Anarchy Arcade News

Today's update adds LED displays that can show various stats on them! It also adds analog & digital clocks that can display the date & time in various ways! Steam invites to MP sessions have also been improved. And last but not least, AArcade's ability to pack & sync assets has been improved.


[h2]Display Stats on Number Signs[/h2]
There are 3 new props you can spawn that show you stats on them. You can control which stat they show by using their skin slider when placing them.

The Local Stats Number Sign shows you the amount of objects in your current instance, or the number of items, models, or maps in your library.

The Global Stats Number Sign shows you the # of players who are currently playing AArcade, how many hours we - as a community - spent in-game in AArcade yesterday, or how many YouTube videos we - as a community - watched in AArcade yesterday.

The MP Stats Number Sign shows you how many visits have been made to the server it is in, or how many unique visitors have stopped by. Note that MP Stats Number Signs are blank unless you are in multiplayer mode.


[h2]Real Analog & Digital Clocks[/h2]
Tie your virtual reality closer to your real reality by placing some of the new IRL-time clocks into your arcades! They will display the local date & time in various ways. Be sure to check the Body Groups on the Digital Clock to see the different display types available!

[h2]Steam Friend Invites & Join Links[/h2]
Today's update fixes Steam Friends support so that you can invite or join your friends right from your Steam Friends list! This works whether or not AArcade is already open.

Also, the invite links to join servers has been updated to actually join the server in AArcade when clicked. These steam:// invites also work whehter or not AArcade is already open.

Enjoy the new clocks & stat displays! If you want to learn how to make your own materials based on them, just ask in the #devtalk channel of the AArcade Discord ( https://discord.gg/xtPSqy8 ) and I'll be happy to help get you started! Until next time, party on!

[h2]Change Log[/h2]

• Added 3 new Number Sign props to the default library. They display various stats about your local library (Local), the multiplayer server you are in (MP), or the global AArcade community (Global).
  
• Added a material proxy called aaSystemTime and aaNumberStat that you can create your own time/stat-dynamic materials with. You can look at the VMTs of the digital_clock, holoclock, and numbersign models for examples of how they are used.
  
• Added the console command "adopt_sky [skyname]". It lets you explicitly specify a sky material name to adopt.
  
• Added support for "patch" materials to the adopt_material console command.
  
• Improved adopt_material console command to accept 2 optional arguments: material name & custom sub-folder name. If blank - the material under your crosshair is used and the custom/adopted folder is used. Material names should NOT have the "materials/" folder prefix included nor the ".vmt" file extension.
  
• Improved asset detection for adopt_material console command.
  
• Improved adopt_model console command to accept 2 optional arguments: model name & custom sub-folder name. If blank - the model under your crosshair is used and the custom/adopted folder is used. Model names
• should* have the "models/" folder prefix included, as well as the ".mdl" file extension.
  
• Improved the link generated after hosting a server to be a steam:// invite link. (We'll bring the web browser links back again after our web version of AArcade gets better.)
  
• Improved support for Steam Friends invites & steam:// link invites to join MP servers.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused models that had paint jobs to sync improperly in the MP session cloud. They will show up as regular, non-painted props for now.
  (Paint jobs will be synced in multiplayer in a later update.)
  
• Fixed a bug that caused your Twitch following page to be treated as if it was a channel called "following".

Greetings! Today's update revamps the Online & Featured panels on the Main Menu to show a wider variety of servers to explore! It also improves support for viewing Twitch streams, videos, & highlights in a nice embedded viewer.

[h2]Community News[/h2]
I hope you're all doing well! Just a reminder that you are all invited to the official AArcade Discord to hang out, chat, lurk, or connect with other AArcade users & myself!

Discord Invite Link: https://discord.gg/xtPSqy8


We had our meetup & field trip the other day & visited a massive arcade in the expo map built by Intruso. (The meetup & field trip happens every 2 weeks by the way!) Thanks to everybody who attended & thank you Intruso for all those nice museum-like text cards that explained your design process in each area!

Here's the Twitch VoD of the meetup & tour if you're interested:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/647730444


Also I used the new Showcase Mode to record a nice fly-through of the arcade I built myself inside of OkeDoke's OneTwentyRedux map:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And a reminder that I can demonstrate how to do things & answer any questions you have about AArcade during my weekly Twitch stream every Wednesday. I built a big "luxury" sand crawler map that I've been living in the last couple months which I used the new Showcase Mode in once again to create this cool fly-through trailer:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Featured Multiplayer Servers[/h2]
The Featured panel on the Main Menu now shows a different set of 3 servers for each day of the week. That's 21 featured servers in total.

The default Online panel has also been improved to not always take you to the same old lobby, but instead randomly show 1 of the 21 featured servers every time the menu is opened.

Remember that you can still view the hundreds of other servers people have hosted by clicking on the small SERVERS button underneath where it says ONLINE.

[h2]Multiplayer Screenshots & Showcase Mode[/h2]
The F5 Screenshot Menu has now been enabled as a multiplayer guest. You can take screenshots as a guest & even hold down E to go into Showcase Mode afterwards. Your guest screenshots are saved and will be there the next time you re-visit the server.

Note that these F5 screenshots are still local images, so if you're building a multiplayer server with portals to other multiplayer servers, you'll still want to spawn them from the SERVERS menu & decorate them with web-hosted images instead.

[h2]Twitch Embeds[/h2]
Today's update fixes Twitch live stream embeds, and adds support for Twitch video & highlight embeds.

The difference between an embed & just loading a link directly is that embeds are fullscreen & auto-start, while loading the link directly shows the video on a page surrounded by ads.

You just spawn regular Twitch stream/video/highlight links as normal & everything is handled automatically by AArcade.

[h2]Free YouTube Movies[/h2]
The bug that used to cause free YouTube movies to be treated like broken videos has been fixed! In case you didn't know, YouTube actually has a pretty large selection of free movies you can watch (along with their ads.) They don't allow themselves to be embedded, so you'll have to click play & fullscreen on them manually in AArcade, but the important thing is that they'll work now! :)

The list of all free YouTube movies can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/feed/storefront?bp=kgEmCGQSIlBMSFBUeFR4dEMwaWJWWnJUMl9XS1dVbDJTQXhzS3VLd3iiBQIoAg%3D%3D

You just spawn regular YouTube links as normal & everything is handled automatically by AArcade.

[h2]Change Log[/h2]

• Added the ability to take screenshots while a guest in MP servers. This also allows for using Showcase Mode in them.
  
• Added the size of servers shown in the Online and Featured panels on the Main Menu ranging from S to XL.
  
• Added the ability to use the middle-click spawn menu while a guest in a multiplayer server. Note that as a guest, the stuff you spawn is local-only and is not saved to the server.
  
• Fixed the bug of multiplayer servers cluttering up instance menus w/ empty instances by changing library loading to skip instances w/ 0 objects. Note that the empty instances from servers you joined only disappear after the next time you start AArcade, for now.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused free YouTube movies to be treated like broken videos.
  
• Fixed support for live Twitch stream embeds.
  
• Improved support for embedded Twitch videos & highlights.
  
• Improved all materials in materials/ShantzPlaceCSS with minor syntax adjustments to make them more compatible with painting & external tools.
  
• Improved materials/models/cabinets/bashkit.vmt with a minor syntax adjustment to make it more compatible with painting & external tools.
  
• Improved the stability of the Steam Store wizard when spawning new games using it.
  
• Improved the Featured & Online panels on the Main Menu to have a wider variety of what they show.

Today's minor update adds new skins to the Hologram & Blend cabinets w/ animated & audio responsive materials. It also fixes a bug w/ spawning individual games from the Steam Store Wizard.

Change Log

• Added 10 new skins to the Hologram & Blend cabinets that have material animations (some are audio-responsive as well.) You can access them from the Transform Menu > Skins tab while positioning an object on a Hologram or Blend cabinet. (Note that these material animations work best on images that have black backgrounds along their edges.)
  
• Added the console command "removejunkobjects" that clears all cheers & junk objects from the world.
  
• Added support for slideshow URLs to be used in the Preview field of items. (However, you have to manually paste in the URL from a regular Slideshow item's file field for now.)
  
• Improved Look At Me behavior to look at the view entity, not the player position. Fixed a bug with the Look At Me behavior so that child objects inside of nodes can Look At Me correctly.
  
• Fixed the Steam Store wizard.

Hello arcaders! Do you love what you've built in your arcades? Today's update adds a new Showcase Mode camera that allows you to showcase your creations with ease! Fly-through cameras & before/after renders are now just a button press away! There's also a plethora of fixes, improvements, and small additions packed into this update. Full change log below!


The new Showcase Mode uses your screenshots that you've taken of your arcade on the F5 Screenshot menu and uses them as camera path-points to do fly-throughs, camera fades, or even before & after comparison renders.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

First, you'll need to have at least 1 screenshot taken in your arcade. I suggest taking a handful of them so that the camera has a few to cycle between during the showcase.

Next, you hold down E to go into Showcase Mode. Your camera will automatically go to the nearest screenshot position and start the sequence. Use the mouse wheel up/down to skip forward / backward through the sequence.

Press ESC to exit Showcase Mode and resume exploring your arcade.

The order that the sequence plays is the same as the order that you took the screenshots in. It always resumes at the nearest screenshot position to where you are standing when you turn on Showcase Mode. If the next screenshot is within line-of-sight of the camera, it will fly there. Otherwise, it will cut there instead.

Instead of a flying camera you can instead do before/after renders by going into Settings > Camera tab and turning on Showcase Mode Before & After Wipe. It shows what the room looked like before & after your customizations. I posted a video of what this looks like onto my Twitter here: https://twitter.com/anarchyarcade/status/1261794463141122049

I'm interested in your feedback on what you think about Showcase Mode and which features it needs most in the future! (For example, one thing I plan on adding is the ability to re-order screenshots on the timeline.)


Developers/programmers - today's update adds the ability to paste stringified JSON items directly into AArcade while in "walking-around" mode to add them to your library & spawn them into the world. If you are interested in how to make your own apps / plugins generate JSON items compatible with AArcade, please just ask in the Discord and I'll be happy to help! https://discord.gg/9FSCDuJ

I hope you all enjoy the new Showcase Mode & stability improvements in today's update! And I'll see you all in a couple weeks with the next update! Party on, dudes!

- SM Sith Lord, Programmer of Anarchy Arcade

• Added Precache Models to the Settings menu > Objects tab. Enable it to speed up singleplayer arcade loading.
  
• Added Batch Object Spawn to the Settings Menu > Objects Tab. Enable it to speed up how quickly singleplayer arcades load, but you will experience stutter when large batches of objects quickly spawn in.
  
• Added the new Objects Tab to the Settings menu. Also moved various object-related options into it from other tabs.
  
• Added Allow Multiple Active Objects to the Settings > General tab. If enabled, objects will play their "active" animations until their task is closed, regardless of how many are active.
  
• Added Spawn Nearby Objects to the Commands tab. It is only needed if you use limited spawn settings OR use the beta Nodes feature.
  
• Added an Object Fade Distance slider to the Settings Menu > Objects tab. Slide it down for a performance gain by making distant objects invisible. Recommended that you leave it on the default value of MAX though.
  
• Added an Object Spawn Distance slider to the Settings Menu > Objects tab. Slide it down for a large performance gain, especially in large arcades, by making
• *only** nearby objects spawn. If you use this, you MUST use the Tab Menu > Commands Tab > Spawn Nearby Objects to spawn the additional objects. Recommended that you leave it on the default value of MAX though.
  
• Added Spawn Objects Within View Only to the Settings Menu > Objects Tab. It only works if used in conjunction with the Object Spawn Distance slider. Using it will further limit which objects spawn by requiring them to also be within the player's line-of-sight. Recommended that you just leave these on their default values.
  
• Added the convars aapropfademin -1 and aapropfademax 0. They control fade distance on AArcade objects. Changes take effect upon map load. Default values are no fade. You should use the sliders in the Settings menu instead of directly modifying these convars.
  
• Added the console command "paint_sky_texture" to manually specify a material that is not on your Paint Menu palette to paint the sky with.
  
• Added collision meshes to the Sprite cabinets. (Note that Blend & Hologram cabinets will intentionally
• *never** have collisions.)
  
• Added the console command insta_launch_shortcut. It will launch the shortcut of the object under your crosshair, or the explicit item ID you pass the command, without having to bring up any menus. It
• *only** works if AArcade was launched with -allow_insta_launch in its launch options.
  
• Added ReShade Depth Effects to the Settings > Camera tab. You no longer have to restart AArcade in order to toggle it on & off.
  
• Added the ability to paste in stringified JSON objects directly into AArcade while in walking-around mode.
  
• Improved the stability of closing web tabs, singleplayer arcade loading, and using screenshots as portals to other maps & servers.
  
• Improved the Settings Menu to clearly indicate which option you are hovering your mouse over.
  
• Improved the Movie Stand Standard cabinet to use a lit marquee image & have attract camera animations.
  
• Improved support for fog overrides by resetting fog override values upon map transition.
  
• Improved the mouse cursor responsiveness of toggle buttons on the Settings Menu as well as on all UI drop-down lists..
  
• Improved the Launch Item / Paused screen to have a shorter default delay between showing the pause screen & actually launching your shortcut. (Unless you have the Coin Drop sound enabled in Settings > Sound tab.)
  
• Improved speed of object spawning by turning ON Quick Spawn Items by default for new users. This setting allows new shortcuts to instantly spawn into your world without the confirmation menu. (Note that existing users will have to turn it on manually in Settings > Objects tab if they want Quick Spawn Items enabled.)
  
• Improved the functionality of sky_camera entities in Hammer. (Based on sky_camera code from Mapcore mod.)
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Libretro Core Settings menu to become too long to fit on the screen for some cores.
  
• Fixed a bug on the F6 Library tab that would cause the 1st search result to repeat itself with each new batch of results.
  
• Fixed a bug on the F6 Library tab that caused the same amount of results to be returned regardless of the zoom slider.
  
• Fixed a bug on the Item Properties menu of Text Cards that caused 3D text to appear even while editing 2D text cards.
  
• Fixed the TheMovieDB wizard to work on their new website design. (Still only works on movies only, not TV shows.)
  
• Fixed a bug in multiplayer that caused custom asset of materials that are inside of materials/models/smarcade to not sync. Note that existing models won't be impacted until the next time the session cloud is reset.

This small maintenance update will improve "Looking For Map..." times when re-joining servers you've been in before, fix the "NEW" indicator on the server list so you can see which servers have changed since you last visited them, and corrects a bug that caused models w/ very short animation sequence names to fail to list all of their available sequences in the transform menu.

Party on! ːilyː ːspg2anarchyː

• Fixed a bug that caused AArcade to fail to auto-update maps when joining servers from map authors.
  
• Fixed a bug that broke the NEW indicator on the server list on servers that have changed since the last time you visited them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused models that had very short sequence names to be missing sequences in the Transform menu.