ARToolKit 2.71 released

The ARToolKit team are happy to announce the immediate availability  
of ARToolKit version 2.71.

The ARToolKit is a collection of libraries, utilities applications,  
and documentation and sample code aimed at creators of augmented  
reality applications. The libraries provide the user with a means to  
capture images from video sources, process those images to optically  
track markers in the images, and to allow compositing of computer- 
generated content with the real-world images and display the result  
using OpenGL.

The release and the full read me is available at http:// 
sourceforge.net/projects/artoolkit/ under "File Releases".

There have been several major changes since the last release (2.70.1):

* A new version of the Windows video capture library, DSVideoLib,  
v0.0.8b has been adopted. This has made the installation process on  
Windows radically simpler. There is no longer any requirement to  
install the DirectX SDK, or to run register_filter.bat at random  
intervals. There are also many bug fixes over the previous DSVideoLib  
version used by ARToolKit, 0.0.4. Many thanks to Thomas Pintaric for  
his support of this library.

* On Mac OS X side, XCode builds now build the examples as bundled  
applications. The contents of the "Data" directory are copied into  
the application bundle at build time. The applications can thus be  
moved from their build locations. (The utilities are still (mostly)  
built as command-line tools.) Also, a performance boost has been  
realised by adopting thread-safe QuickTime 6.4, which is now required  
by default. (Support for versions back to 4.0 can be enabled at  
compile-time if required).

* The calibration utilties have been rewritten to use the newer  
libARgsub_lite rather than a bunch of unmaintained custom code. They  
should now run much more reliably across different platforms.

* Documentation of the ARToolKit API is now included in HTML form.  
While it is reasonably complete, much work remains to be done on the  
documentation, and we hope you, the users, will assist by improving,  
reworking and filing "bugs" and corrections that you find. The API  
documentation is rounded out by a reasonably substantial userguide at  
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/documentation/

* The Linux video library has also had some improvements, with a  
patch by Wayne Piekarski to auto-adjust video resolution.

* Under the hood, various components of ARToolKit are being rewritten  
to be much more adaptable to changing run time environments. The  
first step in this process is to allow runtime selection of the video  
stream pixel format. This has been completed in the Mac, Windows  
video libraries, and in ARToolKit's GL utility library,  
libARgsub_lite. A future release will extend this to the core libAR.  
This should help a lot with deployments of ARToolKit in your open- 
source applications.

* Other minor fixes, as listed in the README.txt. Download and take a  
look.

ARToolKit is distributed as a multiple source archive. There are  
additional source + binary packages for ARToolKit dependencies on the  
Windows platforms. These include the video input library, DSVideoLib,  
and OpenVRML. Dependencies for the Unix-based platforms (Linux, Mac  
OS X, Irix) are handled by package managers on these systems (e.g.  
Fink on Mac OS X, Debian and/or RPM on Linux).

As bugs come up, please post in ARToolKit's bug tracker, kindly  
provided by SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/? 
group_id=116280&atid=674305. This will be the preferred forum for bug  
reports in future. Patch submissions are also welcomed.

Bugs fixes and other improvements are available between official  
ARToolKit releases by checking out the source from Sourceforge  
ARToolKit CVS repository using anonymous CVS. A simple tutorial on  
how to get the ARToolKit source using a CVS GUI tool is at http:// 
sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=25731&group_id=116280.

Thanks to all the contributors to this release.

Regards,
Philip Lamb
ARToolKit SF.net project administrator.

From:	Philip Lamb <phil@e ..........>	Received:	Sep 21, 2005
To	ARToolKit mailing list <artoolkit@h ..................>
Subject:	ARToolKit 2.71 released
The ARToolKit team are happy to announce the immediate availability of ARToolKit version 2.71. The ARToolKit is a collection of libraries, utilities applications, and documentation and sample code aimed at creators of augmented reality applications. The libraries provide the user with a means to capture images from video sources, process those images to optically track markers in the images, and to allow compositing of computer- generated content with the real-world images and display the result using OpenGL. The release and the full read me is available at http:// sourceforge.net/projects/artoolkit/ under "File Releases". There have been several major changes since the last release (2.70.1): * A new version of the Windows video capture library, DSVideoLib, v0.0.8b has been adopted. This has made the installation process on Windows radically simpler. There is no longer any requirement to install the DirectX SDK, or to run register_filter.bat at random intervals. There are also many bug fixes over the previous DSVideoLib version used by ARToolKit, 0.0.4. Many thanks to Thomas Pintaric for his support of this library. * On Mac OS X side, XCode builds now build the examples as bundled applications. The contents of the "Data" directory are copied into the application bundle at build time. The applications can thus be moved from their build locations. (The utilities are still (mostly) built as command-line tools.) Also, a performance boost has been realised by adopting thread-safe QuickTime 6.4, which is now required by default. (Support for versions back to 4.0 can be enabled at compile-time if required). * The calibration utilties have been rewritten to use the newer libARgsub_lite rather than a bunch of unmaintained custom code. They should now run much more reliably across different platforms. * Documentation of the ARToolKit API is now included in HTML form. While it is reasonably complete, much work remains to be done on the documentation, and we hope you, the users, will assist by improving, reworking and filing "bugs" and corrections that you find. The API documentation is rounded out by a reasonably substantial userguide at http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/documentation/ * The Linux video library has also had some improvements, with a patch by Wayne Piekarski to auto-adjust video resolution. * Under the hood, various components of ARToolKit are being rewritten to be much more adaptable to changing run time environments. The first step in this process is to allow runtime selection of the video stream pixel format. This has been completed in the Mac, Windows video libraries, and in ARToolKit's GL utility library, libARgsub_lite. A future release will extend this to the core libAR. This should help a lot with deployments of ARToolKit in your open- source applications. * Other minor fixes, as listed in the README.txt. Download and take a look. ARToolKit is distributed as a multiple source archive. There are additional source + binary packages for ARToolKit dependencies on the Windows platforms. These include the video input library, DSVideoLib, and OpenVRML. Dependencies for the Unix-based platforms (Linux, Mac OS X, Irix) are handled by package managers on these systems (e.g. Fink on Mac OS X, Debian and/or RPM on Linux). As bugs come up, please post in ARToolKit's bug tracker, kindly provided by SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/? group_id=116280&atid=674305. This will be the preferred forum for bug reports in future. Patch submissions are also welcomed. Bugs fixes and other improvements are available between official ARToolKit releases by checking out the source from Sourceforge ARToolKit CVS repository using anonymous CVS. A simple tutorial on how to get the ARToolKit source using a CVS GUI tool is at http:// sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=25731&group_id=116280. Thanks to all the contributors to this release. Regards, Philip Lamb ARToolKit SF.net project administrator.