Update #35 - Eye realism, camera switcher improvements, texture-based expressions

April 2, 2020 - 5:00pm - by Lux

Please note: This update includes some big changes which we wanted to give everyone time to test out safely and adapt to their projects, so to try it out you'll need to opt into our Beta release channel. Instructions on switching between release channels can be found here.

More realistic eyes

Eye movement has been improved in the following ways:

• We've improved the range of motion to feel more natural when looking at eye targets like other characters or the handheld camera.
• We've added procedural animation when not looking at eye targets that mimics focusing on different points of interest. We keep the gaze on a point within a small range of head movement to add more realism, so eyes don't feel so locked to head movement.
• We've made blinking feel more natural too.

Camera switcher now found under Set Builder > Show Tools

We've moved the VR camera switcher to the Set Builder menu under Show Tools. This also means you can have as many VR camera switchers as you want!

This means that the desktop camera switcher going fullscreen doesn't open the VR camera switcher any more. Instead, it works totally independently. Press Alt+F to go fullscreen, and press Esc to exit fullscreen.

You'll see the instructions "Press Esc to exit fullscreen" appear on your monitor when you move your mouse, but it only shows up with a deliberate move of the mouse so it won't pop up if you accidentally bump your desk while in VR.

Other Flipside Studio improvements

• Pointing no longer sticks with trigger presses on SteamVR, instead it points while you have the index finger trigger pressed and stops pointing when you stop pressing.
• Improved the feel of texture-based facial animations by holding each expression for a minimum number of frames.
• When you connect Flipside Studio to OBS, your OBS "Mic/Aux" sync offset is set automatically to ensure audio is in time with lip syncing.
• Added a Delete Setup button to be able to delete previously saved setups.
• Added the Trails FX Unity plugin to the list of supported components.

Flipside Creator Tools improvements

• Auto-hide overlay text in the Flipside Creator Tools unless you move your cursor over the Game window.
• Added a button to the SetInfo component to apply the Flipside skybox to the current scene outside of play mode.
• Added buttons to SetInfo to copy lighting settings between SetInfo and the Lighting window.
• Added a gizmo in the Scene window that shows where your Center Eye is located.

The latest version of the Flipside Creator Tools (v0.31) can be downloaded here.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue with the Combo Textures facial expressions having the open/closed mouth textures backwards.
• Fixed an issue with Textures lip syncing being affected by facial expressions and blinking.
• Fixed TwitchActions to trigger events for everyone in the multiplayer session, not just the Twitch streamer.
• Fixed one cause of characters with body physics to end up in contorted positions.
• Fixed a cause of Twitch chat messages not appearing on the panel.
• Fixed menu never stopping if your play area is too small.
• Fixed multiple GunElement components all sharing the same bullet pool.
• Fixed GunElement occasionally not firing.