LDD 4.1 Released

[Brickdoctor]

no more baseplates? I just upgraded tonight and to be honest I am not happy at all! I was about to start on a project only to find that they are not offering the 16x32 base plates anymore!? am I correct on this or am I just not seeing it somewhere? and if so I guess I need to stock up on Apple Tree Houses for another reason.

In DbM or LE? It's there in LE Mode.

EDIT: Erm, I guess when you mentioned stocking up on Apple Tree Houses you implied DbM. Oops.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Brickdoctor

[Syn]

In DbM or LE? It's there in LE Mode.

EDIT: Erm, I guess when you mentioned stocking up on Apple Tree Houses you implied DbM. Oops.

excuse my ignorance but what is LE?

[Brickdoctor]

excuse my ignorance but what is LE?

Extended Mode

[Syn]

Ahh gotcha. Well I unlocked that last night but my problem is even with the baseplates I'm not going to know which parts I can order and which parts I can't. This really sucks, I hope that with the Log Cabin this isn't a precursor to Lego doing away with baseplates because I can't STAND the plates that the log Cabin uses. Anyways back on topic, is there a way for me to check which bricks can be ordered and which can not?

[DLuders]

@ Syn: Whether or not the Lego DesignByMe "store" has your desired parts or not, you could always use LDD Manager to create a Parts List. Then, using Bricklink.com's Catalog function, you can order your 16x32 Baseplates in the color and design you want.

[Aanchir]

no more baseplates? I just upgraded tonight and to be honest I am not happy at all! I was about to start on a project only to find that they are not offering the 16x32 base plates anymore!? am I correct on this or am I just not seeing it somewhere? and if so I guess I need to stock up on Apple Tree Houses for another reason.

Well, while there are no longer any traditional baseplates on DesignByMe mode, the new parts selection does include 8x16 and 16x16 standard plates in Bright Green. I imagine the transition was made because the standard plates are more versatile, and they're beginning to show up rather frequently this year in LEGO Creator and LEGO Games.

[SpiderSpaceman]

Who else clicks control+1+3 as soon as a model loads? It's such a handy shortcut.

[alienwar9]

Dear lord! That shortcut, and to think I've been working with LDD so many hours (days...weeks? I can't even count by now) and not found it/used it.

You shall have saved me SpiderSpaceman!

[tiammath]

Who else clicks control+1+3 as soon as a model loads? It's such a handy shortcut.

I do

[SpiderSpaceman]

Dear lord! That shortcut, and to think I've been working with LDD so many hours (days...weeks? I can't even count by now) and not found it/used it.

You shall have saved me SpiderSpaceman!

Haha I'm glad I helped one of the greats

[Aanchir]

LDD updated to 4.1.7 for me this morning. Changes I've noticed:

• The Pharaoh's Quest face decorations, as well as the freckled face, have been fixed.
  
• The body armor piece 2587 has been fixed so it once again fits on minifigure bodies. However, it appears the LDD team failed to categorize it with minifigure accessories-- it is now in a category marked with a question mark along with (for some reason) piece 86208.
  
• New parts include 92747 (the oval-shaped shield from this year's Battle of Naboo set), 89520 (the new knights' helmet from Kingdoms), piece 4770 (the old-fashioned LED cover), 30378 (the battle droid head), 92580 (a new windscreen from one of this year's Atlantis sets) and SEVERAL OLD-STYLE HINGES (4315, 4625, and 4213) . There may be others that I haven't even noticed.

I'll look for new decoration surfaces on parts that have decorations available next. Anyone else found anything impressive in the update?

EDIT: For some reason, the new version tells me I have to re-install LDD anytime I try to open an LXFML-- even if LDD is open and running. That's bothersome, and prevents me from doing any decoration testing without the decoration tool. Anyone else having this problem?

Edited May 9, 2011 by Aanchir

[Calabar]

Great! ... we have the old hinges now!

I hope that means I can find the space police Windscreen 2507!

[Aanchir]

OK, I've managed to open LXFMLs on LDD a couple times now, even though I can't quite figure what I'm doing differently to get it to work. As far as I can tell, there are no new colors in the latest update. That's a real pity; I was really hoping for 299 Lacquered Gold.

In decorations, there's more good news: the skirt now has its decoration right-side-up. Still no improvements with the decoration tool however-- those that were inaccessible before are still inaccessible. Parts that were previously on LDD but lacked decoration surfaces still have no decoration surfaces. And I don't yet know whether there are any new decorations.

EDIT: Other new parts include 3933, 3934, 60033, and 92738. I hope Superkalle can generate a full list of new parts.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Aanchir

[Superkalle]

Cool that 4.1.17 was released - I had no idea this was coming until it suddently said "new version available"

Please notice that many of the bug fixes are stuff that we, dear forum members, have reported

The old parts where added as direct result of fan request too. The hinges were apperantly those used in the most of the old sets, and therefore they got in first.

About 299 Laqured Gold, I was also hoping for it, but I was told when 4.1.6 was released that apperantly it's a technical issue since the RGB value for that color is the exact as another goldish color in LDD (don't know which), and two colors cannot have the same RGB value.

New elements

30378 SPACE SKELETON HEAD

3933 WING 4X8/23° (LEFT)

3934 WING 4X8/23° (RIGHT)

4213 ROOF 4X4 W. HINGE

42608 PLATE 2X4 W.SNAP/4XØ4,85

4315 HINGE PLATE 1X4

4625 PLATE 1X4 VERTICAL HINGE

4770 GLOBE

61480 TYRE BALOON WIDE Ø68,7 X 34

89520 MINI KNIGHT`S HELMET CLOSED

92580 Cockpit 6x5x2 3.2 W 3.2 SHAFT

92747 OVAL SHIELD

There might be assemblies also (parts made up of several sub-parts), but I haven't yet included those

[Aanchir]

Cool that 4.1.17 was released - I had no idea this was coming until it suddently said "new version available"

Please notice that many of the bug fixes are stuff that we, dear forum members, have reported

The old parts where added as direct result of fan request too. The hinges were apperantly those used in the most of the old sets, and therefore they got in first.

About 299 Laqured Gold, I was also hoping for it, but I was told when 4.1.6 was released that apperantly it's a technical issue since the RGB value for that color is the exact as another goldish color in LDD (don't know which), and two colors cannot have the same RGB value.

New elements

There might be assemblies also (parts made up of several sub-parts), but I haven't yet included those

Cool! So I guess I found most of those new parts-- just missed that airplane part and the tire.

I find it awfully weird that RGB is a hindrance for adding color 299. I thought that since switching to 4.0 they were assigning new RGBs that closer resembled the parts' colors in real life? That was the explanation given for changes in the appearance of many colors including 5 Brick Yellow. I guess they must still have some sort of objective way of arriving at the colors rather than just approximation, or else they could just vary the color arbitrarily.

[Superkalle]

Cool! So I guess I found most of those new parts-- just missed that airplane part and the tire.

I find it awfully weird that RGB is a hindrance for adding color 299. I thought that since switching to 4.0 they were assigning new RGBs that closer resembled the parts' colors in real life? That was the explanation given for changes in the appearance of many colors including 5 Brick Yellow. I guess they must still have some sort of objective way of arriving at the colors rather than just approximation, or else they could just vary the color arbitrarily.

Yes, you spotted those parts pretty darn well

What I was told was that they get a chart with RGB values from DesignLab, and then that's pretty much it. They use what they've been told. That the colors render differenlty is a product of the graphics engine and how that changes. I've tried to point out that in various computer generated images used as box art, Brick Yellow looks more lightish, so there seems to be difference in how the different departments at LEGO use and render colors. It might well be that DesignLab is not aware how colors render on various software and that some tweaking would actually be needed. The only color the LDD team are tweaking themselves is what I understand black (to make it usable even without outlines).

[ENeuman]

Cool that 4.1.17 was released - I had no idea this was coming until it suddently said "new version available"

Please notice that many of the bug fixes are stuff that we, dear forum members, have reported

The old parts where added as direct result of fan request too. The hinges were apperantly those used in the most of the old sets, and therefore they got in first.

About 299 Laqured Gold, I was also hoping for it, but I was told when 4.1.6 was released that apperantly it's a technical issue since the RGB value for that color is the exact as another goldish color in LDD (don't know which), and two colors cannot have the same RGB value.

New elements

There might be assemblies also (parts made up of several sub-parts), but I haven't yet included those

92580 Cockpit 6x5x2 3.2 W 3.2 SHAFT

I ran LDD with cockpit which only have part number is 87752 Cockpit 6x4x2 03.2 shaft available online but Im not sure how got that part number?

[Superkalle]

[/font][/color]

I ran LDD with cockpit which only have part number is 87752 Cockpit 6x4x2 03.2 shaft available online but Im not sure how got that part number?

I'm not susre I understand what you mean Can you rephrase your question?

[Brickdoctor]

I'm not susre I understand what you mean Can you rephrase your question?

I think he wants to know why the number he got was 87752. (as compared to your 92580)

EDIT: According to BL those are two very different pieces; not sure what the cause of the problem is here.

Edited May 10, 2011 by Brickdoctor

[roamingstop]

That the colors render differenlty is a product of the graphics engine and how that changes.

Actually when you program colours in windows, you have Gamma, R,G,B values. That is because the RGB Gamut does not reflect the full range of colours which the eye can see. If you look at professional photographers, they calibrate their monitors (with hardware) to have a wider Gamut range.

It is likely that the design and marketing labs, working with colour calibrated screens, dont have the same look and feel as you and I do on our normal 8 bit computer monitors. Even if you have a 10 bit monitor (I use one for photography) most of our graphic cards (and windows environments) still work in good old 8 bit... (per R,G,B - Gamma is used as a transparency layer).

Since this is a tool for children, a colour hue which is only a couple of bits different is unlikely to be spotted, unless the child is a budding artist... And will only lead to confusion.

Anyhow I look forward to testing some of the old hinges, it will help make a complete index of legal model builds!

Edited May 10, 2011 by roamingstudio

[Aanchir]

Actually when you program colours in windows, you have Gamma, R,G,B values. That is because the RGB Gamut does not reflect the full range of colours which the eye can see. If you look at professional photographers, they calibrate their monitors (with hardware) to have a wider Gamut range.

It is likely that the design and marketing labs, working with colour calibrated screens, dont have the same look and feel as you and I do on our normal 8 bit computer monitors. Even if you have a 10 bit monitor (I use one for photography) most of our graphic cards (and windows environments) still work in good old 8 bit... (per R,G,B - Gamma is used as a transparency layer).

Since this is a tool for children, a colour hue which is only a couple of bits different is unlikely to be spotted, unless the child is a budding artist... And will only lead to confusion.

Anyhow I look forward to testing some of the old hinges, it will help make a complete index of legal model builds!

In that case, what should be done is to differentiate the effect between "metallic", "chrome", and "pearl" colors. After all, there are colors which I believe have the same RGB value on LDD-- White and Metallic White. Their "swatches" when you have selected the colors with the eyedropper tool are exactly the same, in any event. Their only difference is the effect programmed for them-- how much light they reflect at various angles on LDD. Since there aren't any other lacquered gold colors on LDD currently (though I believe others may exist), it shouldn't produce any problems.

Then again, that sort of thing could have a much higher graphical requirement. Not sure necessarily how that works. But as I see it, it would be nice in a future version.

[Superkalle]

I think he wants to know why the number he got was 87752. (as compared to your 92580)

EDIT: According to BL those are two very different pieces; not sure what the cause of the problem is here.

And I still don't understand the question, but I'm a bit slow in the head sometimes

[roamingstop]

In that case, what should be done is to differentiate the effect between "metallic", "chrome", and "pearl" colors.

Then again, that sort of thing could have a much higher graphical requirement. Not sure necessarily how that works. But as I see it, it would be nice in a future version.

Yep. Effectively you need to introduce a reflectivity aspect into the material texture, and add lighting sources so that the light can reflect. At which point you are into full 3D graphic engines. Open source options like Irrlicht allow this, but are streamlined programming environments (C++ template), or script like (Unity). I guess a lot depends upon the graphic / physics engine being used, and overheads especially with respect to the 'snap' feature for the studs.

[Matanuilover]

Hmm... My computer (Mac 10.6.7) keeps saying something like "we cannot contact the server in order to download version 4.1.7" After spending 15 minutes downloading:laugh:!

Anyone have any suggestions?

[legolijntje]

Hmm... My computer (Mac 10.6.7) keeps saying something like "we cannot contact the server in order to download version 4.1.7" After spending 15 minutes downloading:laugh:!

Anyone have any suggestions?

You can try to download it from the site by yourself.

Edited May 14, 2011 by legolijntje