October Update News - Client Update 10/5/2022

Always Animated MP4s (+improvements)

You can now use MP4s on items the same way you use normal Always Animated Images. Remember - images & MP4's that are always animating are also always loaded in memory (when visible), so for good performance it's important to only use short, low-resolution MP4s.

Seeing a room of arcade cabinets in AArcade all w/ video clips dynamically on their screens is like a dream come true for me. :)

To help you create good MP4s to use, there is a short tutorial on how to do it using Gyazo here: https://hackmd.io/@smsithlord/H1fdj8T-9#How-to-use-MP4s-as-Always-Animated-Images

Also in today's update, Always Animated Images (and MP4s) have been improved to un-load themselves if they haven't been rendered in the last few seconds - which *usually* results in higher resolution animated images in the room you are actually hanging out in.

Camera Auto Director

This new camera mode uses your F5 screenshots as fixed-camera positions that track you as you walk around (inspired by Resident Evil's camera system.)

First, you must take some F5 screenshots in your arcade. Then go to Tab Menu > Commands tab and use the Camera Auto Director Toggle command. Use the command a 2nd time to toggle it off.

In-Game Task Screenshots

If you've ever found yourself wanting to capture a screenshot of **only** an in-game task, now on the Tab Menu > Commands tab there is Task Snapshot.

It will capture the active in-game's last rendered frame as a TGA & save it into Anarchy Arcade/aarcade_user/taskshots.

Commands Tab Console Command Macros

This one is a bit advanced & for people who are familiar with using the Source engine developer console (~) to bind custom commands to keys.

All of the commands from the Tab Menu > Commands tab are now defined as console command macros all prefixed with "cmd_". You can use "find cmd_" in the console to see a list of all available macros. And you can bind them using "bind p cmd_spawn_objects" (for example.)

Improved Archive.org Previews

AArcade is now able to detect Archive.org URLs & automatically show the "embed" version of the link instead of the details link when previewing in-game. This lets you drag & drop links from Acrhive.org w/ better in-game previews w/o needing to manually customize your item further.

This system of locally detecting a database site's URL & generating the preview version of the URL instead will likely be expanded to support user customization in the future.

Smoke Volume Fixes

Today's update fixes an old bug (originally related to the Fog Machine prop) that caused smoke volumes that were in maps themselves to be broken.

Now smoke volumes work in maps again - and also the Fog Machine prop has been improved to be more reliable.

Quest Improvements

Today Coin Collect EZ quest templates have been improved to be linkable to Gossip EZ quests, & vice versa. This lets you create a quest chain where you must talk to an NPC before he gives you a "collect the objects" objective, and lets you tie completing the collect object quest back to any other quest you have waiting.

Another big update to the quest system is the ability to fire Source engine entity I/O from a quest dialogue using a