We've got a great update for you today, and here's the rundown:
* Dramatically reduced video load times (videos now load in about a second!)
* Improved CPU and memory performance across the game
* Added a "Genres" section to easily find music that you like
* Switched to a more efficient save format for faster uploads
* Countdown timer on play mode
* Improved https://www.soundboxing.co website
Rapid video loading
In this update, we overhauled the way videos are loaded and displayed. In previous versions, the game would analyze and buffer the video ahead of time. Now we're able to use embedded web technology to load the video on-the-fly, which allows much faster browsing and navigation. It's just more fun when you wait less!
Improved CPU and memory performance
In the lead-up to the game's launch, some areas of the game became slower and less efficient. Today's patch fixes up numerous performance bugs all across the game. In addition, there have been some memory pressure improvements as well. There's still a lot more we can do here to make the game even more efficient, but this is a strong first step.
Genres section
As more and more challenges flow through the system, it's getting harder to find the best ones to play; songs you enjoy. The top challenges update last time was a nice start, but with this update you can now browse through categories like House, Electronic, Rock, or Alternative and find music to suit your mood.
Faster uploads (soon)
It's frustrating after having fun playing a game, when saving your score takes a long time. Why does it lag? Because it's saving all the punches you make and their timings, your body movements, and more to the server, which right now can take a while. We've developed a new, vastly more efficient format for saving these to the server. With this game update, we now save in both the new and old format. Next update, when we switch over to the new format completely, those speed improvements will kick in all at once. In some cases we're seeing 20x improvement.
Countdown timer
Instead of launching immediately into the challenge when you hit play, now you've got a 3 second window to get ready. No more missing those tough notes right at the beginning!
Improved soundboxing.co site
If you haven't yet checked out https://www.soundboxing.co or weren't able to log in before, please give it a try. It makes it really easy to share challenges - send your friend a link, and when they receive it, they can either click to play a preview of the challenge in the browser, or they can click a button to open the challenge in VR. No need to search just to find your friend's challenge.
As always, thanks for playing! And please continue to send your feedback to support@soundboxing.co, the Steam forums, and /r/Soundboxing on Reddit - your feedback is how I decide what stuff to work on next!