- by Lux
Please note: This update is only available for those who are part of our multiplayer beta. If you're looking to collaborate on a show or just want some of the other goodies, sign up for the multiplayer beta here. We're working hard to quickly get these updates back into the general release branch so everyone can enjoy them, but that's still an update or two away.
You'll find our new Ghost Mode button on both the desktop camera switcher or the in-VR camera switcher. This will make your character invisible so you can play director without getting in the way of the shot, or animate props by grabbing them and moving them around. Ghost Mode also has the ability to move the world around and scale it up or down by grabbing it with one or two hands, just like Builder Mode.
It takes work to get a set setup exactly how you like, and it should be hard to accidentally undo all that work. That's why we've added a confirmation step whenever you use the "Clear All" and "Reset to Original" buttons on the underside of the Sets palette.
We've also made lots of smaller improvements throughout the app. These include:
- by Rachael Hosein
Please note: This update is only available for those who are part of our multiplayer beta. If you're looking to collaborate on a show or just want some of the other goodies, sign up for the multiplayer beta here.
We've had a lot of requests for this and although it's still in experimental/we're-still-working-out-the-kinks mode, we wanted to get it into your hands as soon as possible. You can now view your desktop in Flipside - that means you can stream whatever is on your desktop (local videos, whatever you have pulled up on the internet, etc.) in your Flipside show.
Follow these steps if you want to try out this feature:
Important notes:
Learn more about the Desktop Mirror in our Show Tools documentation.
If you didn't know, Flipside supports 360º video skyboxes...and now they loop! So don't worry if your skybox video isn't long enough. We've got your covered :)
In the Featured category of the Sets palette, you'll notice a new Creator Tools Example Set. This set walks you through the different functionality you can add to your Flipside set through the Flipside Creator Tools.
You can also download a version of the Creator Tools that contains the example set so you can reference how we set things up. If you're a Creator Tools pro already, don't worry, you can also download a slimmed-down version that doesn't include the examples.
Important note: Unity has issued a security notice, so our Creator Tools users should upgrade to Unity version 2017.4.22f1.
Everyone in the Flipside community has been so great with helping us iron out issues and bugs. Thank you! To make things a little easier, when you encounter something a little wonky and need support, you can click on the Settings icon on the 2D camera switcher, then go to the Support tab to file a bug record that includes everything we need to help solve the problem.
Important notes:
- by Lux
While this is primarily a bug fix update for our multiplayer Beta branch, we did sneak one new feature in:
When in character, you'll now see a ghost-like outline of your character, so you can see exactly where your hands and body are positioned. Here's what it looks like.
We experimented with a lot of possible solutions to this problem, which was made a lot more complicated by the fact that we don't control how most of our characters are made. Other solutions like just showing your body directly would fall apart with larger characters like our elephant, whose trunk being visible got in the way of seeing what you're actually trying to do.
This solution should work automatically with all custom characters, but if you spot any that don't work well, let us know on Discord. This is also the first step towards more improvements we have in development for characters.
We also made the following bug fixes and improvements that should make things feel better across the board:
For details on what we're working on next, check out our roadmap!
- by Lesley Klassen
Happy New Year Flipsters!
We're blasting into the new year with a new update. In the last update, we released our multiplayer beta and users are exploring the new changes to the user interface and playing with the new multiplayer features. The feedback has been great. We will continue to make updates to the Beta until it's stable, then we'll push those changes live for all our users. If you want to try out these new features, Sign-up for our Beta!
We've heard you loud and clear. Characters are now represented as photographs rather than miniature models on our palette. This means character previews load faster on the palette so browsing for your favourite characters is much easier and uses less data (for those who have lower bandwidth caps). Thank you to Cybermynd for this suggestion!
Thanks to all our beta users, especially Discord user Derky Sprawl, The VR Girl and vrgamedevgirl for helping us track down key multiplayer bugs!
Check out this snippet from one of Derky Sprawl and The VR Girl's #madeinflipside collabs.
Learn how to use an external microphone to improve the audio quality of your recordings. This tutorial explains how to select an external microphone for the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive.
Oculus recently made changes to Oculus Home to allow apps to stream directly to Facebook. Flipside Studio now supports this feature. You will need to connect your Oculus account to your Facebook account and opt-in to the Public Test Channel on Oculus Home for this to work. Learn more through our online documentation.
Creator Tools additions (v0.15)
Download the latest version of the creators tools.
We're working hard on ironing out all the bugs with our multiplayer beta. Here are some issues that we're currently digging into.
If you're encountering a new issue, please let us know on Discord or on our Trello Roadmap.
- by Lux
This month marked our 20th Flipside update of 2018, which included our much-anticipated cross-platform multiplayer feature, letting you create content together over distance.
That many updates feels crazy enough on its own, but it's also been one crazy year all-around. We started 2018 just getting Flipside ready to submit to the app stores, and we ended up accomplishing a heck of a lot since then.
We made a music video for Del Records artist T3R Elemento's single En Menos De Un Minuto, which reached 20M views this month!
Flipside was used live on stage more than a dozen times this year, first with Jasper de Tarr from Raktor being a guinea pig for our Mixed Reality support, followed by our CTO Lux's TEDxWinnipeg talk about how avatars are changing our sense of identity, then with acting duo Stephen and Caity in their Pixels live animated improv shows at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and Winnipeg Improv Festival.
Flipside Studio was used to make a 30 minute show with the team at Tell 'em Steve Dave for their Patreon subscribers.
Bobjenz, one of our users, teamed up with Roblox for this year's Ready Player one release.
Josiah Brooks of Draw With Jazza created an animated short film titled "Sexy Benjamin" using Flipside.
And our list of custom characters is now over 125 strong and our list of custom sets is over 75 strong and growing all the time, thanks to prolific creators like Cybermynd and VRGameDevGirl.
To top it all off we were also nominated for VR Innovative Company of the year at this year's VR Awards held in London. It's been an amazing year and it will only get better in 2019.
Looking ahead, 2019 looks to be just as crazy. We have new shows in the works, new partnerships we're looking forward to sharing with all of you.
We have a ton of ideas, many of which come straight from our users on our roadmap, and a ton of polish to add to Flipside in order to make it the truly stand-out live animation platform it's quickly growing into.
We couldn't be more proud of how far we've come, and while we're looking forward to some rest over the holidays, we couldn't be more excited for what's to come!
Wishing the Flipside community a warm and happy holidays until we meet again on the Flipside in 2019.
Sincerely,
The Flipside Team
- by Lux
As we continue to build out Flipside Studio and learn from our users, we decided to make update #20 the first update that's only available to Flipside's Beta users. With so many new features, we want to work with our most active creators to make sure we get it right. If you want to explore the full potential of Flipside Studio, sign up or opt-in to our Beta.
NOTE: This update is an experimental release. In order to use it, you will need to opt into our Beta channel on Steam (instructions below) or sign up here and we will add you to our Beta channel on Oculus.
When you press the Friends button on the palette, you'll see our new Friends & Notifications panel appear.
This is the new social hub in Flipside, where you can find your friends, invite them to collaborate, and find notifications for things like friend requests, invites, and also the occasional Flipside announcement.
Multiplayer works across platforms, so it doesn't matter if your friends are using an HTC Vive and you're using an Oculus Rift. You can still hop in, connect, and create content together over distance.
Please note that because multiplayer is still an experimental feature, some things may not work as expected. Please report any bugs on our Trello roadmap or Discord #support channel.
We've also made a some big improvements to the Flipside Creator Tools. Note that these also require you to be on our Beta release channel (see above). Follow this link to update to v0.14 and enjoy the following improvements:
We've moved the second level buttons on the palette menus from the top to underneath the main menu buttons. This was something we've been meaning to do for a while and got it done just in the nick of time!
And that's not all! We also fixed:
With 2019 just around the corner, stay tuned for more updates and improvements because our plan is to keep on keeping 'em coming your way!
- by John Luxford
Our new teleporter has been simplified while also providing more information about where you'll end up after teleporting.
You now see a reference for where your head and hands will end up in reference to your VR play space. We kept the one arrow that tells you where the front of your play space will be so users with 180-degree VR configurations can keep themselves oriented to the front of their spaces.
We've made major improvements to snapping objects to the tops of surfaces in Set Builder mode, which works on all custom sets with no changes necessary.
The changes improve the way the sides of props are calculated, and how they determine what they should snap to, including surfaces that aren't perfectly flat.
This also paves the way for snapping to walls and ceilings, which is planned for a future update.
- by John Luxford
This update focuses on usability improvements and bug fixes, making Flipside feel a little better all around.
Pressing the menu button (above the thumbpad on Vive, left controller menu button on Rift) now hides the palette menu, or if it's already hidden recalls it to your hand. If a recording is in progress, it continues to stop the recording as well before recalling the menu.
This should also help a few edge cases where users have experienced the palette menu disappearing. Pressing the menu button ought to recall it if it ever disappears.
Camera moves can now be controlled with two new settings: Camera Movement Speed, and Camera Easing. Movement speed determines how fast the camera moves between positions, and easing lets you choose whether the moves are linear or use one of a couple dozen easing options.
In addition, all cameras can now be grabbed and moved around, including using the thumbpad to zoom in and out, not just the handheld camera. To activate a camera position, grab it and press the trigger if it's not active.
Flipside already imported cameras embedded in your sets into Flipside's camera system, but now we've added the flexibility of Unity's new Cinemachine camera system as well. Any Cinemachine virtual cameras also become camera positions in Flipside, complete with all the capabilities that Cinemachine has introduced in Unity.
We looked through all of our shared characters and sets and realized we've reached over 100 shared characters and over 50 shared sets! And that list is growing daily. There's lots we can do to improve our categorization and browsing, but as a first step we've added a new Featured category as the first category under both characters and sets, so we can highlight specific ones for new users.
We don't see the Featured category as just about showing the "best" but rather about showing what's possible, so we're always looking for characters and sets that add something new or make a great example of a particular feature.
We hope you enjoy this update, and stay tuned because we have more updates already in the works!
- by John Luxford
Back in July, our CTO gave a talk at TEDxWinnipeg 2018 about how avatars are changing our sense of identity, and how VR and AR are quickly bringing about this change.
The video of the talk is now up for everyone to watch, so check it out!
- by John Luxford
Howdy Flipsters!
We've got a fun new Wild West theme for you, including a collection of 6 Wild West characters and a Western town set complete with interactive props like guns and bottles. You know, Western stuff.
 Bennett the Judge |  Billy the Kid |  James the Floating Head |
 Travis the Floating Head |  Ethan the Cowboy |  Harvey the Banker |
This is Flipside after all, so naturally there's a bit of a twist.
Travis the Terrible was off robbing a train when James the Gentleman caught wind of his plan and devised his own plan to steal the spoils. Two plans collided with the steel of the train, and they both ended up in a pinch - literally!
Fortunately, the town doctor was close by and was able to save them, from the neck up at least. Now Travis and James get around in fancy glass jars that keep their head's alive, and with a little help from the town blacksmith they even have shiny new mechanical hands to help them go about their days with some degree of independence.
No Western town would be complete without a Saloon, but there's also the Trading Post, the Bank, the Jail, the Barber Shop, the Grand Hotel, and more. So saddle up for a drink, then head out on the town in search of a duel, or some partners to go prospecting for gold. They say there's gold in them hills!
Look for the new set and characters under the Historical category.
The town is based on the Western Pack by Synty Studios. The characters are based on the Toon Western Characters Pack by Parramon Paidotribo. All modifications and setup, such as the floating heads, facial expressions, lighting, and set interactions were made by Thomas Murphy.
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