TGA output file format is available in Pro version.
Color can be entered through a #RRGGBB format in the color picker when picking background color.
Existing rendered image frames are loaded when a project file is opened. This allows direct playback preview of opened projects without having to render the project again.
User's guide is supplied with all versions of the program.
Version 5.3
Release Date: 2020-09-13
New features
Free and Lite versions are now released as 64-bit applications, which means that they can render animations with more frames at high quality.
Bug fixes
Fixed problem where large animations with large number of frames caused "Out of memory" problems.
Version 5.2
Release Date: 2020-04-25
Changes
Limiting parallelism to one core when auto-rendering preview frames in order to improve preview performance.
Selection of a frame stops animation playback.
Bug fixes
Pressing the Render Animation button too rapidly could cause too many rendering processes to spawn. This could result in the computer slowing down or freezing.
Version 5.1
Release Date: 2018-11-12
Bug fixes
The installer for Caustics Generator Pro for Windows did not install the caustics renderer correctly, which made it not run on some Windows machines.
Version 5.0
Release Date: 2018-04-16
New features
Spectral color rendering that simulates the refraction difference between light of different wavelengths, resulting in a prismatic effect.
Changes
The parameter settings in the user interface have been organized in tabbed views.
Version 4.2
Release Date: 2018-03-08
Changes
Rendering speed improvements around 7% depending on settings.
Bug fixes
Some frames could have been trashed with patterns of white pixels for some parameter settings.
Version 4.0 (Mac)
Release Date: 2016-06-27
New features
Mac OS X release.
Version 3.11
Release Date: 2015-03-27
New features
Linux release.
Version 3.10
Release Date: 2014-09-07
New features
Shortcut commands for common operations such as Render Frame etc.
Reset button for parameters that return them to default state.
Mouse wheel can be used to zoom in preview window.
Version 3.9
Release Date: 2014-01-06
New features
Water surface normal map can be output as a BMP image.
Caustics rendering output can be turned off to allow for just rendering height or normal maps.
Changes
Default output from command line exe is BMP.
Visual Studio C++ runtime redist DLLs packaged with installer.
.NET Framework 4.0 requirement.
Version 3.8
Release Date: 2013-08-09
Bug fixes
32-bit versions did not install in "Program Files (x86)" as they should but in "Program Files" on 64-bit machines.
Install path could not be changed when installing.
Version 3.7
Release Date: 2013-03-02
Bug fixes
Fixed bug that caused renderer to not work from GUI when specifying a path containing spaces.
Version 3.6
Release Date: 2012-12-08
Changes
Changed default startup parameters.
Bug fixes
Fixed bug that caused a dialog "Failed to launch external renderer" to show.
Fixed crash bug when using auto render.
Version 3.5
Release Date: 2012-12-01
New features
Caustics Generator is associated with .cst file extension.
Default render output is My Pictures.
Program is released with an installer.
Bug fixes
Fixed bug where using the file dialog buttons to open/save project or change output directory caused the GUI to not find the renderer.
Version 3.4
Release Date: 2011-12-10
New features
Major reduction in memory usage when rendering animations on multi core machines.
Reduced long term memory usage during rendering.
Bug fixes
Out-of-memory no longer crashes the application but instead reports an error to the user.
