Hello everyone. Apologies for the extended silence. We're releasing our next update build on December 20th. The most visible change is the UI overhaul. As many of you have requested, we have moved from the previous minimalist UI with most features hidden in right-click menus, to a more standard UI where all available tools and functions are now always visible on screen. There's now hover hints for all icons, with an optional window for more detailed tooltips coming in a future update. Our focus moving forward is on making functionality immediately discoverable through the UI, but we will also be releasing documentation and tutorials when things are complete. We've also implemented a tighter window docking system.
Under the hood, we've completed major refactoring and implemented new debugging tools that are already significantly speeding up bug fixing. We also laid groundwork necessary for a much improved animation paradigm (more on this below), but it also means some features will be temporarily disabled in this release: multi-bone mesh attachments, mesh deformers (except contour mesh), manual vertex editing, and sprite switching. The Z-Order window may also be absent. Expect some bugs, especially with Undo/Redo system.
In the bottom left of the screenshot, you'll notice the EntityPorts window. While it will be disabled in this build, it represents the improved animation system that combines and expands upon features from the previous builds, the original Spriter Pro, and some previously teased capabilities. This system will enable you to swap not just individual sprites, but entire hierarchies of parts. It will also enable some powerful procedural animation features - we'll detail this system more in a future update.
The C# runtime and Unity plugins that work with the new framework are progressing well, and we expect to share a a more substantial update or a pre-release version of those within a few weeks after the upcoming build.
Following the December 20th release, we're returning to bi-weekly builds. These will focus on bug fixes, reintegrating disabled features, and quality of life features, but the primary task left is polishing the interface for the EntityPort framework and completing the documentation for it.
Thanks again for your continued patience.
