Some thoughts on the release!

So the last release introduced cloud for interactions. This has been a long time in the making. I'm generally happy with the rollout - browsing, loading and uploading interactions has never been this easy and works just the way we want it to! We've also made many improvements and stability enhancements.

But, that being said, we have still identified areas in need of improvement:

1. Load times

This is taking far too long atm, really breaking the mood. I want to see if there's anything we can do to reduce the load times, leaving no rock unturned.

2. Memory Leak Fixes

Another significant issue that has been observed is the occurrence of memory leaks. These leaks cause the application to eventually crash after loading multiple interactions consecutively. This issue will be addressed to ensure the application remains stable, even after extensive use.

3. User Interface Improvements

Several adjustments to the user interface are planned to create a more streamlined and user-friendly experience:

Nodes Display: Nodes should not display by default, as this can clutter the workspace and overwhelm users who do not need them immediately.

Right-Side Menu: The right-side menu should also be hidden by default, allowing users who just want to play the interaction do so without unnecessary distractions.

Auto-Play Interactions: Interactions should automatically begin playing by default to reduce unnecessary steps.

4. Scene wonkyness

There's some wonkyness when switching scenes or steps. We wanna see if there's any way we can make that work better.

5. Reliable Property Editing

There's another issue I haven't personally encountered but that I'm aware of: when you edit a property, it might not always apply as expected because a timeline later in the stack of timelines could be overriding it, giving the impression that the slider isn't even working. Imagine for example the user configuring inflation size, but the change seemingly doesn't take. Very confusing and annoying!

To resolve this, I'm considering implementing a hidden, global, "overriding" timeline that would always be applied last, ensuring that any properties modified by the user retain their assigned values.

Note! This would be for the "consuming" animation playback mode. I.e. not for editing interactions - only for making adjustments on top of a playing interaction from cloud.

6. Introduction of a "Quick" Menu

Later down the line, I want to further improve usability by introducing a "quick" menu. So essentially right clicking an item directly in the scene (no nodes or outliner) will allow users to quickly adjust properties directly. For example:

Visibility Toggle: Users could right-click a garment to quickly toggle its visibility.

Breast Size Adjustment: Right-clicking a character could bring up a floating properties window, allowing users to adjust the breast size directly without navigating through multiple menus.

Unfortunately, reading the screen the way I want to in order to get pixel perfect clicks and fetching the related object would require quite a lot of changes that aren't really feasible until we migrate to URP. Or rather, there's no point in doing it for the current system if we're gonna have to replace it down the line anyway. So I hope we can introduce it sometime around the planned URP migration.

Conclusion

We have identified several key things we want to improve with the product. As always, we are committed to continuously improving the product and will keep working hard to enhance the user experience and address any issues that arise.

All the best.

- odes