New in Coin v2.4.5 (2006-04-30): The Better-Than-Doing-Tax-Returns Release
* bugfixes:
  - fixed 2D font "_" character
  - minor axis MIDDLE (i.e. center) justification for VRML97's
    FontStyle and Text nodes did previously not work as expected
  - policy change on normalizing null-vector warning
  - improved Inventor V1.0 import
  - improved cleanup code (plugged many static one-off leaks)
  - fixes for nurbs, VRML97 protos, routes...
  - and a multitude of other bugfixes (see docs/ChangeLog.v2.4.5)
* optimizations:
  - internal changes wrt use of vertex arrays and vertex buffer objects
* build fixes:
  - upgraded to new version of libtool
  - universal binaries support for Mac OS X
  - misc TGS compatibility fixes
  - added project files for Visual Studio 8 (2005)

New in Coin v2.4.4 (2005-09-19):
* improvements and optimizations:
  - further improvements to SoOffscreenRenderer performance
  - SoRayPickAction precision improvements
  - Visual Studio project now installs only selected build (including
    static configurations now)
  - misc minor details, build fixes, documentation updates
* bugfixes:
  - SoSurroundScale bugfix
  - hidden field enableTextureCompression access crashbug fix
  - misc minor robustness fixes

New in Coin v2.4.3 (2005-07-06):
* bugfixes:
  - SoText2 regression in 2.4.2; text would be too large on MS Windows
  - SoText2 regression in 2.4.2; if Coin was built multithread-safe,
    font rendering would hang the application
  - file import regression in 2.4.2; could no longer read binary
    Inventor 2.0 files

New in Coin v2.4.2 (2005-07-05):
* new features:
  - Support for compressed textures
  - Windows: build settings are easier tunable from the Visual Studio
    projects (edit include/setup.h), and also includes static library
    build options now
* optimizations:
  - major improvements to SoOffscreenRenderer performance,
    approximately 3x faster for simple scene graphs
  - OpenAL library now loaded only on demand, i.e. when sound is
    actually used
* bugfixes:
  - Postscript output for the SoOffscreenRenderer was erroneously
    disabled
  - SoFaceSet with SoShapeHints::faceType set to UNKNOWN_FACE_TYPE
    could come out wrong
  - 64-bit windows port issues believed to be resolved
  - Reinstanded missing default-2d-font characters
  - Inventor V1.0 .iv file import fixes
  - SoToVRML2Action fixes
  - Font/glyph handling fixes
  - and more...
* other:
  - reference doc improvements with file format examples and defaults
    sections for all scene objects.

New in Coin v2.4.1 (2005-05-12):
* new features:
  - minor: SoExtSelection RECTANGLE and LASSO selections can now be
    aborted by the end-user by hitting the 'END' key
* bugfixes:
  - SbString::sprintf() trusted some undocumented behaviour of the
    C-library function vsnprintf(), which at least failed with recent
    GNU libc versions on 64-bit platforms
  - SoOffscreenRenderer now properly handles multiple renderings
    interleaved with changes to viewport size
  - removed some possibilities for false positives with the mechanism
    for detecting multiple Coin DLLs in a process image on MS Windows
    platforms
  - fixed obscure SoOffscreenRenderer problem on scene graphs where
    renderCaching was explicitly set to ON for camera sibling
    SoSeparator
  - the SoIntersectionDetectionAction could cause asserts due to
    floating point inaccuracies

New in Coin v2.4.0 (2005-04-13):
* new features:
  - completely Cygwin-less build setup for MS Windows / Visual Studio:
    - Visual Studio 6 project file in build/msvc6/
    - Visual Studio .NET 2003 solution in build/msvc7/
  - some minor API additions for internal optimization purposes
* optimizations:
  - render traversal code improvements
  - file i/o
* bugfixes:
  - too many to mention; see ChangeLog

New in Coin v2.3.0 (2004-06-22):
* new features:
  - new node SoTextureCombine (for multi-texturing)
  - new texture coordinate mapping nodes SoTextureCoordinateCube,
    SoTextureCoordinateCylinder, and SoTextureCoordinateSphere
  - vertex buffer objects support
  - correct "sorted layers blend" transparency mode
  - improved thread safety 
* bugfixes:
  - loading of engine networks from file with default field values
  - misc bumpmapping bugfixes
  - plugged various memory leaks
  - offscreen renderer fixes: alpha channel support, robustify
  - improved library cleanup
  - sensor fixes: delayqueue timeouts handled in Coin instead of in SoGui
  - corrected scene redraw logic not to depend on realtime field updates
  - and lots more...
* optimizations:
  - file reading should be noticable faster
  - more/improved use of vertex array rendering and vertex buffer objects
* other:
  - build setup updates, doc updates, Mac OS X packaging fixes

New in Coin v2.2.1 (2004-01-15):
* bugfixes:
  - debug build SoBumpMapTransform::initClass() assert fix
  - fixes for VRML97 PROTO setup and file export

New in Coin v2.2.0 (2004-01-14):
* new features:
  - multi-texturing (new node SoTextureUnit)
  - bump-mapping (new nodes SoBumpMap, SoBumpMapCoordinate, SoBumpMapTransform)
  - render-to-texture (new node SoSceneTexture2)
  - much improved font support, can now load and use TrueType fonts
    for all 3D text primitive types
  - SoTexture2 now supports REPLACE texture model
  - SoOffscreenRenderer now uses GLX pbuffers for accelerated
    offscreen rendering on X11, WGL pbuffers on MS Windows, and AGL
    pbuffers on Mac OS
  - MS Windows HTML help reference documentation support
* bugfixes
  - engine SoWriteAction bugfix (assert failure in debug version)
  - SoFile::getBoundingBox() and SoVRMLInline::getBoundingBox()
  - fixed problem reading gzipped files on Mac OS X
  - misc FreeType fixes on Linux and Mac OS X
  - SoNode/SoEngine copy() bugfixes
  - SoVRMLBackground now reacts to camera movement
* misc minor optimizations, various documentation updates

New in Coin v2.1.0 (2003-07-09):
* new features:
  - new SoIntersectionDetectionAction class for collision testing
  - import and export of files with gzip and bzip2 compression
    (new methods SoOutput::setCompression() and
    SoOutput::getAvailableCompressionMethods())
  - hard-copy support: vector output to Postscript
  - FreeType support for importing TrueType fonts to SoText2
  - native Win32 support for importing TrueType fonts to SoText2
  - new SoInput::setStringArray() convenience method
  - new SoAction::apply() convenience method
  - So[Box|Line]HighlightRenderAction highlights selections under
    all SoSelection nodes, not just the first one
  - SoSFImage::setValue with CopyPolicy::NO_COPY implemented
  - autodetection of some common Win32 Coin-linking problems
  - ensure [u]intptr_t C type is present
* bugfixes:
  - SoCube PER_FACE material binding bugfix
  - I/O: string quoting bugfix, binary file padding bugfix, ++
  - field-conversion setup for new field types from 2.0
  - misc SoOffscreenRenderer fixes
  - SoOffscreenRenderer large image support
  - environment mapping when lighting is enabled
  - import and export operations on iv- and wrl-files for some locales
  - SoResetTransform SoGetBoundingBoxAction handling
  - SoNodeSenor (re)attach
  - So[Box|Line]HighlightRenderAction antialiasing rendering
  - and more...
* build fixes:
  - upgraded to new versions of autoconf, automake, and libtool
  - fixes for building with the MKS environment

New in Coin v2.0.2 (2003-04-03):
* bugfixes in
  - using OpenAL on Windows (used wrong calling convention)
  - SoGetPrimitiveCountAction on the SoVertexProperty node
  - Extension elements. State is recreated in actions when a new
    element has been enabled
  - VRML export. The VRML node prefix will now not be skipped
    when the file header is != #VRML V2.0 utf8
  - SoQuadMesh PER_FACE material binding rendering
  - GL texture coordinate projection enable/disable

New in Coin v2.0.1 (2003-03-12):
* bugfixes in
  - SoClipPlaneManip
  - SoPathSensor
  - the notification mechanism
  - ROUTE-connections in PROTOS
  - import code
* run-time binding of shared library symbols on Mac OS X, and HP-UX 10
* a few minor optimizations
* coin2.dsp file generation improvements
* improved support for building with gcc/g++ on Cygwin
* implemented SoGLLazyElement::sendAllMaterial()/sendNoMaterial().

New in Coin v2.0.0 (2003-02-27):
* legal issues
  - Coin beyond Coin 1.* switched to being licensed under the GPL
* new features
  - platform-independent thread-handling abstraction classes
  - thread-safe action traversals possible with --enable-threadsafe
  - VRML97 support
  - 3d-textures
  - audio support
  - dynamic loading of extension nodes possible on selected platforms
  - SoExtSelection: can also select only the visible polygons in a model
  - SoOffscreenRenderer: now handles generating arbitrarily huge images
  - new SoTransparencyType node, with support for setting SoTransparencyType
    in the scene graph.
  - exports base class SbClip for general polygon clipping routines
  - application data sharing through SoMField::setValuesPointer()
* optimizations
  - display list render caching
  - optimized LazyElement traversal
* compile/build/install
  - Inventor/C/ include hierarchy for C ADTs in Coin
  - man-page for coin-config.1
  - more standard build setup for generated documentation
  - MS Developer Studio project files generation
  - Linux/Debian package setup
  - Mac OS X/Darwin support, with custom framework installation
* and the usual batch of bugfixes, optimizations, documentation updates,
  and build setup improvements

New in Coin v1.0 (2001-08-13):
* speedy Cygwin builds with new, simpler wrapmsvc.exe compiler wrapper
* SoOffscreenRenderer::writeToPostscript(fp, pagesize)
* minor bugfixes
* minor documentation updates

New in Coin v1.0 final beta (2001-07-22):
- beta release made for the Web3D SDK CD, for SIGGRAPH 2001 distribution
* full Open Inventor 2.1 source code compatibility
* miscellaneous extensions:
  - SoPolygonOffset node
  - SoImage node
  - SoExtSelection node
  - SoMarkerSet node
  - SoClipPlaneManip manipulator
  - SoMouseButtonEvent::BUTTON4, BUTTON5 for wheelmouse events
  - SoKeyboardEvent::DELETE is portable even for MS Windows
  - SoAction::IN_PATH is portable even for HPUX
  - SoCamera::setStereoMode()
  - SoCamera::pointAt(target, upvector);
  - SbImage class
  - SoGLRenderAction::SORTED_OBJECT_SORTED_TRIANGLE_* transparency modes
  - SoGLRenderAction::addPreRenderCallback()/removePreRenderCallback()
  - SoCallbackAction::setViewportRegion()/getViewportRegion().
  - SoInput::searchForFile()
  - SoInput::isFileVRML1() / isFileVRML2() (soon)
  - SoOffscreenRenderer::writeToFile() and friends
  - SoFile::getFullName()
  - and more [to be mapped down later]