Blog | Winter 2024 Software Update
This update is HUGE! Yes, another amazing (and FREE) software update is coming at you, just in time for the holidays. If you do video analyses, you’re going to love this update! Keep reading to learn what’s new with the Winter 2024 Software update!
Updates related to Camera and Rendering
Advanced Video and Image Analysis >
Improved production quality of the Lightspeed Realtime Render Engine >
Updates Related to Environment Creation
Updates Related to User Interface
Other Updates
Updates Related to Camera and Rendering
Advanced Video and Image Analysis
This is what you’ve been waiting for! Learn more about our new video and image analysis functionality >
Hurry! The End-of-Year Sale is almost over – get 10% off new licenses, additional licenses, and upgrades, plus FREE training while it lasts!
Improved Production Quality of the Lightspeed Realtime Render Engine
If you aren’t fully aware of the differences between GPU and CPU-based rendering in Virtual CRASH 6, take a look at the following video:
As of the Winter 2024 Software Update, Virtual CRASH 6 users have the option to improve the quality of their Lightspeed Realtime Render Engine videos (GPU-based renders) by choosing between 1x, 4x, 9x, and 16x supersamples when using “render method: current”. Note: Available supersamples options will depend on the “size” option. Increasing supersamples for GPU-based renders will improve video quality by antialiasing. This will reduce “jaggies” (learn more) and pixel flicker or strobing when emissive lighting is used. Our previous recommendation was to render at a higher resolution (4K or 8K) and then to “downsample” to a lower resolution like 1920HD. This process is now essentially done automatically with the new supersamples option. Note, the default supersamples size for “render method: current” will now be 9x, 4x, or 1x depending on what “size” option is selected.
Below, we see the striking difference between the video on the right, rendered with “render method: current”, at 1920HD, and at 1x supersamples (right) versus the same video rendered at 16x supersamples (left). Note the significant reduction in emissive lighting flicker. As the video continues, a comparison of the smoothness of the boundary between the vehicle in the foreground versus the background is shown by zooming in on the video. This reduction jaggies is also evident in the headlight ground illumination. Again, the difference is striking between 1x and 16x.
Point Size of point cloud objects
Just as with CPU rendering in direct light or skylight, we recommend ensuring that your point cloud’s point size is appropriate for your resolution and supersamples setting. Recall that for “render method: current”, the point size will be set by display > “point size”. Point size can now be increased up to 20 if needed. In general, the higher the supersamples setting, the larger you will want your point size to be, but this should be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.
Improved Camera position and orientation Control
With the new “fix rotation” option in the camera object’s “rotation local” menu, the camera position can now be locked relative to your linked object’s CG. The relative position vector components will be defined in global space rather than local object space. This means that as your linked object’s yaw, pitch, and roll values dynamically change, your camera’s position relative to the CG will not rotate with the linked object. This results in smoother object tracking and better camera control! If you make videos with Virtual CRASH, you’re going to love this feature!
In the video below, our camera was linked to the white Jeep with “fix rotation” enabled. Note, even though the Jeep rolls over, the camera does not rotate with the Jeep!
Camera Near Plane
Camera: misc > “near plane” now increments by 1 mm when using the scroll wheel. This makes it easier, for example, to “slice” through a vehicle’s geometry when assigning materials. You can access the global project camera’s near plane attribute by deselecting everything (right-click on a selected object or left-click into an empty region of your project space) and going to properties > environment > “near plane”. Or, if you’ve created a camera, just go to its “misc” menu. In the example below, we show how to adjust near plane for the project camera to easily gain access to a turn signal bulb.
Camera from view now automatically active camera
When you left-click on tools > camera > “camera from view”, the new camera will automatically become the active view as if misc > “assign to view” had also been pressed. Remember, to break out of a camera’s view, go to Windows > Views and select one of the camera views or press one of the corresponding NumPad keys.
Render in either landscape or portrait mode
In the tools > animation, you will now find a “landscape” toggle, allowing you to switch between landscape and portrait render modes.
Expanded codec support
Users will now find an expanded list of codecs available in the animation menu. These are shown below.
Upcoming in-person training classes
Interested in scheduling a customized training class for your organization?
Reach out to sales@vcrashusa.com!
Updates Related to Environment Creation
Cleaning Orthomosaics via Inpaint and Clone Tools
With the new “Inpaint” and “Clone” tools, you can now clean an image within the Virtual CRASH environment. Left-click to select your (unfrozen) image. Next, go to tools > “paint”. Left-click on “selection region” to choose the type of selection you want to use: either: lasso or fence.
Next, left-click either “inpaint” or “clone”. In either case, next use your mouse’s scroll wheel to adjust the focus on the portion of the image you wish to clean. If you’re using the “lasso” option, simply hold+left-click and drag your cursor around the area you wish to clean. If you’re using “fence”, you will need to issue a series of left-clicks to define the region around the area you wish to clean, then right-click for the final fence point.
If you’re using the “inpaint” option, once the region is defined, it will automatically fill in with a color approximation for the inside of the region based on pixel colors just outside the region’s boundary.
If you’re using the “clone” option, once the region is defined, you will need to move your cursor to a region of your image that is a close approximation to the selected region from which you can sample color data.
You’ll notice as you move your cursor, the pixels within the selected region automatically update with data from the sample region. Press ctrl+scroll wheel up for a softer or more blended boundary about the region’s perimeter. ctrl+scroll wheel down will create a less soft boundary.
Below we show an example of cleaning an image from Google Maps:
Next, we show an example of cleaning orthomosaic tiles:
Point Cloud Object Brightness Control via Tone Mapping
The project “tone mapping” properties are discussed in Chapter 2 of the User’s Guide (learn more). These same properties can now be found for each point cloud object in your scene. This allows users to effectively control the brightness and contrast of each individual point cloud. To find the tone mapping properties, first select your (unfrozen) point cloud, then head to the “tone mapping” menu. If you wish to use tone mapping, you first need to enable the “use” toggle. Once enabled, you can control the gamma, exposure, and pure white settings. As a review, we define the properties below:
Gamma modifies a scene’s apparent brightness, ensuring details are clear in both bright and dark areas without changing the overall balance.
Exposure adjusts the overall light level in a scene, influencing how bright or dark the image appears.
Pure white determines the maximum brightness for details to be displayed as white, helping to maintain contrast without losing information in the brightest parts. Enabling “shades of gray” will switch to black and white mode.
These settings are further illustrating in the below gamma versus exposure matrix (note gamma and exposure range from 0.1 to 5).
When using tone mapping, it is recommended to adjust your project’s tone mapping settings first (learn more) and then adjust each individual point cloud’s tone mapping settings as shown above.
Updates Related to User Interface
automatic recovery file creation
When you open an existing Virtual CRASH 6 project (.vc6) file, Virtual CRASH will automatically create a recovery file if you make any modifications to the project and choose to save it. Please remember that the recovery file will reflect the project status at the time the .vc6 file was first opened and will not include any additional modifications made after the file was opened. In the event of an unexpected crash, power outage, or Windows update, you can reload the last recovery file by going to Project > Open Recovery File. Virtual CRASH will store up to nine recovery files, with “Recovery File 1” being the most recent and “Recovery File 9” being the oldest.
Users will also be prompted to save a project file before creating a new video file via the animation menu.
Cloning improvements
When you clone objects, the child will now automatically inherit the parent object’s name. This will potentially help save you time as you create larger projects will many cloned assests.
Renaming multiple objects
You can now rename a multiple selected objects at once. This can be a huge time saver - especially with CAD work. Simply ctrl+left-click or hold+left-click and drag up or down within the project or layers view to select multiple objects at once. Go to the misc menu and rename as needed.
You will see the names change for all select objects at once.
Managing layers
New Layer Creation Option
There is a new option in the “Layer” dropdown menu: “New Layer.” This option creates a new layer without automatically placing selected objects in it. Alternatively, users can continue to use “New Layer (Containing Selected Objects)”, which creates a new layer and automatically places any selected objects within it.
New Layers Are Automatically Set as Active
Now when either of the above options are used, the new layer is automatically set as the active layer.
Dimension Line 2D Improvement
Virtual CRASH 6 users can now set cap size and line width less than 5 cm for the object type: Create > Helpers 2D > “Dimension Line 2D”.
Simulation: improvements to steering fast control icon
Hotkeys have now been added to the steering wheel fast control icon functionality, allowing users to adjust either steering or steering time independently without affecting the other parameter. Users can also modify steering in 10-degree increments, making it easier to snap to 0 degrees of steering. The following hotkey combinations can now be used:
• steering wheel icon: changes both “steering” and “steering time”.
• SHIFT + steering wheel icon: changes “steering” but not “steering time”.
• CTRL + steering wheel icon: changes “steering time” but not “steering”.
• ALT + steering wheel icon: changes “steering” by 10 deg increments and changes “steering time”.
• ALT + SHIFT + steering wheel icon: changes “steering” by 10 deg increments but does not change “steering time”.
Recall that cursor control must be set to “Select, Move and Manipulate” [F3] in order to access the steering wheel fast control icon.
Other Updates
Overlay images and videos directly onto the screen
Users can now overlay images and videos directly onto the screen. First, go to Create > Helpers 2D > On-screen Image. Next, left-click in an empty area of your project to position the overlay independently of any other object, or left-click on an unfrozen rigid body to attach the overlay to an object in motion. If attached to a rigid body, misc > “follow target” can be used to automatically make the overlay move with the target object.
By default, the Virtual CRASH 6 logo will be placed into your project. This can be easily changed by going to background > file. The image or video size can be adjusted using the attribute misc > size. The overlay’s position can be modified using the position-screen x and y inputs (or by using the translation control grip in [F3] mode), while orientation is controlled by Rotation-Screen yaw.
The overlay’s transparency can be controlled via misc > color palette dropdown menu.
Other minor updates
Snap to point array will now work for point arrays converted to terrain objects.
The steering wheel fast control icon will now change the steering angle in 0.1 degree increments using the mouse scroll wheel.
Camera rotation local (yaw, pitch, roll) will now change by 0.1 degree increments using the mouse scroll wheel.