ChilloutVR News

We have just released a new update for ChilloutVR on the stable branch.



The next game update will include the engine switch to Unity 2021.3. Due to the huge amount of changes needed, the next stable update will take significantly longer.


The Gamekit
We added the GameKit to the game. this first implementation aims to give creators the tools to create minigames in ChilloutVR. At the moment the following components are supported in-game:

• GameInstanceController: This component allows the definition of teams and the overall game flow. Teams can have player limits and balanced team joins can be enabled. The system also has a ready-up system, so players can ready up after joining and the game will start once everyone is ready or a configurable timer runs out. The game can be split into rounds and played until a certain team won a number of rounds. You have access to a big number of events to customize your game experience. You can also decide if you want to have manual score management or if the server should manage the score via the combat system
  
• CombatSystem: The combat system allows you to define the health pool of the player and the respawn behavior. The player can have up to 3 health pools, health, armor, and shield. Those are just internal names, you can use them how you see fit
  
• Damage: This component can deal damage to the player either directly or as damage over time. You can also define how each health pool is affected.
  
• GunController: This component allows you to set up guns easier by providing functionalities like shooting modes, ammo management, and reload mechanics. Shots are also Synced over the network separately to allow for more accuracy
  
• ObjectHealth: This allows you to give a health pool to an object, similar to the player health pool
  
• ScoreBoardController: This allows you to display team members, team score, game state, and game timers using Unity UI Text elements
  

New Movement System
We have completely reworked the movement System. The new movement system aims to give a smoother feel to the locomotion and allows us to make more extensions in the future. The most meaningful changes are as follows:

• The Movement Framerate is now independent of the physics tick
  
• The System still uses a two-way physics interactions, meaning you can push objects and be pushed by objects and particle systems
  
• The Force that is applied to the player is limited before the get applied to eliminate the issue of getting catapulted too far away by certain particle systems
  
• Movement parenting is now available using the CVRMovementParent component. You just simply add this component to an object with a collider and the player will be moved and rotated on the y axis together with the object
  

Ingame Search
You can now access the search in-game. You can use the search to find users, public avatars, public props, and public worlds, but also your own and shared content. Currently, the results are limited to 30 entries per category. This will change with the implementation of the new main UI later down the road.


General Changes

• The CVRMaterialDriver now also reacts to changes from non-animation sources
  
• Added CVRGlobalMaterialPropertyUpdater to the prop whitelist
  
• Independent Head turn now also return the vertical axis
  
• Pickup Objects are now respawned when they fall out of the map
  
• Added an option to ignore minimum character collider size. This could lead to falling through small gaps with smaller avatars
  
• We greyed out all buttons without function in the current main menu in order to reduce confusion for new players
  
• Headbobbing is now split into 3 options: enabled, reduced, and disabled in order to provide a mode with 0% animation influence (https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/552-headbobbing-toggle-still-not-helping-much, https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/541-head-bobbing-with-headbobbing-disabled)
  
• Pickup Objects now also reset their main collider state when getting respawned by height
  
• The main menu can now be used with the mouse like the quick menu
  
• Pickup AutoHold is now working in-game. You can drop such objects on Desktop by pressing G and in VR by holding the right grip button and pulling your right stick back
  
• Interactables with custom triggers will not be executed when the GameObject is disabled
  
• The Interactionray will no longer be blocked by players, when no menu is open
  
• World Objects and Props now have their movement synced with 20Hz instead of 10Hz
  

Video Player Changes

• Added a setting for maximum resolution allowed for youtube videos
  
• Added a setting to disable the video stream for youtube videos
  
• Added a launch parameter (--disable-videoplayers) to disable video players throughout the game
  

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where CVRTexturePropertyParser could lose its global reference when changing world
  
• Fixed a Bug where Some interactable -> Variable Buffer Setups would break (https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/528-interactable-loses-reference-to-variable-buffer)
  
• Fixed a Bug where Objects would be highlighted in VR by the gaze interaction
  
• Fixed a bug where pickup components were detected from sub colliders
  
• Fixed a Bug where the controller rays would visually separate from your hands while moving too fast
  
• Fixed a bug where the video player would start playing at maximum audio for the first frames of the video
  
• Fixed a Bug that led to onEnterTrigger Interactables firing multiple times for playerlocal
  
• Fixed a Bug that lead to Log spam while sitting on a seat
  
• Fixed a Bug where Objects stood highlighted even after a new one was highlighted
  
• Fixed a number of bugs connected to duplicate Animator LAyer and PArameter names for the Avatar Animator
  

If you encounter any issues please be sure to report a bug. You can find information on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/5-how-to-report-a-bug


If you would like to request a feature, you can check up on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/7-how-to-request-a-feature

Hi there and thank you so much for checking in!


This months status report will focus on major upgrades to ChilloutVR and changes for creators as well as insight in our short term plans for the game.



With CCK 4.0 we will release new options to create interactive content in ChilloutVR.
The first of many features to come is a fully featured combat system.
We will release a demo of the combat system in the upcoming days, in the form of a playable game in ChilloutVR.



Glad you asked!
The Game Kit will be updated frequently and aims to make the creation of games of several types possible.


The current plans for the Game Kit include the following:

• Combat system
  
• Economy system
  
• Building system
  
• Advanced vehicle controllers
  
• Persistence
  

We are currently working on a feature called server side scripting. With server side scripting users will be able to run code for their worlds and games on the game server allowing for full control over parts of the Game Kit as well as better control of persistence and the like.


Server side scripting will be available to reserved instances only, which can be purchased or received as a patreon reward.
This feature is currently in heavy development and not publicly available yet but we aim to provide the first users with access to this system later this year.


We have several game modes coming, that will show the power of server side scripting.
We will release the first of those game modes in the new "Staff picks" tab in the worlds list within the next weeks.


Interested in server side scripting? Follow us on twitter to stay up to date.
Patreon supporters will receive early updates about progress on new features like server side scripting.



The Game Kit is an option we want to provide to creators. It will not replace client side scripting.
We still plan on adding client side scripting down the line, but due to the enormous efforts required to make it happen, this will take a while.



Over the past months we were investigating the options regarding an upgrade from unity 2019.4 to 2021.3.


Due to the technical differences between the two versions and their different approaches regarding the implementation of XR support,
we have been looking for ways to make sure old content remains mostly intact and found a solution to go with.


Unity 2021 offers us great ways to improve on the performance of the game as well as open more ways for ChilloutVR to involve as a general product in the near and far future.


ChilloutVR 2022r165 will be released on the current version of unity. Shortly after, we plan on releasing the first experimental branches on 2021.3 to make sure creators can test their content early.
Please note that updating your content to support Single Pass Instanced requires CCK 4.0. Content updated once CCK 4.0 is available will still remain compatible with the stable branch.



The content in general will remain functional.
The difference mostly affect shaders. For old content or content with incompatible shaders, we will replace them on load.
This will ensure that the content itself remains functional.


Auto-replacing shaders will cause a loss of visual detail in some cases, which is why we recommend updating your content.


If you are able to re-upload / update your content we recommend that you do so once CCK 4.0 is available



If you are a shader developer, you can adjust your shaders according to this guide: https://docs.unity3d.com/es/2021.1/Manual/SinglePassInstancing.html
If not, contact the authors of the shaders you are using to ask them if it is possible for them to support Single Pass Instanced.


We are currently evaluating options for auto-conversion tools.
We can not guarantee that CCK 4.0 will contain a tool that can convert shaders to function with Single Pass Instanced, but we are currently trying to make it happen.



CCK 4.0 will tell you if one of your used shaders is not supported.



No, at this point in time we do not plan on supporting HDRP or URP. This is not a definitive no for the future.



We deeply apologize about delays in publication. We have been working on better publication tools along with testing to ensure content published will remain compatible when we do the engine upgrade.


We have just published all worlds and avatars that were waiting for publication.


We are currently testing automated publishing in-house and should have this done by the release of the Content Creation Kit 4.0 (details below).
This means that from CCK 4.0 on the majority of the content will be published in less than 24 hours.
Accounts with low trust or content that was flagged will still be manually reviewed.


Long story short, get ready for more content!



We aim to have CCK 4.0 released about 1-2 weeks after this announcement with several other improvements and changes included.



The world list in the game will be expanded to give a better overview over exciting content everyone should see.
Below mentioned categories will be added / adjusted with the next update of the API.



This new category will feature worlds the staff team recommends to users. They can be official or community created worlds.
We will use this category to feature worlds that show off new features such as game system integrations.



Formerly known as trending worlds, is now automatically populated by the system. This category will show the 16 most-visited worlds in the last 24 hours and will be refreshed every day at 00:00 UTC.



This category already existed but was not populated with appropriate worlds.
All known avatars worlds are added to the row and creators can request their world to be added to the avatar worlds row using the community hub.
The hub update to adjust the world search tags will be available within 48 hours from this announcement.



Find us on social media with the links below:
Discord: https://discord.gg/abi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlphaBlendNET
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl8toTHzEER6PXoJyZcTFjg
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/661130/ChilloutVR/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChilloutVR/
Forums: https://forums.abinteractive.net



Like every company, we need financial support to be able to push updates and improve our product. We are greatful for every bit of support we get.
If you want to support us you can do so here:
https://www.patreon.com/AlphaBlendInteractive


We are more than thankful for your support!



Use the link above to join our discord server and get in touch with our wonderful community, get help with creation related topics and find people to play with.

We have just released a new update for ChilloutVR on stable branch.



New Camera System

• The Camera was completely replaced with a new system
  
• The new camera has a system for implementing camera mods. The following mods are included by default:
  
  • Camera Attachment: Attaches the camera to the world
    
  • Local Player: Toggles if the local Player is visible for the camera
    
  • network Player: Toggles if other Players are visible for the camera
    
  • Greyscale: Applies a greyscale filter
    
  • Sepia: Applies a sepia filter
    
  • Auto Exposure: Reduces overall brightness when too bright or increases it when it is too dark
    
  • Paneosphere: Allows the capture of 360 stereo panosphere images
    
  • Chroma Key: Disables all layers except the 2 player layers and replaces the skybox with green
    
  • Player Face Tracking: Automatically points the camera at you
    
  • Nightvision: Applies a night vision filter that boosts brightness
    
  • Autofocus: Applies a depth of field effect that is focussed on what the camera is pointed at
    
  • Image Stabilization: Applies a stabilization to the cameras position and rotation
    
  • Auto Orbit: Lets the camera Orbit around the control panel at a configurable distance and speed
    
  • Drone Mode: This allows you to control the camera directly
    
• The design was reworked to fit our new design language
  
• The Camera can be controlled using simple gestures
  
• The following will come to the camera soon after with an experimental update:
  
  • Color Picker for chroma key
    
  • Image Resolution Option
    
  • Orbit Origin Settings
    

UI

• Fixed a bug that lead to the advanced avatar menu not loading fully when a 3D joystick was present https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/450-3d-joystick-breaks-quickmenu-adv-settings
  
• Fixed a bug that lead to game crashes when reloading the UI multiple times in quick succession https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/468-ui-refresh-crash, https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/323-refreshing-the-ui-crashes-the-game
  
• The quick menu now has haptic and audible feedback when interacting with the buttons. The new main menu will have the same level of feedback
  
• Fixed the scrolling in the Advanced Avatar Profile List
  
• The pointer ray now has a new design
  
• The painter ray thickness is now scaled with the avatar
  

General

• The intro animation was replaced with a new one
  
• Advanced Avatar and prop Particle interactions no longer require a collider to work, so it can be used on avatars without leading to self-collision https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/271-particle-triggered-advanced-avatar-triggers-yeet-you-in-all-directions/3
  
• Fixed an issue where the area offset was not taken into account on trigger stay tasks set to set from position https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/472-trigger-offset-wrong-value
  
• Fixed an issue were Objects where highlighted even tho the pickup component was disabled https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/264-pickup-object-script
  
• Added options for reference Audio Sources to the Particle Sound Component https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/462-particle-sound-controlling-values-of-its-created-audio-source
  
• Fixed general issues with pointer detection
  
• Changed the initialization of magica cloth. This should reduce the occurrence of magica cloth related crashes.
  
• When the right or both VR hand controllers are disabled or missing, you are able to target objects by looking at them and interact either using a mouse or a gamepad.
  
• Digital Deadzones are now disabled by default
  
• Grip to Grab is now enabled by default
  
• Gamepad Input is now disabled by default
  
• Pictures are now always saved to the picture directory
  
• Pictures are now saved in separate folders for year and month
  
• The Attachment component now supports HMD/MainCamera attachment in tracker mode
  
• Implemented a telepathic Grab System that allows you to pull objects towards you. In VR you need to hold the trigger and flick your controller. In Desktop you can hold left click and scroll towards you
  
• Implemented the first draft of physics-based syncing. This will sync objects after they are thrown or are getting hit by objects held by a player
  
• Objects are now dropped/Deattached when they are moved over the network
  
• Added an Alternative Rescale Mode under experimental settings, for recalculating viewpoint offset in scalable avatars. Disabled by default.
  
• Fixed a bug that led to portal pano image not loading properly. You may need to delete wrongly formatted pano images from your cache.
  

Avatar

• Fixed an exploit, where avatar colliders could bypass the collision settings https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/470-bypassing-collider-settings-for-other-people
  
• Fixed a bug where Advanced Avatar Triggers were affected by Player Intercollision settings https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/460-advancedspawnable-triggers
  
• Avatars now have a default pointer on their voice position with the type "mouth"
  

Worlds

• Fixed a bug where world objects attached to players would not sync https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/466-world-object-attached-to-player-does-not-sync
  
• Interactable on Particle Hit can now specify exclusive particle Systems https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/367-detect-a-certain-particle-with-an-interactable
  
• Interactables now have a gazeEnter/Exit event to detect if a player is looking at a certain object
  
• Fixed an issue where interactable actions with a delay were still executed when the component was disabled
  
• Layer 12 (CVRReserved1) is now set up as a layer that is only visible to the portable camera
  

Props

• Fixed a Bug where Sub Objects were not syncing properly while being attached https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/473-sub-object-not-syncing-when-attached
  
• Fixed a bug where Owner Current Grip was not reset when dropping a prop https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/467-owner-current-grip-does-not-update-properly
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Set Spawnable Value" Interactable action was not executed properly https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/464-interactable-set-spawnable-value-not-working
  
• Spawnable Triggers will use a present collider instead of generating a new one with the given dimensions
  
• The car controller handbrake input is now mapped in VR by pulling back the right stick
  

Interactable

• You can now specify a certain particle system in the interactable action "OnParticleHit"
  
• Fixed a Bug where delayed actions were not cleared when the interactable is disabled
  
• Added new Action "SetPropertyByValue" this allows you to set a component property by a variable buffer
  
• VariableBufferUpdate action now also sync their value when not updated by an interactable
  
• OnCron actions now also trigger directly on world load and don't wait for the next full minute to be reached
  

VideoPlayer

• Audio Playback Mode does now work in-game, can be toggled in the video player UI or via method call on runtime as well
  
• Fixed an issue where playlists would be visible underneath other UI elements
  
• Fixed an issue where dropdowns would not be displayed properly
  
• Fixed an issue where network sync would not work properly on props
  
• Fixed an issue that could lead to blocking the game's main thread
  
• Fixed an issue where initial values were not properly set in the video player
  
• Fixed an issue where initial values were not properly displayed in the UI
  

Components

• NEW AudioMaterialParser: Allows to parse audio data to a selected material https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/495-audio-data-for-materials
  
• NEW CustomRenderTextureUpdater: Allow to force the update of a render texture without the use of an additional camera
  
• NEW CVRGlobalMaterialPropertyUpdater: Allow so update of material properties globally over the whole map
  
• NEW TexturePropertyParser: Allows you to read pixel values from a render texture and applies them to selected properties
  
• NEW SnappingPoint: Can be used together with the PickupObject component to have Objects snap to predefined points
  
• NEW DistanceConstraint: Allows you to constraint 2 objects by a min and max distance
  
• GlobalShaderUpdater can now update textures as global shader textures
  

Some of the new Components and interactable actions require CCK 3.2 to be set up and uploaded. This Content Creation Kit update will be released in the upcoming days.


If you encounter any issues please be sure to report a bug. You can find information on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/5-how-to-report-a-bug


If you would like to request a feature, you can check up on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/7-how-to-request-a-feature

We have just released a new update for ChilloutVR on stable branch.


This is a patched version of the game addressing reported issues that we deemed to require immediate attention.


Please note that the ABI Development team will be on winter holidays between December 20th 2021 to January 2nd 2022. Do not expect any updates in that time. Support requests will be delayed.



General

• Further increase performance of networkIK
  
• Fixed an issue where dynamic bone collision would not work for VR users
  
• Fixed an issue that lead to dynamic bone interactions to not work in a majority of cases
  
• Fixed an issue that lead to viseme looking choppy
  
• Fixed an issue that lead to the framerate target option to not work properly
  
• Fixed a typo in the quickmenu on advanced avatar color sliders
  

If you encounter any issues please be sure to report a bug. You can find information on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/5-how-to-report-a-bug


If you would like to request a feature, you can check up on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/7-how-to-request-a-feature

We have just released a new update for ChilloutVR on stable branch.


The main focus of this update was on improving the general audio system and performance.
New features will be delivered with the early updates in spring 2022.


Please note that the ABI Development team will be on winter holidays between December 20th 2021 to January 2nd 2022. Do not expect any updates in that time. Support requests will be delayed.



General

• Fixed the playspace offset while teleporting in VR
  
• Improved the performance of dynamic bones Thanks to Zettai Ryouiki for the Job implementation
  
• Fixed an issue where the quick menu did not reflect the time format setting (https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/377-quick-menu-clock-shows-incorrect-time/3)
  
• Fixed a bug that lead to friend requests to not be displayed in the main menu
  
• Fixed a bug that lead to Player movement to affect the avatar in a chair avatar switching avatar (https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/375-weird-interaction-with-vehicle-chairs)
  
• Fixed missing gamemenu binding for oculus on the right hand (https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/381-missing-main-menu-closing-key-bindings/2)
  

Asset Support

• Updated Magica Cloth to version 1.12.1. This adds support for algorithm 2. For maximum compatibillity we advice to reupload Magica cloth avatars and props with version 1.12.1 and algorithm 2 selected
  
• SteamAudio can now be used for worlds
  

Interactable

• Added Support for APF String Trigger
  
• Added Support for setting Properties by APF Updates
  

Audio

• Changed the spatializer solution from DearVR to SteamAudio
  
  • Steam Audio Reverb baking and other advanced features are now supported for worlds
    
• This will increase performance and allows world creators to use SteamAudio components
  
• Changed the error correction of the voice chat. This should reduce the occurence of noise
  
• Changed the viseme calculation to be less recource intensive
  

Props

• Pointers can now interact with props, when they are held by a player
  

Infrastructure

• Changed the way voice is handled on the server side, reducing voice decoder load significantly
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause random disconnects from game servers
  
• Several server side performance improvements
  

If you encounter any issues please be sure to report a bug. You can find information on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/5-how-to-report-a-bug


If you would like to request a feature, you can check up on how to do so here: https://forums.abinteractive.net/d/7-how-to-request-a-feature