Neos VR News

Hello everyone!

With the conclusion of the Metaverse Maker Contest, we're excited to bring you the winners and honorable mentions this year!

But first, everyone has done an outstanding job. The level of creativity, imagination and skills you have brought in this year has made it very difficult to pick the winners (and even the honorable mentions), particularly the World: Social and World: Game categories which were very contested this year. Even among larger number of judges (Medra, Frooxius, Probable Prime, Canadian Git and Jak Wilmot) we had to use the audience vote to break a number of ties, as everyone had their own favorites.

Whether you placed or not, you should be proud of what you've made this year and what you learned by building such amazing content - those skills and experiences are something that will stay with you forever.

Also also last, but not least, huge thanks to @Medra and rest of @Creator Jam team for their hard work organizing this whole event and bringing in the community together to create some of the best content in Neos!

During my (Frooxius') own judging, I also took lots of screenshots, since I went through every single entry (as did few other judges). If you'd like to check out my gallery of over 2000 screenshots, you can see it here! https://photos.app.goo.gl/nJe5rDM6rUDwMzuy5

So without further ado, here are the winners and honorable mentions, along with a number of screenshots and videos featuring the creator's commentary and behind the scenes (spoiler alert!).

You can also read the original announcement here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/740250/view/2944778418489926498

[h2]Awards Ceremony[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]World: Misc[/h2]

[h3]1st place - Time and Gears (by Team GHJ)[/h3]
This awe inspiring world is something that should be experienced inside of VR. Combining fantasy and steampunk elements with a great sense of scale made for a very unique experience, as the environment moves and transforms around you as you progress through it.

It made us feel as if we were heading towards a grand fantasy boss battle and the only thing it was missing was some finale when you reach the end. We would love to see more environments like this in Neos, as they utilize virtual reality to create fantastic spaces that would not be possible in real life.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]2nd place - Lucaedr's Lookout (by Lucaedr & Zaravi)[/h3]
If you love stargazing, this world is for you. Beautifully atmospheric and polished, it captures the atmosphere of open night sky. It not only serves as a great hangout place, but also has educational value.

Using the in-world UI, you can visualize recent satellite launches and positions in the sky. We loved this addition for its educational / data visualization aspect and we'd love to see more like this in the future, as VR can be a powerful tool for visualizing data.



[h3]3rd place - (Unofficial) Interactive Neos Tutorial (by Constant Slerps)[/h3]
The Neos community has always been very helpful to newcomers and this world is an example of that. it builds upon systems from last year's MMC to create an interactive tutorial, where a motion captured presenter walks the user through the basics of controls inside of Neos.



[h3]Honorable mentions[/h3]
Le Petit Prince by haja - This entry recaptures the story of the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It might not be visually polished, but its interactive storytelling is quite charming and we'd love to see more of it in the future.
Drawing Four seasons JP by Team: ginjake - A world full of beautiful art for every season of the year! It features a number of beautiful drawings and a shared folder which lets you use them to decorate your own world.
MIRROR? room by rhenium - A mirror room with a twist! It's not mirror at all, but your avatar with its motions duplicated! Ever play a baseball with yourself? The only downsite is that the world can become a bit unstable with multiple users.

[h2]World: Game[/h2]

[h3]1st place - ABANDONWARE (by VR Pokefurs)[/h3]
Abandonware is one of the few experiences that made us completely forget that we were inside of Neos. It is an incredibly well polished escape room experience that could very well be a standalone indie game. Everything from level design, PS1-style visuals, lore, audio design and gameplay is exceptional, making for one of the most unique experiences in Neos to date.

We would love to see more experiences like this to be made in the future, as building games and interactive experiences like this is one of the major things we wanted to enable with Neos VR.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]2nd place - BULLET BUSTER (by GONT_3 & komashiba)[/h3]
After last year's Mogu Pani, GONT_3 & komashiba came with another unique arcade experience. This game inside of a game is a classic arcade shooter, full with motion and light effects. Playing a 3D game in VR this way gives it a very unique old school feel as you fight to top the high score.



[h3]3rd place - Aerial Guardian (by rhenium)[/h3]
Aerial Guardian is one of the most ambitious games of this year. Featuring a selection of unique weapons, shopping phase, you'll fight waves of different enemies, either alone of with your friends, as they attack the city in the sky.

The game features a number of different enemies, with different attacks, strengths and weaknesses. Not only that, but it comes with a level editor, which allows you to build your own levels and easily configure the enemy waves.

We would love to see this game optimized more and perhaps add mechanisms to make each weapon a bit more engaging, as they can turn a bit monotonous after a while. Regardless it's a great experience to play with your friends!



[h3]Honorable mentions[/h3]
GunnGame by Team: GunnOS - a fast paced shooter game that really nailed down the gameplay. It's fun and exciting to play, with a number of different weapons and dash mechanic. With some extra polish and bugfixes it could be one of the entries that people will keep revisiting whenever they're looking for a fun group game.
MMC Hide & Seek 2021 by Shorty, Vigilabo, dmx - a great game for a larger group of people, with a selection of maps with some secrets. It does what it says on the tin - people are split into two groups - hiders and seekers. Hiders must stay hidden, seekers must find everyone.
[Quest] Infiltrate The Dark Lord's Castle! by ♥️ Froppy ♥️ & toydragon - this game entry is first of its kind - an ambitious adventure game with cutscenes, secrets, two boss battles and number of unique puzzles. It has a number of glitches and some parts go on for a bit too long, but it's still an incredible achievement and hopefully first of many games of this kind!

[h2]World: Social[/h2]

[h3]1st place - Rocky Retreat (by Team VibeZ)[/h3]
Winning 1st place in the world - social category for the second time is the Team VibeZ with the Rocky Retreat. Not only is this world one of the most visually beautiful places in Neos, but also imbued with interactivity in every corner.

You can feed the fish, make a coffee, tea or eat some tasty treats. If you hold your hand, you'll have butterflies land on your finger - but don't use it to poke the carnivorous plants! In the spirit of green energy, you also have to recycle everything you use, rather than simply deleting them, adding to the world's immersion.

Compared to the last year's entry, this one is also significantly more optimized, making it much easier to hang out with a group of people and enjoy the beauty of this world.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]2nd place - The Hole In The Wall (by Kulza)[/h3]
Made by just a single person, this entry showcased that you don't need an entire team to build something great. This world makes great use of scale inside of VR, creating a hangout place that's unlike any other.

Everything in this place is built around the scale - seats are deformed electric plugs, cups and tables are pieces of legos, lights are christmas lights, the TV is a phone embedded in the wall and music is provided by a giant casette player, with physical buttons and swappable tapes. We definitenly recommend checking this place out!



[h3]3rd place - Rave Cave (by Hardlight)[/h3]
Another beautiful and creative world, filled with creativity in every corner. Combining the cavern aesthethic with glowing crystals, this place features a waterslide, underwater part (with a secret area!), dance floor and social area.

A prominent feature is also the DJ balcony, which has a system for playing music and controlling/syncing a laser show on the dance floor. This has a number of options and features. The world also has interesting lore behind it, with every contributor being featured in a form of a small story.



[h3]Honorable mentions[/h3]
Neon Den by Team: Hedgedogs - an incredibly polished hangout world. Set in a beautiful futuristic setting, it features a smart multimedia screen, adjustable lighting and colors, cozy pod with optional mirrors and baked lighting, giving it a very polished look.
The Metaverse Hotel by Team: TBA - probably the most ambitious entry, this world is brimming with content, from a number of places to check out with some interactivity, to a number of games, like paintball, bumpercars and ring punching game. Unfortunatelly its ambition has been one of its weaknesses too as a lot of parts are not quite finished or buggy, but it's still an incredibly impressive place to check out and we hope it'll get some extra polish after the MMC
Umi ga mieru Ryoakan by Team: haruru806 - if you're fond of the traditional Japanese hotels, this place if for you. It is quite cozy and nicely polished, with a number of interactive elements.

[h2]Avatar: Avatars[/h2]

[h3]1st place - Gunnbot (by Gunnar)[/h3]
Created for one of the game submissions, Gunnbot is a nice customizable avatar, allowing you to not only customize the colors, but also swap the head type. It features dash functionality as well, which is quite fun to use on its own.

Once you customize it, you can save your settings on a small memory card. When inserted into another bot (for example in the GunnGame) it'll load up your customizations, but the avatar itself can be used standalone as well.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]2nd place - False Goddess (by PurpleJuice)[/h3]
Returning for the 2nd year, PurpleJuice has come up with another creative avatar this year, with perfect theme for Halloween. This avatar was made completely from scratch in the span of 1 month and features support for both eye tracking and face tracking.

However those are where its unique aspect also shows - the eye and mouth are on the hands! You can see your own facial expressions by simply looking at your palm. Other users can hear your voice coming from the hand as well. The avatar also features another unique function - you can actually see from the eye in the hand!



[h3]3rd place - leech avatar (by levia)[/h3]
This is one of the most unique, even if quite disturbing avatars we've seen. It has a very appropriate presentation, where you pull the leech out of a jar. The avatar has a unique locomotion as well, which allows you to attach to moving objects in the world and even other avatars. To make it even more disturbing, the leach will undulate and slowly engorge itself when attached. We would love to see more non-conventional thinking with avatars like this.



[h3]Honorable mentions[/h3]
AstraVinn by HybridKyth & Ralii - another avatar made in the timespan of a single month! This world also features the whole progression, from initial sketches to the final model. If you're shopping for a new avatar base, check this one out.


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/740250/view/4626878047731226655

Hello everyone! Sorry again for lack of builds, with all the craziness around MMC it's a bit difficult to find time to work on them, but here's a bunch of goodies and fixes! Notably there's some improvements to text editing.

I've also done some internal refactoring to a bunch of things, including separating logic for running headless so it's easy to write code to do batch operations to worlds and other engine operations. To test it out I wrapped a functionality of the Minecraft import support into a nice standalone tool that makes it pretty hassle free to import Minecraft worlds to your account! It's also very simple, under 100 lines of code (the source is open, you can check it out below).

Also adding MMC21 badges to the build. They're not assigned yet, we're still working on that and it's going to take a bit, but this is just so the build is ready for them.

Also this build is compatible with previous.

[h2]New Features:[/h2]
- Added MMC21 badge support
-- The badges haven't been assigned to users yet, but this build is necessary so they show up once we assign them)
- Added support for new text editing shortcuts (based on request by @Gawdl3y, GH #1784)
-- Ctrl + Backspace -> deletes to the previous word boundary
-- Ctrl + Del -> deletes to the next word boundary
-- Ctrl + Shift + Backspace -> deletes the whole line before the cursor
-- Ctrl + Shift + Del -> deletes the whole line after the cursor
-- Ctrl + Left/Right -> moves cursor to the previous/next word boundary
-- Ctrl + SHift + Left/Right -> expands selection to the previous/next word boundary
- Added initial support for 2FA login on auth.neos.com (based on report by @Shifty | Quality Control Lead and @VbunnyGo#5669)
- Added standalone tool to automatically import/sync Minecraft world to your Neos account
-- Can be found under Tools/Minecraft2Neos/Mc2Neos.exe
-- To run it, simply pass it a path to a Minecraft map folder, or folder containing multiple maps (it'll import/sync all)
-- It will ask you to login to your account. You can also login automatically by passing -login -password on the command-line
-- Mineways needs to be installed in Program Files for it to work
-- This is completely hassle free - for each Minecraft map it will create a corresponding world if it doesn't exist or update it in-place
--- It uses tags to match the world - they are matched by the folder name
-- Re-running it on already imported map should automatically update only the modified chunks
-- This was implemented in part to test some of the internal refactoring. The program itself is very simple and under 100 lines of code:
--- https://github.com/Neos-Metaverse/Minecraft2Neos/blob/master/MC2Neos/Program.cs

[h2]Tweaks:[/h2]
- "Apply to Hit" now only applies character collider changes to colliders specifically on the hit slot, rather than also the ones in the children (based on feedback by @Shifty | Quality Control Lead, implemented by @ProbablePrime | Docs, GH #3176)
- Pressing Left/Right while a text is selected now places the caret at the beginning/end of the selection, rather than jumping left/right from it's current position (based on feedback by @Psychpsyo, GH #3201)
- Unpublishing inventory folder will no longer unpublish other public folders that are placed within as links (reported by @3x1t_5tyl3, GH #3205)
- Tweaked cloud background worker to make record preprocessing more reliable for more complex records (with thousands of assets)
- Merged Korean locale update by @MirPASEC
- Merged Spanish locale additions by @Ruz
- Merged Finnish locale update by Ducky07
- Merged Russian locale update by @Shadow Panther [RU/EN, UTC+3]
- Merged Czech locale update by @rampa_3 (UTC +1, DST UTC +2)

[h2]Security:[/h2]
- Public Folders now respect spawn permissions (based on report by @AshtonSparx, GH #2603, fixed by @ProbablePrime | Docs)
- Avatar Creator can now only be spawned and used by users with the Builder role, rather than guest (based on report by @Psychpsyo, @Sloppy McFloppy, @epicEaston197, GH #3134)
- Fixed ViewReferenceController causing a world crash when some of its dependent objects/components are removed (reported by dmx, Moderation Ticket #658646)

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]
- Fixed RemoteConnectionPointDriver throwing exceptions when only some of the drives are assigned
- Fixed Interactive Camera in a Camera Anchor being rapidly included and excluded from rendering
-- This fixes uncessary amount of network traffic being generated while the camera is in the anchor
-- This also fixes any filters on the camera from flashing rapidly (reported by @orange, GH #3174)

Hello everyone! I got a new build for you, just a small one to push a few smaller additions, improvements and bugfixes. I didn't have much time to work on builds over past week or so as I was busy checking out every single MMC entry as one of the judges (there's so much cool stuff you've made!) and it'll be still a bit difficult in the upcoming days as we'll be finalizing the judging, but hopefully I'll pick up on pushing out builds again slowly.

Notably handling of capturing in-game photos is a bit better now - e.g. when you're a spectator and the photo cannot spawn, it'll still be auto-saved to your inventory if you have that enabled!

Also fixed up some more issues with dynamic variable spaces not initializing variables or resets properly.


[h2]New Features:[/h2]
- Added "SetValues" impulse target to DataPreset, which will load up the current values/targets from the target fields/references (requested by @Nordwig, GH #3161)
- Added "Apply to object root" option to a number of builder tooltips (implemented by @ProbablePrime | Docs, based on feedback by @Turk, @Shifty | Quality Control Lead GH #3128)
-- Following tooltips were updated: CharacterCollider, MeshVisbility, ComponentClone, CameraExclude, Slicer
- Added "Last Visit" as advanced sorting parameter in the world list
-- Note that this currently only sorts already fetched records - it won't fetch more records based on your actual history at the moment.
- Added ability to easily add/remove event badges by the team (implemented by @ProbablePrime | Docs)
-- This will allow faster responses when requesting an event badge (e.g. MMC, VBLFC and so on to be removed or added when missing)

[h2]Tweaks:[/h2]
- When capturing photos (either with InteractiveCamera or gesture photo) in scenarios where they can't be (or are configured not to) spawned in the world, they're temporarily spawned locally and processed as usual
-- E.g. if you have auto-saving configured, they will be automatically saved into your inventory, even if you're spectator with spawning disabled
- When exporting/saving screenshots in-game, they will use the timestamp of the capture, rather than timestamp at the time of hitting the button
- Added check if Neos is running under Wine/Proton, to automatically disable the desktop support due to causing crashes (based on suggestion by @Enverex, @blythwack, @Yellow and others)

- Merged Czech locale additions by @rampa_3 (UTC +1, DST UTC +2)
- Merged Japanese locale update by @Aesc/あすく

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]
- Fixed AdminX and other .NET Core/5+ based Neos utilities not processing compressed API responses properly
-- This fixes not being able to login into AdminX (reported by @Raith | Programmer)
- Fixed DynamicVariableSpace not initializing its name on load, resulting in various other behaviors that run OnLoad not working if they require accessing a named space
-- E.g. this fixes DynamicValueVariableReset not reseting when ResetOnLoad is enabled and it's loaded together with a named dynamic variable space (reported by @Shifty | Quality Control Lead, GH #3163)
- Fixed dynamic variables (e.g. DynamicValueVariableDriver) randomly using default value on load, even if a source of value is present within the loaded object (previously reported by @seif1, @runtime, @Kal and others, GH #1943)

Just a small patch, fixing a case of crashes and some more audio buffer tweaks.

Compatible with previous build, no need to intermediately update.

[h2]Tweaks:[/h2]
- Tweaked audio buffer behavior for audio output device some more to reduce cases where the latency increases too much

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]
- Removed MP3Source from CSCore codec list for the time being given it's not currently stable
-- This fixes random crashes when MP3 assets are corerced into StaticAudioClip (reported by @WallTack, GH #3144)
-- Please do NOT attempt to force formats that aren't officially supported to be used. Even if this works in some cases, it can break at any moment or cause severe issues in other cases, requiring us to disable it. You can see supported formats for each asset type in log on Neos' startup

Hello everyone! Relatively small update with a few additions and update of the CSCore library which is used for a number of audio features (audio input, output and decoding audio formats), hopefully resolving a number of issues here and there.

We've also switched from youtube-dl to youtube-dlp which has much more frequent updates and might help with some of the YouTube issues, but we'll have to see how it fares.

There will likely be few builds and smaller ones while the MMC judging is going on, there's a lot of worlds to go through sorry! ^^; Plus I want to avoid accidentally breaking (too much) stuff to avoid breaking any entries during this period too.

[h2]New Features:[/h2]
- Added NullOutputWhenAllAreNull to StringConcatenationDriver, which will drive the target string to null if all input strings are null (based on feedback by @Banane9)
- Added color LogiX nodes for "Add" operation for individual channels (based on request by @TheBasementNerd (she/her), GH #3132)
-- Add R, G, B, A, Hue, Saturation and Value
-- R, G, B and Value nodes have "HDR" variant, which will not clamp the channel to 0...1 range

[h2]Tweaks:[/h2]
- Updated CSCore to latest version from master (several commits after 1.2.1.2 + custom modifications)
-- Previously used fork was based on 1.1.x and roughly 2 years older than the latest one
-- This has a number of bugfixes for audio capture (microphone), audio output and audio decoding (WAV, FLAC and Aiff, OGG is currently waiting on some bugfixes)
-- It might potentially help with some crashes when selecting certain audio devices (reported by @Khosumi, @Zandario (CytraX), @Gawdl3y, @ProbablePrime | Docs, @I'm Erin. , GH #2120)
- Switched to youtube-dlp from youtube-dl for more up to date support (based on suggestion by @kazu0617 Neos:kazu, GH #2866)
- Merged German locale additions by @Avunia Takiya
- Merged Russian locale update by @Shadow Panther [RU/EN, UTC+3]
- Merged Japanese locale update by @Aesc/あすく
- Merged Korean locale update by @MirPASEC
- Merged Finnish locale update by @Toni Kat
- Merged English locale update by @Toni Kat
- Merged Dutch locale update by @AnotherFoxGuy

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]
- WorldThumbnailItem will now keep working when the "visited" indicator is missing, fixing cases where saved instances broke (reported by @ProbablePrime | Docs)
- Fixed StringConcatenationDriver throwing exceptions when TargetString is null
- Tweaked buffering logic for audio output devices to help prevent caes of the audio crackling (reported by asakleiman, @chemicalcrux#1298, @Shadow Panther [RU/EN, UTC+3], jaidendude, @CyberZott#5567, @Readun#4250, @kazu0617 Neos:kazu, @Zyzyl, @amcomma, @Enverex and others GH #2053)
-- Please let us know if this resolves the problem or if it still persists!