Update 28 is live! Rainbow torches, rainbow flowers, alternative control method with snap-turning, a way to change color of existing torches and a huge list of other improvements!

Hey everyone, Update 28 for cyubeVR is live!

As usual, here is a very quick overview of the things changed in this update, with more details below. Actually, the "quick overview" has never been as long as this time, there's a lot of changes!

• Added Rainbow Flowers, Rainbow Dye and Rainbow Torches
  
• Added alternative control method with snap-turning, smooth-turning, and touchpad/thumbstick locomotion
  
• Added settings for snap-turning
  
• Added system for changing colors of existing torches
  
• Added way better looking new model for the stick tool
  
• Added preparation for currently still secret feature
  
• Added white dye that can be collected from white flowers
  
• Added text in UI that tells you which world format the chunk you are standing on was generated with
  
• Added in-game setting for screenshot resolution to switch between 4K and 8K
  
• Modified flagstone recipe to now result in 28 flagstone blocks, instead of 16 blocks previously
  
• Added controls for time of day when using the high-res video capture mode
  
• Added new torch models and modified torch placement to make it possible to place torches on the floor/ceiling
  
• Increased radius of dynamic hand-held torchlight by 90%
  
• Added setting for enabling/disabling black fade on teleport, and changed default to disabled
  
• Changed look of preview torches to be more opaque and easier to see
  
• Adjusted arrow trace particles to only stop when the arrow hits something
  
• Adjusted recipe order in crafting recipe overview
  
• Fixed bugs related to controls on oculus touch controllers and WMR controllers
  
• Fixed deer blood being rendered on top of controller models
  
• Fixed aurora speed (was too fast)
  
• Fixed inventory bug that could happen when dragging items into the chest
  
• Fixed bug that could happen when destroying wood scaffolding with an arrow next to a chunk border
  
• Fixed crash that could happen while moving blocks
  
• Fixed potential crash in UI rendering code
  
• Fixed crash that could happen when removing a block on a chunk border next to a torch
  
  

[video]https://stonebrickstudios.com/cyubevr/SteamAnnouncements/RainbowTorches.webm?v=1[/video]

There are now rainbow flowers that give you rainbow dye which you can use to craft rainbow torches! The torches do constantly and smoothly switch between all available colors.

Rainbow flowers are quite rare - rarer than green or blue flowers! Rainbow flowers are now the rarest type of flower in the game. You won't often see them, and if you do, you probably want to pick them up!

The rainbow torches really show how good and versatile the code for the custom voxel lighting in the game is - not only can it do colored torches, which is already something that you don't find in many other voxel games, but even animated rainbow torches work! This is exciting! :)





There's an alternative control method now that allows for snap-turning, smooth-turning and touchpad/thumbstick locomotion!

In the settings, there's a new setting called "Alternative Move/Turn". This new setting is disabled by default. If you enable it, the left menu button now acts as a switch for switching the left touchpad/thumbstick between the button-functions it has, to acting as a thumbstick/touchpad for turning and movement.

When the left touchpad/thumbstick is in that turn/movement mode, swiping left/right on it will cause snap or smooth turning. Pressing and holding it will cause smooth locomotion.

There's also a new setting added that allows you to switch between 22.5° snap turning, 45° snap turning and smooth turning.





It's now possible to place torches on the floor and also the ceiling!

Previously, you could only place torches on the wall - not anymore. It's the same torch item that you place, but torches placed on the ground or ceiling look a bit different than torches placed on the wall. Torches placed on the ground and ceiling look great and are a great way to give your interior a more interesting look.



Ever since Update 9, cyubeVR had an awesome 8K screenshot feature that you can trigger by holding both teleport buttons for 2 seconds. You can now choose if screenshots are done in 4K or in 8K resolution! The default is still 8K, same like before, just that now you can decrease it to 4K if you want. When set to 4K, screenshots are obviously at a lower res, but they are also taken pretty much instantly and don't freeze the game for multiple seconds, so it's a bit more convenient. Also, the file size for 4K screenshots is less.





The stick tool now looks way better!

I once read the old stick looked too much like a pool noodle, and that probably had some truth. It was indeed not the best looking stick, so it had to change! The new stick tool is an awesome 8K photogrammetry model with crazy detail and significantly more interesting looking than the old one. Enjoy!



Previously, the white flowers were the only flowers you couldn't collect any dye from - that was a bit hard to understand, so now you can collect white dye too! Crafting a torch with white dye is a valid crafting recipe, but it just results in a regular torch, same as if you would not add the white dye.



You can now change colors of existing, placed torches by touching the torch with a dye!

So, for example, you can now place a regular torch, grab a rainbow dye, touch the torch with that dye and the regular torch will turn into a rainbow torch. When doing that, the dye disappears. Touching a torch with a white dye turns it into a regular torch.



When you open the settings and scroll down, after the last setting the game will now tell you which world format the chunk you are standing on was generated with. This is helpful to see if a chunk you are standing on has some new stuff (like ore, or flowers) that was only added in some recent version of the game. For example, rainbow flowers you will only find on chunks that are world format 24 or above.



In Update 24, a great high-res video capture mode was added to the game:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/619500/announcements/detail/1714079766550841115

When the high res video capture mode is enabled, you can now move time of day backward/forward by pressing the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard. This allows you to easily set up the exact shot you want, without having to wait for the sun to move to where you want to have it.




As usual, thanks very much to our great beta testers in the official cyubeVR discord who tested this update as part of 12 separate beta builds! If you also want to test new features earlier when they come out in the beta branch, make sure to join the discord and take a look at the #beta-build-patch-notes and #beta-build-discussion channel!

The screenshots above are taken in a world of Koi, one of the beta testers, you can follow him playing the game here on his youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM8k4IzB5E0

That's all for today! If you like the game, don't forget to tell other people about it and write a review on Steam if you haven't done that already, even if its just a few words. Writing a review and spreading the word is the easiest way you can support the game!
Thanks for caring about the game and as usual, make sure to report all issues you see and give me as much feedback as possible in the official forums or the official discord server, join it before its full ;) We're more than 400 people strong there already, come and join us! If you don't like something about the game, tell me there and I'll try to improve it! I'm available to chat with anyone in discord.

There's also a cyubeVR subreddit available on Reddit, if you're active on Reddit, make sure to subscribe to it and maybe post some great screenshots there!

Also, don't forget there's an official roadmap with voting features.

Looking forward to hearing what you think about the new update :)

Cheers!