Happy New Year Tabletop gamers 🎆 It is time to recap the latest updates we've released over the last few months for Tabletop Playground!

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From engine updates that improve the overall performance of the game, to more specific features such as creating 3D shapes from transparent images. Check out all the details below and let us know what features you'd like to see us work on next.

First up, creating 3D shapes from transparent images!

You can now use images to create cardboard cutout figures with depth in any shape.

Next step: custom shapes for cards, tokens, and tiles!

• Figures with alpha textures now get 3D shapes

• New option for changing 3D cursor size in the interface settings

• New option when creating objects in the editor: automatic straighten up on grab. Now activated by default for figures and for the chess pieces.

Unreal Engine Update

We've upgraded to a new Unreal Engine version, which gets rids of a few longstanding issues that couldn't be fixed before. We've also completely overhauled the multiplayer backend, which will allow cross-platform multiplayer across all launchers and stores in the future.

Mod Conversion Tool

Finally, this one is for the modders and board game developers! We've often had questions from creators on how to convert their games from Tabletop Simulator to Tabletop Playground. We've added a tool to make the conversion process much easier.

Find out how to use it on our knowledge base here: https://tabletop-playground.com/knowledge-base/importing-from-tabletop-simulator/

General Updates and enhancements

• Cards can now use a custom image to indicate that they are hidden (for example when in another player's hand), instead of the default grey blur. In the editor, you can set part of the front image or a separate texture to be the hidden image 
• The "Size" text fields in the editor are no longer read-only. You can set the size of any object directly now, with toggleable uniform scaling. A new "Flip" checkbox in the card editor allows you to show card stacks with the front facing upwards 
• Thumbnails for flipped cards are now cached, removing loading stutters in the object library when showing flipped cards. For existing packages, flipped thumbnails can be cached by opening the package in the editor and clicking the "Card Fronts" checkbox. 
• The directory where created and downloaded packages are stored can now be configured in the settings 
• Added knowledge base link buttons in a few placed in the editor 
• TTS importer: Fix snap point positions on regular objects 
• TTS importer: Sort save file names starting with a number numerically
• The editor now has Undo/Redo buttons on top of the screen. You can also press Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Y to undo or redo changes 
• The sounds for inserting into and taking objects from containers have been updated 
• Physical properties (friction, bounciness, density) of card-like objects can now be changed 
• Improved performance and fixed rare crash when rapidly switching PDF pages
• New dialog when joining games through an invite or the Steam friends list. Finds missing packages and offers to download them before joining the game
• Joining a game through Steam without the game running now works
• Increased physics tick rate for smoother and more stable simulation
• Improved physics replication for smoother gameplay on clients
• Improved dragging cards from stack with motion controllers
• New option for card holders to show card front instead of grey blur or card back for hidden cards, effectively not hiding cards
• New option for card-type objects (in editor) to disable stacking
• New option for smooth turning in VR

Scripting

• Added SnapPoint.getSnappedObject to find the object snapped to a snap point
• Text boxes have two new properties: maximum length and input type (either any strings, or only real/whole numbers)
• Added GameObject.toJSONString method, deprecate GameObject.toJsonString
• Add Container.remove and Container.removeAt • Add GameWorld.setShowDiceRollMessages and GameWorld.getShowDiceRollMessages • Add GameWorld.updateUI, GameWorld.removeUIElement, GameObject.updateUI, GameObject.removeUIElement, GameObject.addUI, GameObject.getUIs
• Don't call tick functions or advance timers while the game is paused (when a new player joins)

Fixes

• SteamVR doesn't start anymore when launching the game without VR (#44)
• Snap preview appeared at the wrong height for some angles of composite objects
• Removed crash on startup with recent Intel processors that required the OPENSSL_ia32cap environment variable to be set
• For clients using 2D or screen cursor mode, cards ended up in the wrong location when drawn from the on-screen hand
• Clients in screen cursor mode did not see cursors of other players
• When creating a snap point grid in the editor, the center position was a factor of 3 too smallScriptSlider had issues with values above 1000
• Switch off scripting UI interaction while holding objects
• Loading option for non-stacking cards correctly
• Sometimes the wrong object was dragged out when using the card stack or container explorer Removed crash when pressing escape while using drag and drop in container or stack explorer

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These new updates we've added are just some of the many features on our early access development roadmap for Tabletop Playground, which you can check out on our Trello HERE.

Don't forget to join our community Discord to chat with the dev team and give us your suggestions for new features for the game!