Release Notes - v5.13.3

This update marks a significant evolution of the platform, expanding how worlds are built, experienced, and interacted with. It introduces major improvements to environments, interaction, communication, audio, and object behavior, along with a more cohesive and expressive creative workflow.

Communication & Presence

A fully integrated chat system is now available inside worlds:

• Conversations are persistent and visible even after reopening interfaces
• Messages are clearly distinguished based on their origin (users, moderators, system)
• Chat history is preserved within sessions for continuity
• Improved connection awareness helps reflect who is present in a world at any time

Movement & Embodiment

Avatar movement and presence have been significantly refined:

• Smoother, more natural motion and responsiveness
• More consistent interaction with physical space and obstacles
• Improved synchronization between movement and visual behavior
• More grounded and stable feeling when navigating worlds

Interaction & World Engagement

Interacting with the world is now more flexible and expressive:

• Objects can respond to proximity and presence
• Interaction systems are more unified and consistent
• Improved support for building reactive environments that respond to user behavior

Objects & Creative Building

Objects in the world are now far more versatile and expressive:

• Objects can display text, web content, or rich HTML-style content
• Clicking or interacting with objects can reveal embedded information or media
• Objects can be made invisible, locked, or restricted as part of creative design
• Better support for organizing and structuring large scenes

Audio & Atmosphere

Audio systems have been expanded to support more immersive environments:

• Sounds can now be finely controlled in volume and spatial range
• Audio behavior can be synchronized across users in the same world
• Improved balance and realism in how sound fades with distance
• Support for automatically triggered ambient audio in context-aware situations

Lighting & Mood

Environments now support more dynamic and expressive lighting:

• Global lighting can shift more naturally across scenes
• Torches and local light sources can activate based on surroundings
• Worlds can now better reflect mood, time, and atmosphere

Interface & Navigation

• Improved in-world interface clarity and layout consistency
• A unified lobby experience that better reflects each world’s current state
• Cleaner presentation of version and world information
• General usability improvements across panels and controls

Stability & Continuity

• More reliable world persistence between sessions
• Improved connection stability when entering and leaving worlds
• Better handling of user identity and session continuity
• General fixes improving consistency across interactions and states

In Summary

Since v4, the platform has grown into a more expressive and immersive creative environment focused on:

• Rich, interactive worlds
• Persistent social presence
• Responsive and reactive environments
• Stronger audiovisual atmosphere
• More flexible object-based storytelling

This release lays the groundwork for building more living, responsive, and expressive digital spaces.