The Tiled Lighting build is taking longer to put together than originally anticipated. In order to avoid a long delay between updates, the build is being split into two parts.
Tiled Lighting Part 1
The first part includes the overall improvements and increased performance. The shadow quality has been increased, the shadows being much sharper than before and having more accurate Penumbra - the effect of becoming "wider" and softer as the distance between the contact point and surface increases. Ambient occlusion is also sharper and corners are handled much better - this means that organically shaped rooms will no longer have the "crinkle" effect. So overall - improved visuals and improved performance.
In addition the build will support larger maps, much higher resolutions when rendering out images (great for printing), super sampling while saving out images and many options to help manage performance on slower systems without having to disable lighting or shadows. It will also include some fixes and UI improvements.
If all goes well, this build will be out sometime this week.
Tiled Lighting Part 2
The second part will be released a bit later and will include lower system requirements (OpenGL 2.1) and optional CPU based lighting and shadowing to support lower end or integrated GPUs. This build should allow Arcane Mapper to run on a much greater range of hardware and be less reliant on outdated GPU drivers for older systems.
What's Next
Depending on how well the "Part 1" build works out for people, "Part 2" may be finished right away or a feature build may be inserted in-between. What do you guys think?