The Terrain Release
Announcements & Reminders
- Are you ready to shake things up with this groundbreaking release? Sansar is shaping up with new awesome features. Read more below to find out what's new!
- This release is packed with awesome new features and there are still a few bugs and known issues that needs to be addressed! Remember to save your work often just in case something unexpected happens!
- In case you missed it, a new category system was pushed out in August! This new update makes it easier to categorize your items in the Sansar Store. If you have existing items in the store, we encourage you to review your listings' categories!
- Don't forget to check out our upcoming creation contests! Read more about it here.
New Features
Client
- Terrain Editor
- You can now sculpt your own terrain in Sansar! Make mountains and craters, which you can paint using Sansar’s default presents. Simply drag and drop the terrain plain from the system objects panel. Read more.
- The ability to add your own terrain textures and height maps is coming soon.
- Trigger Volumes
- Add interactivity in your scenes via trigger volumes, which can interact with scripts and trigger events! Now you longer need to use dynamic objects to trigger teleports and other events. Read more.
- Web Audio Streams
- Stream live radio stations and more in Sansar. You can now stream Shoutcast, Icecast, and other services using MP3-based URLs (Several other formats, like OGG, also work. AAC isn't supported.). Read more.
- Animated & Multi-part Object Import
- Upload keyframe animated and multi-part objects in Sansar! This is the first phase of this feature, and for now, collision meshes cannot be added to keyframe animated objects or multi-part objects. See Working with animated objects and Working with multi-part objects for more information.
- .OBJ import
- Sansar now supports .obj file import. See here for some .obj import tips.
- Scripting
- VR controller APIs - Get the hand and HMD position and orientation for avatars in the scene that are using VR tracked gear. Additionally the tracking of hands has been updated so they can interact with Trigger Volumes.
- Script Console - View script log messages in the Sansar client without a helper logging script or commands. Read more.
- Cached APIs - Some APIs whose data does not change now have their instances or data cached. This should remove the largest case of Null Internal Reference errors.
- Coalesced RigidBody Set/Add Methods - Extremely rapid calls to RigidBodyComponent Set* and Add* methods are coalesced into a single action under the hood for improved performance and stability.
- Throttled APIs - Some APIs are now throttled to prevent abuse. Calls to a method that has hit the throttle will throw a ThrottledException. Only MessageAllUsers, SendChat and CreateCluster are currently throttled.
- Coroutine Limit - Scripts are now limited to 32 coroutines at a time, per script.
- Performance Improvements - Newly compiled scripts should have minor improved performance and memory impact. Some extreme cases may see significant improvement.
- Coroutine Scheduling Improvements - Reduce how often coroutines will yield to other coroutines within the same script.
- New Example Scripts: Cannonball - This script allows you to throw cannonballs. Download the file and read the guide here.
- Media Surfaces update
- Sansar now supports 3D movie integration in media surface streams via Side by Side (SBS) videos. Use Media Surface + Stereographic on the Shaders list. Read more.
- New Stereoscopic Media & UV Animation Shaders
- New shaders in the material editor:
- Standard + Emissive + Stereographic
- Media Surface + Stereographic
- Standard + Emissive + UV Animation
- Standard + Alpha Mask + UV Animation
- See Materials editing and shaders.
- New shaders in the material editor:
- Avatar Customization
- Notifications
- Get your fresh toast with the new notification system! Now you’ll get notifications when you receive new chat messages, friend requests and friend online status updates when your chat and people apps are closed.
- Running
- A long-awaited and frequently requested feature is now in your hands. It’s time to run like the wind in Sansar!
- Audio Updates
- Sansar now auto-switches between VR and desktop mode audio devices (input & output). This makes it a lot more convenient to go back and forth, instead of having to restart Sansar each time.
- Audio occlusion transitions — like walking from behind a wall into an open space — are now smoother and improved.
- There's now an easy 0 - 100 loudness slider for audio emitters. (You can still switch to the older dB values.)
- We’ve boosted Sansar's overall audio output so it isn't too soft compared to other apps.
- Voice chat quality is better normalized with less distortion.
- Changed default emitter loudness levels, as a guideline to mix your scenes at a reasonable volume.
- Head tilting in VR
- For a more expressive VR experience, your headset will now track head movement in Sansar.
- Ambient occlusion
- Screenspace Ambient Occlusion is on and adding fantastic shadow detail to environments and avatars. This rendering feature is limited to desktop at this time.
Web
- Store Categories
- You can now browse and search the Sansar Store by categories! You can also sort order while browsing by category.
- Sell accessories
- You can now sell accessories in the store! See here for steps on how to sell your accessories in the Sansar Store.
Documentation
New Articles
- Working with trigger volumes
- Working with multi-part objects
- Working with animated objects
- Streaming web audio
- Using the Script Console
- Example Script: Cannonball
- Account setup
- Reporting bugs and issues
Updated Articles
- Avatar attachments (accessories)
- Working with 3D models
- Materials editing and shaders
- System objects
- Keyboard shortcuts
- VR Controls
- Game Controller buttons
- 3D model export and setup tips using popular 3D tools
- Troubleshooting FBX uploads
- The Audio Emitter
- Audio preview
- Object editing
- Sansar Audio FAQ
- Example Scripts in Sansar
- Scene Settings
- High-quality spatial audio
- Media surfaces
Known Issues
Resolved known issues from previous releases
- If a value is typed into an input field and before pressing enter, a new item selected from the Scene Objects panel, the input value string will be applied to the newly selected item.
- If you make changes to your scene and save them, then enter VR and load the scene in the editor. If you try to visit the scene without building it first, it will take you to a building modal that has a cancel button that doesn’t function.
- Changes made to a component's properties in an object may transfer to a similar object with a similar component.
- Audio Shapes: if you have a point source inside a static object, it will sound occluded by the object. We plan to fix this soon, but as a workaround you can change your sound into a Sphere or Box that extends beyond the object.
Known issues for this release
- General issues
- Crashes may happen while using Sansar from time to time. Remember to save your work often in case something unexpected happens.
- Rejected friend requests may reappear on the friend request list in some occasions.
- Sansar will occasionally crash if the user goes in and out of the avatar customization app and saves changes to an avatar.
- The more options button has to be clicked twice to open it.
- Avatar attachments
- Using undo after switching between accessories, and then deleting the previously applied accessory will re-apply the deleted accessory to the avatar, resulting in multiple attachment points.
- Object imports
- A majority of textures assigned to .obj files do not import into Sansar.
- Collisions are not supported for animated objects at this time. Animated objects lose their animation when uploaded with a collision mesh.
- Multi-part objects cannot currently be paired with a collision volume, which means they cannot be made dynamic or collide with other objects.
- Some collision meshes may be corrupted during the upload process. This sometimes happens with collision meshes with high tris counts.
- Terrain
- Terrain shapes can appear out of place if the scene is built before the physics engine has had the time to recalculate changes made. As a workaround, return to Edit Mode and make a small change to each affected chunk so that the chunks will be recalculated properly.
- The terrain fill bucket is not filling all chunks of the terrain at once. Instead, it only fills the terrain in odd, small patches.
- Sliders on the terrain tool do not snap the selection dot to the selected position.
- Scripts
- Weird behavior with the Sansar.Vector parameter. Read more.
- Edit Mode
- When editing an animated object, the Scale property only affects the object's size and not the distance the object travels during its animation. This means that scaling an animated object can often lead to unexpected and undesirable results, so make sure to model to the appropriate scale in your 3D modeling tool.
- If an animated object's static mesh component is moved from its original container in the scene objects panel, the object's animation will no longer play.
- In desktop mode, trigger volumes show the gizmo and the mini-object toolbar, which acts as a visual indication that it is selected. However, in VR mode, the gizmo and the mini-object toolbar are missing, thereby showing no visual indicator that it is selected.
- Notifications appears behind the properties panel when in Edit Mode.
- The icon for 'Trigger Volumes' in the visibiilty menu has an opaque black background.
- The inventory may show two selected items at the same time. This happens when there is a selected item in the inventory when uploading a new item. Only the newly selected item will be added if you drag and drop it to the scene.
- Toggling the Scene Settings panel forces the tool drop down to close.
- Visit Mode
- At times, some lights do not bounce diffuse colors correctly. Bounced light may not show against the ground or walls.
- Selecting a container or component in the scene objects panel may cause the panel's contents to shift.
- The camera zooms in and out on the avatar when moving in 3rd person mode with a controller.
- VR Mode
- Avatar arms may continuously rotate around the avatar as the avatar loads into the scene.
- Avatars slightly move back when toggling between first and third person modes.
- Avatars' head does not match the user's head tilt and is slightly off.
- Avatars' head tilting appears to favor rotating at the bottom of the neck, rather than the top.
- Avatars' head tilting may cause the avatar to wander and may cause the head to spin.
- When VR mode is toggled off while using an Oculus Rift, the last experience frame becomes stuck in the headset.
- While using the Oculus Rift, the teleportation beam exhibits odd behavior where canceling using different hand triggers.
Known issues from previous releases
- General:
- Attempting to open the Atlas after exiting VR mode in edit mode can cause Sansar to crash.
- The more options button has to be clicked twice to open it.
- At times, users' online statuses are not reflected properly in the People app.
- Avatar:
- Avatars may take a quick step if a controller is used to navigate the avatar slowly through the experience.
- Male avatars forward left strafe is not smooth while in first person camera mode. The avatar will appear to wobble left and right as they walk.
- The new Arm IK feature is still being polished. Some bugs may trigger on the Avatar’s arms when it is enabled. For example, it's possible to get your avatar's arms to clip into its torso.
- The same file can be uploaded to multiple categories in the Accessories sub-menu. This may lead to some odd results while customizing your Avatar.
- Edit Mode:
- Some textures appear posterized after uploading them to Sansar.
- The undo button does not work when adding and removing components in an object.
- Items obtained from the store are improperly scaled when drag and dropped into a Sansar experience.
- If a ribbon panel drop down is active, and the scene objects panel is used, the drop down panel will appear behind the scene objects panel.
- Objects can be scaled beyond their maximum set limits.
- The Chat window in Edit mode is truncated in the default window view.
- Some store objects that rely on the emissive.exr texture to be used as their diffuse color are being tinted by the empty diffuse attribute, making the object appear dark and dull.
- The sound effect for manipulating the gizmo handles have a noticeable lag. This may make it seem like the gizmo is slow in response to your mouse clicks.
- Reloading a scene after deleting an object will cause the Scene Objects panel to reorder.
- Setting Sky Distance with the slider is difficult for lower values.
- Additional containers (and its components) that have been added to objects do not move with the object while visiting an experience.
- Sansar will crash if an fbx file contains 4+ vertices which are all stacked on each other.
- Materials Editor:
- Non uniform repeating textures do not repeat with the designated values (Ex:2x5) and when used will only repeat to the lowest value (Ex: 2x5 = results in a 2x2 repeat).
- Sansar crashes if an object with a really high resolution texture is added to a scene from the inventory.
- If the material editor is opened and saved followed by a custom name entered for the 'Item name in Inventory' field, the name will revert back to the default item name.
- The material editor will appear to open then close if an unsupported object type is set as an .fbx file extension and loaded into the uploader.
- When an object with more than 1 UV map is uploaded, only the first UV map will appear textured. All other UV maps will appear black.
- Media Surfaces:
- Media Surfaces continue to play for a few seconds after entering Edit Mode.
- If a media surface source is set to a gif image, that image will become squashed into one of the corners of the surface. If tiling is used, the empty space will also tile along with the image.
- Visit Mode:
- Some dynamic objects do not appear to initialize their physics until they are moved in the experience. This is causing some physic based objects to appear to float in the air until an avatar bumps into them.
- Some emissives in Origin Cinema 360 aren't emitting light after Global Illumination upgrade.
- VR hand and teleport beams are still visible after switching to desktop mode.
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