Koru 1.4
09 Apr 2018
This update lets you control the quality of exported textures, adds some new tools and export options. Read on for more details.
Exported Textures Resolution
Koru reduces exported textures resolution for a reason: not all the devices can display high-resolution textures even if they claim they support it. However, sometimes you need a high-quality crisp artwork and it doesn’t really matter if it may fail on some old mobile phones.
We’ve added two options to address that: the first lets you setup the maximum resolution, so all the exported artwork is resized to fit. The second option lets you provide a list of exceptions - textures that should be left intact and exported “as is”.
When the scene is opened in browser, Koru engine still checks all the textures against the current hardware and downscales them to fit the hardware requirements, so it should keep working even on weak devices. However, we strongly advice to use this feature only if you really need it.
More details are here.
Better JavaScript API
This version comes with extended JavaScript API that lets you control materials, load images, take screenshots and manipulate scenes in other ways. For instance, you can now setup automatic rotation of the scene if it is idle.
See the links above and our tutorials page for more details and examples.
Export To Facebook
Facebook recently added an option to show 3D models, so we decided to support it in Koru. Now you have a fourth “Facebook” option when you click the “Export” button. Give it a try, it is funny.
Note that Facebook offers quite a limited materials, so only the simple materials will be exported properly. There is also a limit of 3MB per 3D model and Koru provides detailed breakdown of exported scenes, so you can optimize geometry and artwork to fit the limits.
See here for more details.
New Tools
There are two things that make your exported scenes big and increase the loading time: artwork and scene geometry. We addressed the artwork part with texture resolution limit option, and for geometry we added a new tool that optimizes meshes by keeping them looking the same.
It is under the Tools menu and it will show you visually the optimization process. You can try it on a complex model like the built-in “Owlet” model.
Other Changes
Here is the list of other minor changes and improvements in this update:
- Semi-transparent watermarks export improved;
- “Reload Images” command added, like in Boxshot;
- Callouts selection improved;
- Zero shadow level issue fixed;
- Bump export improved;
- Saving and exporting to read-only and locked files displays a proper error message;
- Translation and rotation gizmos can work in both local node and global world spaces, switched by Alt/Option key;
- PSD format support improved, especially for 32-bit floating-point images;
- Better lookup for missing watermark images;
- Collada geometry export improved;
- OBJ loading improved for Adobe-specific materials;
- Better checking of hardware at startup.
There is a couple of other small changes and improvements here or there aimed to make the software more stable and reliable.
Still Beta?
We’re going to remove the “beta” tag in 2-3 weeks if everything will be fine with this release. All the base features are done, API is good enough, so we see no reasons to keep it beta anymore.
Give it a try, report issues and let’s make it officially production-ready next month!
Cheers!