EA2: Release Notes

Early Access 2 is now available on the Tangle download site.  Please note that this is a REQUIRED update, meaning that anyone who is not in the Early Access 2 build version will not be able to see or hear other users. This poses no risk to your data or privacy, but would obviously cause confusion for your team. 

Early Access 2 brings a host of cool updates for Avatars & Avatar Animations, Statuses, User Panels and more! We spent this release focusing on a lot of frequent quality of life issues to make it easier to do the common things you do in Tangle and reduce the amount of time spent wrangling menus. 

This release also contains a significant upgrade to the way we transmit audio and video and that's enabled functional cross-platform screensharing and truly private closed door security. So, there's lots of new stuff to see and use, but also a lot of invisible stuff that helps make Tangle better and create a more secure foundation for the future.

Read on down below for details about all of the cool new stuff in Early Access 2! Please also see the Known Issues section for a few items that we wanted to give you a heads up on.

Early Access 2 Updates

Scale Factor Slider

This is a debug feature that can get you into and out of some trouble, so we wanted to outline it's use below. For most users, Tangle's UI will show up at the appropriate scale and resolution. There are some instances (Ultrawide monitors, Macbook Retina displays) where the results are less consistent. While we work to solve this issue we've provided a "UI Scale Factor" slider in the settings menu that will allow you to shrink or enlarge the UI to your comfort. The "Set to 100%" button sets the UI to the most common "correct" option. 

Avatar Updates

Early Access 2 contains a number of upgrades to Avatars, including new features, over 100 new customizations and a number of quality of life fixes. 

Quality of Life Fixes

• You no longer need to hit "Save" to save your Avatar changes. They'll be auto-saved when entering a server. The "Save" button now acts as a way to "bookmark" your changes for use with the "Undo" feature. 
• The Avatar Customization menu can now be accessed from Tangle servers by clicking on your name. You no longer need to back out to the Server Select screen to make changes! 
• Many small tweaks to scroll speed, selection accuracy and apparel layering.

Animations

Animation helps give Avatars life and presence. We have a lot of upcoming features to help expand on this, but this release contains a few features that lay the groundwork for what comes next. 

• Avatars now animate in 3 distinct ways
  • Eyes blink at random intervals
  • Mouths move when you're unmuted and speaking
  • You can click and drag to waggle your avatar around
• You'll also note the return of the "volume wobbler" at the bottom of the User Panel. This is handy for telling who's speaking and also diagnosing the odd audio input issue. This look + feel will change with some upcoming User Panel updates. 

New Avatar Customizations

• There are over 100 new Avatar Customizations in Early Access 2! Hats, haircuts and more!

A/V Updates

We made a major update to the way in which audio and video are transmitted in Tangle. We gave this a very long QA period, but would love to hear if y'all experience any issues. This should be more or less invisible to you, but has enabled things like Screensharing, more secure closed doors and future feature updates.

Screensharing Updates

Screensharing now works on Windows and macOS. Click on the screenshare button to get a list of displays and windows you can share to your Tangle! Screenshare respects closed door privacy rules like all other video modes. The screenshare menu still contains debug UI, but not for too long!

Screensharing is still considered an "In Development" feature and we'd love your feedback and experiences using it. 

More Secure Closed Doors

Without getting too technical, we re-architected the closed door system to make it impossible for audio to "leak" out of closed rooms- You and everyone in your closed room are now in a private, separate channel from the rest of the server.

This will also allow us to remove the "loading/door wiggle" in a future update as connections should be nearly instantaneous. 

UI & UX Updates

Context Menu

• Context Menus are now available when right clicking on the Tangle itself or any Tangle object. This will allow you to create Tangle objects right at your cursor without having to go to the Objects toolbar. 
• Future updates will bring even more functionality to Context Menus as well as additional UX + UI improvements

User Status UI

• The UI & UX for setting your status has gotten a big overhaul. No more debug menu! 
• The actual functionality of the feature hasn't changed, it's just a whole lot easier to use and a heckuva lot nicer to look at. 
• There are a few small usability issues down in "Known issues" to be aware of

Sticky Metadata

• Stickies now have a little informational "I" in their lower-left hand corner. Hovering over this will show you who last edited this sticky and when. Handy for moderation or just for "signing" a sticky.

Server Exit Confirmation

• If you hit "Escape" you'll get a confirmation dialog asking you if you'd like to leave the server or not. No more dropping you through a trapdoor to the server select screen!

Confetti

• By far, the #1 requested feature has made it's triumphant return: CONFETTI! Hit Q for a burst of color and a choir of cheers.

Updated Audio

• So much new audio it's hard to list it all! We're nearing the end of our initial audio pass of Tangle and we'd love to hear any feedback you have about the audioscape!

Better Warnings & Error Reporting

Image Upload Limits

• Previously, Images were capped at 8mb per file. Not that we told you that. Or warned you when an image was larger than that. Sorry!
• If an image is now too large, you'll get a Toastie notifying you that it won't be uploaded.

Better Error Reporting in Toasties

• This Release begins a long process of adding error codes and proper reporting into Toasties. Now when you disconnect, get kicked out of Tangle or otherwise experience an issue you should get a more verbose warning in the Toastie or an error code you can use when chatting with Support.
• Not every case is covered yet, but we're hoping to expand this system to better target the issues you may encounter. 

Bug Fixes

Early Access 2 contains more than 30 bug fixes, but the ones that you'll likely notice are listed below.

• Changes in your display name should now always be visible and saved upon entering the Tangle server
• It was possible to get stuck in some debug menus. This should no longer be an issue.
• In a variety of scenarios, keyboard shortcuts could stop working. This should no longer be the case. 
• macOS Screenshare now works and won't crash Tangle. Happy sharing!

Known Issues

Major Issues

• PLEASE READ THE BELOW KNOWN ISSUE:
  • There are 2 instances in which Tangle can inadvertently change your selected webcam or turn on a webcam without the user directly selecting it. If you are in Avatar mode, you will stay in Avatar mode, but your webcam will appear to be on.  
  • Neither of these scenarios will break video mute or begin broadcasting video to your Tangle, but they will "turn on" your webcam and you will see your webcam's activity light as on, i.e. despite the activity light your video is neither visible nor transmitted.
  • The two known ways to enter this state are: 
    • If a User plugs in a new webcam, depending on their OS and hardware configuration it may turn that camera on. 
    • If a User selects a webcam device from the Settings menu, it will turn that webcam on even if you are in Avatar mode. 
      
      • The quick fix is jus to hit "V" or use the "Video Mute" button on the control bar to toggle the status back to it's correct state.
  • There is a pending hotfix for this issue. 

Connectivity

• In some instances, a disconnect will not return the user to the server select screen but will instead show them the "wiggle" loading bar indefinitley. Close and re-open Tangle to get around this one. 

Tangle Objects

• It possible to "lose" the caret/input indicator on a sticky note by entering a new line (Shift + Enter) at the end of a full sticky or by selecting a completely full sticky and hitting "Space". 
• Copy/Pasting text into a Sticky that exceeds the character count will disappear all of the text instead of removing just the overflowing characters

Rooms & User Panels

• Clicking to drag your avatar around can also activate the UI for Fingies
• If a 2 users are both in Closed Door rooms and are then invited to another Closed Door room, they won't be able to hear each other

UX, UI + Audio

• There is some inconsistency in the use of "ESC" across menus in Tangle. We're working to standardize keyboard input across all of Tangle. 
•  Confetti SFX is only audible to people in the room from which it is played and is not properly spatialized. 
• Statuses
  • When calling up the new Status window, the input field is not selected and Enter/Escape do not work as expected. 
  • If the Status popup is open when you exit a server or are disconnected, it will not close properly and may overlay critical elements of the login flow.
• Context Menu
  
  • Opening a context menu near the bottom of the screen may cut off the available options
  • If you've selected an Image, but right-click on a room, you'll get the context menu options for the Image and not the Room. 
• Scale Factor
  • If the Scale Factor is set too high, it may be impossible to close the In-Server avatar select menu. You can either close Tangle or use Escape to back out to the Server Select screen, open the Settings menu and shrink it.