The fifteenth and final preview build of the new in-development Desktop+ version is now available.
Major release soon™.
These builds are supposed to give a glimpse into the ongoing development process.
The NewUI branch should be fine for daily use.
Please report any issue you find in the NewUI Preview Build bug report thread.
What is Desktop+ NewUI?
Desktop+ NewUI is what soon will become Desktop+ 3.0.
What's new in Desktop+ NewUI Preview 15?
Finalized Feature Set
This is the final NewUI Preview build. While there are quite a few features I'd like to add to the application, a cut has to be made somewhere.
According to Steam stats, the vast majority of users are still on the stable branch. It's time to get everyone on the same new page, now that no features of the previous version are missing anymore.
3.0 won't be the end, but at the same time there's been an undeniable slowdown in development progress. Time to finish this milestone for now.
Desktop+ 2.x Configuration & Profile Migration
Old configs and profiles are now automatically migrated on first launch.
This is being done in a non-destructive manner. Old config is renamed and profiles are loaded from a different location, meaning the old files can remain untouched.
The stable branch has been prepared in advance for this change and loads the renamed config file instead of the normal one if it exists (v.2.8+).
Old config and profile files can be removed for good by navigating to [Restore Default Settings] and ticking "Delete Unused Legacy Configuration & Profile Files" (and unticking everything else).
As for existing NewUI users, the NewUI config retains priority but the file will be renamed from "config_newui.ini" to "config.ini". Existing 2.x config will be renamed as well, so it's not lost, but no migration is happening in this case.
If you want to help test the legacy config migration but already have a NewUI config, you can do so by deleting or renaming "config_newui.ini" in the application's install directory. But make sure to disable Steam Cloud for this, as it will restore the file automatically on launch otherwise.
Destroying existing setups is the last thing I do with the major upgrade, so I hope some of you can help testing this as well.
Quick-Start Guide Returns
The in-app Quick-Start Guide has been rewritten for the new interface and is ready to jump right into your face when you launch Desktop+ for the first time.
Most users on the preview branch don't need this lecture, but it's proven to be effective in the past to reduce help requests, so I hope you can bear with it.
Simply press [Close] and it shouldn't pop up again.
Pen Input Simulation
It is now possible to have the laser pointer simulate a touch pen input device instead of a mouse.
This enables gestures meant for pen inputs, such as click drag scrolling in many applications and holding down left-click to perform a right click.
Some of the pen input behaviors are configurable on the OS-end, so make sure they are enabled if you wish make use of them.
Mouse Input Smoothing
There's now the option to smooth/stabilize simulated mouse inputs.
The smoothing algorithm is based on AbstractQbit's Radial Follow Smoothing OpenTabletDriver Plugin. I've found it to be a simple, yet effective way to handle input smoothing.
While the source of the algorithm exposed a bunch of parameters to the user, I decided to break it down to simple presets that I've found suitable for laser pointer use.
However, please leave feedback if they don't feel right to you.
Gaze-based HMD Laser Pointer Input
The "HMD Pointer" setting returns. Now with the option to define global keyboard shortcuts for simulated mouse inputs, as well as to toggle the laser pointer.
With this, inputs on overlays without motion controllers can now also be done while the dashboard is closed.
Other Changes
- Added fade-in delay for the Overlay Bar to make it possible to use the dashboard grab handle in the Desktop+ dashboard tab
- Added "Load Overlay Profile" action command
- Added styling and translations for browser overlay error pages
- Fixed dashboard origin not following the tilt of the SteamVR dashboard
- Fixed "Set Mouse Position" action commands sending mouse movement to desktop multiple times if there are multiple non-browser target overlays
- Fixed right-click slider value editing not working
- Fixed overlays not updating after Desktop Duplication resets
- Fixed Desktop Duplication dirty regions and cursors not being updated correctly in certain scenarios
- Fixed incorrect cropping after switching capture sources while Over-Under 3D is enabled
- Fixed VR keyboard window drags changing UI widget focus
- Fixed discrete scrolling rate being frame/update rate-dependent
- Fixed overlay cropping UI breaking when overlay dimensions are invalid
- Fixed overlay action button override not being loaded
- Fixed Browser overlay state (title, URL, navigation state) not updating in UI while the overlay is being displayed on the Theater Screen
- Fixed changing action button order by dragging not working
- Fixed keyboard cluster settings resetting when leaving the page
- Fixed keycode picker not saving changes when using [From Input...]
- Fixed "Overlay Position is Locked" drag hint not disappearing for Performance Monitor & Browser overlays
- Changed "Show Advanced Settings" to default to false
- Worked around constant vibration that appears to occur when triggering haptics once on the gamepad device in SteamVR
- Various other minor UI fixes and adjustments
The NewUI Preview branch also includes all changes of the stable branch up until now (v.2.8.6).
Browser overlays are available in the separate NewUI Preview + Browser branch, as explained in the initial browser overlay announcement.
Call for Translators
You speak more than just English? Great! With your help we can bring Desktop+ to more people.
Features and strings are locked in for Desktop 3.0. If any of you were interested in creating a translation for the app, now is the best time.
Translation files can be found in the "lang" folder inside the install directory. New files are picked up automatically and marked as a community translation if the author field is set (see "ja.ini" for an example).
As for contact options regarding this, while I'll take what I can get and accept friend request on Steam for this stuff, it'd be best to post things publicly for everyone to see on either the Steam forums or GitHub issue tracker.
Any help is appreciated, thank you.
Keyboard layout submissions are also welcome, of course. Though they're not as tied to specific versions in comparison.
Gamescom 2024
It's another year for me to be present at Gamescom with my good friends of the DragonBox Shop (from August 21st to the 25th). We're in the retro area in hall 10.2.
While the booth isn't Desktop+-related at all, if you happen to attend, feel free to come by, say hi (ask for some "Alex" guy), and check out some retro games and not so retro devices.
We don't have queues or anything like that so you can just jump in.
And there we have it. Some major breakage notwithstanding, the next release will be 3.0.
While things are kind of done at this point, I realistically don't expect 3.0 to happen before September, as August is kind of busy for me.
But yeah, as I want to try to get a clean launch for 3.0, please do not hesitate to report anything off you find in this build. Thanks.