OVR Toolkit News

Hello everyone!

Today's update is pretty big, and hopefully works pretty good! I've had good feedback from the people in the Open Beta, so I'm finally ready to release it!

The goal of this update is to make OVR Toolkit easier to use, both for existing users and new users, without sacrificing any functionality. OVR Toolkit's primary audience is still power users and always will be, I'm never going to 'dumb things down', but... There's a lot that could be done to make things easier to use without having to make things dumber!

With this update, the Edit Mode UI (The phone thing) has started the first phase of being deprecated. Edit Mode's common functions like spawn window and recenter windows have been moved to the 'Sidebar', this is a new UI that appears beside the wristwatch when you click the gear icon. When this is open, you are in Edit Mode. No more giant phone blocking your view! Though at this time, the giant phone blocking your view is still used for many things, it just shouldn't need to be used often for core functions of the application like spawning windows or editing basic window settings.

What's that? Editing basic window settings without the phone UI you say?
Well well well... How the tables have turned. Mr. "Settings on windows are dumb" over here has finally seen the light. Clicking the gear icon below a window when in Edit Mode will now show commonly used window settings. Clicking the advanced settings button will open up the phone UI like before to show all Window Settings and allow you to edit windows from afar just like before.

You know what is a commonly used 'window setting'? Changing the content of a window, it's literally the first thing you do when spawning a new window, this is dumb. How have I made it less dumb? Windows now spawn with the set contents panel already visible on them, again dodging the phone UI.
(p.s - yes I know the list has to load each time you open a window, W.I.P)

You know what is ALSO a commonly used window setting? Turning off Eco Mode!
I've made Eco Mode less dumb, it now disables whilst you're looking at an overlay. Hopefully no more "why my youtube video 2 fps" comments! As a result, this setting is not included in the new quick access settings menu on windows.

Overall... These changes make OVR Toolkit 'flow' a lot nicer.
Spawn window is quicker to access, it's quicker to set the content of the window, and it's quicker and less confusing to edit the settings of the overlay.

Hopefully you all like these changes! Please let me know your thoughts in our Discord server! :)



20-02-2023

Added:
- Edit Mode sidebar to the wristwatch.
- Common window settings can now appear on a window itself by clicking the gear icon below it when in Edit Mode.
- Added tooltips to parts of the wristwatch.

Changes:
- When opening a new window it will now default to a 'Set Contents' screen instead of Desktop 1.
- Edit Mode is no longer the 'phone UI', it is now a sidebar beside the wristwatch.
- Eco Mode is less annoying now. (Will disable when looking at a window)

(And a lot of small things, too many to list)

30-01-2023

Changes:
- Workshop Viewer show sorts by most subscribed items vs. most upvoted items.
- Clarified location of volume settings.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed Windows cursor getting set to 0,0 when not pointing at an overlay.
- Fixed notifications appearing upside down at some head angles.
- 'YouTube Music' should no longer appear in the media chatbox output when nothing is being played.
- Attempted to fix notifications not appearing if they only have title text.

24-01-2023

Added:
- Added language setting support to Speech Proxy.

Changes:
- Attempted to make the launcher less blinding.
- VRC Chatbox bar will now trigger notification sound in VRChat when a message is sent.
- Google Cloud now supports continuous transcribing. (Warning, kinda expensive over time!)
- VRChat Chatbox bar can now receive input from Google Cloud. (No longer just Speech Proxy)
- Added 'Speech language' button to voice settings page.
- Events can now have an icon that is 128x128 or 256x256.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed an issue where playing/pausing media wouldn't update immediately on the wristwatch.
- Fixed an issue where notifications with no body text wouldn't be displayed.
- Fixed an issue where keyboard keys could flicker when hovering over them.
- Fixed long delay between voice recognition and it being sent to the chatbox. (Interim transcripts are sent now too)
- Fixed an issue where clicking the left controller battery life wouldn't toggle between percentage and time remaining.
- Google Cloud stream should now automatically restart after its streaming limit.

16-01-2023

Added:
- Added the ability to type into the VRChat Chatbox directly from the OVR Toolkit keyboard. Click the 'VRC' button across the bottom! (This button is replaced by the 'Paste to game' button in other titles)
- Added 'Continuous voice recognition' option to Global Settings > Keyboard for continuous voice transcribing to VRChat. (Only supports Speech Proxy at this time)

Changes:
- Added red-tinted background to voice input panel when it is recording.
- Wristwatch should be less likely to drift out of position when changing controllers/turning controllers off and back on.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed an issue where OVR Toolkit would fail to launch after changing install location. (Or, fail to launch when running Steam version after previously running it from PiMax Store)
- Fixed an issue where touchscreen input could become stuck down.

05-01-2023

Added:
- Added bHaptics battery monitoring.
- Added a setting to automatically play media when in a VRChat loading screen.

Changes:
- Move window delay is now off by default for new users.
- Adjusted priorities for picking up overlays, Edit Mode UI and Wristwatch UI are now the lowest priority items and should be less likely to be picked up by accident when actively pointing at a different overlay.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed an issue where window movement could fail if trying to move a window with your hand too close to the Edit Mode UI.
- Fixed an issue where the only undock point for an overlay attached to the HMD was the world detach point. All docking points should now appear.
- Fixed an issue where moving the Edit Mode UI to another hand would prevent one of the hand cursors from working until the application was restarted.


Just a quick side-note but these VRChat specific features have no performance impact at all when they're turned off, and they're off by default. No need to worry about that if you don't play VRChat but more than 90% of our userbase does!