This is the second follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

This release should be the last update related to the replacement of our key libraries. I've finished getting up to the current 2.4.x release of GDAL and the latest component libraries, which should enable better and more compatibility with file formats.

New File formats

Updating to the latest GDAL libraries provides us with access to a number of new file formats. I'm still working at adding tests for the new formats, so if you have files of these types that you use, please give them a try and let me know if it works or not.

New Raster file formats

• MapBox Raster Tiles
• KRO
• Sentinel-1 SAFE XML
• NASA PDS 4
• ISCE
• CALS Type 1
• VICAR
• Sentinel2
• R Raster
• Natural Resources Canada’s Geoid file format
• AutoCAD DWG Raster format
• Geopackage (.gpg) Raster
• IGN-France height correction ASCII grids
• PHOTOMOD Raster File
• ROI_PAC
• Scaled Integer Gridded DEM

New Vector file formats

• GeoPackage (.gpg) Vector
• Storage and eXchange Format (.sxf)
• WaSP .map Format
• GeoJSON/ESRIJSON
• MapBox Vector Tiles
• OpenJUMP JML
• TopoJSON
• Selafin
• VDV-451/VDV-452/INTREST
• Autocad Drawing (DWG)

Improved Contour detection

We also have a new Contour detection library, which is providing a better contouring experience. The newer contouring code generally produces fewer, longer contours, doing away with some of the little stragglers the previous algorithm generated.

Processor features

Starting with d14, we're taking advantage of special instructions in the more recent processors, which should improve performance in some frequent operations. In particular, we have SSSE3 and SSE instructions turned on, but have AVX turned off because we found the detection mechanism wasn't reliable.

Test versions

Today we're releasing the next development test version. This is not for the faint of heart. The development test versions are available by changing your Preferences to point at the Development feed.

Be warned that there will be bugs in the Development version and you should never use it on crucial files or files that are not sufficiently backed up.

If you're concerned about this, please wait until we announce the first beta.

Cheers!