2.2.0.0

This is a significant step forward in Gaea 2.0's journey. Gaea 2.2 includes a major upgrade for Erosion_2, Ice nodes, several new nodes, 20+ improvements to existing nodes, many key workflow enhancements, and over 100 bug fixes and stability updates.

IMPORTANT: See Breaking Changes.

Read more at https://blog.quadspinner.com/gaea-2-2-released/

New Nodes

• BlobRemover – Clean up noisy formations in terrain.
• Distress – Introduce erosion and decay details.
• Glacier - Add giant sheets of ice on your mountains.
• IceFloe – Simulate fractured, frozen terrain features.
• Shape – Create primitive terrain shapes.
• Scree – Scatter rock debris naturally.
• Snowfield – Specialized snow coverage node.
• Var – Create and manipulate variables in advanced graphs.
• Shrubs – Create vast, low-lying bushes and shrubs to accompany the Trees node.
• Heal – Node from Gaea 1 ported to Gaea 2.

Node Updates & Improvements

• Crater – Now supports single placement and Gizmo.
• Craterfield – Significant performance boost.
• ColorErosion – Added Diffusion control for softening effects.
• Debris – New Scale control and more art-directable output.
• DriftNoise – Classic Gaea 1 look is now optional.
• Erosion2 – Major new algorithm upgrade with selective processing.
  • Orographic Erosion controls.
  • Selective Precipitation mask input.
  • Direction Bias added.
  • Improved deterministic output.
• Crumble – Directional Bias added.
• EasyErosion – Direction Bias support.
• Dusting – Slope coverage now optional.
• ThermalShaper – Rewritten for faster GPU execution, and with additional controls.
• Mixer – Supports Height/Slope inputs. Shows constant color if unconnected.
• Sediments – Now includes Fine mode.
• Snow – New Model Scale parameter. Secondary port display fixed.
• Slope – MicroAccent parameter for finer control over slope selection.
• Steps - Incorrect behavior has been fixed.
• Peaks - Option to increase detection sensitivity.
• RGBSplit – Enhanced with grayscale mode options.
• RGBMerge – Better contamination handling and new enhancement options.
• Recurve – Orientation improvements.
• Transform – Supports Color inputs; position corrected to -1 to +1 range.
• WaterColor – New HSL mode; sea visuals updated. No longer requires Guide input in Accumulation mode.
• Blur – Now supports color maps.
• MeshWarp – Renamed to TextureBaker for clarity.
• GroundTexture – New simple Roughness mode.

Workflow Enhancements

• Regions – Independent resolutions and improved management; internal code handling improved.
• Autosaves – Easier access via File and Autosave menus.
• Artifact Explorer – Inspect contents across multiple Gaea folders.
• Example Browser – Access 60 new curated example files from Start Dialog and File menu.
• Camera Commands – Restore to Last Loaded or Default view.
• Node Creation – Toolbox now auto-connects to selected nodes.
• Draw Node – Now behaves predictably when duplicated.
• Portal Menu – Improved UX, avoids cyclic connections.
• CLI – Set resolution, license server, and other params.
  • New --silent switch to disable interactive UI.
  • New SwarmHost middleware for building custom Bridges.
  • Specify Build Path using buildpath.

Graph & UI Upgrades

• Graph Autolayout – Improved stability and portal handling.
• Node Placement – Smarter duplication and cleaner alignment.
• DataView – More intuitive selection updates.
• Treeview & Regions – Enhanced layout, naming, and resizing from all sides.
• Options Window – Reorganized for better clarity.
• Mask Visualization – Multiple gradient presets; Viewport Mask Color options to visualize masks with different palettes.
• UI Texts – Tooltip hints, last modified time, and improved sliders.
• Zoom Extents – More stable, even on empty graphs.
• Recent Menu – Shows last modified date in tooltip.
• Render Modes – Faster rendering with improved mechanism and fewer memory allocations.
  • Clay Render Mode now supports color maps.
  • Switch Render Modes with double-key shortcuts: F1, 1; F1, 2; F1, 3.
  • Lazy Menu tweaked for easier access.
  • Viewport rendering improved overall.

Command Line & Licensing

• CLI – See Workflow Enhancements for new switches.
• Floating Licenses – Supports Offline Fortress Server deployments.
• GRAW – Improved read/write reliability; writes additional metadata.
• Swarm – Honors --ignorecache switch.

Performance & Stability

• Cache/Bake/Freeze – Major rewrite for reliability and speed.
• Improved determinism on GPU nodes like Erosion2.
• Improved node efficiency for Craterfield, Debris, etc.
• Improved memory handling for 8K and 16K builds.
• Aggressive memory recovery during 4K+ builds.
• Smart Cache – Option to offload unused cache to disk.
• Improved memory readout in Status Bar.
• Faster undo stack, drag-drop modifiers, and layout performance.
• Loading Baked Data better utilizes SSDs.
• Accumulators – Memory management improved.

FIXES

Critical crashes and data corruption

• FIX: Deleting a graph tab could create node remnants that could corrupt a file.
• FIX: Major error that prevented undo operations.
• FIX: Bake required nodes could cause a crash.
• FIX: Crash when loading tabs in specific situations.
• FIX: Crash when removing portal.
• FIX: Crash if Gizmo hotkey used when node is unselected.
• FIX: Graph selection change could crash Gaea.
• FIX: Setting node filter criteria to heavy on empty graph could cause a crash.
• FIX: ZoomExtents would cause crash on empty graph.
• FIX: Potential crash when rendering ReadOuts if Cache is null.
• FIX: Weathering could fail during large builds if used before SatMaps.

Stability / reliability

• FIX: Loading Baked Data better utilizes SSDs.
• FIX: Accumulators should not remain in memory if not used.
• FIX: Smart Cache: better orphan data detection and cleanup.
• FIX: Orphan data detection to fix obsolete data remnants from older versions of Gaea.
• FIX: Incorrect memory usage reported in some situations.
• FIX: Swarm would not honor --ignorecache switch.
• FIX: Gaea reinforces Nvidia Fallback Policy profile if removed.
• FIX: Cache folder would not be created when creating a job.
• FIX: GetCacheSize could fail if cache is missing. Should not cascade.
• FIX: Hybrid Build could fail in some instances when exporting a single output.
• FIX: Half (half-float) files were not being written.
• FIX: Migratory copy save can fail.
• FIX: Import caused inner exception when dialog closed without file selection or file was missing.
• FIX: IPs are now loaded through plain text. Needs testing!

Functional correctness / node behavior

• FIX: WaterColor should not require Guide input if Accumulation mode is used.
• FIX: RGBSplit was broken.
• FIX: Snow extra inputs were working incorrectly.
• FIX: Secondary port display in Snow.
• FIX: Mixer should honor current input as Underlay if pinned underlay is not present.
• FIX: Transform position corrected to -1 to +1 range.
• FIX: Draw node is blank when duplicated.
• FIX: Thermal2 could create an excess border at the edges.
• FIX: Modifiers were not rebuilt when dragged and re-ordered.
• FIX: Modifiers were not added to the bottom of the stack.
• FIX: Modifier UI was not updating after modifier undo.
• FIX: Node export could be blocked in rare cases.
• FIX: Node render is outdated when reconnecting a node.
• FIX: Node added inside a group's bounds was not correctly assigned to the group.
• FIX: Node did not read state correctly in some situations.
• FIX: Switch can now bypass validation, and provide routing more accurately.
• FIX: Tint should not enforce defaults in struct parameters.
• FIX: Transpose's Insert and Embed may not work cleanly.

Graph, UI, and usability

• FIX: Autolayout does not work on other rows of graph.
• FIX: Autolayout should ignore portals.
• FIX: Toolbox padding incorrect when confined to a small area.
• FIX: Portal Menu avoids cyclic connections.
• FIX: Clicking on region makes it shift to the left.
• FIX: Region position and size changed on reload.
• FIX: Regions management, internal code handling improved.
• FIX: Duplicate name checking on region renaming.
• FIX: Renaming node does not rename Portals.
• FIX: Search portal menu now does not show portals that can create cyclic connection.
• FIX: Node Creation Toolbox now auto-connects to selected nodes.
• FIX: Create connection was not calling OnSourceUpdated, affecting selection of newly created connection.
• FIX: Creating group without selected items could crash Gaea.
• FIX: Draw window borders were intrusive and overlapped.
• FIX: Prevent premature snapping to small node outputs.
• FIX: File node does not throw error if file is missing but cached.
• FIX: File Relative Paths fixed.
• FIX: Lighting Reset was broken.
• FIX: TaskDialog should be owned by top window.
• FIX: Setup title should show full version.
• FIX: Viewport overlay was not updating to region size in preview regions.
• FIX: Viewport Navigation was setting Sensitivity incorrectly.
• FIX: Zoom extents could cause crash in some cases.
• FIX: Viewport Navigation improved.
• FIX: Status Text was not displayed.
• FIX: Recent Menu shows last modified date in tooltip.

Undo/Redo, save/load, graph state

• FIX: Do not Freeze if not dirty.
• FIX: Freeze not working on close.
• FIX: Frozen cache would not load; Offloaded GUID was not saved in metadata.
• FIX: Gaea would crash on undoing enum parameter value.
• FIX: Undo operations improved for graph changes.
• FIX: Undo values were not applying correctly.
• FIX: On file load bypass node not clearly identified.
• FIX: On file open graph elements did not show at saved position.
• FIX: Current graph contents were not visible on file load.
• FIX: Major error that prevented undo operations.
• FIX: Potential fix for Modifiers undo.

Misc / low severity

• FIX: Added a pre-build warning if color nodes dependent on Height nodes were not connected.
• FIX: Connection issues fixed in "move to tab" option.
• FIX: EditorBase visibility issues.
• FIX: Event should be handled in Dispatcher.
• FIX: Graph nodes visibility issues, zoom state not maintained on file load.
• FIX: Grayscale caused issues by not passing a copy.
• FIX: GroundBrightness default was missing.
• FIX: Group auto-connect menu would not show enclosed portals.
• FIX: Old files were forced to use Zero Exposure and appeared black.
• FIX: Proper notification for Max Seat assignments for floating licenses.
• FIX: Race condition for checking BestDeviceActive.
• FIX: Repair File could break by importing custom default Preset for nodes.
• FIX: Route range was incorrect.
• FIX: Right-click crashed SliderY; FIX: Default should set both X and Y.
• FIX: Setting node filter criteria to heavy on empty graph could cause a crash.
• FIX: String Variable Editor could crash on null.
• FIX: Tiled Build failed with Unreal node.
• FIX: VisibilityTable did not work in some cases.
• FIX: Warn when Accumulator is not connected.

And as usual, a few dozen internal fixes and improvements to improve stability based on your feedback.

Breaking Changes

The following nodes may not be fully backward compatible with Gaea 2.1 or earlier builds.

• Trees
• Cellular3D
• Debris
• ThermalShaper (minor variance in results)

It is highly recommended that if you migrate an active project from Gaea 2.1 to 2.2, that you make a backup first and ensure all your nodes are behaving properly.

Gaea will attempt to create a Recovery copy in the Autosave folder for disaster recovery, but you should still keep a manual backup copy just in case.