Working with in-game recordings could be a big headache because of all the tracks a large scene can have. Now it's super easy to group up those tracks into separate nested movies (sequences) through the track list context menu.
Trying to use Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y while working on a movie has been unreliable at best, sometimes leading to lost work. This should be solved now: keyframe editing writes to the movie's history correctly, and using undo / redo shortcuts will now route to movie maker even if the scene view is in focus (unless the scene has a more recent edit).
I've updated how the middle handle in move transform gizmo works. Previously, click and dragging this handle would move the object around in screen space, which is something that most artists and developers found not very useful.
It's been now updated to trace objects to the ground instead. It will take the object origin and place it on the nearest hit surface under the cursor. This will work only with objects that have a collider.
You can also hold Alt while dragging to make the object's rotation align with the normal of a hit surface:
Previously you could only make separate .vmdl files from the file selection, now you also got a new option that allows creating a single model.
It will automatically detect and setup collider mesh/hull and LODs. This may be handy if you prefer exporting each submesh separately instead of exporting one single file, and it also comes with a benefit of automatically assigning a collider mesh if you got one.
For valid assignment, your LOD mesh files should be named with a suffix of _lodX (where X is the level number), collider mesh as _col, and collider hulls as _hull. Everything else will be assigned as a normal render mesh in ModelDoc.
Using cloud assets always seemed to have random problems for people. A couple of things have been fixed to make them more reliable:
Installing a cloud asset usually downloads the asset and it's dependencies - there was no order to these downloads, sometimes the asset would download before it's dependencies and fail to load because it's dependencies were missing. Now we don't load the asset until every download is complete.
Also sometimes on launch the editor would try to recompile cloud assets that had no source files to recompile, putting it in a bad state.. It's now impossible for the editor to try to compile these assets.
We've replaced VPC, Valve's project generator, with our own C# based one. Modules are now described in .build.cs files, similar to how Sharpmake or Unreal Build Tool do it.
This doesn't really affect anyone directly, but it's another Valve dependency gone, and it's a step towards being able to open source our own C++ code. It also gives us a much easier path to supporting new platforms, and everything now lives in one tool alongside our existing build, content and upload steps.
Another big cleanup this week, and like the VPC change this one is invisible from the outside.
We used to check third party binaries and headers straight into our git repo. That kept our own setup easy to use and contained, but it made updating and managing those dependencies a pain. Now they get downloaded instead of living in the repo. Easier to maintain, and much easier to expand support to new platforms.
For everyone interested in giant ugly YAML files: The scripts that build the dependencies are open source.
Terrain culling previously only worked on the main view, but additional cameras could inherit terrain visibility calculated for the wrong viewpoint, causing terrain sections to disappear.
Terrain meshlets are now culled independently for each rendered camera view using that view’s current position and frustum. This also removes a one-frame delay caused by using stale camera information.
overlay_fps got a more useful this week. Alongside the frametime graph it now shows GPU time, 1% lows, your slowest frame stages, your full display setup, and which of fps_max, fps_max_menu, fps_max_inactive or VSync is actually capping you. James also added overlay_fps 2, which sweeps a marker across the screen once a second, one block per frame. Handy for spotting issues with frame pacing.
26.08.19
26.08.19
19 August 2026
55 changes in this update
add
Added
11 changes
HTTP/2 support to Sandbox.Http.RequestX.
Can create a single model from a selection of multiple mesh files.
Movie Maker command for creating sequences from selected tracks.
More diagnostics to overlay_fps, including: main-loop and rendered frame rates, % of frames not rendered, and more.
overlay_fps 2, with a frame-time shuttle intended for analysing slow-motion recordings.
Circle-of-confusion debug view for Depth of Field.
Ground tracing to the position editor tool.
Scoped file-watcher suppression system for operations which modify several related files.
New C# native project and solution generator, replacing VPC.
Safety checks preventing render targets from being created with zero mip levels.
Explicit Vulkan synchronization between texture clears and subsequent GPU work.
north_east
Improved
20 changes
Terrain rendering with multiple cameras.
Terrain meshlets are now culled independently for every rendered camera view.
Terrain culling now uses the latest camera frustum, removing a one-frame delay.
Terrain culling now supports both perspective and orthographic views correctly.
Shadow passes continue to draw the complete terrain clipmap so off-screen terrain can cast shadows.
Depth of Field rendering for both near and far blur, front-blur compositing and coverage.
Handling of empty and undispatched Depth of Field tiles.
Depth of Field rendering order around transparent objects.
Depth of Field support for first-person viewmodels by remapping their depth range.
Depth of Field reliability on AMD GPUs with explicit resource barriers.
Upgraded FSR from 3.0.3 to 3.1.4.
Vulkan support with Vulkan 1.3 cleanup.
Frame-time diagnostics while keeping overlay sampling and drawing allocation-free.
Movie Maker undo behavior.
Hidden-geometry editing so edges and vertices belonging exclusively to hidden faces are also hidden.
The orientation gizmo so it no longer blocks looking around.
MeshComponent handling of ExcludeGameLayer when rendering shadows-only meshes.
Temporary-effect processing by avoiding temporary list allocations.
Cloud asset installation so packages are only processed after all their files have downloaded.
Asset compilation by avoiding recompile requests for assets which cannot be recompiled.
check
Fixed
19 changes
Terrain disappearing or being incorrectly culled in secondary camera views.
Terrain culling using stale camera information.
Incorrect world-space frustum planes when reading the current native render view.
Black lines around Depth of Field.
Colour bleeding around blurred areas.
Square artifacts in near Depth of Field.
Stale pixels from unused Depth of Field tiles being sampled during compositing.
Custom transparent objects being clipped or rendered in the wrong order by Depth of Field.
Viewmodels using a different depth range from the world during Depth of Field processing.
Depth of Field corruption on AMD GPUs.
Vulkan texture clears racing with later GPU work.
Texture samplers becoming stuck at mip level zero.
Slang renaming or corrupting real shader resources with an _0 suffix.
Temporary render targets calculating an incorrect maximum mip count.
Engine accepting render targets with zero mip levels.
Engine reading the wrong MSAA configuration.
Bark materials allowing meshes from separate props to be combined incorrectly.
Streamer Mode popup behavior.
Avatars displayed while Streamer Mode is active.
remove
Removed
5 changes
Deleted VPC
Deleted checked-in third-party binaries and source trees which are now downloaded during setup
Deleted Fossilize and its bundled dependencies.
Deleted the obsolete fur ShaderGraph asset.
Reverted Steam controller glyph support as part of moving back from development SDL 3.5 builds to stable SDL 3.4.14.
Guys you still waste time on freaking movie makers, who uses that shit? Your platform barely has any players, would be much wiser to get streamers to play games on your platform to attract people who will actually do something in your movie maker. Do actual updates for players. You know what people complain about, not so hard to notice.
Good job FP! Some of the most boring work is the best because these issues were plaguing cloud loading and were causing a lot of material problems for loading cloud scenemaps.
Now we just need the bugs fixed for shiny Materials and weird lighting shader quirks and we are sitting better than yesterday.
s&box team is working for that, back in June, Garry said they would focus on the platform and outlined the plan for what they needed to improve: a sandbox game, launch gamejams, making the platform easier to understand, and so on. This doesn’t mean that the other developers should start working on the platform development if their specialty is for developing modules for the engine, like Lorenzo or Ziks, who will personally oversee the development of Movie Maker. Besides, Movie Maker will be ready and easy to use when the players come, it’ll be perfect for creating trailers, animations, and cutscenes.
Guys you still waste time on freaking movie makers, who uses that shit? Your platform barely has any players, would be much wiser to get streamers to play games on your platform to attract people who will actually do something in your movie maker. Do actual updates for players. You know what people complain about, not so hard to notice.
Guys you still waste time on freaking movie makers, who uses that shit? Your platform barely has any players, would be much wiser to get streamers to play games on your platform to attract people who will actually do something in your movie maker. Do actual updates for players. You know what people complain about, not so hard to notice.
Movie makers have an extensive use for scripted events in games. They are one of the many tools FP is working on to make sure we get quality games. Game developers need to provide updates for their players, its FPs job to do actual updates for them not the players themselves. There are many problems still, but staying optimistic and working with them while they develop games is the exciting part of it lmao. Constructive Criticism goes quite a ways. 👍
Guys you still waste time on freaking movie makers, who uses that shit? Your platform barely has any players, would be much wiser to get streamers to play games on your platform to attract people who will actually do something in your movie maker. Do actual updates for players. You know what people complain about, not so hard to notice.
s&box team is working for that, back in June, Garry said they would focus on the platform and outlined the plan for what they needed to improve: a sandbox game, launch gamejams, making the platform easier to understand, and so on. This doesn’t mean that the other developers should start working on the platform development if their specialty is for developing modules for the engine, like Lorenzo or Ziks, who will personally oversee the development of Movie Maker. Besides, Movie Maker will be ready and easy to use when the players come, it’ll be perfect for creating trailers, animations, and cutscenes.
1. still no date for game jam, no news at all, ignoring questions. 2. sandbox is still barebones, no one is playing that and it didn’t receive any major updates since launch if not mistaken. 3. making the platform easier to understand? Wdym? They keep breaking stuff with newer updates regularly instead of fixing stuff. Still can’t even settle one clear ui. 4. Did you use movie maker at least once? Have you created at least one clip or sth? I don’t think so. Be honest, I’m curious.
1. still no date for game jam, no news at all, ignoring questions.
2. sandbox is still barebones, no one is playing that and it didn’t receive any major updates since launch if not mistaken.
3. making the platform easier to understand? Wdym? They keep breaking stuff with newer updates regularly instead of fixing stuff. Still can’t even settle one clear ui.
4. Did you use movie maker at least once? Have you created at least one clip or sth? I don’t think so. Be honest, I’m curious.
ill agree with the sandbox thing for sure.
im not sure if you saw how the sbox ui was when it first launched but it was dreadful... are you telling me its not any better?... because its many many many times better then it was when it launched.... how do you expect them to do this? just instantly come up with the best ui possible first try that they will use for the rest of the time the platform is up for?... cmon now... obviously they are going to have to do more than one iteration to get it the way they want it.
i used movie maker to make "ghosts" for your personal best time in my platformer that you race against when playing, if it wasnt for movie maker that wouldve been a complete PAIN to get done, with movie maker i can record a run, and then if its a personal best time at the end of the run, it uses that recorded run as the "ghost" you race against.... just because you can't think of how a movie maker would be good to have in a working state than idk what to tell you... how do you expect devs to make good games with cut scenes and stuff if they don't have the tools to do so?
people expect it instantly be a unity/ unreal engine even though those have been cooking for how many years now to get to the state they are currently in? people are so damn impatient with stuff now adays...
Something worth asking: Is there going to be a time where we get to see area lights again at one point or another? I am aware they're expensive and that being the reason they got removed, yet I still tried to implement the deleted code into my own project but that has been a hassle.
Would there be any plans to bring LTC back as a shader feature, so the cost only registers in shaders that need it?
i love rod and grafis and archivist
i hate titanovsky
Some of the most boring work is the best because these issues were plaguing cloud loading and were causing a lot of material problems for loading cloud scenemaps.
Now we just need the bugs fixed for shiny Materials and weird lighting shader quirks and we are sitting better than yesterday.
Movie makers have an extensive use for scripted events in games. They are one of the many tools FP is working on to make sure we get quality games. Game developers need to provide updates for their players, its FPs job to do actual updates for them not the players themselves.
There are many problems still, but staying optimistic and working with them while they develop games is the exciting part of it lmao. Constructive Criticism goes quite a ways. 👍
2. sandbox is still barebones, no one is playing that and it didn’t receive any major updates since launch if not mistaken.
3. making the platform easier to understand? Wdym? They keep breaking stuff with newer updates regularly instead of fixing stuff. Still can’t even settle one clear ui.
4. Did you use movie maker at least once? Have you created at least one clip or sth? I don’t think so. Be honest, I’m curious.
im not sure if you saw how the sbox ui was when it first launched but it was dreadful... are you telling me its not any better?... because its many many many times better then it was when it launched.... how do you expect them to do this? just instantly come up with the best ui possible first try that they will use for the rest of the time the platform is up for?... cmon now... obviously they are going to have to do more than one iteration to get it the way they want it.
i used movie maker to make "ghosts" for your personal best time in my platformer that you race against when playing, if it wasnt for movie maker that wouldve been a complete PAIN to get done, with movie maker i can record a run, and then if its a personal best time at the end of the run, it uses that recorded run as the "ghost" you race against.... just because you can't think of how a movie maker would be good to have in a working state than idk what to tell you... how do you expect devs to make good games with cut scenes and stuff if they don't have the tools to do so?
people expect it instantly be a unity/ unreal engine even though those have been cooking for how many years now to get to the state they are currently in? people are so damn impatient with stuff now adays...
Would there be any plans to bring LTC back as a shader feature, so the cost only registers in shaders that need it?