Verge3D 4.10 pre3 available!

macOS Installer

Mac users no longer need to mess with the .xz archive which was intended for both macOS and Linux environments. From now on, you can enjoy the familiar approach to installing and updating Verge3D via the standard .pkg installer.

Our brand new macOS installer will install Verge3D into the Applications folder (inside the user home folder), with no admin privileges required. Then it will configure the Blender extension or Maya plug-in fully automatically. What is left is to open Blender or Maya and start working with Verge3D!

Moreover, you can now use a native launcher to run Verge3D App Manager in the standalone mode (that is, without running Blender or Maya first). You can find it in the macOS Launchpad. You can also add this launcher to the macOS Dock for quicker access.

Another change is that under macOS, the App Manager now uses Python bundled with the Verge3D distribution instead of Blender or Maya’s Python scripting engine. Our own Python engine was built specifically for use with Verge3D, and should work faster and more robustly.

Finally, when converting a Verge3D web interactive to a desktop macOS app using Electron.js, the resulting app will get a nice icon which conforms to Apple’s design recommendations.

Licensing and version compatibility

As you know, the Verge3D license is perpetual, with software updates available within 12 months after the date of purchase. In the case the license key was not renewed, one must not install a later Verge3D version not covered by the outdated key. Besides that this is contrary to the EULA, there can also arise various nasty technical issues, because the update process intentionally won’t touch the old Verge3D runtime so that to keep it activated with the old license key.

To notify the user about such the problem, we now print a warning on the App manager splash screen just after installing a non-compatible Verge3D update. If you happen to see this message, please either do renew, or just downgrade to an older version in the coverage range of your license key.

Blender-specific features

When using the Fit to Camera Edge feature, in case the parented object’s Parent Inverse is not cleared, it will show a descriptive warning so that you can clear it before exporting.

Also parenting with no inverse now produces correct results and takes less processing during the export of parented objects.

We fixed the issue with vertex colors in meshes with uninitialized material slots. Thanks for bringing this up on the forums.

We also fixed the node Light Path not working in Blender 4.5 which is just around the corner.

Maya-specific features

We fixed the problem with re-installing Verge3D to a different folder (other than folder with an older Verge3D installation). Particularly, you could encounter this issue when switching from Verge3D for Maya to Verge3D Ultimate – not anymore!

We fixed the old issue with Maya scenes not opening from the App Manager under macOS.

Puzzles

We added comment puzzles to all entries in the Puzzles Library to serve as hints on how to use them. It should help with adapting them for your app without the need to check with the docs.

We made it possible to attach the puzzle init fullscreen to other puzzles.

Other improvements

The Windows installer now provides more descriptions and hints to make the installation process simpler for newcomers.

We updated the puzzles’ help pages in the User Manual and added more usage examples for old and new puzzles.