Anarchy Arcade News

Hello metaversers! Today's AArcade update includes new chat menu avatars, and a new global achievements panel.

It also has a bunch of important bug fixes, such as an update to the wizard for TheMovieDb.org, a bug that caused some SP arcades to only partially load, and a bug that caused local images to fail in the UI menus.

There are 2 upcoming major AA features to come in an update soon: the first is nodes & hubs, and the second is restored VR support. There's been a lot of progress towards these 2 big features, but today's update has a lot of important bug fixes, so I've pushed these 2 big features back until the *next* update.

So keep an eye out for those in the future and keep enjoying yourself in the metaverse in the mean time!

• Updated TheMovieDb.org wizard.
  
• Added a Global tab to the Stats & Achievements menu to show global community stat counts.
  
• Added custom chat avatars for all users to the chat menu (Y button.) You can edit the avatar used for any user. Their Steam avatar is used by default, if available.
  
• Added hotkeys F4 to open directly to the Now Playing tab and F8 to open directly to the Players tab.
  
• Added Movement Speed to the Commands menu. It lets you cycle between slow & regular movement modes.
  
• Improved the Hologram cabinet to use an additive shader so that black always appears transparent.
  
• Improved AArcade's ability to determine if you clicked on a floating UI menu or media content itself.
  
• Improved object cloning to also clone the model's animation sequence.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused filtering search results by type to fail.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused some SP arcades to only partially load.
  
• Fixed a bug on the F6 library menu that sometimes caused only 1 search result to be shown.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused notifications not to work if hover titles were not enabled.
  
• Fixed the MP tab icon in the Tab Menu.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the F6 favorites menu to sometimes fail to show the "This Favorites List Is Empty" notification.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused HTTPS URLs to incorrectly revert to HTTP URLs when editing item properties.
  
• Fixed the mounting of Deer Esther assets.
  
• Fixed incompatible maps from Deer Esther from showing up on the map list.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused state keys, such as shift, alt, ctrl, etc., to attempt to auto-repeat when held, like regular keys.
  
• Fixed a bug that treated dynamic materials as if they were regular model assets in multiplayer, which resulted in outdated shaders in some cases.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused objects you were positioning to fly towards the you or spazz out, especially when playing animations.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused local files not to show up in menus.
  
• Fixed Export Item as Plain Text.

At 9:30 Pacific on 4/15/2019 I pushed a hot fix related to this update that fixed some missing script files that should fix weird bugs some users encountered.

Need some help getting your friends hyped about AArcade? With the help of some community members, I have put together a good 1 minute trailer that showcases the gist of AArcade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsd53I-z-4
Big shout out to Wolvereign for providing the narrator voice over.

I'll catch you all in Discord, Twitch, or the next news post. Party on! ːilyː

Greetings. Today's update improves the ability to spawn screenshots as teleportals to other worlds, or to jump around within the same world. So be sure to hit F5 and take lots of pictures if you want to warp around to them!

I gave AArcade's internal embedded framework systems an overhaul, greatly improving its performance in many scenarios. You'll also notice on-screen video stats when in developer mode now.

Some other note worthy improvements are key stroke repeating and responsive mouse cursors, as well as an improved Tab & Favorites menu.

Party on!

• Added Spawn As Object buttons to the screenshots in the F5 menu.
  
• Added on-screen video stats when an item is playing w/ dev mode turned on. (developer 1)
  
• Added automatic saving of last rendered frame as the item screen image, when the item has no screen image already set.
  
• Added auto-resume support for local video files. Also added Local Video Behavior to the UI tab of the Settings menu.
  
• Added infinite scroll to the (F6) Favorites tab's search results.
  
• Added responsive mouse cursor support to fullscreened web tabs.
  
• Fixed keyboard button auto-repeat on in-game menus & web tabs.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Regular screenshots not to create large versions.
  
• Changed the Tab button to always open up teh Tab Menu to the Tasks tab.
  
• Improved the look of the Tab Menu.
  
• Improved responsiveness, optimization, and framerate sharing of all embedded frameworks.
  
• Improved spawned screenshots to just teleport you if are already on the same instance.
  
• Improved transitioning between maps using spawned screenshots.
  
• Improved the Favorites & Commands tabs to support phone-style drag-scrolling.
  
• Improved the Main Menu and the Play Menu to show a loading symbol until they are ready to be displayed.
  
• Expanded the Favorites menu so you can search your library from it.

At 7:41AM on Feb 1st, I pushed a hot fix so that actually loading arcades does not depend on having working screenshots.


At 6:33PM on Feb 1st, I pushed a 2nd hot fix that fixes an issue that caused maps w/ blurry screenshots to only partially load in.

Today's update adds some flashy light show & particle fx along with a slew of bug fixes & some requested features.


I meticulously hand-crafted these new props to go along with the new special fx that each one provides. Allow me to tell you about each one...


Audio-reactive effects respond to your system audio levels. This means the intensity & color of lighting effects respond to your music. Many of the new Stage Light props have this behavior, so be sure to have some music playing as you spawn them into your maps!


What are fancy lighting fx without fog for them to pierce through? A new Fog Machine prop has been added to your library. The FogOff XP2000. It automatically spawns a smoke volume around it. Scale your fog machine to also scale the fog volume around it. The fog machines can be a little picky/buggy about creating their smoke, but are already good enough to start using.



(Screenshot taken on an addon map, but notice the sage lights & smoke effects.)


You'll also find 2 new projector props in your library. These props will project what ever you are watching onto the wall in front of them, just like a video mirror. Note that good quality shadows only happen for the 1st projector you spawn into your map, so use them wisely!




This new advanced feature is closely related to the upcoming Steam Workshop support soon to return to AArcade. The Adopt button makes an extra copy of the selected model & all of its related assets into your aarcade_user/custom/adopted folder for safekeeping, OR to make it easier for you to share your model. Use the adopt button to cherry-pick stuff you like from larger workshop subscriptions, or just to learn about what makes your favorite models tick.

Check the change log below for a list of all the other new stuff.

I hope you're having fun using your creations, and that these new special fx can showcase your collections better than ever before. Be excellent to each other, & party on, dudes!

• Added an Adopt Model button that makes a copy of the model & all of its assets into aarcade_user/custom/adopted.
  
• Added Projector & Projector Ceiling props to the default library.
  
• Added a Fog Machine prop to the default library.
  
• Added various Stage Light props to the default library.
  
• Added Object Shadows to the General tab of the Settings menu.
  
• Added drag & drop local file spawning. (Only 1-at-a-time for now.)
  
• Added drag & drop MDL spawning, if the MDL is in a valid engine folder. (Only 1-at-a-time for now.)
  
• Added Smoke Out to the Commands tab (F7). It spawns a large temporary fog volume where ever you are standing.
  
• Added the ability to access your Favorites menu even as a guest in an MP server. Note that, as a guest, the stuff that you spawn is local to you only. Only the host is allowed to make changes that
• ALL* players see.
  
• Added the convar projecto_fix 0, which can be used to disable some of the projector fixes for debug purposes.
  
• Added dev console output of the model's full absolute file path when you go to the Model Properties menu.
  
• Improved compatibility with Empires Mod addons and the cool new updates they are actively doing.
  
• Fixed Autoplay Nearby.
  
• Fixed the Stats & Achievements menu.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the NPC-related stats not to increment.
  
• Fixed all issues with spawnable projectors.
  
• Fixed importing all of your Steam games from your profile together.
  
• Fixed a but that caused the Spotlight Always On prop to leave its lighting effects behind after it was deleted.
  
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause "loopback error" to be printed to the console w/ the player frozen in place.
  
• Fixed breakable in-map objects & debris from them.

Note that updates that add new items to the default library take longer to launch the 1st time as it adds stuff to your library, but are fine as normal after that. ːilyː

Note 2: At 9:36AM Pacific, I pushed a hot-fix so that object_shadows remains off by default, as it should.

Note 3: And another at 9:48AM to fixed an issue with the projector model.

And the last note: 12:28PM Pacific to *really* fix the object_shadows default value.

Merry Christmas ya'll! Today's update is all about lists. Your favorites list has now been expanded so that you can have as many different favorites lists as you want. The menu for accessing your favorites has also improved:



There's also a new YouTube panel in your Settings menu with various ways that you can customize your in-game YouTube experience.

Have a great Christmas, and party on, dudes!

• Default = No special treatment
  
• Resume = Resume on the playlist video you left off on.
  
• Shuffle = Shuffle the playlist video order each time.

• Default = No special treatment.
  
• Resume = Resume the video from the timestamp you left off on.
  
• Random = Start the video at a random timestamp each time.

• Default = Related videos are not shown.
  
• Show = Related videos are shown.
  
• Title = Generate a playlist of videos based on the item's title.
  
• User = Generate a playlist of videos based on the YouTube user.

• Default = Do nothing.
  
• Auto Close = Automatically deselect the object when a video ends.
  
• Auto Play Nearby = Automatically play the next nearest video.
  
• Loop = Loop the current video over & over.

Change Log

• Added the ability to have multiple favorites lists and choose between them in the Favorites Menu.
  
• Added shortcut keys to the Favorites Menu (F5) and the Commands Menu (F6).
  
• Added support for wizards that import batches of items instead of just one.
  
• Added Auto Generate Model Thumbnails to the Settings > UI tab. It's experimental, still buggy, and recommended that you leave it off for now.
  
• Added a YouTube tab to the Settings menu.
  
• Added a Playlists Behavior to the YouTube settings tab, which supports Default | Resume | Shuffle.
  
• Added Video Behavior to the YouTube settings tab, which supports Default | Resume | Random.
  
• Added Related Videos to the YouTube settings tab, which supports Default | Show | Title | User.
  
• Added Mixes As Playlists to the YouTube settings tab, which supports Enabled | Disabled.
  
• Added Annotations to the YouTube settings tab, which supports Enabled | Disabled.
  
• Improved End Behavior in the YouTube settings tab, which supports Default | Auto Close | Auto Play Nearby | Loop.
  
• Improved YouTube End Behavior to work with playlists too.
  
• Fixed support for YouTube mixes to be used as playlists.
  
• Fixed a bug that broke the Export menu.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Save Arcade To Local Library feature that would save all items even if you choose to save only new items.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused web tabs to look weird & blurry when using lower texture quality settings.
  
• Updated to the latest SQLite version.

At 7:48AM Pacific time I pushed a HOTFIX that makes the playlists behave as expected. All good now!