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