Releases & Changelogs

🌵 Needle Engine
133

Needle Engine 4.10.1

Needle Engine

  • Change: ViewBox referenceFieldOfView can now set to -1 to automatically take the camera’s field of view at runtime
  • Fix: ViewBox evaluation order is now hierarchy-independent (Previously OrbitControls panning might be applied after ViewBox calculations if the ViewBox component was on a parent object)

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

134

Needle Engine 4.10.2

Unity Integration

  • Add: Vuejs template
  • Improve Editor setup when NPM is not installed

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

135

Needle Engine 4.10.3

Needle Engine

  • Add: ScrollFollow timeline markers can now be defined in HTML only and don’t require markers to be present in the Timeline anymore. This means any timeline animation can now be mapped to HTML content by annotating the HTML elements.
    For example <div data-timeline-marker="2.5"> will define that the timeline should reach the time 2.5 seconds when this element becomes visible in the viewport. The bike-scroll-follow example on Github will be updated to use this new feature soon (example index.html).

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

136

Needle Engine 4.10.4

Needle Engine

  • Update: three-animation-pointer dependency to 1.0.4 to support KHR_node_visibility extension
  • Documentation improvements

Unity Integration

  • Add: Support for importing GLB/glTF assets with Needle Engine AnimatorController assets
  • Change: Set UnityGLTF as default importer for .gltf and .glb files
  • Update: UnityGLTF dependency to 2.18.0 with improvements for exporting partially animated properties.
    For example it’s now possible to animate position.x only without keyframes for position.y and position.z (see issue in forum)

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

137

Needle Engine 4.11.0

Needle Engine

  • NEW: SeeThrough component. With this component you can easily fade-out objects between the camera and a reference point in the scene. See the See-Through sample to see it in action
  • NEW: Droplistener sample
  • Add: CursorFollow option to follow cursor on the full page, even when a user moves their mouse outside of the <needle-engine> element.
  • Add: CursorFollow snapToSurface option to automatically snap the object to the surface below the cursor.
  • Add: Object3D raycastAllowed property to disable raycasting on specific objects (e.g. for performance reasons or to ignore invisible helper objects)
  • Add: OrbitControls targetBounds property which can be used to constrain the OrbitControls target within a defined area in the scene. A Object3D can be assigned to the property. The position and scale of this object will be used.
  • Add: Experimental - Vite plugin to generate needle-app.js which encapsulates the whole website into a single web component. The needle-app.js file will be emitted next to index.html and can be used to directly embed the website and 3D assets into another website by importing <url>/needle-app.js and then using the <needle-app></needle-app> web component.
  • Add: Object3D contains(otherObject: Object3D) method to check if an object is a child of another object in the scene graph
  • Fix: three nodes update camera for TSL
  • Fix: Renderer lightmaps are now updating sharedMaterials
  • Fix: Gizmos.DrawWireMesh matrix
  • Fix: Image UI color was sometimes not correctly calculated for Button color states when used with the CanvasGroup component
  • Fix: ScrollMarker issue
  • Improved JSDoc documentation

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

138

Needle Engine Samples 1.3.0

  • Add: Droplistener sample
  • Add: See-Through sample
  • Change: Simplified Hotspot sample does not use Hotspot Template anymore. Instead all hotspots are prefabs in the scene. The hotspot script does now also set a view point using OrbitControls.

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

139

Needle Engine 4.11.1

Needle Engine

  • Fix: WebXR / VR issue where trying to access missing geometry during raycasting caused errors
  • Change: ScrollFollow now only applies when scroll has changed. It also immediately jumps to the target position on the first update instead of interpolating (avoiding interpolation through long timeline animations).
  • Change: SplineWalker now has an option to disable LookAt. It also received a pullStrength property which controls how tightly the object moves along the spline.
  • Improved: OrbitControls and ViewBox interaction

Unity Integration

  • Update UnityGLTF dependency to 2.18.3. This fixes an issue where animations would falsely be exported with STEP interpolation.

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

Heavy rendering-crash when activating VR in Quest 3 (Needle 4.11 + Meta OS V81)
140

Needle Engine 4.11.2

Needle Engine

  • Change: Animation component disable randomStartTime
  • Change: Vite build build pipeline plugin increased default max wait time to 60 seconds.
    This time is now exposed via needlePlugins user config, e.g. to increase it to 5 minutes write needlePlugins(command, needleConfig, { buildPipeline: { maxWaitDuration: 300_000 } }) in your vite.config.js.

Unity Integration

  • Update three-animation-pointer dependency
  • Update build pipeline dependency

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

141

Needle Engine 4.11.3

Needle Engine

  • Fix: See-Through with MeshPhysicalMaterial

Unity Integration

  • Improve WebXR and WebARSessionRoot component inspectors

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

142

Needle Engine 4.11.4

Needle Engine

  • Add: qrcode-logo-src attribute to <needle-engine> web component to override the logo displayed in the QR code button. Requires PRO license.
  • Improve JSDoc documentation

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

Remove Needle logo from QR Code
143

Needle Engine 4.11.5

Needle Engine

  • Fix: Timeline cloning with instantiate (forum 2733)
  • Fix: Renderer sharedMaterials being null in awake
  • Fix: Issue where lightmapped materials were cloned
  • Fix: Apply lighting intensity multiplier in root scene
  • Fix: GLTF extensions when loading scene with Blob URL
  • Improve JSDoc documentation

Unity Integration

  • Fix: DeployToGithubPages should not try to deploy gzipped assets (forum 2735)
  • Fix: DeployToGlitch inspector UI
  • Rename Needle Engine All Targets button to Build Window

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

144

Needle Engine 4.12.0 beta

Needle Engine

  • NEW: Intellisense support for the <needle-engine> web component and its attributes, both in HTML and in code. The custom-elements.json allows for VSCode intellisense support, while HTMLElementTagNameMap and get/setAttribute overloads bring code completion and documentation.
  • Add: exposed createCollider API for the Rapier physics engine
  • Add: an beforeLODExport callback for USDZ export. This allows overriding which LOD level gets exported per object.
  • Add: ?spector=#frame URL parameter to enable a Spector.js capture on the specified frame number after page load. Make sure to install the Spector.js browser extension. You can optionally specify a frame number for capturing: ?spector=15.
  • Add: auto-registration of custom elements for easier discovery of available web components in Needle Engine. You can disable this feature by setting noCustomElementData to false in vite config. To manually register custom elements data, add it to your workspace or .vscode/settings.json via the html.customData setting.
  • Improve: detection of user interactions to enable media playback
  • Improve: JSDoc documentation for Everywhere Actions and other components
  • Fix: issue with callbacks on freshly destroyed components when leaving XR sessions
  • Fix: Instancing issue with growing vertex/index buffers when not necessary
  • Fix: Instancing and texture LODs
  • Fix: Issue with <needle-engine> element being moved in the DOM
  • Fix: Better type declarations in package.json

Unity Integration

  • Update UnityGLTF dependency to 2.18.5. This fixes deprecation warnings on Unity 6.0+ and improves BiRP material export.
  • Fix: got rid of compilation warnings with updated APIs on Unity 6.0+
  • Fix: more checks for invalid characters in paths and project names

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

145

Needle Engine 4.12.0

Needle Engine

  • NEW: WebXR support for iOS - Your AR experiences now launch instantly on iPhone and iPad without app installation. Just tap “Enter AR” and you’re in. Powered by Needle Go AppClip, combining Apple’s excellent AR tracking with standards-compliant WebXR. Try it at appclip.needle.tools
  • NEW: Intellisense support for the <needle-engine> web component and its attributes, both in HTML and in code. The custom-elements.json allows for VSCode intellisense support, while HTMLElementTagNameMap and get/setAttribute overloads bring code completion and documentation.
  • Add: exposed createCollider API for the Rapier physics engine
  • Add: beforeLODExport callback for USDZ export. This allows overriding which LOD level gets exported per object.
  • Add: ?spector=#frame URL parameter to enable a Spector.js capture on the specified frame number after page load. Make sure to install the Spector.js browser extension. You can optionally specify a frame number for capturing: ?spector=15.
  • Add: auto-registration of custom elements for easier discovery of available web components in Needle Engine. You can disable this feature by setting noCustomElementData to false in vite config. To manually register custom elements data, add it to your workspace or .vscode/settings.json via the html.customData setting.
  • Add: Support for rotation and scaling in DropListener component
  • Improve: VisionOS and iPad detection for better WebXR compatibility
  • Improve: WebXR session flow and error handling
  • Improve: QuickLook integration - disabled by default in WebXR component, shows “Open in Quicklook” button
  • Improve: SceneSwitcher now supports multiple scene switchers referencing the same asset reference
  • Improve: DragControls smoothed velocity calculations and region support
  • Improve: Detection of user interactions to enable media playback
  • Improve: JSDoc documentation for Everywhere Actions and other components
  • Fix: issue with callbacks on freshly destroyed components when leaving XR sessions
  • Fix: Instancing issue with growing vertex/index buffers when not necessary
  • Fix: Instancing and texture LODs
  • Fix: Issue with <needle-engine> element being moved in the DOM
  • Fix: SceneSwitcher was destroying local scene content
  • Fix: Better type declarations in package.json

https://cloud.needle.tools/-/media/WI0Q0s961BjdXgUEQHxifQ.gif(image larger than 2 MB)

Unity Integration

  • Update UnityGLTF dependency to 2.18.5. This fixes deprecation warnings on Unity 6.0+ and improves BiRP material export.
  • Fix: Compilation warnings with updated APIs on Unity 6.0+
  • Fix: More checks for invalid characters in paths and project names

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

146

Needle Engine 4.12.2

Needle Engine

  • Add: showBalloonMessage now also render in AR sessions
  • Fix: iOS WebXR DOM-Overlay fixed
  • Fix: iOS WebXR custom Quit AR button fixed

Unity Integration

  • Update optimization pipeline dependency

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

147

Needle Engine 4.12.3

Needle Engine

  • Add: getComponentInChildren and getComponentInParent now expose the includeInactive parameter to include inactive objects in the search
  • Change: Improved XR sessiongranted temporary scene design (removing temporary objects in AR and adding support for custom logo display while the AR session is initializing)
  • Fix: iOS WebXR canvas size for screenspace UI rendering
  • Fix: iOS WebXR UI InputField support
  • Fix: Invalid input event causing issue in OrbitControls when pressing multiple mouse buttons at the same time

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

148

Needle Engine 4.12.4

Needle Engine

  • Fix: WebXR image tracking support for multiple images (iOS + Android)
  • Change: Animation and Animator components now checks in local dev if the root object to be animated is marked as static and won’t automatically update matrices
  • Improved iOS WebXR balloon message rendering to not overlap with camera or menu button

Unity Integration

  • Improved WebXR image tracking component

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

149

Needle Engine 4.12.5

Needle Engine

  • Update three.js dependency
  • Minor log improvements in development mode

Unity Integration

  • Update UnityGLTF dependency

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

150

Needle Engine 4.13.0

Needle Engine

  • NEW: Needle Engine MaterialX loader added to core. No extra dependency to @needle-tools/materialx is required anymore
  • Fix: ContactShadows rendering
  • Fix: Memory issue caused by ReflectionProbes component

Unity Integration

  • NEW: Needle Component menu
  • Update UnityGLTF dependency

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples

151

Needle Engine 4.13.1

Needle Engine

  • Improved code documentation across the engine
  • Improved ContactShadows to allow updating darkness and opacity dynamically at runtime
  • Fix: Support for Lightmaps and ReflectionProbes on the same object
  • Fix: Eventlist bug with instantiation (Forum post)

Unity Integration

  • Improved UI for light skin
  • Fix: Needle UI will not show in Unity components when the scene is not exporting for Needle Engine
  • Fix: Issue in Samples Updater

:bullseye: Download Unity Plugin :package: Install from NPM
:octopus: Changelog on Github :bookmark_tabs: Needle Engine API
:light_bulb: Get started :sparkles: Samples