Releases & Changelogs

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.2.6

Unity Integration

• Change Needle Engine dependency semver to ensure npm doesnt install 4.3 automatically

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.1

Needle Engine

• Add: Expose lifecylcle hooks in Needle global scope for usage in commonjs or without a bundler. For example this allows to subscribe to the update event with Needle.onUpdate(ctx => console.log(ctx.time.time)).
• Fix: OrbitControls micro-movement after a pointer event was already used. For example previously when using DragControls and starting to drag an object the camera would still move slightly before stopping during drag. This is not the case anymore now and the camera does not move anymore during interaction with other objects.
• Fix: Canvas UI render settings not being applied in one rare case causing a worldspace image not being set to double sided rendering.

Unity Integration

• Change: Needle Engine dependency semver changed to ensure NPM doesnt automatically update minor versions when installing a web project (e.g. updating 4.2.x to 4.3.x). Previously this could cause a web project using @needle-tools/engine@4.2.5 to be updated to @needle-tools/engine@4.3.0. This makes updating versions more predictable and deliberate using Unity.
  NOTE: It’s possible to prevent Unity from changing web project versions completely by using the npm package alias syntax in your web project. For example: "@needle-tools/engine": "npm:@needle-tools/engine@4.0.0" will lock the package version to 4.0.0. When using this syntax it’s up to you to manage the installed package version.

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta

Needle Engine

• Add: this.context.time.fps returning the FPS for the current frame (for a more stable FPS value smoothedFps can be used)
• Change: The PostprocessingManager component does now expose a multisampling property which is set to "auto" by default. By setting multisampling to a number it will force postprocessing to the configured samples.
• Fix: Issue where instancing with multiple different geometries being batched together did sometimes be cause wrong rendering when many objects where removed and added again. This was caused by a bug in the internal bucketing mechanism which is not necessary anymore with the new BatchedMesh version.

Unity Integration

• Fix: Context menu exporting a GLB file and selecting the compress option did not apply progressive optimization and not produce texture or mesh LODs.

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta.1

Needle Engine

• Fix: Bug when loading glTF files without any components where a reference to the loaded glTF structre was kept in memory causing the memory to not be freed

Unity Integration

• Fix: Update dialogue should not open automatically when using a stable package version and a new beta version is available
• Fix: Unity EditorSync should work with GenericInspector instances in Unity versions that use VisualElements / UI Toolkit now

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta.2

Needle Engine

• Add: Documentation for Gizmos API

Unity Integration

• Fix: Unity error when adding a new component caused by recent editor sync change
• Fix: Handle NPM cache error when generating font assets

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta.3

Needle Engine

• Fix: Support for three.js core postprocessing effects

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta.4

Needle Engine

• Fix: Start loading earlier for skybox-image and environment-image when configured in <needle-engine> web component. Previously it would only start loading the HDRi or EXR images after the root glTF file was finished loading. Now it will start downloading earlier which improves the time until the scene is ready to be displayed.
• Fix: Update vite license check using the latest CLI version
• Fix: Issue related to loading the root scene where range requests (e.g. when download urls without a file extension) caused Chrome to remove previously full downloads to be removed from disc cache
• Remove: Vite license check does not support Node 16 anymore

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2 beta.5

Needle Engine

• Change: Improve Vite preload link injection into HTML head
• Fix: Vite dependency-watcher plugin warning

Unity Integration

• Fix: Console error in BuildWindow
• Remove: NeedleEngineModules component and warning

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.3.2

Needle Engine

Added

• Documentation for Gizmos API
• this.context.time.fps returning the FPS for the current frame (for a more stable FPS value smoothedFps can be used)

Removed

• Vite license plugin check does not support Node 16 anymore

Changes

• Improve Vite preload link injection into HTML head
• The PostprocessingManager component does now expose a multisampling property which is set to "auto" by default. By setting multisampling to a number it will force postprocessing to the configured samples.
• Downloading of <needle-engine> attributes for skybox-image and environment-image does now start earlier. Previously it would only start loading the HDRi or EXR images after the root glTF file was finished loading. Now it will start downloading earlier which improves the time until the scene is ready to be displayed.

Fixed

• Vite dependency-watcher plugin warning
• Vite license check plugin is now using the latest Needle CLI version
• Browser cache busting issue related to loading the root scene where range requests (e.g. when download urls without a file extension). This caused Chrome to remove files from the disc cache causing a re-download
• Three.js core postprocessing effects support
• Loading glTF files without any components (e.g. when directly downloaded from Sketchfab) was causing Needle Engine to falsely keep a reference to the loaded glTF structure.
• Instancing issue where instancing did sometimes renderer wrong geometry when many objects where removed and added again and multiple different geometries were batched together. This was caused by a bug in the internal bucketing mechanism and has now been removed since it’s not necessary anymore.

Unity Integration

Removed

• NeedleEngineModules component and warning

Fixed

• Console error in BuildWindow
• Unity error when adding a new component caused by recent editor sync change
• Handle NPM cache error when generating font assets
• Update dialogue should not open automatically when using a stable package version and a new beta version is available
• Unity EditorSync should work with GenericInspector instances in Unity versions that use VisualElements / UI Toolkit now
• Context menu exporting a GLB file and selecting the compress option did not apply progressive optimization and not produce texture or mesh LODs.

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.4.0 beta

Needle Engine

• Add: ObjectUtils.createPrimitive() now supports scale as array
  e.g. ObjectUtils.createPrimitive("Cube", { scale: [1, .25, 1] } );
• Add: Input getGamepad(<index>) function to query a connected gamepad. Example: this.context.input.getGamepad()
• Add: lookAtScreenPoint() function which allows 3D object to look at points in 2D screen coordinates (e.g. your mouse position).
  Example Component that makes the object look at the mouse

  import { Behaviour, lookAtScreenPoint } from "@needle-tools/engine";
  
  export class LookAtMouse extends Behaviour {
    update() {
      lookAtScreenPoint(this.gameObject, this.context.input.mousePosition, this.context.mainCamera);
    }
  }
  

• Add: SyncedTransform does now also sync scale changes
• Add: Default environment lighting. If you don’t configure any environment-image needle engine will now create a default scene to light your objects. Previously the scene was just black when the loaded model didn’t contain any lighting information.
• Add: The contactshadows attribute now allows you to specify a factor for controlling the darkness/lightness. E.g. <needle-engine contactshadows="1"> will make the shadows appear darker vs. <needle-engine contactshadows=".2"> will make the contact shadow appear lighter.
• Fix: Implicit camera did not automatically set to skybox when using background-image. E.g. `
• Fix: Tonemapping falsely set tonemappingEsposure to undefined causing a black screen
• Fix: background-color attribute was not always applied. E.g. <needle-engine background-color="#ff3333">
• Change: License check aborts now faster instead of retrying when connection is actively refused
• Change: OrbitControls autoTarget does now automatically update the look at target after panning and not when rotating the camera (previously the target would be updated after any input but this resultet in undesireable behaviour when rotating around objects)
• Change: When no background-color is defined by either the loaded scene or by a background-color attribute then the default scene background color respects the user’s accessibility setting for prefer-dark or prefer-light. This means that the background color will be set to a default light or dark value.

Unity Integration

• Add: Support for NPM package containing Unity package and improve npmdef functionality
• Fix: EditorSync support for UIElement Vector2, Vector3, Vector4 and Color
• Update: gltf build pipeline dependency

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.4.0 beta.1

Needle Engine

• Add: <needle-engine background-color="#ffdddd55"> does now support transparency. For example: rgba(255, 255, 100, .5) or #ffdddd99 or transparent are valid values.
• Add: SyncedTransform freeOwnership() method
• Add: ReflectionProbe does now check boundingbox intersection
• Add: devicePixelRatio option on Needle Context. This option controls the window.devicePixelRatio set on the renderer by Needle Engine (default auto). It can be set to manual to disable this behaviour or a custom number which will then be set on the renderer or composer.
• Change: Scene background color or image set on <needle-engine> are not overridden anymore by the camera component.
• Change: Hide Needle logo automatically when using Needle Engine with a license
• Fix: Improve license checks in CI environments (e.g. when running via a Github Action).
• Fix: Vite plugins for running in CI environment
• Fix: Vite manualChunks are not defined when preserveModules is set to true
• Fix: screenshot() checks if XR is presenting
• Fix: Issue where MeshBVH worker import breaks for projects where the needle-engine vite plugins are not added to the plugins list

Unity Integration

• Add: draco, ktx, and meshopt as dependencies so that compressed Needle Cloud assets work out of the box

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.4.0

Needle Engine

Added

• Add: The needle-engine web-component contactshadows attribute now allows you to specify a factor for controlling the darkness/lightness. E.g. <needle-engine contactshadows="1"> will make the shadows appear darker vs. <needle-engine contactshadows=".2"> will make the contact shadow appear lighter.
• Add: The needle-engine web-component does now support transparency for background-color. For example: rgba(255, 255, 100, .5) or #ffdddd99 or transparent are valid values: <needle-engine background-color="rgba(255, 255, 100, .5)" />
• Add: ObjectUtils.createPrimitive() now supports scale as array
  e.g. ObjectUtils.createPrimitive("Cube", { scale: [1, .25, 1] } );
• Add: Input getGamepad(<index>) function to query a connected gamepad. Example: this.context.input.getGamepad()
• Add: lookAtScreenPoint() function which allows 3D object to look at points in 2D screen coordinates (e.g. your mouse position).
  Example Component that makes the object look at the mouse

  import { Behaviour, lookAtScreenPoint } from "@needle-tools/engine";
  
  export class LookAtMouse extends Behaviour {
    update() {
      lookAtScreenPoint(this.gameObject, this.context.input.mousePosition, this.context.mainCamera);
    }
  }
  

• Add: Default environment lighting. If you don’t configure any environment-image needle engine will now create a default scene to light your objects. Previously the scene was just black when the loaded model didn’t contain any lighting information.
• Add: SyncedTransform does now also sync scale changes
• Add: SyncedTransform freeOwnership() method
• Add: ReflectionProbe bounding box intersection check to automatically apply reflections to object’s in a specific area (handled by the Renderer component)
• Add: devicePixelRatio option on Needle Context. This option controls the window.devicePixelRatio set on the renderer by Needle Engine (default auto). It can be set to manual to disable this behaviour or a custom number which will then be set on the renderer or composer.

Fixed

• Fix: Implicit camera did not automatically set to skybox when using background-image. E.g. `
• Fix: Tonemapping falsely set tonemappingEsposure to undefined causing a black screen
• Fix: background-color attribute was not always applied. E.g. <needle-engine background-color="#ff3333">
• Fix: screenshot() checks if XR is presenting
• Fix: Issue where MeshBVH worker import breaks for projects where the needle-engine vite plugins are not added to the plugins list
• Fix: SceneSwitcher regression with Object3D objects in scenes array
• Fix: SceneSwitcher preload was not using three.js FileLoader to re-use three’s caching system
• Fix: GroundProjection regression where background blurriness was hardcoded
• Fix: RenderTexture regression where deserialization was not properly handled anymore
• Fix: OrbitControls regression where forward direction in setCameraAndLookTarget was inverted
• Fix: Physics bug where negative box collider scales were not correctly handled in all cases causing Rapier to break
• Fix: UI instantiate bug where three-mesh-ui clone method was not working and UI that was already in the scene could not be duplicated because of that.
• Fix: Vite license plugin not waiting for the CLI process to start
• Fix: Vite improve license checks in CI environments (e.g. when running via a Github Action).
• Fix: Vite plugins for running in CI environment
• Fix: Vite manualChunks are not defined when preserveModules is set to true

Changed

• Change: License check aborts now faster instead of retrying when connection is actively refused
• Change: OrbitControls autoTarget does now automatically update the look at target after panning and not when rotating the camera (previously the target would be updated after any input but this resultet in undesireable behaviour when rotating around objects)
• Change: When no background-color is defined by either the loaded scene or by a background-color attribute then the default scene background color respects the user’s accessibility setting for prefer-dark or prefer-light. This means that the background color will be set to a default light or dark value.
• Change: Scene background color or image set on <needle-engine> are not overridden anymore by the camera component.
• Change: Hide Needle logo automatically when using Needle Engine with a license

Unity Integration

• Add: Draco, KTX, and Meshopt as dependencies so that compressed Needle Cloud assets work out of the box
• Add: Support for NPM package containing Unity package and improve npmdef functionality
• Fix: Better SocketException handling
• Fix: Improve log rendering
• Fix: Improve retrieval of external process commandline data on OSX
• Fix: EditorSync support for UIElement Vector2, Vector3, Vector4 and Color
• Update: gltf-build-pipeline dependency
• Update UnityGLTF dependency to 2.16.0-pre.3

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.4.3

Needle Engine

• Add: Support for getKeyDown, getKeyPressed and getKeyUp to pass in key name to check the state of keyboard input, e.g. context.getKeyDown(<key>)
• Add: License validation for webpack (nextjs) via access token or teamid. The needleNext plugin does now handle the license for passed in team or access tokens.
  For example the next.config.js can be modified like so ... }, { modules: { webpack }, license: {team: "needle"} }) to pass in the name of a team (or a Needle Cloud access token).
• Change: License checks will now read the NEEDLE_CLOUD_TOKEN environment variable if no access token is provided.
• Fix: SyncedTransform fastmode lerp
• Fix: Vite license server timeout
• Fix: Vite manualChunks should not be declared if rollupOutput.inlineDynamicImports is set to true
• Fix: OrbitControls regression when calling setCameraAndLookTarget with a Camera object (or transform) where the forward direction (+Z) did not match the camera’s look/render direction (-Z)

Unity Integration

• Improve Needle Cloud Asset error handling and loading messages

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.4.6

Needle Engine

• Add: Animations in loaded glTF files are now automatically added to the animations property of the scene object. This allows to add a Animation component to the root object of a loaded glTF to easily play animations.
• Change: Networking disconnect() now resets state
• Change: Networking leaveRoom() does now reset the allowEditing property back to true
• Fix: Prebundled needle engine (e.g. when loaded from CDN like jsdelivr) now correctly loads mesh bvh worker again for fast raycasting (Live Demo - Edit online)
• Fix: OrbitControls issue where fitCamera({immediate:true}) would not fit the camera immediately without lerping
• Fix: Vite fetch public key causing build to fail

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.5.0

Needle Engine

• Add: NeedleEngineModelLoader namespace with methods to provide custom file loaders to load unsupported 3D model formats. For example to load STL files:

  import { NeedleEngineModelLoader } from "@needle-tools/engine";
  
  // Register a callback for determining our custom loader mimetype
  NeedleEngineModelLoader.onDetermineModelMimetype(args => {
   // check if the mimetype is already provided by the server
   if (args.contentType === "model/stl") {
       return "model/stl";
   }
   // use URL extension if available
   if (args.url.endsWith(".stl")) {
       return "model/stl";
   }
   // check if first few bytes start with "solid"
   // this is a very naive check, but it works for most cases
   if(args.bytes[0] === 0x73 && args.bytes[1] === 0x74 && args.bytes[2] === 0x6c) {
       return "model/stl";
   }
   return null;
  });
  
  // Register a callback for creating our custom loader
  NeedleEngineModelLoader.onCreateCustomModelLoader(args => {
   if (args.mimetype === "model/stl") {
       const stlLoader = new STLLoader();
       return stlLoader;
   }
  });
  

• Add: Experimental attribute to autostart AR: <needle-engine autostart="ar">
• Add: Modify the QR code button URL via ButtonsFactory.instance.qrButtonUrl = https://yourwebsite.de
• Add: ContactShadows manualUpdate boolean. When enabled the ContactShadows component will not automatically re-render every frame. When enabled then set needsUpdate=true to manually schedule contact shadows re-render
• Change: Needle Engine loading view is now transparent by default. The loading-background attribute can be used to add custom styling like <needle-engine loading-background="#000" />. Alternatively the <needle-engine> web component or background can be styled.
• Removed: Web component attributes: loading-background-color, loading-style, loading-text-color
• Fix: Vite HMR (Hot Module Replacement) working nicely with browser breakpoints and debugging
• Fix: Debug stats (?stats) showing correct draw calls when using postprocessing
• Fix: findObjectOfType does now also search components on the root scene object

Unity Integration

• Update UnityGLTF dependency to 2.16.1

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.5.4

• Add: DropListener now also allows custom file types
• Fix: File loading range request url did not handle relative URLs properly
• Fix: Vite built pipeline plugin

Unity Integration

• Fix: “Create Typescript” menu item should use needle.config.json scripts directory
• Fix: Texture compression settings for “product” and “world”
• Fix: Fix nullref when selecting object without an ExportInfo component in the scene
• Change: AutoCompress does not clear the web project’s asset directory anymore
• Change: When creating a needle.config.json file and the web project already has a public folder then the needle config asset directory will be set to public/needle
• Change: When the web package.json contains a script named dev it will be used to start the dev server from Unity

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine Blender Addon 0.60.0

• Add: Update Needle Engine to latest 4.5 and use Needle Cloud authentication
• Add: Deploy to Needle Cloud

Download Addon Download Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.6.0

Needle Engine

• Add: Vite plugin to make remote assets local at build time. This currently supports google.font CSS and font assets as well as polyhaven HDRi/EXR textures.
  To use enable makeFilesLocal in your vite.config.js:

  needlePlugins(command, needleConfig, {
    makeFilesLocal: true
  }),
  

• Change: AudioSource component preload option to true by default

Unity Integration

• Add: Support for Needle Cloud Billing role
• Update: UnityGLTF to 2.17.3

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.6.1

Needle Engine

• Fix: Post-processing effects ordering and gamma correction handling
• Fix: Renderer and ReflectionProbe update behaviour where changing the scene environment texture would not affect certain objects anymore
• Fix: ReflectionProbe should not be applied if the component is inactive (e.g. on a disabled Object3D)
• Fix: Internal resource dispose error when destroying objects with custom ShaderMaterials with certain uniform values

Unity Integration

• Change: Mark DeployToGlitch component as deprecated as Glitch has shut down their hosting service
• Update: compression tools dependency

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples

[needle-bot]

Needle Engine 4.6.2

Needle Engine

• Postprocessing performance and stability improvements
• Add: Custom postprocessing effects can now use PostProcessingEffectPriority to ensure effects are correctly sorted (e.g. before DepthOfField)
• Fix: Postprocessing multisampling (MSAA) causing issues with performance
• Fix: screenshot correctly handling custom devicePixelRatio

Unity Integration

• Update UnityGLTF dependency

Download Unity Plugin Install from NPM
Changelog on Github Needle Engine API
Get started Samples