Improved GLTF 2.0 import support, community highlights & games and more
Hello everyone and welcome to another weekly update!
This week we have some awesome community highlights. We have went through many awesome worlds and gadgets (including some games) that you have built inside of Neos, if you missed the stream, check out the recording and some extra highlights below!
Due to development focus shifting more to desktop things are a bit quieter in terms of major features. Among many smaller (but important) bugfixes, tweaks and additions, we have a greatly improved GLTF 2.0 support, which should now import properly with Blendshapes and their names. We have also done some smaller optimizations, including moving the mesh metadata generation to the asset variant system.
[h2]Mentors Network: Week One[/h2]
Many of you in the community might be noticing people running around with green nametags/question Marks above their head! These people are Mentors in our community, and if you have a question or need help while your new, contact one of these people and hopefully we can set you in the right direction!
Mentors are members of the community who don the role of the green to show or inform users old or new alike. It’s only been one week so far of on-boarding everyone and so far some of the reports have been coming in about some of their efforts! Thanks everyone! -Turk
The new designs for mentor, moderator and Neos Team badges
[h2]Updated guidelines[/h2]
Over past weeks, we have also updated and expanded our usage Guidelines. If you haven't checked them out yet, please take a moment to review them here.
[h2]Community Highlights[/h2]
[h3]January Community Showcase livestream[/h3]
This Friday In our regular end of the month livestream we have taken a look at some of the community creations and worlds from January. We checked out some new gadgets and minigames, a fishing game world, beautiful hangout worlds, curving bullets shooter game and more! If you missed the stream you can watch the recording here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Vending Machine by GhostZ[/h3]
Every felt thirsty in VR? Need a weapon to protect yourself? Grab it from a vending machine! GhostZ is well known for his various drinks, grenades, and his various modeling endeavors, but now we are at the point where he’s made them dispensable now! The only thing you need to know is to buy anything. it costs some KFC. So make sure you have some around to spend.
[h3]Time Machine Recreation by H3B03[/h3]
One of our Moderators H3B03 who’s been heavy at work in the discord answering users questions, assisting with LogiX, or keeping the peace has made a lovely recreation of a time machine from a certain movie! During his free time he’s been churning away at this bad boy make it look spiffy as can be.
[h3]Wavefront Windfarm Circuit: V A P O R W A V E D: by Aegis Wolf[/h3]
Some of you might recognize this map! Yet, did little did we know Aegis added a secret “V A P O R W A V E” button to the map! It makes everything all trippy and wavey, as you hop on a bike and travel down the track. It’s an experience once should experience in VR.
https://twitter.com/Teh_Turk/status/1355991498664370183
[h3]Weekend at Jayes: A Wonderful moment in Neos by KungFuMonkey, Spexfox, Baxter, Jaye[/h3]
Neos sometimes brings something special out of others, and this is one to note. Watching the video you can see that “Jaye” friend of SpexFox had some computer troubles recently. He sadly felt left out or unable to join in the fun and joy that is VR. Sooo, one of our newer users in the community KungFuMonkey helped out in this special moment! Thanks guys! You make Neos awesome :)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Improved GLTF 2.0 model import support and more[/h2]
Assimp is an open source library capable of reading over 40 different 3D model files and the backbone of Neos' 3D model import support. Due to regressions causing some FBX animations to import incorrectly we have avoided upgrading the library to latest version for at least half a year, as it was in a good enough state.
With recent surge in interest in the GLTF 2.0 format and some issues with its import (primarily blendshapes either not importing at all or missing names) we were prompted to look at it again in detail and managed to find a cause in the library itself for the FBX animation import regression and fix it.
Thanks to this, we were able to upgrade to the latest version straight from the source, featuring over a 1000 commits to the library by its maintainers and contributors. This has significantly improved GLTF 2.0 support, making blendshapes import properly with full names, making it much easier to use this modern format in Neos.
There are many more improvements as well for other formats, including bugfixes for certain model files failing to import, or even outright crashing whole Neos. Thanks to the fix, we can keep updating the library from source more frequently now, bringing its latest improvements and additions to Neos.
[h2]Optimizing mesh metadata computation with the asset variant system[/h2]
Another 3D model related change involves Neos' own mesh asset format. Whenever meshes are loaded in Neos, various metadata is computed on the background threads as the model loads, particularly bounding box and bone metadata.
To conserve some CPU resources and speed up the upload process, we have moved this system to Neos' powerful asset variant systems. Thanks to this, the metadata is automatically fetched from cloud when available or computed locally if not and always cached. This way the overall CPU and memory load when loading meshes is decreased, freeing up resources for other tasks.
We plan to build more on top of this functionality in the future as well, computing different variants of the meshes - decimated versions for better performance (and LODs), pre-generated mesh collider data and more.
[h2]Progress on Desktop mode[/h2]
While the upcoming desktop mode is still heavily in design phase, the latest builds already have parts of it implemented. We have laid out the basic skeletons of some of the core systems, particularly for positioning user's head and hands and providing first and third person rendering and interactions.
The systems are very barebones as of now, but technically already allow a switch from VR to desktop rendering with mouse look and back. They're not in a state where they would be usable in practice, but they lay an important foundation for what's the come.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
As we'll start "fattening" those mechanisms up and adding more, the desktop mode will become more usable over time. Once we have basic interactions implemented, we can start focusing on various stretch goals, like ability to pin inspectors and other windows to the UI and customize the layout.
An Input Binding system is also becoming big part of this work, as it'll help to abstract and simplify a lot of the systems, without having to hard-code a lot of the behavior into individual interaction systems.
If you'd like to keep with the latest developments, check out the #devlog channel on our official Discord! You can also check the latest design notes here:
Latest desktop mode design notes (click to enlarge)
Anyway that's all for this week! We can't wait to see you at the next one. Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting Neos! We've been hitting record numbers of users over past week and that's in big thanks to your passion and creativity that makes this platform such a fun place for many people to enjoy and make their home.
Also a mango
This week we have some awesome community highlights. We have went through many awesome worlds and gadgets (including some games) that you have built inside of Neos, if you missed the stream, check out the recording and some extra highlights below!
Due to development focus shifting more to desktop things are a bit quieter in terms of major features. Among many smaller (but important) bugfixes, tweaks and additions, we have a greatly improved GLTF 2.0 support, which should now import properly with Blendshapes and their names. We have also done some smaller optimizations, including moving the mesh metadata generation to the asset variant system.
[h2]Mentors Network: Week One[/h2]
Many of you in the community might be noticing people running around with green nametags/question Marks above their head! These people are Mentors in our community, and if you have a question or need help while your new, contact one of these people and hopefully we can set you in the right direction!
Mentors are members of the community who don the role of the green to show or inform users old or new alike. It’s only been one week so far of on-boarding everyone and so far some of the reports have been coming in about some of their efforts! Thanks everyone! -Turk
The new designs for mentor, moderator and Neos Team badges[h2]Updated guidelines[/h2]
Over past weeks, we have also updated and expanded our usage Guidelines. If you haven't checked them out yet, please take a moment to review them here.
[h2]Community Highlights[/h2]
[h3]January Community Showcase livestream[/h3]
This Friday In our regular end of the month livestream we have taken a look at some of the community creations and worlds from January. We checked out some new gadgets and minigames, a fishing game world, beautiful hangout worlds, curving bullets shooter game and more! If you missed the stream you can watch the recording here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Vending Machine by GhostZ[/h3]
Every felt thirsty in VR? Need a weapon to protect yourself? Grab it from a vending machine! GhostZ is well known for his various drinks, grenades, and his various modeling endeavors, but now we are at the point where he’s made them dispensable now! The only thing you need to know is to buy anything. it costs some KFC. So make sure you have some around to spend.
[h3]Time Machine Recreation by H3B03[/h3]
One of our Moderators H3B03 who’s been heavy at work in the discord answering users questions, assisting with LogiX, or keeping the peace has made a lovely recreation of a time machine from a certain movie! During his free time he’s been churning away at this bad boy make it look spiffy as can be.
[h3]Wavefront Windfarm Circuit: V A P O R W A V E D: by Aegis Wolf[/h3]
Some of you might recognize this map! Yet, did little did we know Aegis added a secret “V A P O R W A V E” button to the map! It makes everything all trippy and wavey, as you hop on a bike and travel down the track. It’s an experience once should experience in VR.
https://twitter.com/Teh_Turk/status/1355991498664370183
[h3]Weekend at Jayes: A Wonderful moment in Neos by KungFuMonkey, Spexfox, Baxter, Jaye[/h3]
Neos sometimes brings something special out of others, and this is one to note. Watching the video you can see that “Jaye” friend of SpexFox had some computer troubles recently. He sadly felt left out or unable to join in the fun and joy that is VR. Sooo, one of our newer users in the community KungFuMonkey helped out in this special moment! Thanks guys! You make Neos awesome :)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Improved GLTF 2.0 model import support and more[/h2]
Assimp is an open source library capable of reading over 40 different 3D model files and the backbone of Neos' 3D model import support. Due to regressions causing some FBX animations to import incorrectly we have avoided upgrading the library to latest version for at least half a year, as it was in a good enough state.
With recent surge in interest in the GLTF 2.0 format and some issues with its import (primarily blendshapes either not importing at all or missing names) we were prompted to look at it again in detail and managed to find a cause in the library itself for the FBX animation import regression and fix it.
Thanks to this, we were able to upgrade to the latest version straight from the source, featuring over a 1000 commits to the library by its maintainers and contributors. This has significantly improved GLTF 2.0 support, making blendshapes import properly with full names, making it much easier to use this modern format in Neos.
There are many more improvements as well for other formats, including bugfixes for certain model files failing to import, or even outright crashing whole Neos. Thanks to the fix, we can keep updating the library from source more frequently now, bringing its latest improvements and additions to Neos.
[h2]Optimizing mesh metadata computation with the asset variant system[/h2]
Another 3D model related change involves Neos' own mesh asset format. Whenever meshes are loaded in Neos, various metadata is computed on the background threads as the model loads, particularly bounding box and bone metadata.
To conserve some CPU resources and speed up the upload process, we have moved this system to Neos' powerful asset variant systems. Thanks to this, the metadata is automatically fetched from cloud when available or computed locally if not and always cached. This way the overall CPU and memory load when loading meshes is decreased, freeing up resources for other tasks.
We plan to build more on top of this functionality in the future as well, computing different variants of the meshes - decimated versions for better performance (and LODs), pre-generated mesh collider data and more.
[h2]Progress on Desktop mode[/h2]
While the upcoming desktop mode is still heavily in design phase, the latest builds already have parts of it implemented. We have laid out the basic skeletons of some of the core systems, particularly for positioning user's head and hands and providing first and third person rendering and interactions.
The systems are very barebones as of now, but technically already allow a switch from VR to desktop rendering with mouse look and back. They're not in a state where they would be usable in practice, but they lay an important foundation for what's the come.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
As we'll start "fattening" those mechanisms up and adding more, the desktop mode will become more usable over time. Once we have basic interactions implemented, we can start focusing on various stretch goals, like ability to pin inspectors and other windows to the UI and customize the layout.
An Input Binding system is also becoming big part of this work, as it'll help to abstract and simplify a lot of the systems, without having to hard-code a lot of the behavior into individual interaction systems.
If you'd like to keep with the latest developments, check out the #devlog channel on our official Discord! You can also check the latest design notes here:
Latest desktop mode design notes (click to enlarge)Anyway that's all for this week! We can't wait to see you at the next one. Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting Neos! We've been hitting record numbers of users over past week and that's in big thanks to your passion and creativity that makes this platform such a fun place for many people to enjoy and make their home.
Also a mango