#define S_DOCUMENTATION
#define S_DOCUMENTATION_RELNOTES
#define PAGE Release Notes
#define SUBPAGE Release Notes for Equalizer 0.4.1

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<p>
  Welcome to Equalizer 0.4, a framework for the development and deployment of
  scalable OpenGL applications. Equalizer 0.4 simplifies the development of
  parallel OpenGL programs substantially over the previous version.
</p>
<p>
  Equalizer 0.4 is a beta release, and therefore intended as preview and
  evaluation snapshot for application developers and early adopters.
</p>

<h3>Features</h3>
<p>
  Equalizer provides the following major features to facilitate the development
  and deployment of scalable OpenGL applications. A
  <a href="features.html">detailed feature list</a> can be found on the
  Equalizer website.
</p>
<ul>
  <li><b>Runtime Configurability:</b> An Equalizer application can run on any
    configuration, from laptops to large scale visualization clusters, without
    recompilation. The runtime configuration is externalized from the
    application to a systemwide resource server.</li>
  <li><b>Runtime Scalability:</b> An Equalizer application can use multiple
    CPU's, GPU's and computers to scale the rendering performance of a single
    view.</li>
  <li><b>Distributed Execution:</b> Equalizer applications can be written to
    support cluster-based execution. The task of distributing the application
    data is facilitated by support for versioned, distributed objects.</li>
  <li><b>Support for Stereo and Immersive Environments:</b> Equalizer supports
    both active and passive stereo rendering, as well as the head tracking,
    which is required for immersive Virtual Reality installations.</li>
</ul>

<h3>New in this release</h3>
<p>
  The following features, bug fixes and documentation changes where introduced
  in this release:
</p>
<h4>New Features</h4>
<ul>
  <li>Programming Guide in pdf and paper versions</li>
  <li>Fixed frustum aspect ratio support</li>
  <li>View configuration using projector layout</li>
  <li>Much improved polygonal rendering example performance</li>
  <li>New volume rendering example (beta technology preview)</li>
  <li>Support for volume-rendering applications</li>
  <li>Support for per-node frame synchronization</li>
  <li>Support for AGL and Carbon on Mac OS X</li>
  <li>Support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard</li>
  <li>Support for Cygwin on Windows XP</li>
  <li>Infiniband support for Linux</li>
  <li>Improved event handling support</li>
</ul>

<h4>Bug Fixes</h4>
<p>
  Equalizer 0.4 includes various bugfixes over the previous release.
</p>
<p>
  Equalizer 0.4.1 fixes a critical bug in the build system which failed to
  detect Mac OS 10.5.1 and later.
</p>

<h4>New Documentation</h4>
<ul>
  <li><a href="documents/Developer/ProgrammingGuide.pdf">Programming
      Guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="documents/EqualizerTR.pdf">The Equalizer Parallel Rendering
      Framework</a>, technical report</li>
  <li><a href="documents/Developer/eqPly.pdf">Entwicklung eines parallelen
      OpenGL Polygon-Renderers</a>, semester thesis in German about the new
      eqPly example</li>
  <li><a href="documents/EGPGV07.html">Direct Send Compositing
      for Parallel Sort-Last Rendering</a> presentation</li>
  <li><a href="documents/design/transparency.html">Transparency
      and sort-last (DB) compounds</a></li>
  <li><a href="documents/design/volumeRendering.html">Volume Rendering
      Example</a></li>
  <li><a href="documents/design/aspectRatio.html">Fixed Aspect Ratio</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Removed Features</h3>
<p>
  The incomplete support for CGL has been replaced by support for AGL and Carbon
  on Mac OS X. CGL has proven not to be useful in conjunction with windowing and
  event handling.
</p>

<h3>Supported Platforms</h3>
<p>
  Equalizer is a cross-platform toolkit, designed to run on any modern operating
  system, including all Unix variants and the Windows operating system.  A 
  <a href="compatibility.html">compatibility matrix</a> can be found on the
  Equalizer website. Version 0.4 has been tested on:
</p>
<h4>Operating System Support</h4>
<ul>
  <li><b>Linux:</b> Ubuntu 6.10 (x64, i386), RHEL4 (x64, i386)</li>
  <li><b>Windows:</b> XP with Visual Studio 2005 (i386, x64) and
    Cygwin (i386)</li>
  <li><b>Mac OS X:</b> 10.4 (PowerPC, i386) and 10.5 (i386)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Window System Support</h4>
<ul>
  <li><b>X11:</b> Full support for all documented features.</li>
  <li><b>WGL:</b> Full support for all documented features.</li>
  <li><b>AGL:</b> Full support for all documented features.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Documentation</h3>
<p>
  The <a href="http://www.lulu.com/content/1359268">Programming Guide</a> is
 part of the Equalizer distribution and can be found
 in <code>doc/Developer/ProgrammingGuide/paper.pdf</code>. Equalizer does not
  yet have an Users Guide. The shipped
  <a href="http://www.equalizergraphics.com/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/tags/release-0.4/src/examples/eqPly/">eqPly
    example</a> provides a reference for developing or porting
  applications. The <a href="doc_developer.html">Developer Documentation</a>
  on the website provides further design documents for specific features. The
  source code is a last resort for information.
</p>
<h3>Support</h3>
<p>
  Technical questions can be posted to the 
  <a href="http://www.equalizergraphics.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eq-dev">
    Developer Mailing List</a>, or directly to
  <a href="mailto:info@equalizergraphics.com?subject=Equalizer%20question">
    info@equalizergraphics.com</a>.
</p>
<p>
  Commercial support, custom software development and porting services are
  available from <a href="http://www.eyescale.ch">EyeScale</a>. Please contact
  <a href="mailto:info@eyescale.ch?subject=Equalizer%20support">info@eyescale.ch</a>
  for further information.
</p>

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