Actually, since it's still a Frontier build (i.e. 4.2 is not "final" yet), I'll paste it here. I know people are getting Maintenance renewal messages, that's due to the Frontier release. It should go final soon and then we'll do a formal 4.2 announcement, including change log on the main site and here in the forums. But it's certainly an important issue you bring up, which is that the availability of Frontier releases and access to them being restricted to those on current Maintenance means that people might be notified of Maintenance renewal but not be able to see what they get for renewing now, unless they wait for a final release. We'll figure out a solution.
In the meantime here's the change log:
Build 4.2.06 (Frontier Build)
Rendering:
Much faster ray tracing of displaceable surfaces in some cases, especially where rays travel nearly parallel to the surface.
Export:
Micro Exporter allows you to choose which texture space to use for the exported UVs or UVWs. "Image UV (render projection)" or "UVW from Compute Terrain or Tex Coords)". You should select "Image UV (render projection)" if you want to use the rendered image as a texture for the exported object. You can use this with any type of camera, including spherical cameras.
Groups and Notes in Network View:
After moving groups with the mouse, those groups auto-capture any nodes they surround.
After resizing a group with the mouse, the group auto-captures any nodes it surrounds.
After moving or resizing a Group or Notes node, they snap to the grid in a similar way to other nodes. When you first use this on an existing project you may find that the contents of a group shift around a bit, but after they have snapped once they should behave predictably.
Until now, the resize handle along the top edge of a Group or Note was gradually reduced as we zoom out to make it easier to click on the title bar at low zoom, but this made it harder to grab the top edge for resizing. Other edges kept the same screen space size for the resize handle. Now, rather than making it progressively difficult to resize the top edge at low zoom, it's simply disabled when zoom is below a certain level. Left, right and bottom edges can still be grabbed at any zoom level.
Inputs and outputs in Network View:
Shaders' main input which was previously called "Input node" in the GUI is now called "Main input".
Labels are shown above some input plugs that have a connection to another node, even when you're not hovering over them. The labels fade out and disappear when zoom is below a certain level. To reduce clutter, "Main input" and "Input 2" are not labeled (except when hovering over them).
Gradually fade opacity of input/output arrows when zoomed very far out.
New preview options:
Heightfield Shader has a checkbox "Show b-box in preview". This controls whether previews should show a bounding box and manipulation handles for the heightfield.
Simple Shape Shader has a checkbox "Show b-box in preview". This controls whether previews should show a bounding box and manipulation handles for the shape. Moved "Draw shape edges" up alongside "Show b-box in preview".
Camera has new checkboxes "Show frustum in preview" and "Show path in preview" below the existing "Show camera body in preview". When showing neither the camera body nor the frustum, no manipulation handle is shown or selectable in the preview.
File and image handling:
Added "Reload File" to the popup menu for file parameters.
Renamed "Open Preview" to "Preview Image" in the popup menu for image file parameters.
Licenses and key files:
The Help menu has a new item called "Show License Info" which brings up a message box with detailed license info and options to copy that info to the clipboard.
The menu item "Reveal Licence Key File" is shown even when the license has expired.
Fixed problems auto-updating key files that have expired or are are invalid because of maintenance date.
Changes to splash screen for expired keys and keys that are invalid because of maintenance date: text more accurately describes the reason why it's running in non-commercial mode (expiry or maintenance date) and that text is coloured red. In this situation the "Buy Now" button is labeled "Upgrade/Renew" and opens a different URL in the browser.
If running in Free mode because of an expired license, when you check for updates it will still report available versions according to what type the license was before it expired.
- Oshyan