I just submitted my very first Pull Request on bitbucket, for my very first new feature — mousewheel zoom!  Check it out:

My very first pull request! Hope it gets approved…

Previously, to zoom in in a scene, you had to hold down the SHIFT key and then move the camera in or out.  This is not the most intuitive thing to a user!  Part of what I want to revamp in the program is the intuitiveness of the camera controls, so I implemented a MouseWheel event handler which zooms the camera in or out depending on whether the user rolls the mousewheel forwards or backwards.  This gives users with the right hardware a much easier way to control zooming.

It’s really a simple piece of code, but it’s a start, and signifies that I’m beginning to understand how to successfully add new functionality to VISTAS.

void VI_SphereInteractor::MouseWheel(int wheelRotationAmount, bool shift, bool alt, bool ctrl) {
 float sceneSizeMultiplier(0.8);
 const float originalDistance = GetBounds().maxZ + GetBounds().GetDiameter();
 const float currentDistance = GetCamera()->GetDistanceToPoint(GetCenter());
 float distanceRatio = 1 - (originalDistance-currentDistance)/originalDistance;
 if (distanceRatio < 0) {
 distanceRatio = -log(-distanceRatio); // Keep camera from zooming out too fast once we are further back than the edge of the original camera distance
 }
 if (d->i_type == VI_SphereInteractorData::SCENE) {
 sceneSizeMultiplier *= d->i_scene.GetBoundingBox().GetDiameter()/2;
 }
 float zoomAmount = wheelRotationAmount/WHEEL_DELTA * sceneSizeMultiplier * distanceRatio;
 if (wheelRotationAmount < 0 && zoomAmount <= 0) { // Allow for rapid zoom-out even when zoomed in very closely
 zoomAmount -= 1;
 }
 if (shift == true) { // Fast zoom
 zoomAmount *= 2;
 }
 else if (ctrl == true) { // Precision zoom
 zoomAmount *= 0.25;
 }

d->i_distance += zoomAmount;
 RefreshPosition();
};