Vortex Studio 2024.2 Change Log

Owned by Marc Lievin
Last updated: Jun 25, 2024 by Jean-François Emond
3 min read

What's new?

New Material Table

What’s changing

The Material Table object has been updated to use the standard Vortex Extension pattern.

Why it matters

The data format of the VxMaterialTable differed from that of the rest of the Vortex Object and required a different approach compared to other high-level objects.

Additional details

For an example on how to use the new material table extension to define contact materials, seeHow to use the Material Table extension to manage Contact Materials

Announcement: Vortex Studio on Ubuntu

What’s changing

As a technical preview, Vortex Studio is now available on Linux for Ubuntu 22.04 this month and will soon be generally available. The binaries are compiled with GCC 11 and support C++17 compatibility.

As previously on CentOS 7, the list of supported features are:

  • Multibody dynamics

  • Terrain

  • Powertrain modeling

  • Advanced tire modeling

  • Rigid tracks

  • Flexible tracks

  • Cable systems

  • Earthwork systems

  • Python 3

As with the previous releases, native graphical visualization is not available on the Linux platform. If you require visualization for your Linux simulation, you can utilize the Vortex Remote Debugger. Additionally, GUI applications such as the Editor, Player, or Director of Vortex Studio are not compatible with Linux.

Why it matters

Ubuntu is the world’s most popular Linux distribution and a common choice for high-performance or cloud instances. If you integrate Vortex on your own or are primarily interested in the output of the dynamics engine for engineering or machine learning, running your Vortex physics simulation on Linux could be beneficial to you.

Additional details

See Vortex Studio on Linux

Announcement: A compiler update is coming

What’s changing

Later this year, the Vortex Studio binaries released will be compiled using Microsoft Visual Studio 2019, version 16.11.x. It will use the 14.29 runtime libraries version. The code files provided will be C++17 compliant. When that happens, the binaries built with Visual Studio 2015 will no longer be provided.

Why it matters

Visual Studio 2015 is about ten years old and CM-Labs must move forward with the technology.

Additional details

Binaries built with Visual Studio 2019 are compatible with Visual Studio 2015 and later, following these restrictions. C++ binary compatibility 2015-2022

System Requirements

The system requirements have recently been updated to reflect the wider range of GPUs Vortex Studio supports when using its Vulkan renderer.

See System Requirements

End-of-life Notice

 

Minor Improvements in Vortex Studio 2024.2

In addition to features documented in the “What's New”, minor improvements have been made during the development of Vortex Studio 2024.2:

ID

Summary

ID

Summary

VP-47358

Vortex Editor: Graphics card compatibility message updated

VP-47412

Vortex Studio: All Vortex logs indicates the full version of VortexToolkit is being used

VP-47491

Unity Integration: All logs indicates the full version of VortexToolkit is being used

VP-47494

Unity Integration: Add support for multiple VortexGraphicsGallery components on a game object

VP-47519

VortexSetup: The size of the files to download is taken into account when validating disk space

VP-47532

Unity Integration: Vortex Prefab List needs to be available at all times in the Unity Editor

Fixed Issues in Vortex Studio 2024.2

Various bugs and workflow issues have been fixed during the development of Vortex Studio 2024.2:

ID

Summary

 

ID

Summary

 

VP-47284

Unity Integration: Terrain Streaming - Memory leak when streaming unity meshes

 

VP-47493

Potential crash using VxPlatform::Mutex on Ubuntu 22.04

 

VP-47503

Vortex Launcher: A square border can be seen when selecting several buttons

 

VP-47550

Vortex Editor: Crash when reordering cable system points

 

VP-47642

The Excavator scene is crashing on Ubuntu

 

VP-47726

Unity Integration: Tracks Animation - Tracks are only created when using "All" asset bundle prefabs

 

VP-47742

Vortex Simulator: Some translations strings are duplicated

 

VP-47843

Vortextoolkit SDK: Function FieldArray<T>::addFieldArrayObserver() does not compile when used with the Field Interface/Enum template

 

VP-47791

Unity Integration: Graphic gallery prefab is not instantiated correctly

 

VP-48573

In Earthmoving if the bucket touches the tracks, Vortex crashes

 

Known Issues in Vortex Studio 2024.2

ID

Summary

Workaround

VP-41437

When a sound is created such that the listener and the emitter are exactly at the same location, or the listener is moving together with the emitter such that it is precisely above it, the sound that the operator hears becomes garbled. 

This happens for monaural sound track when the listener and the emitter are moving in tandem while being either too close or aligned vertically. The workaround is keep the sound emitter and the listener separate and make sure they can't be move in a way where they could align with each other.

VP-43810

Memory blocks dumped, when terminating the application. 

None. This memory leak is not growing, it's memory that should be returned before the end of the process. Requires a 3rd party update.

VP-44315

Memory leak related to VxContactMaterial when there is a contact upon termination of a VxCore application.

Removing all parts and collision geometries before destroying the VxUniverse ensures that any ongoing contact is invalidated before destroying the VxUniverse. Optionally, using the higher level VxSim API and loading content created in the Vortex Studio Editor seems to work around this issue as the content is automatically unloaded before the application is destroyed.