Version 0.12.0.0

Core

• Optimised CompoundDataPlug::hash() to ignore disabled members. This
  reduces globals hashing time by 20% for a complex production scene.
• Fixed Expression serialisation bugs (#1081, #1243).
• Optimised ValuePlug hash caching. It now caches more aggressively,
  keeping cache entries alive across multiple computations. This reduces
  scene traversal time for a complex production scene by 70%.
• Improved dirty propagation mechanism.
  • Batched propagation for UndoContexts, so dirtiness is signalled
    only once for operations batched within a single undo action.
  • Fixed bugs which meant dirtiness was signalled when child/parent
    plug connections were in an inconsistent state.
  • Addition and removal of dynamic plugs now triggers dirty
    propagation.
• The values of environment variables used for string plug
  substitutions are now frozen at startup.

UI

• Improved indicator for non-default plug values (#1216).
• Added copy/paste entries to plug menus (#601).
• SceneInspector now shows parameters for ExternalProcedural and
  Light objects.
• Added available set names to Set node "sets" plug popup menu.

Scene

• Fixed PathMatcher wildcard matching bug (#1252).
• Added Parameters node. This can be used for tweaking the parameters
  of lights, cameras and external procedurals (#1259).
• Added PointsType node (#476).
• Fixes Seeds node to take into account the bounding box of the generated
  points.
• Fixed dirty propagation bugs in CoordinateSystem and ClippingPlane
  nodes.
• Improved InteractiveRenderer pausing during edits.
• Added DeleteSets node.
• Fixed CustomOptions dirty propagation (#1039).
• Fixed ContextVariables dirty propagation.
• Optimised Filter mechanism, giving a 7-20% improvement in performance
  across a range of production scenes.

Appleseed

• Added support for interactive renderering with shader and light
  edits.

Image

• Added support for image metadata
  • ImagePlug has a new metadata child plug.
  • ImageReader reads metadata from file.
  • ImageWriter writes metadata to file.
  • ImagePrimitiveSource loads metadata from ImagePrimitive::blindData().
  • Merge copies metadata from the first input.
  • ImageMetadata node creates/sets metadata.
  • DeleteImageMetadata node removed metadata.
  • CopyImageMetadata transfers metadata from one image to another.
• Optimised many nodes with direct internal pass-though connections.

API

• StringAlgo
  • Added hasWildcards() function.
  • Removed flawed MatchPatternLess (#1252).
• NodeAlgo
  • Added isSetToUserDefault( plug ) function.
• RendererAlgo
  • Added outputAttributes() method.
• ImageNode
  • hash*() and compute*() methods are no longer pure virtual.
    This allows subclasses to make direct internal connections to
    pass through input plugs unchanged.
• PlugValueWidget
  • Replaced _dropValue() method with _convertValue().
• Menu
  • Added support for functools.partial( WeakMethod )
    in menu commands.
• Simplified and improved Merge node implementation.
• Added MetadataProcessor base class to GafferImage.
• Added Plug::dirty() virtual method. This is used to inform a Plug
  that it has been dirtied by Plug::propagateDirtiness().
• Fixed DependencyNodeWrapper to translate python exceptions to C++.

Build

• Fixed compilation without NDEBUG=1 with gcc 4.1.2.

Incompatibilities

• Removed MatchPatternLess from StringAlgo.h.
• Replaced PlugValueWidget _dropValue() method with _convertValue().
• Removed GafferImage::FilterProcessor.
• Added/removed virtual overrides in GafferImage.
• Added virtual function to Plug.