I've pushed an update to staging branch that changes how we encode compressed normals/tangents on models.
TL;DR is that our old encoding format had a precision error up to 1-2 degrees, which resulted in various annoying artifacts that artists used to compensate by enabling expensive tangents in ModelDoc. (which is bad due to higher memory usage)
I have replaced this encoding with a new format, signed-octahedral + diamond tangent, which provides much better precision (around ~0.2deg precision error) while keeping the same memory budget.
What do you need to do as an artist/developer:
Just recompile all your models. Until models are recompiled, they will continue using old compression format
I think your custom shaders will auto recompile on the next editor launch, but make sure they are up to date anyway
Old cloud assets with outdated models and shaders will stay functional, but at the cost of higher memory bandwidth. If you have any models uploaded to cloud, please recompile and reupload them if you can!
This is a somewhat major change but it should not affect any existing assets, so even if you do nothing, everything should stay normal. Please yell at me if I broke any of your assets, attaching any logs/assets/repro projects will be useful.
Some comparisons of old vs new compression formats:Once again, this is currently only on staging. Report any issues with your assets here, on github issues, or just ping me in s&box discord. Next update goes live on 15th September.
