The following policies are provided in an effort to provide as much transparency as possible. However we reserve the right to make exceptions to these policies as conflicts arise.

Version naming and compatibility policy

    As of 2023, all Open Inventor versions are named by using the year number of the version release such as Open Inventor 2024.1.2. The second number in the name specifies the minor version number. The third number specifies the patch number. For instance, Open Inventor 2023.1 specifies the first minor version published in 2023. Open Inventor 2024.2.3 specifies the third patch of the second minor version published in 2024.

    Thus, 3 types of versions can be published: major versions, minor versions, and patch versions.They have different levels of constraint for the compatibility and new added features.

  • Major versions:
    • Introduce major improvements and new features but can introduce incompatibilities that require significant changes to the application code.
    • Support for an operating system version may be ended.
    • Support for a compiler version may be ended.
    • A deprecated API may be removed.
    • A module, extension may be removed, a new one may be added.
    • A third-party library may be added, removed, or updated to a new version.
    • A release note is published, and the API documentation is updated.
    • A major version is tagged “major” in the documentation (release notes, API manual, user's guide, developer zone ...)
  • Minor versions:
    • Introduce enhancements and new features but preserves source code compatibility. New classes might be added, as well as new methods or fields in existing classes. Thus, the source code of an application must be re-compiled.
    • Support for an operating system version may be ended.
    • The service pack/upgrade applied to an operating system may be upgraded.
    • Support for a compiler version may be ended.
    • The service pack applied to a compiler may be upgraded.
    • A public API may become deprecated (modules, classes, methods, fields, enum).
    • The compilers generate warnings for each reference to a deprecated API in the application's source code.
    • A third-party library may be changed or added, mostly to fix a bug introduced by this library.
    • All bug fixed in previous patch versions are also fixed in a new minor version.
    • A demo can be updated. A new demo can be added.
    • A release note is published and the API documentation is updated.
    • A minor version is tagged “minor” in the documentation (release notes, API manual, developer zone ...
  • Patch versions:
    • Contain only bug fixes.
    • No new feature is added.
    • A patch version preserves, as much as possible, binary compatibility. However, we suggest recompiling your application.
    • The name of Open Inventor libraries is not changed.
    • Some demos can be updated.
    • The API documentation may be improved.
    • The list of bugs fixed is published in the developer zone, but no new release note.

Support policy for operating system versions

  • We support an OS version until the first release of a major version of Open Inventor after the end of standard support by the vendor of the OS. For example:
  • New minor and major versions of Open Inventor are always released with the latest version of the service packs/updates available for the OS at the time of the release.

Support policy for compiler versions

  • We support a version of a compiler until the first release of a major version of Open Inventor after the end of standard support by the vendor of the compiler. (For example, for a given version of Visual Studio, Microsoft officially provides support for five years, more information on http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeSelectDevtools).
  • New minor and major versions of Open Inventor are released with the latest version of any service packs available for the compiler at the time of the release.

Third party library version update

  • To introduce new features in Open Inventor, a third party library can be added in a minor or a major version of Open Inventor.
  • A third party library can be updated in a minor version of Open Inventor if it's necessary to fix a bug introduced by this library.
  • A third party library can be updated freely in a major version of Open Inventor
  • Any such change to a third party library may require changes to the application build and/or deployment, especially if the application uses a version of this library directly.
  • Third party libraries used by Open Inventor include file format libraries (e.g. JPEG), CUDA, Qt and others. You can see a list of third party libraries used by Open Inventor in section "third party softwares".

Deprecation process

  • ”Deprecated” means that a feature is still available and produces the same result but a better way of doing the same thing is available and should be used instead. Deprecated methods in Open Inventor classes are marked in the documentation along with an explanation of the replacement method(s).
  • A class, method or field may become deprecated in a minor version.
  • The compilers generate warnings for each reference to a deprecated Open Inventor API in the application's source code.
  • The demos provided with Open Inventor packages are updated and do not use any deprecated API.
  • A deprecated API may be removed in a later minor or major version. In general, a deprecated API remains available during 2 minor versions at least.