Announcing WorkAdventure v1.8

Translations

WorkAdventure is now available in multiple languages, thanks to the new translation system by @nolway!

We already have translations in French and German (thanks to @Lurkars). Even better, we have a complete doc explaining how to add new translations here: https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure/blob/develop/docs/dev/how-to-translate.md

So here is an official call to our great community: If you want to translate WorkAdventure in your native language, don't hesitate to contribute the translations, it's easy :)

Follow me

You know how there is usually this one person in a group that doesn't understand how you are supposed to move your character?

Well you can now ask people in the same discussion bubble as you to follow you!

Super cool to lead the way and make a guided tour of your awesome map to new-comers! A great way to introduce the most reluctant people to the joy of virtual pixelated universes! 😊

This was introduced by @pizkaz as part of the #rC3.

Move on click

You can now move to a given position using the right click of the mouse (or using a short tap on your mobile phone)! Our new "shortest path" algorithm will compute the shortest path to get you to your destination.

This is all thanks to Waclaw-I who joined the team in January!

Walk to a destination using the URL

When entering the map, your Woka can now automatically walk to a given destination. To do this, simply add a ?moveTo=[destination] parameter in the URL.

For instance:

Walk to a layer

                    
                        
https://play.workadventu.re/[your_map]?moveTo=[layer_name]

                    
                

Walk to a "point" `object.

                    
                        
https://play.workadventu.re/[your_map]?moveTo=[object_name]

                    
                

Walk to coordinates

                    
                        
 https://play.workadventu.re/[your_map]?moveTo=[x,y]

                    
                

More details here: https://staging.workadventu.re/map-building/entry-exit.md#defining-destination-point-with-moveto-parameter

Complete layout revamping

The UI layout has been completely redesigned.

You can now open up to 2 websites at the same time + a number of other websites can be docked into a task-bar.

Those websites are never overlayed with the videos of other players.

You will also notice a much smoother experience when entering and leaving a "cowebsite" quickly.

The video boxes have been completely redesigned too, with a really nicer look (yes, this little Woka at the bottom of the video box is really cute!)

New contextual menu

When you walk next to someone and press space (or when you click on someone), you will now see a contextual menu displayed.

For now, the menu only contains one item ("see the business card"), but in the future, the menu will host a number of features (including custom features programmable from the scripting API!)

Parallax effect

Parallax data stored in Tiled is now correctly loaded in WorkAdventure and this means... you can have parallax scrolling in your maps! ❤️

New Scripting API features 🔥

Move your player

You can now use the scripting API to walk the current player to any point of your map! See: https://workadventu.re/map-building/api-player.md#move-player-to-position

Camera management

You can now control the camera from the scripting API. This can be tremendously useful for tutorials (show the different parts of the maps without walking there), or for games / quests. More details here: https://workadventu.re/map-building/api-camera.md

Scripting API Extra new release

A new release of our extended scripting library is also available! We are proud to release @workadventure/scripting-api-extra v1.3.0.

As part of this new release, you can now easily embed in your maps:

• A small tutorial! (Thanks @HimeShaman)

• Properties to automatically open the variables configuration page and a dedicated function to open the configuration page too (Thanks @ValdoTR)

Improvements 📈

Zoom allowed in "auto-focus" zones

v1.7 added the ability to design maps that zoom automatically (for instance to view a meeting room). But so far, when the map was automatically zoomed, there was no way to zoom-out manually. v1.8 adds the ability to zoom in and out, even in an "auto-zoom" zone.

Much faster startup of the front container

For users self-hosting WorkAdventure, you will notice the front container is now starting waaaaaay faster, thanks to a precompilation of the container code. Many thanks to our new contributor @lukashass for this improvement!

Hosted solution / SAAS improvements 🧑‍💻

Our hosted solution has also had a number of big improvements!

We are super happy to announce:

• a new (cheaper!) pricing model for small event organizers (thanks @gparant)

• an add-on for Google Calendar: you can now schedule meetings in WorkAdventure directly from Google Calendar! (Thanks @Kharhamel @HimeShaman @moufmouf)

Bug fixes 🛠

Countless bug fixes have been added to this release. The most notable ones are:

• A user leaving a conversation bubble will not trigger the bubble closing for other players

• The user name is now correctly displayed on Brave

• You should see less users running indefinitely (though this can still happen sometimes)

• When doing multiple screen sharings, at times, you could see a spinner on top of the screen sharing. This will never happen anymore!

• Better handling of the joystick on Safari mobile browser

• In Firefox, it is now easy to get the focus back on the game when you are in a Jitsi or a Cowebsite

You can get a full list of changes at https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure/releases/tag/v1.8.0