Soundboxing
Soundboxing 1.1.20 - Player bugfixes! Drum-style keyboard, Unity and shader updates
Many people have reported issues with the player over the past few days, and I heard you. Some things changed recently on the target site and now it's not working well at all. Fortunately, since the last patch I've been digging in and trying to find every single bug that causes the player to get stuck or loop. After extensive testing and a lot of code rewriting, we have a new player! If you notice anything acting worse than before, please let me know and I'll fix it up ASAP.
Drum-style Keyboard
If you haven't tried out a drum-style keyboard in another VR game, it's a fun and intuitive way of typing in VR. If you're using the Oculus Rift, or are having issues with the SteamVR keyboard, there's now a drum-style keyboard sitting there in the search screen. Thanks to NormalVR for their fantastic CutieKeys project that was a great starting point. Head over to search to check it out!
Unity and Shader Upgrades
In this patch the game has been upgraded to use Unity 2018.1.0f2, which also led to replacing a bunch of objects that were using old legacy shaders and deprecated functionality. This upgrade also made it necessary to regenerate the lighting information for the game (you may notice a larger patch delta this time as a result.) Not much has changed, but you may notice some minor visual differences here and there, and for some video hardware, a performance improvement.
That's it - this is mostly a quality of life and bugfix update. Hope everyone has fun playing!
Soundboxing 1.1.17 - LIV, Controller Pause, HD Videos, Speech Search, Bugfix Release!
LIV Mixed Reality Support!
LIV is a fantastic set of tools for doing mixed reality VR streaming. Mixed reality lets those outside of VR see what you're doing inside the game, and right now it's the best way to introduce people to VR. We're thrilled to launch first-class LIV integration today. Now go do some awesome Twitch and Youtube streams!
Controller Pause Button
I play this game a lot myself, and I know how frustrating it can be if you need to pause quickly and you can't aim at that stupid little button. As of today, hitting A or B on Oculus or the pad or menu button on Vive while in play mode, will easily and immediately pause or play the game. This should have been done long ago, sorry about that, but you can thank Job Stauffer for prodding me to fix this :)
HD Videos!
Video content has been upgraded to 720p by default, compared to the SD resolution that was being shown before in-game. When VR headsets were all low resolution, it made little sense to render HD video. But now as the resolution of these headsets gets better and better, let's take advantage!
Speech Search Fixed
Due to some changes in the speech recognition APIs we were using (Watson) it had stopped working. We've upgraded to the latest and now it should be working again.
General Upgrades
- Upgraded to use Unity 2017.4.1f1
- Fixed duplicated network requests and message boxes
- Updated to latest browser engine, postprocessing stack, VR libraries, Steam auth library
- Beam to game much faster
New Website
If you haven't checked it out yet - you really should visit the new website at soundboxing.co. It makes it easy to find new challenges and beam them to the VR game, share challenges and playlists, find new players to follow, and - I think you'll be surprised how good the new WebVR demo is. You can send a challenge to a friend and if they have a WebVR-compatible browser, they can play it in VR (with interactive gloves and everything) right from their browser. Thanks to Megumi Tanaka again for her fantastic work on the redesign, after the inspired work on the logo last year.
What's next
I have to apologize for the long amount of time between updates. There are some good reasons but it doesn't matter - the important thing to know is that I'm still committed to improving this game. Check out all the work done on rebuilding the website and the WebVR demo, the smaller but numerous fixes to the full game, and trust that there are some larger Soundboxing efforts going on in the background that are taking longer than I'd hoped.
Soundboxing will continue to improve for quite a long time - I see it as a decade-long endeavor. For now join me in-game, check out some challenges, and enjoy the ride!
Soundboxing 1.1.9 - Saves your place in lists
- Always return back to where you were in a list! This has been a major point of feedback, and the game is better for it - thanks for speaking up!
- Fixed bug where explosions would not show up in replay mode.
- Fixed issue with images quickly switching between two backgrounds.
- Upgraded to latest Oculus libraries.
- Potential crash fix.
Thanks for playing!
Soundboxing 1.1.8: The Polish Patch
Here's what we're most excited about:
A fantastic new logo!
Thanks to Megumi Tanaka for her inspired work on our new logo, meant to look both like an approaching orb or like one of the robot's eyes.
New Menus
There's no guesswork with the new menu system. You'll always find what you need, in a consistent place and with a unified panel interface.
Infinite scroll
If you were worried about your content being lost forever, you can rest easy. Now everything is available forever - just keep scrolling and Soundboxing will fetch more content from the network, on every list.
Network code rewrite
It wasn't just the menu system that got an upgrade this patch. The entire networking system was rewritten and made more efficient - so downloads and uploads happen faster, and importantly, bandwidth used is reduced by an order of magnitude. Better still, now you can continue to play the game more freely while things are down- or uploading.
Bug squashing and performance tuning
An inordinate amount of effort has gone into playtesting, fixing a lot of little bugs that cropped up, and performance issues that had crept up in recent patches. If you find more annoyances or bugs, please let us know - we continue to squash them with high priority!
Wrapping up
Overall, not much of the game has changed, but a lot of the code has changed. Now that the foundation of the game has been improved so dramatically, look forward to some rapid feature development.
Speaking of which, who wants playlists? đ
Soundboxing Graphics Update: 4 New High-Quality Environments
Four brand new, high quality environments, with real lighting! Until today, Soundboxing was using flat shading, which was simple and fast but it did not look impressive. With this update, Soundboxing takes advantage of Unity's modern global illumination graphics pipeline to render in much higher quality.
Also hopefully fixed in this patch is the dreaded "Player Loading" bug which has plagued some users on startup. There may be another cause for that message besides what has been fixed this patch, so if it continues to be an issue, please let me know.
Adjustable orb height, Oculus native support, and paged leaderboards
- Adjustable orb height
- Oculus Rift+Touch native support
- Leaderboards that show more than just the top 10!
- Bugs fixed
Adjustable orb height
If someone makes a challenge and isn't the same height as you, it's frustrating to reach some of the orbs. Ditto if the ceiling is low or the tracking area is narrow. No more! Now you can move and scale to choose where the orbs will hit.
Oculus Rift+Touch native support
You asked, and I'm here with good news: Oculus native support! For anyone who's had problems with the OpenVR-based Rift+Touch support, give this a shot. Note that the build that is bundled with Steam still uses Steam to log you in. Simply choose the Oculus launch option when launching the game.
Improved leaderboards
Tired of only being able to see the top 10 scores? Now you can see all of them! Nothing fancy about the buttons, but now you can see your score even if you didn't beat the best.
Bugs fixed
There were numerous small bugs fixed in this update - some counts appeared wrong because they ran out of room for digits, etc.
Since the last big patch, I've been so happy to see the variety of different types of challenges people are creating! Keep on keeping it weird.
Enjoy and dance on!
Patch 1.1.3 - Performance Updates
What's new this patch:
- Orbs now render faster and use less memory
- Lists now start loaded at the correct distance
- The game communicates much more efficiently with the video player
- Loading times are improved for both punches and dancers
- Upgraded to Unity 5.6 for a variety of performance improvements
- Usernames and avatars now update every time you play the game
Soundboxing 1.1: Edit your Beatmap! New search options, environments & more.
Overhauled and improved record mode (with editing)
We know how frustrating it can be when youâre finishing up recording a challenge and you make one mistake. Now you can go back, make any changes you need, and get the challenge just right before you submit!
Challenge search
Now you can search within already-created challenges, so you never have to create a challenge if you donât want to. Youâll be amazed how much is already mapped out in the system.
Hand adjustment
Everyone seems to hold their controllers differently, and everyone wants to punch differently. Instead of trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution, weâve made it easy to slide and adjust how your hands are situated. Once you get it set up just right, it makes a surprising difference!
Voice search
Typing on a keyboard is a lot easier than typing in VR with motion controllers, so we wanted to make it easier. Now you have the option to just say out loud âSearch [SONGNAME]â or âSearch [BANDNAME]â while youâre in the search section, and Soundboxing will convert your speech to text and run the search like magic.
New Environments!
Getting bored of the same old space scene background that Soundboxing launched with? Now you have 8 space scenes to choose from! đ Seriously though, if people use this a lot, we can add more and even open it up to the wider community if thereâs enough demand.
Handicap fix
In the past, if two orbs hit at almost the same time, we gave you a pass if you hit one with the wrong hand. Now thereâs an additional condition: the orbs have to be close together as well. This will make it so that when people cross-cross their arms you actually have to mind which hand youâre hitting with.
âStart overâ option
If you want to start over, you no longer have to go back and re-enter the challenge. Both in play and record mode, you can choose âSTART OVERâ and start from the beginning.
Distinctive wall effects
Had a hard time determining where the wall is, or where youâre supposed to hit? Now there are a lot more visual cues to help out, especially in record mode.
Upgraded engine
Upgraded the game engine to Unity 5.5 and SteamVR to its latest as well.
Bug fixes
Tired of the orbs appearing right near your eyes? They shouldnât do that any more. Remember seeing incorrect challenges listed when paging through different types of search results? Thatâs fixed too. Oculus users using Oculus Touch through SteamVR should notice fewer bugs scrolling through lists.
Thanks again for all the awesome, creative, inspiring challenges. For our part, weâll continue to improve every part of this game piece by piece - so please continue to spread the word about this community! Next up on the list is finishing up native Oculus support, then a system for height/room adjustments.
Enjoy and rock on!
Touch support, video loading fixes, and better score replays
- Oculus Touch support in beta
- Loading fixes for the video player
- Improved score replays
- Add more information about the user and challenge
- Lots of small bugs fixed
Oculus Touch support
Since the last patch, the game has been ported over to Oculus Touch, now in private beta. Are you interested in helping to beta test our Oculus port? Send us your Oculus username via Twitter to @SoundboxingVR or e-mail support@soundboxing.co with the subject "Oculus Beta". This is only good for about a week - if you're interested, hurry up and reach out!
Video loading fixes
Games are way more fun when they work properly. In Soundboxing, the most important thing is to be able to load and play challenges, so when the video player bugs out, it's a showstopper. In the past two weeks the video code has been fully rewritten from the ground up, this time with the aim of improving reliability. It wasn't the goal of the work, but incidentally, videos should load slightly faster now.
Improved score replay mode
If you click on a high score in the leaderboards, now it brings you to a real replay, where you can see the score and streak info as it unfolds. Also you'll be able to see the explosions as they happened. Try it out - it's a lot more fun now!
More user and challenge info cards in the game
Sometimes it can be hard to find good challenges, but the best way is to follow great users. And you find users to follow by seeing their info attached to the content you like best. Now there is more user info shown in various places, like on the new score replay mode, or in play mode!
Many small bugs fixed
After porting the game to Oculus Touch, a lot of work went into going around and fixing up the little bugs that had cropped up - many of which had nothing to do with porting the game. You should notice a bit more polish all around.
Thanks!
Thank you for all your support this year - I've had a blast building Soundboxing. I hope to be able to continue building it next year, too! If you enjoy the game, the best gift you can get me this Christmas is to tell someone about my game, or better yet - buy it for them :) Merry Christmas, and happy holidays to everyone!
Soundboxing Community & Settings Update!
Another big patch update today:
- Now you can follow your favorite users to find the best content!
- Local scoreboards - compete against people who have played on your computer
- Redesigned the look and feel of the UI both in the game and on the website
- More challenging game modes which amp up the speed
- Experimental left-handed mode
- Easier scrolling on all lists
- Bug fixes and performance improvements!
Follow your favorite users
When you log in with the new update, we'll load up all of your Steam friends and put all their activity into a feed so you can easily find great new content created or recommended by your friends. You can also follow users right from inside the game.
Local scoreboards
It's fun to compete online, but it's even more fun to compete against people standing right next to you. Starting with this update, you can choose either local or global scoreboards, and the game will remember your setting.
More game modes
If you're not finding Soundboxing to be a challenge, try increasing the speed to "Fast" mode - it's a lot more difficult. If you're feeling *really* adventurous, try "Insane" mode!
Left-handed mode
Are you a leftie? Tired of repeated notes with your wrong hand? Try changing the game mode to the experimental left-handed version, and we'll flip all the notes for you. Challenges that you make will be flipped for right-handed people, so you don't have to think about it.
Other fixes
It should be much easier to scroll on lists of items now - there was a touchpad sensitivity bug that has been resolved. Score and challenge upload performance doubled. Now you can turn off the dancing robots, the explosions, and the screen shake if you find it distracting or need some extra performance. Numerous other bugfixes were made.
Future plans
I've been listening to all your feedback and as things stand, these are currently Soundboxing's top development priorities:
- Oculus Touch support - a lot of this work was done in this patch to prepare for this
- Fix for the player sometimes playing noises in the background
- Beatmap editor
- Punch field height/size adjustments
- Full pagination everywhere - a lot of work was done in this patch to prepare for this
- Free demo
- Improve social feed with user suggestions
- Automatic beatmap creation