Shapelab News

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

We really appreciate all the support and feedback we have received so far from our growing community. This gave us extra motivation to make more improvements and release another set of updates! Here is what you can expect on your next sculpting session in ShapeLab:

Performance improvements

• Faster polygon manipulation
  
• Faster undo/redo
  
• More polygons can be manipulated without slowdowns
  

New brush

• The old “inflate/deflate” brush became the “standard” brush
  
• New inflate/deflate brush has been introduced
  

Mirror plane update

• Three axis of symmetry can be used at a time
  

Falloff update

• Falloff has been improved and works much better with most of the brushes, especially with the “move” brush
  

New brush modifiers

• Check “Edit connected surfaces only” to manipulate areas independently that form a continuous surface with the polygon that is closest to the center of your sphere cursor.
  
• Check “Edit front faces only” to only manipulate the surfaces that are facing your controller.
  

Updated “Global decimate”

• Global decimation considers polygon density and tries to keep the details while reducing the number of faces
  

STL and GLB import/export added

• You can choose to export your creations in OBJ, STL and GLB formats
  
• You can import OBJ, STL and GLB files
  

Others

• Slight cursor smoothing effect added to reduce the negative effects of shaky hands
  
• “Refresh” button added to the file browser
  
• UI position on Oculus controllers has been adjusted
  
• Minor bug fixes and UX improvements
  

Shapelab was not compatible with certain types of older CPU architectures (before Intel Haswell or AMD Excavator). After this update, you should be able to launch and run Shapelab even on these types of CPUs.

Thank you for everyone who reported the issue.
We really appreciate your help and patience.

PS: Pssst.. From now on, you can also invert your brush by double pressing the context menu button on your primary controller.