ChilloutVR Developer Update #4
Hello and welcome to the fourth ChilloutVR Developer Update.
First, we would like to thank all of you for your continued support and all the help we got on the last months. We were able to fix many issues with your help and are still on the never ending road of making the best social VR sandbox possible.
Due to many reworks of core parts of the server software and parts of the hub, we had to go silent for a bit. We have not been doing a huge break, we have been working on many things to make sure, that the next update is a huge success. For more information continue reading.
In this Developer Update we would like to talk about what we were working on in the last weeks and months, the upcoming new User Interface (Main UI, Quick Menu and Hud) and many usability improvements as well as new upcoming features. We will also recap the changes that have already been made to the hub and show some changes that will roll out in the upcoming days.
Recap of the last updates
After r150 was released we were working on fixes and improvements for Full-Body tracking and temporary fixes of annoying bugs like the stuck-in-chairs glitch. After those issue fixes were tested and some further performance improvements and memory leak fixes were successfully implemented we went back to the development of the hub.
Plans for the near future
Our plan is to finish the hub and the main website, refresh information on there and implement all the announced features until June 20, 2020.
After that, we will be focusing fully on the game changes and improvements to slay the known bugs like the audio and spatialization issues, the weird movement and animations and other minor bugs (More information on our roadmap, roadmap info below)
The plan is to add all necessary features except scripting and game modes until r160 and leave the closed alpha after that update. We want to go live on Steam as open Beta / Early Access in WN32 2020 if no further problems occur. We will inform you in our discord if the release has to be moved, we will also announce if we have a fixed date / time.
All in all — we are here and working. We have big things planned so give us the time we need to release something great. We are not a fan of rushed releases or poor quality which is why we have extended our quality control procedure by two steps. This is also why releases and updates take longer at the moment.
The new Roadmap
In the last weeks we have been working on the first part of the new Community Hub update. This update brought the roadmap which is now available to everyone with an ABI account. The roadmap will show you what we have planned, what we are working on and what we consider adding.
The second part of HUB 3.0
As mentioned above, as of now, we have only released the first part of HUB 3.0 — The new profile system, the groups system, the new feedback tracker which is replacing our hellonext, the public lobby finder and other features we are adding are still work in progress and / or in internal testing and will be released in the upcoming days / week.
Below you can find a comparison of HUB 2.0 vs HUB 3.0 — further information on the following patches and upgrades will be public with the release in our announcements channel on our discord (link to the discord at the end of this blog post)
Changes from Hub 2.0 to Hub 3.0
As seen above, the UI has been getting a complete overhaul to be more minimalistic but still display clear and understandable information.
The avatars list has been re-designed in the same style as the new friends list. The worlds list will get the same re-design with the second part of Hub 3.0
The profile page will also get an overhaul (including settings) as well as the staff list. We will be introducing the Community Guide rank. This rank will be given to users (it does not have any more permission than normal users) along with a badge to show who is helping and welcoming new users to our growing community.
We will also be adding the groups page, the new feedback tracker and more very soon.
The new HUD
The new ChilloutVR HUD has been re-designed from scratch. The result is:
Each part of the new hud can be disabled. This means, if i don’t want to see notifications about votes, i can disable them and they will not be shown. The same goes for invites and every other category. You are able to disable them all as a single object or the whole HUD if you dont want it.
In addition we have added the text information area to the HUD. It will display player joins, leaves, when you connect or disconnect from a server, game mode related messages and more. It will also be accessible to Newton so that players can display minigame progress there and more.
The new HUD in action
The new User Interface
Like the HUD, the Main UI has been re-designed and re-coded from scratch. Only some small parts still remind of the old User Interface.
As we can not fully reveal the new UI yet we can show some work-in-progress screenshots of the user Interface Settings page that will allow you to customize your UI and load other User Interfaces.
Friends page, Worlds page, Home page have been completely reworked along with all details pages. We have also added groups support for the upcoming UI.
Below you can find a screenshot of the settings page for the UI as it is right now. In the live-build you will be able to turn off specific nameplate parts as well on that screen.
The new User Interface will come with new options and usability improvements as well as more responses to user actions.
The Quick Menu and Game Menu will both come with Light and Dark Modes by default.
Editing the User Interfaces
The main UI was already editable by changing the HTML files in the StreamingAssets folder of the game. The HUD is now also modifyable by the user. We will be adding a simple switching system where users can copy the UI to a new folder and switch them ingame to be able to edit them easier without ruining the default version of the hud or main UI.
Live switching and reloading will also be supported.
There will be a light documentation on how to edit the interfaces and how to use the switcher system. HTML / CSS knowledge is not required for simple edits. If you plan on making a completely custom UI, we suggest to look into HTML / CSS first and learning the basics of it.
In addition to the new UI, r160 will add many features and improvements you all have asked for. Let’s get the ball rolling:
Movement System Overhaul
We have completely redesigned the movement system to be more user friendly. We will be supporting more controller types and we will be adding a second vive controller input mode. This will increase the overall feel in VR and Desktop and will make the movement feel more natural and less desynced. We are also removing the easing from the movement which some players referred to as “laggs after moving”.
Streamer Mode
To allow streamers to show that they are streaming and to reduce confusion, we are adding a streamer mode to the game. This can be toggled in the Quick Menu and will mark you as Live / Streaming to everyone in your friends list and your lobby. This will tell your friends that you are streaming before they join you. While having this option we do not enforce the usage of it.
Audio System Overhaul
Many people are experiencing issues with audio, volume settings and more. All those issues root is caused by bad spatialization. We will be replacing Google Resonance Audio with another spatializer and further tweak the audio system. Expect better audio with r160.
Physical Player Interaction
With ChilloutVR 2020r160 we will be adding support for dynamic bone (and maybe already cloth) intercollision. This means that you will be able to touch other peoples dynamic bones.
Player dropped portals
We will be adding support for dropped instance portals. Those can be used to join another world with players in the same lobby without having to add or invite them.
Improvements of Root Motion and Inverse Kinematics
We have added improvements for the IK and root motion in the last updates and we will be tweaking those systems further. Expect improvements especially regarding hip and leg behavior in r160.
Additions to the VR Camera
We will be adding more filters and re-designing the VR-Camera to allow better interaction and offer more options and filters.
Network synced Interactable and Pickup
We will be adding support for networked interactables and pickup objects. This support might need tweaks after the update has hit.
World publishing
A while before r160 we will be enabling the world publishing option. This will allow world creators to publish their worlds so that users can find them in-game.
World metrics
A while before r160 we will be enabling the world metrics option. This will allow world creators see stats about their worlds — we plan on bringing this for avatars too!
Emotes & Toggles for VR mode
We will be adding support for Emotes & Toggles in VR mode.
For ChilloutVR 2020r170, which will be after the start of the open beta, we will be working on further IK and networking improvements as well as new features that were not seen like that before in competing games.
Some of the examples are:
Task Force Radio
A tool to group users into specific voice chat channels to bring Roleplaying to a whole new level. With channels for example for cops, citizen and medics it will be easier to simulate and play huge roleplay scenerios. We will announce further information about this after we went live with the open beta.
Avatar Blocking / Blacklisting
The option to block avatars instead of peoples avatar. This option will allow you to blacklist a specific avatar id from loading into your game client. This can be used for avatars you do not want to see ever again. That is useful if your instance is being flooded by people with the same annoying avatar. (This does not prevent people from reuploading to a different GUID)
Reserved Instances & Instance Administration / GEC
Reserved instances will come some time after ChilloutVR 2020r160 has been released. Those will be group-bound instances that will be either accessible for everyone or only group members (whitelisted instance). We will provide custom moderation tools for those instances. More management features and custom scripting for reserved instances (server side scripting) will come after some time as well.
Hives & Hive Sync
Reserved Instances can then be assigned into “Hives” which will enable instance owners to sync data and players between those instances. This can be used for huge sessions with many players. It will also make sure that your data is available on all instances regardless on which one you join.
Distance based culling / sync reduction
We will be implementing tools to reduce movement sync, dynamic bone refresh rate and cloth refresh rate as well as disable voice polling based on the players distance. This will dynamically and drastically decrease CPU and GPU load and allow bigger instances with more players. This will be useful for game modes and big social events.
The party system
The party system will be an addition to the friends and relations system and allow people to form a party and join worlds together (it will also be exposed to newton so that people can integrate that system natively into MMO game modes and RP game modes for team simulation)
Game Modes
We will be implementing game modes and scripting using Newton Behavior Engine. Newton will be in open alpha once we reach the magic version number of r170. This will allow complex dynamic game modes like real life roleplay, MMORPGs, shooters and many coop games.
Don’t worry, Newton will be an optional addition to our CCK and will work for every world.
More information on game modes will be posted once we are able to sort more things our internally.
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