Hello there, and thank you so much for checking in!
Further Scripting Progress - Persistence & More!
A new addition to our Lua Scripting system that has just been released to one of our Nightly branches is Persistence, which allows creators to store data on the user’s local machine and be preserved for later use.
This means that anything from simple toggles, to game save data, can be maintained across instances, worlds, and even play sessions. While the convenience of not having to flip the same settings in your favorite cozy world for every visit is exciting in it’s own right, we also hope it’ll allow creators to build games and similar content with longer-term play in mind. Saving scores and personal bests are a couple of great uses that come to mind, but there are limitless applications that can be realized and expanded upon.
While such use-cases may be obvious enough when it comes to Worlds, keep in mind that Scripting is also available for Props and Avatars as well, all of which may take advantage of the benefits that persistence offers.
So, how does it all work? As noted before, this data is stored on your local machine, but in two different forms: public and private. Public storage is a user-readable/editable JSON file, and can be used for simple preferences and configuration. Private storage is intended for something like game save states, and is an encrypted binary file designed to be secure and inaccessible to the user.
Additionally, we also plan to provide a server-side storage solution for persistent data down the line that will allow for even further security by not being stored on any user’s local machine.
Finally, in a recent Patreon meetup with the community, we were asked about our plans for scripting and what’s to come, so we’d like to share that here as well.
In an early Status Report discussing scripting and its features, we mentioned that additional languages would be added over time. One such language that is under heavily consideration is WASM, or WebAssembly. While plans for this are not necessarily set in stone, we are hoping to begin development on WASM when our current Lua implementation is in a more mature state.
Another new feature that we plan to make available to creators is the Scripting Network. This will allow creators to have more freedom and control over how scripts sync over the network, instead of being bound to spawnable/object sync, tailoring it to their specific needs.
More information to come on these features and more in the future.
If you would like to try out Persistence for yourself, and by extension the in-development Lua Scripting system, more information is available in our Community Discord server.
Deep Links
Recently, we introduced a new feature in the latest Stable release called Deep Links, which allow for interactions via url links such as joining an instance or viewing user/content details page with a link from outside of the game.
This can currently be seen and used by logging into our Hub, and joining a friend in an accessible instance via the 'JOIN - VR MODE' and 'JOIN - DESKTOP MODE' buttons. It is also possible to access the in-game details for users and content via a button on their respective Hub pages.
To enable Deep Links, upon launching the game, you will be prompted to install the necessary requirements. However, if wished, you may opt-out.
Community Documentation
One important bit of feedback that we often receive here at ABI about our relatively insufficient documentation. Admittedly, it is a problem of our own creation as it can be easy to lose track of these things throughout the development process. Though we have been striving to correct that and fill in the gaps, there is quite a lot of information to cover which takes time for a small team to juggle on top of working on additions to the game itself.
So, we’ve decided to open up our documentation for members of the community to contribute their knowledge and know-how of ChilloutVR! If you have any relevant information about playing the game or creating content that you believe would be useful to new, and even existing, users then we would be grateful for your support.
Instructions for contributing to the documentation can be found on our GitHub repository here: https://github.com/Alpha-Blend-Interactive/docs
We look forward to your submissions!
Groups Progress
Quick little update on Groups!
To briefly recap; Groups is a new feature coming soon to ChilloutVR that will make it much easier to organize and keep up with different groups of players for anything from small gatherings to larger events. Members of a group are able to join Group instances, including instance types that are exclusive and non-exclusive to the Group, and even display a preferred group in their profile for all to see.
We’re happy to say that we’ve made significant progress on this new addition, and expect an initial release to be available very soon. Most of the basic functions that will allow group leaders to create, manage, and customize their group, including new instance types, images, banners, and pre-defined roles, will be available on launch both from the hub and game itself. However, there is still more to come post-launch, such as announcements and post, and longer-term plans that are still in development including events, user defined roles, and the ability to display your preferred groups on your nameplate.
While we have mentioned in the past that this would likely be introduced sometime after the release of the UI 2.0 update, we’ve instead decided to include Groups in the game’s current UI while we continue to work with your feedback on the preview shown in August.
We know this has been a very highly anticipated addition for our community, one we can’t wait to get in your hands.
Final Notes
As always, thank you for your continued interest and support of ChilloutVR's development.
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Like every company, we need financial support to be able to push updates and improve our product. We are grateful for every bit of support we get.If you want to support us you can do so from our Patreon
We are more than thankful for your support!
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Use the link above to join our discord server and get in touch with our wonderful community, find help with creation-related topics, and meet new people to play with!