LiteDesign News

The latest version includes a few minor bug fixes, but most notably now has support for up to 256 lights on each grid. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the update feature from version 3.2.1, but this should be fixed fairly soon.

The latest version of LiteDesign includes a new facility which can be used to update the program automatically, without the need for going to the SourceForge project page and downloading files manually. The "web update" button appears on the tools menu, and automatically updates the program from the SourceForge download servers.

Slightly later than hoped, 3D rendering is now supported. We've been working on it since the beta release of LD 3.0.0, but it hasn't been in a fit state to release until now. The interface is not yet very user-friendly, and requires input of numbers controlling the scaling directly. For what it's worth, a scale of 4, a y scale of 400 and a size of 1 is about right for most uses.

LiteDesign 3 stable has now been released! There are actually no feature changes from the beta, but the bug which caused the program to freeze at startup is no more. There have also been a whole load of much smaller bug fixes, most of which aren't important enough to be mentioned here, except that the contact email in the about dialog has been corrected.

As expected, the beta of LiteDesign 3 has now been released. There are still a couple of bugs that need fixing, but most of the program is fine. It has quite a lot of helpful (hopefully) new features and the performence has also been improved, so it's a recommended upgrade for anyone who already has the program (although it might be worth installing it separately).

Development of LiteDesign 3 is almost complete, and the beta should be released in the next couple of days. It is very nearly a complete re-make of the old version 2, with a new GUI based on JSplitPanes, meaning that it is possible to resize grids. There are also various less visible changes: a new file format, which should be less prone to errors and produce smaller files, has been introduced; variable grids with sizes other than 11x11 or 11x14 (depending on the version) are now displayed properly; and 3D rendering is now supported, although it is not currently possible to change the viewing angle from looking straight down, but we hope to change this by the beta release.

LiteDesign reached its 100th download from SourceForge.net last Monday (2006-05-08). The project was first hosted on SourceForge in December 2005, making an average of about 20 downloads per month. This is certainly not on a par with some of the bigger projects, but is still not insignificant - the ranking is currently from 1000th to 3000th out of over 100 000 projects.

I would like to thank everyone who has made this project possible; firstly, all of the development team, and anyone else who has contributed anything to LiteDesign; but also everyone who has downloaded it, and therefore expressed an interest in it and provided some (occasionally much-needed) encouragement.

This is a reccomended upgrade for everyone. Most of the improvements focus on the grid editor, in which it is now possible to put positions at the very top of the grid. The option has also been added to open files and edit them, instead of having to type everything in again.

LiteDesign 2.2.4 has now been released. There is one minor bug fix - see the change log for details. This isn't a particularly important upgrade, as there are no compatibility or security issues.

Good news! The file opening bug from version 2.2.2 has now gone (if you're one of the people who has downloaded v2.2.2 so far, you'll know what I mean). This is a recommended upgrade for all users; you won't be able to open any files saved from this version if you don't upgrade.

It's not long since LiteDesign 2.1.7, but LiteDesign 2.2.0 is here! Its main improvements are in the efficiency side of things, although I haven't managed to find a way to increase the speed of the rendering yet. The improvements also make the user interface a bit more easy-to-understand, with a table for patching instead of a grid of textboxes. See the change log for more details.

We are pleased to announce that LiteDesign 2.1.7 has finally been released! It does not have any major bug fixes or new features, so there's no urgent need to upgrade, but it does include a few enhancements. Grid positions that are in use are now displayed in bold type, so that it is possible to distinguish between empty sockets and lights that are just turned off. The "About" command has also become more user-friendly, as the program only displays one dialog box, instead of the previous three.