores any window location and size that may have been
left over from a previous execution. This icon provides a simple method
to recover from unusual conditions such as memory settings or
changes in monitor placement that would otherwise prevent launching
or would place the Zerene Stacker window where it could not be seen.

- Added explanatory tooltip to "Show as adjusted" checkbox.

- Added registration dialog for entering a license key.

- Expired versions now fall back to "expired trial" mode rather than
refusing to run.

- Changed the default directory for unsaved new projects to be within
java.io.tmpdir, which is the standard temporary directory for each computer.
On Windows, this is typically
"C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\ZereneStacker".
On Macintosh, it is typically "/private/tmp/ZereneStacker".

- Replaced the icon with a more colorful version. (The current icon is
the distinctive wing pattern of Zerene eurydice, the California Dogface
butterfly.)

- Added diagnostic if saving over an old project will cause any files
not created by Zerene Stacker to be removed.

- Bug fix: on Macintosh, main menu bar would sometimes disappear and not return,
when smaller dialog windows were opened and closed.

- Bug fix: projects could not be saved sometimes if this would require copying files
from one device to another.

- Bug fix: scrollbars would not appear sometimes until scale factor was changed.

- Bug fix: encountering too many errors would make it impossible to close
the error notification window.

Improvements in T200905191912

- Added mouse and key logging in the retouching manager, controlled by
RetouchingManager.LogEvents=true
in the zerenstk.cfg file.

Improvements in T200905131155

- Versions are now available for the following platforms:
    . Windows 32-bit
    . Windows 64-bit (using the native 64-bit JVM)
    . Mac OS X Tiger (PowerPC and Intel)
    . Mac OS X Leopard (PowerPC and Intel)

- A user interface is now provided to show the amount of memory allocated
for Zerene Stacker. However, to *adjust* this setting still requires
manual editing of a configuration file, outside of the Zerene Stacker interface.
Removing the manual editing step is a high priority for the next release.

- Images too large to be processed are now diagnosed, and can be automatically
pre-sized (shrunk) to process in available memory.

- Insufficient physical memory to run efficiently is now diagnosed.

- A user interface is provided to specify or override the amount of physical RAM
available on the computer, if it cannot be determined automatically.

- Bug fix: when the DMap contrast threshold dialog is shown, the main window is also
made visible if necessary. (Previously the main window would remain invisible
if it happened to be minimized.)

- Bug fix: on Macintosh, command-Q and Quit from the Applications menu are now handled correctly.

Improvements in T200904161830

- Retouching now allows certain keystrokes to be used as an alternative to mousewheel rotation.
To make the brush larger or smaller, you can use "[" or "]". To navigate through
the list of input files, you can hold down Shift and use up- or down-arrow.

- There is a new Look-and-Feel option to control whether preview images and certain
controls are included in the file chooser windows for adding and saving images,
or are presented as separate windows. This option is primarily for cross-platform
compatibility, which is being prepared for release soon. The defaults adjust to
the platform type so that file choosers present a natural appearance on both
Windows and Macintosh.

- Automatically adapts to memory size of the computer. This avoids excess paging
when running in smaller computers such as 1 GB. It also allows processing larger images
than the previous version, on 2 GB machines.

- Alignment is more robust when working with small images.

- Compatibility: code base now compiles and runs against Java 5 (for Mac OS X Tiger).

- Bug fix: previous alignments are now discarded when an input image is removed.

- Bug fix: removed one cause of a red exception and hang while retouching.

Build T200904032045 was the first public beta release.