Originally published at: https://www.world-machine.com/blog/?p=892
A series of posts describing the changes afoot for the Long Term Evolution of World Machine. I hope this finds you in good health! We have to mention the elephant in the room: the spread of COVID-19 is changing all of our lives. Seattle was one of the early places in the US to get…
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Hey! Good to know that you’re alright during this outbreak!
Nice additions all around. I personally like “render extents” better than generic terms like “scenes”, especially since world machine’s “world” is more accurately a “scene”. Also, changing naming conventions would break compatibility with older tutorials, scarce as they are.
I also love everything that speeds up general operation, so parallelization in any area gets me hyped lol! I’d love to test these features as they become more “idiot proof”, is there a way I can sign up for a closed alpha or something…? 
Automatic device naming sounds great!
I think for new users Scenes may be a better name indeed, as it is a more common word, but it could be confusing for users who are familiar with other 3D animation programs. As if one were to have a whole different world/terrain, since scenes often refer to a totally new workspace. I do think Render Extent is a lot more descriptive, but the word Extent could be vague for non native speakers. Maybe use Render Area instead?
Also, will the QT framework allow users to implement their own keyboard shortcuts?
Hi I bought professional version of World Machine yesterday. Is there a way I could become a tester of the new version that’s being developed? I like the new full dark theme and list of UX features being mentioned in the blog, also UE4 specific settings when building the maps.
I’d be really interested to use LTE it for my project and give you valuable feedback if given chance to test it. I’m also wondering if creators have a timeframe of when new version is going to be made available for public consumption? I notice that it’s been in development for some time now.
Just here because of the recent newsletter about Mt. Rainier.
Good to see you being well and actively developing WM.
Regarding Render Extent:
As a non-native English speaking person I agree with HYLK - I had to search for a translation of “extent” to grasp the concept of a render extent. Area is probablyl easier to understand.
Nowadays I would not change it anymore though. Lots of tutorials out there would become invalid.
Regarding GPU usage:
Are you planing to move erosion calculations (if possible) to the GPU at some point?
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Hi Polynaught,
Naming things is hard 
I agree - Render Area would be a less cumbersome term.
Re: GPU:
GPU brings some definite advantages but also complications and limitations. I’ve done some initial investigation of moving device calculation to the GPU; I am continuing to evaluate the pros and cons of doing so. There are some exciting investigations into this arena that I’ve been exploring, but nothing ready to see the light of day yet.
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Devices done via GPU calculations sounds interesting, if you implement it, would it be possible to add support SLI/multiple gpu’s that are not the same? Also, it would be great if you could eventually tell us the differences and pro’s/cons of CPU vs GPU building? Thanks 