Shapelab News

Dear Shapelab community,

Halloween season is coming up and to celebrate we have prepared a few surprises for you – so don’t be scared to put on your headset and explore the new features we have just released!

Here is the full list of what you can expect on your next sculpting session in Shapelab:

1. New tools

Clone and mirror (added to context menu)

• Clones the object and mirrors the duplicate without welding

Mirror and weld (added to context menu)

• Mirrors the geometry from one side to the other and welds the new topology together.

Voxel remesh (added to context menu)

• Rebuilds and fixes the geometry with an evenly distributed topology. The approximate polygon density of the new topology can be set by the user.

Join objects (added to boolean tool)

• Select two objects and join them together without welding their polygons.
  
• Use the Join objects and Voxel remesh feature together to merge the topology of multiple overlapping objects

2. New brush modifiers

Rotate along drag mode

• Automatically rotates the cursor towards the moving direction.

Steady stroke

• Helps you create smoother strokes by ignoring smaller controller movements that fall into the threshold.

Create stairs mode for Trim brush specifically


3. Adjustments and improvements

• Faster rendering of complex meshes
  
• Position, location and scale of imported 3D files and loaded project files. (Will be improved further.)
  
• Sculpt brush behavior adjustments.
  
• More subtle VR cursor visualization on the surface.
  
• Mirrored cursors are behaving more consistently to avoid asymmetric results.
  
• The “Edit Connected Only” modifier used to change throughout the manipulation process as the cursor got closer to other surface areas.
  
• The “Edit Connected Only” modifier highlights the targeted triangles in real-time.
  
• The system hides the VR cursor temporarily upon starting manipulation.
  
• The cloned object’s duplicate will have the same transform values as the original object.
  
• The wireframe only appears on the selected object.
  
• The Trim Brush Cursor is updated with a Trim Plane visualization which updates in real time.
  
• The Object Context menu is now refreshed when a new object is selected.
  
• Adjusted UI palette rotation on Valve Index controllers.

4. Bug fixes

• Alpha mask (pattern) visualization on the surface was inconsistent and did not show up all the time.
  
• Alpha mask (pattern) scaling on various brush shapes (sphere, cube, capsule) did not work properly.
  
• Cube and Capsule brushes appeared as Spheres on the surface visually.
  
• Image import occasionally transformed the already existing objects in the scene.
  
• The “Pinch to line” mode of the Pinch brush used to switch back to the “Pinch to point” mode after changing other brush settings
  
• Imported images with alpha channels were glitching
  
• Undo/Redo did not function when the secondary controller grip button was pressed.
  
• It was possible to change the active brush by accident while editing.
  
• Users could accidentally manipulate objects when pressing buttons on modal windows.

We hope you’ll enjoy the new features, and we dare you to create the creepiest pumpkins, scariest ghosts and spookiest creatures this October! Also as always, please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions, or if you encounter any issues while using the app.

Best,
Leopoly Team

P.s.1: There is also a new sculpting environment you can choose to get into the Halloween mood!
P.s.2 A little Halloween challenge is coming soon!:)

Dear ShapeLab community,

We are very thankful for the positive feedback we have received since the release of our last update, and rest assured that we will continue to work hard on implementing cool new features to make your experience in ShapeLab even more enjoyable!

For those of you who are still on the fence about whether ShapeLab is the VR design tool for you, we have prepared a little surprise, as this weekend from August 20 10AM PST until August 23 10AM PST, you can try ShapeLab for free during our Free Weekend event!

We hope you’ll enjoy it, and as usual, feel free to turn to us with any questions or feedback, we always welcome those!

Best,
Leopoly Team

Fixes:

• Import/Load positioning
  
• Mirrored cursor performance optimization
  
• Quality settings were not always configured properly, thus brush alphas did not always appear on the object's surface
  

Adjustments:

• Default sphere and cursor size
  
• Controller model material modifications
  

Know issues:

• Reference images with alpha channels can't appear properly.
  
• The object pull/push interaction with the controller buttons doesn't always work properly.
  

Dear ShapeLab community,

The new features are finally here! We are very grateful that you have been part of our journey so far and we hope you’ll enjoy this new version of ShapeLab. Please take some time to try it, and let us know what you like, what you dislike, and if you encounter any bugs!

Please note that this is the first phase of implementing multi-object handling capabilities in the app, and we will continue working on improving the functionality of it (e.g. we have plans to introduce multi-select and parenting – organizing objects in a hierarchical manner – in a later phase).

The update consists of the following features:

1. New editing tools

Paint brush

• A quite straightforward paint brush tool using vertex painting technology. It operates specifically to vertex data rather than texture maps.
  
• Use the color picker tool to select colors from objects or reference images.
  
• Brush-specific settings and options:
  I. Airbrush mode: Use this mode to build up multiple paint layers in one long and contiguous stroke, like if you were using a paint spray gun.
  
• You can use alphas and patterns for your paint brush as well.
  

Paint bucket

• Use this tool if you wish to replace the color of your entire object or specific regions of your object.
  
• Use the color picker tool to select colors from objects or reference images.
  
• Tool-specific settings and options:
  I. Threshold: It defines the acceptable range of colors that can be filled.
  II. Contiguous:Starting from the selected point, the tool fills adjacent vertices that have the same color as the selected vertex (plus vertices that have similar colors within the threshold value).
  III. Global fill: Starting from the selected point, the tool fills all vertices that have the same color as the selected vertex (plus vertices that have similar colors within the threshold value).
  

Masking

• Mask areas of your creation to lock vertices and shield them from any sculpting or painting.
  
• Brush-specific settings and options
  I. Modes (toggle group): Draw OR Erase OR Blur OR Sharpen
  II. Global actions (press once to apply) (Configure the impact with the mask brush “strength” slider.): Mask all, Clear all, Invert mask, Blur, Sharpen
  
• You can use alphas and patterns for your mask brush as well.
  

2. New brush modifiers

Cube and Capsule cursor shapes

• Now you can choose from three types of cursor shapes: Sphere, Cube and Capsule
  
• Cube and Capsule cursor shapes are available for certain brushes only.
  

Pinch/Crease brush

• Pinch to Point: Pulls the surface together into a point.
  
• Pinch to Line: Pulls the surface together into a line.
  

Trim brush

• Lock plane upon edit: Locks the position and rotation of the trimming plane when the trigger is pressed. When it is unlocked, the plane moves along the surface of the model dynamically.
  
• Modes (toggle group):
  I. Dynamic: follows the geometry surface while flattening it.
  II. Keep Edges: tries to preserve the edge borders while flattening along the geometry surface.
  

3. Introducing Scene mode and multi-object handling (phase 1)

• You can now manage and use multiple objects in Shapelab.
  
• We know that many essential scene managing features are still missing, but we are dedicated to introducing more and more of those down the road.
  
• What you can do right now is:
  I. Select and move objects one by one without gizmos
  II. Add/remove/clone/rename/export objects
  III.Perform boolean operations on two objects at a time
• In Scene mode, you have access to the following tools:
  I. Selection tool
  II. Delete tool
  III. Clone tool
  IV. Create tool (to easily and quickly add primitives as new objects)
  V. Boolean tool

4. Flip/mirror objects on their X,Y,Z axes

• Open the Sculpt object context menu and press the “Transform” tab.
  

5. New supported file formats

• FBX
  
• SL3D (Shapelab project file)
  

6. Custom alphas and updated default alphas

• Now you can import, use and manage your own alphas in Shapelab
  I. Press the “Alpha” button on the top right corner of the brush modifier panel.
• We have updated the default alpha set that the app comes with
  

7. New materials

8. New environments

9. UX/UI improvements and changes

Dear ShapeLab community,

It has been a couple of months since we released our last update, however, this short silence has not been in vain as we are working hard on providing an even better sculpting experience and implementing features that are essential to become a truly useful VR sculpting tool. The next update is coming in about a month and we will be introducing the following features:

- multi-object handling capabilities
- paint brush and paint bucket
- masking
- and a few surprises:)

Here's a preview of how multi-object handling will look like in ShapeLab:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

P.s.: If you haven’t purchased ShapeLab yet, now is a great time to do so, as you can get it for a 50% discount during the Steam Summer Sale! Enjoy.:)

Best,
Leopoly Team