First cut of NEWS for 2.8 release

NEWS.txt

@@ -1,6 +1,68 @@
 OSG News
 ========
 
+= !OpenSceneGraph 2.8 release adds osgAnimation and osgVolume rendering libraries, DICOM support and much more. =
+
+PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - Early February 2009 - !OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of !OpenSceneGraph 2.6, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. !OpenSceneGraph 2.6 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. !OpenSceneGraph 2.6 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems.
+
+=== Open-source development delivers industry-leading features and performance ===
+The !OpenSceneGraph 2.8 release is the culmination of 9 years of work by the lead developers and the open-source community that has grown up around the project. The real-time graphics industry and academia embraced it from the very beginning, deploying it in real-world applications, and actively participating in its development, testing and refinement. The end result is a high-quality library with a feature set relevant to application developers' needs. 
+
+=== Updates include: ===
+
+    * New osgVolume library for volume rendering, with support for:
+      - High quality GPU based Ray tracing
+      - Transfer functions
+      - Per pixel lighting
+      - Iso surface rendering
+      - Maximum Intensity rendering
+      - non power of two 3d texture and 3d texture compression
+      - DICOM loader for reading dicom medical data
+    * New osgAnimation library for character and scene animation.
+    * New PDF widget support (based on libPoppler)
+    * New VNC client widget support (based on libVNCServer) 
+    * New Browser client widget support (based on Gecko/UBrowser)
+    * Improvements to DatabasePager tailored for low latency paging.
+    * Improved stats collection and on screen reporting.
+    * Build reporting using CDash
+    * New Packing support using CPack
+    * A wide range of build and bug fixes 
+
+=== Downloads and Licensing ===
+!OpenSceneGraph is open-source so full source code is provided, and can be copied, modified and used free of charge for commercial and non-commercial use. Access to the source allows end users greater flexibility in how they develop, debug and deploy their applications.  They gain productivity and freedom by being able to leverage the tool chain in accordance with their own release cycles. Downloads of binaries and source can be found in the [http://www.openscenegraph.org/projects/osg/wiki/Downloads Downloads] section of the openscenegraph.org website.
+
+!OpenSceneGraph is released under the [http://www.openscenegraph.org/projects/osg/wiki/Legal OpenSceneGraph Public License], which is based on the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL), permitting the software to be used free of charge across the full spectrum of commercial and open-source applications.  Furthermore, it allows both static and dynamic linking of the !OpenSceneGraph libraries without restricting the licensing of the user's software. 
+
+=== !OpenSceneGraph Books now available ===
+
+The !OpenSceneGraph Quick Start Guide is now available in Chinese as well as English, and alongside the Reference Manual books can be found at [http://www.osgbooks.com OsgBooks].
+
+=== Professional support and services ===
+!OpenSceneGraph project is backed up with professional services by [http://openscenegraph.com OpenSceneGraph Professional Services], based in Scotland, and [http://www.skew-matrix.com Skew-Matrix] and [http://www.blue-newt.com Blue-Newt Software] both based in the USA, and a range of [wiki:Community/Contractors Contractors] from around the world.  Services available include:
+
+ * Confidential Professional Support
+ * Bespoke development
+ * Consultancy 
+ * Training    
+
+=== Community support and contributions ===
+The diverse and growing community of over 2000 developers is centred around the public osg-users mailing list, where members discuss how best to use !OpenSceneGraph, provide mutual support, and coordinate development of new features and bug fixes. Members of this community come from many different countries with backgrounds ranging from some of the world's largest aerospace companies, game companies, and visual simulation specialists to university researchers, students and hobbyists. 
+
+The !OpenSceneGraph project owes a great deal to the community for its development and support, in particular we wish to thank the [http://www.openscenegraph.org/projects/osg/wiki/Support/Contributors/TwoPointSix 324 individuals] from around the world that have directly contributed to the development and refinement of the !OpenSceneGraph code base. 
+
+----
+
+About !OpenSceneGraph:[[BR]]
+!OpenSceneGraph Project was founded in September 1999 by Don Burns and Robert Osfield.
+Further information, screenshots, downloads, documentation, and support links can be found on the !OpenSceneGraph project website http://www.openscenegraph.org.
+
+About !OpenSceneGraph Professional Services:[[BR]]
+!OpenSceneGraph Professional Services, founded by project lead Robert Osfield in April 2001, is based in Callander, Perhshire, Scotland, and provides professional services on top of !OpenSceneGraph. Further information about the services it provides can be found at http://www.openscenegraph.com.
+
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+
+
+
 = !OpenSceneGraph 2.6 release adds osgWidget library, KdTree intersections, Anti-aliased FBOsand much more. =
 
 PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - 5th August 2008 - !OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of !OpenSceneGraph 2.6, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. !OpenSceneGraph 2.6 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. !OpenSceneGraph 2.6 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems.