Autodesk Showcase 2013 brings important architectural changes and new features to Showcase. For a complete list of user-facing Showcase new features, please refer to the Autodesk Showcase 2013 Help. This section presents information on the release of interest to add-in developers. As always, the modules, classes and functions exposed in the public API to Showcase are also used for in-house development of Showcase itself.
The Showcase 2013 architecture introduces a new graphics pipeline. Add-ins written using the Showcase SDK automatically benefit from:
This release includes noticeable performance improvements for file importing, loading, saving, and animations.
Interoperability allows Showcase to import models created in other applications. Showcase 2013 adds the following support:
This means that layer colors can be applied to the Autodesk Materials upon import to Showcase.
New Publishing Capabilities: HTML5 and Autodesk 360
Showcase 2013 unifies the controls for saving a scene to images, movies, YouTube movies, and presentations. New publishing capabilities include HTML5 output. In line with the most recent releases of other Autodesk products, Showcase 2013 includes Autodesk 360 integration.
New Adobe© Flash©-Based “Task UI”
The Task UI is set of controls automatically appearing in the Showcase viewport. This new "floating" UI greatly improves end-user experience by providing direct access to numerous key Showcase features such as opening files, changing visual styles, publishing scenes, etc. From the perspective of add-in development the Task UI represents the ability to augment and/or control Showcase from a custom Adobe Flash-based UI added into the viewport. Your own development of similar custom UIs is possible using the supplied Showcase SDK in conjunction with a standard Flash GUI development tool; consider using Autodesk Scaleform for streamlined Flash development with more possibilities and better performance.
Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) Support
Showcase 2013 adds support for Intel integrated graphics cards by leveraging the Microsoft WARP software rasterizer. Showcase continues to allow toggling between hardware rendering and ray trace rendering. On affected platforms, hardware rendering is done in the hardware emulation mode provided by WARP.
Improved Handling of High Dynamic Range Images
As noted, Showcase 2013 improves handling High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. This includes tone mapping in the Showcase camera so high-dynamic-range images can be displayed realistically on standard computer monitors, which tend to have a more limited dynamic range. Showcase tone mapping mimics the response curve of a real camera.
Scene lighting now more accurately simulates real-world lighting scenarios; for example, exterior sunlight, daylight, interior daylight, interior daylight and artificial lighting, and night-time artificial lighting. A new exposure control has been added permits finer control of Lighting Environments (previously known as "Environments").
As a result of the new graphics pipeline and the numerous improvements to Showcase, menu items have been relocated, new menu items have been added, and new options are available in properties windows. Add-ins written for previous releases will continue to function as expected. However, you might wish to review the new items and options, with an aim to incorporating the new functionality. Please refer to the "What's New in Showcase 2013" in the user-facing online help for details on menu changes.
Recall that much of the work of controlling Showcase from an add-in (or remote UI) is done via the Showcase built-in messaging system. Messages have been added to the Message Library in support of new features and functionality of Showcase 2013, including HDR images, linearization and the new lighting environment. For details on the new messages, see the "Related Pages" entry in the Showcase 2013 SDK help.
