Verge3D 3.6 pre4 available!

Blender-specific

External .ttf files assigned to Text objects in Blender are now automatically picked up upon export similarly to images.

These fonts are then used by Verge3D to render dynamic Text objects, meaning that the textual content for which can be provided in run-time via Puzzles.

As a result, you are no longer required to rely upon any third-party font converter as it was before this update. This was made possible thanks to the OpenType.js library which is copied at the application creation stage (if the option Font Converter is enabled). You can also copy this library from the build folder to your app folder manually any time later.

You can still bake text objects using the Bake Text option as usual. You might do this if you need an exact reproduction of the text model. This way, however, you cannot change the text via Puzzles.

For your reference, all possible ways to create text with Verge3D are linked together on this Manual page.

3D Text for 3ds Max and Maya

3D text objects that are created via the TextPlus object (3ds Max) or the T panel (Maya) are now supported by Verge3D.

3ds Max:

Maya:

You can select a system font such as Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, etc to define the look of your text. These text objects are dynamic, meaning that after exporting to Verge3D, they can be updated with new textual content via Puzzles.

This feature was made possible thanks to the OpenType.js library which is copied at the application creation stage (if the option Font Converter is enabled). You can also copy this library from the build folder to your app folder manually any time later.

Alternatively, you can bake text objects using the Bake Text option. You might do this if you need an exact reproduction of the text model. This way, however, you cannot change the text via Puzzles.

For your reference, all possible ways to create text with Verge3D are linked together on this Manual page.

3ds Max-specific

We have added a new section to the User Manual which describes various aspects of handling the animation in Verge3D for 3ds Max.

Maya-specific

Refractive transparency, which is enabled when the Thin Walled parameter of the StandardSurface node is turned off, is now supported.

It can be used to render ice, glass and similar things. See more info in the docs.

Maya’s Vector Product node is now available for use with Verge3D.

We supported the Normal Camera input in the Sampler Info node, so that you can now use normal maps with this node. As a result, you can create sophisticated lighting effects which will be shown off in the upcoming material library for Maya users.

We fixed an installation issue occurred in the case when there were no new-line symbol in Maya.env (thanks for the report).

We also fixed the issue with shadows cast from scaled lights (thanks for the report).

Verge3D plugins

We have created a sample plugin to serve as an example on how to create typical puzzle blocks: ExamplePlugin.zip (the link can also be accessed from the plugins Manual page). Just unzip it into the puzzles/plugins folder and then check out the “Example Plugin” puzzle category.

We optimized the code that is generated out of plugin puzzles. As a result, the code is only inserted in the resulting .js file if the puzzles are actually used.

Right-click menu on puzzles now produces the option Print Puzzle XML Tree. It will output the puzzle’s layout code to the browser console, so that you can inspect or reuse it for your own plugins.

Plugin puzzles can now be placed in the Init category (thanks for report).

The Plug.provide() method is now available for re-using functions, resulting in more efficient code. See the doc page for more info.

More improvements

The recently introduced create text object puzzle was further improved. Particularly, more alignment options are available, and the height option was renamed as extrude for more clarity.

Bug fixes

We fixed an issue with unloading scenes (this bug was introduced in pre3). Also the background for ortho camera now works (this was also broken in pre3). The E-Commerce plugin is now displayed as compatible (this one was broken in pre2).

We fixed the memory issue which prevented saving the Puzzles when there are many hundreds of them, thanks to switching to 64-bit Python to power the local web server. This should also improve the performance of the App Manager to some extent.

We fixed the issue with WooCommerce integration in Verge3D WordPress plugin, which was caused by the wc_add_to_cart_params structure absent in some cases (thanks for all the feedback).