Updating for New Versions

Verge3D is being actively developed with software releases occurring regularly. There is also the pre-release channel of updates with new versions coming out even more often. We recommend you to keep in pace with the development cycle and timely update your Verge3D distribution and applications.

When to Update?

Subscribe to the official announcements forum or Soft8Soft's social media to get notified about Verge3D development progress and new releases.

Verge3D social media and version info — About window with version info and social media links.

Also, if you notice a small orange dot near the ⓘ icon in the App Manager, this means that a new stable version of Verge3D is available for download.

Click on the ⓘ icon to display the About Verge3D dialog with information about new update:

Verge3D update available on About dialog

Updating Verge3D on Windows

Simply download and install the latest Verge3D distribution in the same folder as the older version (that is, "C:\Program Files\Verge3D_for_Blender"). The old version will be removed, but of course all your apps, settings, and licensing status will be preserved.

Updating Verge3D on macOS

Simply download and install the latest Verge3D distribution. The old version will be removed, but of course all your apps, settings, and licensing status will be preserved.

Updating Verge3D on Linux or ChromeOS

Backup your current Verge3D folder by renaming it (from "verge3d" to "verge3d_old", for example).

Download and unpack the latest Verge3D bundle in a fresh folder with the same name (that is, "verge3d").

By using the same name for the fresh folder you can avoid re-configuring paths in the 3D editor of your choice.

Updating Applications

Updating Verge3D installation does not bring new features to the existing applications which continue to use the Verge3D runtime (file named v3d.js) from the previous version. In order to update the apps too, extra steps are required (see below).

Method #1 (Automatic) — use the update feature

After you completed updating Verge3D installation, relaunch App Manager. Your app should appear in the list with the round arrow button in the operations column (reload the page if not). Click on that button to start updating the app.

In the window shown up, select the template files you'd like to overwrite. You can safely select everything if you didn't edit the files. If you modified the files, be sure to backup them first so that you can cherry-pick the changes back later, and only after that proceed with overwriting.

Under the hood, this operation overwrites the engine modules by the files from the build folder of the Verge3D installation folder, namely, Verge3D runtime v3d.js and optional modules:

opentype.js — enabled by the Font Converter checkbox in the app creation panel.
basis_transcoder.js, basis_transcorder.wasm — enabled by the Texture Decompressor checkbox in the app creation panel.
ammo.wasm.js, ammo.wasm.wasm — enabled by the Physics checkbox in the app creation panel.

If you choose so, this operation will also overwrite the selected HTML/CSS/JavaScript files and the icons folder media by the files from the manager/templates/template_name folder (located in Verge3D installation folder).

Upon updating, App Manager will save older versions of your files in the app's v3d_app_data/update_backup directory with a time stamp added. This allows you to restore any of the previously saved revisions of your app files when you need them. Simply copy a file back to the application folder root and remove the time stamp from its name.

Finally, you should perform exporting to glTF so that the exported format receives the latest updates. If you were using Puzzles in your app, you'll need to re-save your scenario in the Puzzles editor so that the generated code matches the newest version of the engine.

Method #2 (Clean) — re-create your app from scratch

This is an alternative method of updating where you are in full control of your files. You can use it to get rid of obsolete files or if for some reason the automatic update method is not applicable.

To perform clean updating, in the App Manager type the name of your app in the Create new App window and click Create App button.

Copy Blender/Max/Maya scene files, all the textures/sounds, and the Puzzles scenario file visual_logic.xml from your old app folder to the newly created app folder (located within your applications directory). Overwrite files when you're asked so. If you were using HTML-based UI in your app, copy all relevant files as well.

If you changed anything in your application's .html, .css, or .js files, be sure to backup them first so that you can cherry-pick the changes back later.

Verifying Verge3D Update

To verify that the Verge3D installation has been upgraded successfully, open the About Verge3D dialog in the App Manager and check the Version line:

To verify that a particular app uses the updated Verge3D runtime, run this app, open the browser console, then check the very first line:

Make sure that the version printed in the console corresponds to the version displayed in the About Verge3D dialog.

Updating the 3D Modeling Software

Once you installed a new major version of Blender, 3ds Max, or Maya, you will have to reinstall Verge3D. This way the exporter plugins, menus and buttons will be registered properly. Make sure Verge3D is compatible with that particular version of the modeling suite. Also, you must run the modeling suite at least once in order to initialize its system configurations (then you must close the software).

The exception to this rule is Blender, which allows copying the preferences from the previous version upon the first launch of the updated version:

Click Import Blender X.Y Preferences, then make sure Verge3D is up and running.

Known Issues and Troubleshooting

In some cases, namely when updating Verge3D with maintenance subscription expired, you should enter the license key each time you update to a new version. Otherwise your apps may use incorrect Verge3D runtime causing unpredictable results.

On rare occasions the Puzzles button can disappear for your app in the App Manager. Please perform clean updating to fix this.

On rare occasions the Puzzles editor may fail to load after updating. Please reset your browser settings to fix this.

If after updating some feature got broken, please report this on the forums so that we can investigate the problem and issue a correcting release.

Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!