While SPi-V 1.3 is entering its final stages, outlined below are the major changes, fixes and additions to this new version. This dot release is the biggest update so far, and all in all it is shaping up very nicely.

Before we start, a very quick history of changes so far:

• SPi-V 1.0, november 2004: initial release
• SPi-V 1.1, december 2004: backported to Shockwave 8.5 for wider install base
• SPi-V 1.2, januari 2005: introduction of scriptlets to make xml scripting easier

Yesterday, Apple released OS X 10.4.3 through Software Update. Included in the update is a version of Safari that finally fixes the dreaded OpenGL 3d offset bug that has been plaguing Safari since the first public beta of Safari.

Using the latest beta of SPi-V along with Safari with Webkit 416.11 or later (ie: the version that comes with OS X 10.4.3, or one of the nightly builds) you should no longer see SPi-V drawing too high, or unable to fill its full area. Earlier versions of SPi-V may leave approximately 20 pixels of unused space above the panorama display.

The download archive for SPi-V 1.3 beta now finally includes a changelog. The other archives will follow suit if the beta changelog works out technically.

You can now easily keep up to date with updates of the official and beta release of the SPi-V engine. Both pages include an rss stream.

An official fix for the infamous Safari offset problem is now finally underway!

In the latest nightly build of Webkit, the 3d offset bug has been fixed. If you use the nightly build now, my current workarounds for the bug conflict with the official fix, so you will see an unused bar at the top of the display instead of at the bottom, but since SPi-V 1.3 is around the corner this should not prove too hard to fix.

SPi-V 1.3 is progressing nicely. For those of you who have not noticed, there has been a rather steady stream of beta updates.

Besides the viewer updates I am also working on finally updating the documentation. The documentation will reflect the state of the art in SPi-V 1.3, and may not be fully compatible with 1.2.x. But it should be better than what we had before ;-)

Though each beta release carries a warning that it is beta software and should not be used on production sites, I am getting more and more confident of the 1.3 release. The fullscreen panorama gallery is now using 1.3 beta.

fieldOfView.nl is back after a short outage. If you (tried to) sent me email between sept 6th and sept 9th, you may have to resend it. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

As of now, I am looking for a new, reliable host... Any tips?

I will be out of office starting friday 26th of august to tuesday september 6th. I am attending EuroGraphics in Dublin, and will be presenting some exciting new developments with SPi-V.

A 3rd party content gallery was added to the site as well as a block in the menu that randomly picks one of the entries from the gallery. If you would like to have your content featured, put it online and let me know!

SPi-V 1.2.14 broke mysteriously software rendering. Available for download now is SPi-V 1.2.14c that should fix this issue. To find out which version of the SPi-V engine you are using, press 'a' or 'd' to popup the about or debug window respectively.

A beta version of the upcoming SPi-V 1.3 will be available next week, along with some site improvements.

SPi-V 1.2.14 (the current version available for download) fixes a long-standing bug that slipped my attention.

On certain ATI-based systems (mostly macs like the mac mini and iBook G4), all uielements would disappear at certain widths. I didn't notice it because I apparently always opened my Safari window at a width that 'works'. It should be fixed in 1.2.14. If you are still not getting uielements when you expect them, please let me know (ie: no progress bar, no field of view branding when on the free version and no overlays when you press 'a' or 'd').

SPi-V 1.2.14 removes the workaround I had in place for OS X 10.4 Tiger rendering the content too heigh.