Play View
We significantly improved what was previously known as Play Area. Play View allows you to get immersed at an exact point and scale on a scene during play. It works in three modes now: Point, Standing Point, and Area.

— Point immerses you in the position and scale of the avatar figure.
— Standing Point does the same as Point but places your virtual head above the virtual floor at the distance of your real floor.
— Area positions you relative to the actual tracking area of your VR setup, where the center of your tracking area is the center inside the area of Play View.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=108&v=ZKG5nLgDFAg

Keyboard
We updated the keyboard, it's now possible to switch between upper and lower case, navigate the caret, and type in symbols aside from numbers and letters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1I_ImQx__I

Rename Saves
It's possible to rename saves while in Tvori now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmEdQqF21yQ

Texts on Scenes
It's possible to put texts on scenes and edit them via a keyboard now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whMp7W-JbBU

Tutorials
We made 2 interactive tutorials. The first tutorial will start once for every new user. The purpose is to teach people the basics of Tvori—how to interact with objects, how to animate, how to move on a scene, how to load scenes, and how to use some tools.

Transparent Materials
You can make objects semi-transparent through the color palette now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk1fZQuED4w

Semi-transparent Images (PNGs)
Import semi-transparent PNGs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPSnYNvTEfs



Fog
Set the fog material to any objects through the context menu. You can also change the color of the fog.

Snapping grid
When the snapping is on, a grid of dots visualizes the distance between snapping points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyB1-gYYX_w

All improvements and fixes with technical details
— Fixed when sometimes project doesn't load correctly after switching the projects from 2D menu
— Changed from 4096 to 8192 max import resolution
— Fixed problem with duplicating strokes (exception)
— Fixed visibility on the 360 image container other 360 image
— Play View. Switch between three modes: Point, Standing Point, and Area
— Save state of play targets (mode, UI)
— Add the 360-degree camera to the tools shelf
— 360 Photos. Inject Metadata (using exiftool)
— 360 Photos. Visualize 360 photos on the scenes
— 360 Photos. Visualize 360 photos on Shelf
— 360 Photos. Made loading faster and more reliable. Fixed situations when a 360 photo would turn black.
— Play View. Spawn 360 cameras through a context menu
— Enable Timeline->Export->Photo for play areas
— Improved Keyboard: upper/lower-case switch, new symbols, caret navigation
— Interactive tutorials—teaching the basics and working with the puppet
— Disallow throwing away the frozen/locked objects by trash bin
— Snapping grid visualization
— Improved the color palette
— Added a new fog material
— Added visualization of the snapping grid
— Made it possible to import PNGs with semi-transparency
— Created interactive tutorials

We are happy to invite everyone to participate in #Tvori360Time contest!
Create your story in VR and share as 360-degree video or create your atmospheric scene and share a panoramic 360 photo. Demonstrate the beauty of spacial views.

#Tvori360Time starts TODAY, February 14th 2019, and the submission deadline is March 14th 2019. Learn more about the contest.

https://youtu.be/l-rmurOZdLE

With this update, we focused on improving 360 output. We added a new 360 camera to Shelf that allows making 360 photos and videos. It's now more convenient to make 360 videos and possible to view 360 photos on scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFWWnJCyq-0

All the improvements and fixes:
— Camera. Made it possible to capture 360 photos
— Saving state of play targets (mode, UI)
— 360 Photos. Injects Metadata (using ExifTool) so the photo is getting recognized as panoramic 360 by viewers and websites such as Facebook
— 360 Photos. Visualizes 360 photos on scenes. See details in the note
— Possible to switch from a regular to 360 camera through a tab on Timeline
— Improved the precision of Locker
— Fixed the problem when it was possible to unlink/re-link some body parts of the body even if the puppet was locked
— Fixed random exceptions when colorizing objects
— Switches off LODs on Shelf
— Fixed the problem when projects were created with "low" quality settings
— Fixed detection of some models as form Poly, that wasn't from Poly
— Made it possible to save the One Hand Rotation mode to the settings when you switch to that mode in VR
— Made it possible to rename scenes
— Improved the layout of Menu

Duplication of animations
With the new update, you can animate a puppet, duplicate it and the duplicated puppet will have all the animations intact. This also includes duplication of an object that has other objects linked with animations—animations in those objects will be duplicated with the objects as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-mLUeBhH6I

Level of Detail
The following feature might be useful for those who have scenes with a large amount of high-poly models and want to improve the performance in those scenes. It would also require a basic knowledge of 3D editing software.


Now you can import models with a level of detail. Level of detail or LOD involves decreasing the complexity of a 3D model representation as it moves away from the viewer. In short, it makes real-time rendering more performant and will help you to make high-fidelity, optimized scenes in Tvori. For example, you can sculpt something in Medium or Masterpiece, set up LOD for that sculpt and then import it to Tvori—up close that sculpt will be quite detailed but won't affect the performance as much. Learn how to set up LODs.

This is the first iteration of the feature. Ideally, in the further iterations, this kind of optimization should be performed automatically.

Starting & Loading Screen
We updated the starting screen and the loading indicator. Now, when a scene is loading or you're exporting something it will be clearly indicated in VR and on the desktop screen. We fixed visual glitches and screen freezes when going from one scene to another.

Switching Between Projects
The 2D menu now will be storing the paths to the last 5 opened projects making it faster to switch between the projects.

Quality Settings
The 2D menu now also allows switching between quality levels, so if you feel like the performance isn't good you can switch to the lowest quality that disables shadows and decreases detalization of models with LODs.

All Improvements & Fixes of the Update
Duplication of Animations
Support of LODs in Tvori
New starting screen
Improved loading Indication
Showing the list the last 5 opened projects in 2D menu
Exporting rotation of the sun in FBX & Alembic when exporting the whole scene
Photo spawned from the camera on a scene is undoable
Improve scaling controls on the fog
Fixed switching back pages on Poly shelf
Renamed "up to button" from "root" to "Stuff" (on the import shelf)
Renamed some assets from the shelf
Added a sphere with inverted faces to the shelf in Primitive pack. For example, it`s might be useful for cartoon eyes.
Now an exported Alembic file will contain transforms of light sources

It's now possible to create and switch projects! By a project we mean a folder in your system that contains scenes and imported resources. You can choose a project through the 2D Menu that you can find at the top left corner of Tvori on the desktop. A default project that you start with is located in .../Documents/Tvori.



As requested, you can now turn off tunnel vision when navigating (scaling, rotating, moving on a scene), video tips, disable Ambient Occlusion, and more. Change settings through the 2D Menu at the top left corner of Tvori on the desktop.

Keep in mind that the current 2D menu is temporary and at some point we will turn it into a VR-first user interface.

If a serious problem arises we will show you a special icon. Pressing on that icon will lead to a form for sending us special files (logs) that contain information about that problem. Sending the logs will help us to track and fix it.



When you want to record or stream your screen we recommend to turn on "Stream Mode" by pressing the button on the bottom right corner on the desktop. In "Stream Mode" we smooth out head movements, so it's more comfortable to watch what you do from the first person view by others.



Saved 360 videos now will contain special information inserted that would allow Youtube, Facebook, and other services to identify those videos as spherical 360 videos and render them accordingly.

We published our roadmap. Take a look at what is going to be our focus on for the next half of the year.

— Added 2D Settings Menu
— Improved Locker accuracy
— Place imported models from Shelf to zero coordinates by using the context menu
— Made it possible to take photos from the share button on Timeline
— Added 360 metadata to exported 360 videos (for support Youtube, Facebook automatic uploading)
— Supported Undo/Redo for the color palette on the lights
— Supported Undo/Redo for FOV (field of view) slider on the camera and spot size on Projector
— Made objects throwing work correctly when a user is small
— Made auto lock threshold for Puppet more comfortable. Hide the "Lock" icon when Puppet is too small
— Added "Stream Mode" button to turn on the smoothing of head movements

We made a user guide that you can reference when you're not sure how to do something in Tvori. It's still in the process of refining, so feel free to suggest what we could add or improve or point out on errors.

You can find a snow effect in the latest update! You can make your scenes to snow. Find Snow in Effects pack on Shelf. And the wind controller (also on the shelf) will affect the snow, fire and magic sparks.

We fixed several problems, including the one where if a puppet is linked to another object it becomes unusable.

Improvements & Fixes:
— Made a user guide
— Added a snow effect. Find it on Shelf under Effects pack
— Added a wind controller. Find it on Shelf under Effects pack
— Fixed incorrect linking of the puppet to other objects
— Fixed the project path string in the settings.ini
— A subtle optimization for Linker when playing an animation on the puppet
— Fixed objects freeze when they're linked to the camera or light tools
— Disallow hotkeys when in the process of exporting videos
— Fixed inability to undo sun rotation right after grabbing it from Menu

Fixes and improvements in the new update:

• Fixed an occasional twitching of cameras and other objects during playback of animations recorded in real-time
  
• Added a new metallic material
  
• Hiding locking highlight when exporting videos
  
• Added new params in global config Settings.ini. Add ProjectSettings.ini config file
  
• Fixed exporting animations of skinned meshes in FBX
  
• Hierarchy cleanup when exporting animations in FBX
  
• Improved the behavior of saves in the menu
  
• Improved locking/unlocking of the puppet parts
  
• Saving recorded sounds into "Stuff/Sounds" folder instead of the root
  
• Added a message "Exporting" when exporting to FBX/Alembic
  
• Hiding gizmo pivot point if an object is released
  
• Improved the logic behind Gizmo scale in the snapping mode
  
• Fixed NullReferenceException when logging in/out on the Poly shelf
  
• Make export to Poly run without authorization each time
  
• Fixed the bug when an object can be displaced relative to initial position after scaling
  
• Fixed the bug when an object can be inflated when zooming out to min scale
  
• Fixed of labels overlay on controllers and microphone tool
  
• Showing the progress when exporting sounds

We love holidays and we love contests, and so we announce #TvoriChristmasTime !



Let’s create the atmosphere of the upcoming Christmas and just have lots of fun during the next two weeks by animating, sharing and watching nice Christmas videos.
Check this post http://tvori.co/tvori-christmas-time for more details on the contest rules and awards. And as usual, we have AMAZING people in our jury board, just look:

Judges:
- Tipatat Chennavasin, General Partner, The Venture Reality Fund
- Jamie Feltham, Author at UploadVR
- Mike Morris, Storyboard Artist and Revisionist on DuckTales at Disney ABC Television Group
- Jean Thoren, Publisher/President, Animation Magazine
- Estella Tse, Virtual Reality Artist and Designer, Artist in Residence with Google and Adobe

Awards:
1st prize – Amazon gift card (100 USD)
2nd prize – Amazon gift card (60 USD)
3rd prize – Amazon gift card (40 USD)

Use #TvoriChristmasTime hashtag for submission and we are all looking forward to seeing your artworks!
Stay tuned!

Finally, with the new update, you will be able to export your meshes with animations in Alembic & FBX from Tvori! Here's an example of a video that was made by Sterling Osment from Framework VFX using Gravity Sketch for modeling, Tvori for the layout and animation, and Marmoset for rendering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6zSMYNNkNM

An animation and look development process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyinV1SoKHg

Here's how you can export the whole scene in either of the formats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7P6UF5Z9gw

Finally, with the new update, you will be able to export your meshes with animations in Alembic & FBX from Tvori! Here's an example of a video that was made by Sterling Osment from Framework VFX using Gravity Sketch for modeling, Tvori for the layout and animation, and Marmoset for rendering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6zSMYNNkNM

An animation and look development process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyinV1SoKHg

Here's how you can export the whole scene in either of the formats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7P6UF5Z9gw