Owlbear Rodeo 2.0 Beta Patch 1

Hey everyone, in this post we're going to look at the first update for the Owlbear Rodeo 2.0 beta.

Enhanced Folder Support

This patch adds back drag and drop support for images when using the images dialog.

The three supported actions are dragging a selection into an already created folder, dragging a selection out of a folder and dragging a selection into an open scene.

You can now also drag and drop a folder into a scene and it will add all the images from the folder into the scene.

As well as drag and drop we have now added folder support to the scenes dialog as well.

Optimistic Asset Editing

When editing or deleting assets we will now process the networking requests in the background.

This means that you will no longer have to wait for loading screens while editing images in the image editor, favoriting images, moving images between folders and creating folders.

Instead we now assume that the request will succeed and if it fails we will rollback the edits and show an error message.

Updated Text Networking Model

We have revamped the way we handle syncing text between clients and it should now be a lot more efficient for larger text blocks.

To use this newer text networking you will need to re-add any text content you have added to a scene.

For example if you have a large text item that you have added before this patch you will need to create a new text item and copy the content over to get the benefits of the new networking.

Going forward all text content you add will use this new method by default.

Improved Fog Workflow for Organic Environments

In Owlbear Rodeo 1.0 there was the concept of fog multi-layering. With multi-layering disabled you could only place fog in places that didn't already have a fog shape. This workflow meant that it was particularly easy to place fog for organic environments because you could be less precise and the tool would automatically clean up the edges of the shape you were placing.

The technique we used to perform this polygon intersection limited what we could offer in terms of fog tools. Specifically it meant we could only use flat sided shapes so adding a circle fog tool was extremely hard.

In 2.0 we use a different technique to cut out fog shapes, instead of manually calculating intersections we rely on the graphics hardware to do pixel accurate cutouts. This meant that we were no longer limited to flat sided shapes but it also meant that we couldn't automatically create nice edges when two fog shapes intersected each other.

In this patch we're merging the two methods.

We will keep the new method of creating nice pixel accurate cutouts for shapes but we're adding a processing step to the fog polygon and brush tools.

This processing step will take any shapes that are already cut from the fog and when you create a new shape with these tools it will cut away the existing shape bringing back the nice edges.

Here is an example fog shape from before this patch:

And here is the same shape after this patch

Because this algorithm only works on straight edges this new method is only available on the fog polygon and brush tool. The fog shape tools such as circle and hexagon will still behave as before.

Automatic Viewport Fitting

Now when placing a map for the first time in a scene the viewport will be resized to show the entire map in view.

This also occurs when refreshing the page which will also focus the first map added.

This change will hopefully mean that it is harder to get lost in the infinite canvas of 2.0.

If you do get lost though the Reset View button in the scene controls will now also reset to show the first map added to the scene.

Minor Changes

• Add back a spacebar viewport movement shortcut. The transform mode toggle now has a new shortcut (Z).
• Added an option to the selection tool when holding down the shift key to also select locked items.
• When adding new maps they will now default to being locked. This should hopefully make the transition from Owlbear Rodeo 1.0 to 2.0 easier.
• Fixed an issue with text entry in the image editor not auto focusing.
• The image dock will now show even with no scene open. This should make it easier to manage your assets without needing to create a scene first.
• The cut on/off icon of fog shapes should now match the same convention as other context menu icons.
• Fixed bug where large scene updates could cause a scene to get out of sync.
• Fixed an issue with the profile not loading when logging out and straight back in.
• Fixed an issue with email sign ups not setting passwords on the first log in.
• Fixed an issue with the storage manager not displaying all your assets. This also fixes an issue with the storage used amount showing an incorrect number.
• Fixed an issue with tools still being active when using the middle mouse drag shortcut.

What's Next?

We still have a lot of work planned for the beta including plug-ins, dice and more.

Stay tuned for next week where we'll talk more about an updated schedule for beta and full release.