Showcase Mode - Client Update 5/18/2020

Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2023
Anarchy Arcade Game Banner
Genre: Casual, Free to Play, Indie, Early Access
Developer: Elijah Newman-Gomez
Release Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2014
Hello arcaders! Do you love what you've built in your arcades? Today's update adds a new Showcase Mode camera that allows you to showcase your creations with ease! Fly-through cameras & before/after renders are now just a button press away! There's also a plethora of fixes, improvements, and small additions packed into this update. Full change log below!

Showcase Mode


The new Showcase Mode uses your screenshots that you've taken of your arcade on the F5 Screenshot menu and uses them as camera path-points to do fly-throughs, camera fades, or even before & after comparison renders.



First, you'll need to have at least 1 screenshot taken in your arcade. I suggest taking a handful of them so that the camera has a few to cycle between during the showcase.

Next, you hold down E to go into Showcase Mode. Your camera will automatically go to the nearest screenshot position and start the sequence. Use the mouse wheel up/down to skip forward / backward through the sequence.

Press ESC to exit Showcase Mode and resume exploring your arcade.

The order that the sequence plays is the same as the order that you took the screenshots in. It always resumes at the nearest screenshot position to where you are standing when you turn on Showcase Mode. If the next screenshot is within line-of-sight of the camera, it will fly there. Otherwise, it will cut there instead.

Instead of a flying camera you can instead do before/after renders by going into Settings > Camera tab and turning on Showcase Mode Before & After Wipe. It shows what the room looked like before & after your customizations. I posted a video of what this looks like onto my Twitter here: https://twitter.com/anarchyarcade/status/1261794463141122049

I'm interested in your feedback on what you think about Showcase Mode and which features it needs most in the future! (For example, one thing I plan on adding is the ability to re-order screenshots on the timeline.)

JSON Item Import


Developers/programmers - today's update adds the ability to paste stringified JSON items directly into AArcade while in "walking-around" mode to add them to your library & spawn them into the world. If you are interested in how to make your own apps / plugins generate JSON items compatible with AArcade, please just ask in the Discord and I'll be happy to help! https://discord.gg/9FSCDuJ

I hope you all enjoy the new Showcase Mode & stability improvements in today's update! And I'll see you all in a couple weeks with the next update! Party on, dudes!

- SM Sith Lord, Programmer of Anarchy Arcade

Change Log


  • Added Precache Models to the Settings menu > Objects tab. Enable it to speed up singleplayer arcade loading.
  • Added Batch Object Spawn to the Settings Menu > Objects Tab. Enable it to speed up how quickly singleplayer arcades load, but you will experience stutter when large batches of objects quickly spawn in.
  • Added the new Objects Tab to the Settings menu. Also moved various object-related options into it from other tabs.
  • Added Allow Multiple Active Objects to the Settings > General tab. If enabled, objects will play their "active" animations until their task is closed, regardless of how many are active.
  • Added Spawn Nearby Objects to the Commands tab. It is only needed if you use limited spawn settings OR use the beta Nodes feature.
  • Added an Object Fade Distance slider to the Settings Menu > Objects tab. Slide it down for a performance gain by making distant objects invisible. Recommended that you leave it on the default value of MAX though.
  • Added an Object Spawn Distance slider to the Settings Menu > Objects tab. Slide it down for a large performance gain, especially in large arcades, by making **only** nearby objects spawn. If you use this, you MUST use the Tab Menu > Commands Tab > Spawn Nearby Objects to spawn the additional objects. Recommended that you leave it on the default value of MAX though.
  • Added Spawn Objects Within View Only to the Settings Menu > Objects Tab. It only works if used in conjunction with the Object Spawn Distance slider. Using it will further limit which objects spawn by requiring them to also be within the player's line-of-sight. Recommended that you just leave these on their default values.
  • Added the convars aapropfademin -1 and aapropfademax 0. They control fade distance on AArcade objects. Changes take effect upon map load. Default values are no fade. You should use the sliders in the Settings menu instead of directly modifying these convars.
  • Added the console command "paint_sky_texture" to manually specify a material that is not on your Paint Menu palette to paint the sky with.
  • Added collision meshes to the Sprite cabinets. (Note that Blend & Hologram cabinets will intentionally **never** have collisions.)
  • Added the console command insta_launch_shortcut. It will launch the shortcut of the object under your crosshair, or the explicit item ID you pass the command, without having to bring up any menus. It **only** works if AArcade was launched with -allow_insta_launch in its launch options.
  • Added ReShade Depth Effects to the Settings > Camera tab. You no longer have to restart AArcade in order to toggle it on & off.
  • Added the ability to paste in stringified JSON objects directly into AArcade while in walking-around mode.
  • Improved the stability of closing web tabs, singleplayer arcade loading, and using screenshots as portals to other maps & servers.
  • Improved the Settings Menu to clearly indicate which option you are hovering your mouse over.
  • Improved the Movie Stand Standard cabinet to use a lit marquee image & have attract camera animations.
  • Improved support for fog overrides by resetting fog override values upon map transition.
  • Improved the mouse cursor responsiveness of toggle buttons on the Settings Menu as well as on all UI drop-down lists..
  • Improved the Launch Item / Paused screen to have a shorter default delay between showing the pause screen & actually launching your shortcut. (Unless you have the Coin Drop sound enabled in Settings > Sound tab.)
  • Improved speed of object spawning by turning ON Quick Spawn Items by default for new users. This setting allows new shortcuts to instantly spawn into your world without the confirmation menu. (Note that existing users will have to turn it on manually in Settings > Objects tab if they want Quick Spawn Items enabled.)
  • Improved the functionality of sky_camera entities in Hammer. (Based on sky_camera code from Mapcore mod.)
  • Fixed a bug that allowed the Libretro Core Settings menu to become too long to fit on the screen for some cores.
  • Fixed a bug on the F6 Library tab that would cause the 1st search result to repeat itself with each new batch of results.
  • Fixed a bug on the F6 Library tab that caused the same amount of results to be returned regardless of the zoom slider.
  • Fixed a bug on the Item Properties menu of Text Cards that caused 3D text to appear even while editing 2D text cards.
  • Fixed the TheMovieDB wizard to work on their new website design. (Still only works on movies only, not TV shows.)
  • Fixed a bug in multiplayer that caused custom asset of materials that are inside of materials/models/smarcade to not sync. Note that existing models won't be impacted until the next time the session cloud is reset.

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