XF Studio 0.1.0 alpha 2

New and improved

• Only what's there. The Modules menu no longer lists modules that aren't built yet, and the Panels menu, the Expression panel and the Save Explorer no longer show "Coming soon" buttons. Expressions, Poses and Save Explorer, which are still unfinished and hidden until you turn them on, now say Early access wherever they appear: in the Modules and Panels menus and on their panels' tabs. So does Hair physics in the Motion panel.
• More help. A new tour, Your V, camera and settings, and a Help answer for Camera & light, so every part of the Studio has one. Help also has a page on What's not in this version yet, with what to do next.
• Expressions without a live face say what you can do. Where the live face preview isn't available (the desktop app), the Expression panel now offers Export to photo mode…, to build your expression into a photo-mode mod.
• The first published test version. 0.1.0-alpha.1 was prepared but never published, so this release also brings everything listed under 0.1.0-alpha.1 in the changelog: layered eye makeup on the UV map, the library, Check and Build of your own XF Eye Artistry, and the 3D preview made from your own game.
• XF Eye Artistry holds up close, in motion and with the eyes closed. Seen in game with a feminine V (26 and 28 September): the makeup stays on the skin at the character creator's closest zoom, shows no edge or lifted look while V blinks and turns their head, and covers the closed lid cleanly (no eye showing between the lids, lashes on the lid line, no bare skin between crease and lashes) on four eye shapes. Fine lines drawn in XF Studio come out visibly sharper than before.
• Put your expressions into photo mode (experimental). Group saved expressions into Expression sets and build each set into its own XF Expressions mod with Check and Build: your expressions are added to photo mode's list, and with For my game the expressions your other expression mods add keep working. The mod is checked by its own verifier before it's offered. Add to my mod manager doesn't place its TweakXL file yet, so use Show in folder and copy the files by hand. Not yet seen in game.
• The desktop app plays V's body idle and holds poses. The creator's and inventory's body idles and photo-mode poses are read straight from your game files, with nothing to prepare. Checked on a test server set up like the desktop app; the face's own movement, the blink and the live Expressions face are still missing from the desktop app (below).
• Watch a face change from one expression to the next. The Expression panel has a new Transitions section. Turn on Animate changes and your V's face moves to each new expression instead of jumping, so you can judge how natural the change looks: when you start from another expression, reset, mirror or flip the face, and when you undo or redo. A slider you drag still follows your hand at once. Duration sets how long a change takes (0 to 3 seconds; at 0 a change shows at once), and Curve how it moves: steady, easing in or out, or stronger versions of both, each drawn as its own curve. The default, one second and steady, is how photo mode blends from one expression to the next. Every frame of the change is solved with the game's own facial rig, the blink carries on during it, and a change made halfway starts from the face you see. The setting is saved with your workspace and never changes your looks. Checked by automated tests and in a browser test workspace, in light and dark; not yet compared with the game.
• Tidier choices, lists and menus everywhere. Rows of choice buttons (Both eyes / Single eye, handle modes, Mottle's presets, picture sizes and the rest) are now only as wide as their choices instead of stretching across the panel, and you can move between them with the arrow keys (Tab reaches the chosen one). A switched-off slider now looks switched off: its bar turns grey and its label and value fade. In Check and Build results, a warning icon stays beside its words on a narrow panel. Menus with nothing to do no longer open to say so.
• Choose how the 3D view draws your V. Preview quality has a new Rendering group. Skin scattering (on by default) softens and warms shadow edges the way light spreads under the game's skin; turn it off to compare. Face shadows (on) turns the lights' shadows on your V's face and body on or off, in every lighting setup. Hair look goes from Crisp (each strand as sharply as the hair's files draw it, as before) to Game-like, which approximates the thicker, softer hair the game shows after its smoothing; how far the game really goes is still to be compared in game. All three are saved with your workspace, can be undone with Ctrl+Z in the panel, are in the command palette ("Rendering: …"), and never change your looks or your mod. Checked by automated tests and in a browser test workspace in light and dark; the Hair look costs no measurable frame time at 1080p.
• Hairstyle pictures turn smoothly, at every size. Rest the pointer on any hairstyle picture in the Character panel (small, medium or large) and it turns round smoothly, drawn live as it turns rather than stepping between fixed angles; press and drag across it to turn it yourself. The first time you look at one, a small turning mark in its corner shows while its turn is being prepared. Dragging never picks the hairstyle, and a click still does at once. The turning pauses while your own change is being prepared. Checked by automated tests (including live frames on a real graphics card) and in a browser test workspace in light and dark.
• Placing a light is clearer. In Camera & light, the direction dial now has a height scale beside it with the light's height marked, so it's plain that closer to the centre means higher. While you drag a light the other lights fade and a dashed line runs from the centre through it; hold Shift to change only its height Alt to snap its angle around V to 15° steps (Alt with the Left and Right keys does the same), or Shift+Alt to turn it around V smoothly at the same height. Drag the bar under the dial to make it bigger or smaller; it remembers the size and shrinks to fit a narrow panel. Checked by automated tests and in a browser test workspace, in light and dark.
• Hairstyle pictures you can turn, and more ways to browse them. In the Character panel, rest the pointer on a large hairstyle picture and it slowly turns round so you can see the back and sides; press and drag across it to turn it yourself (dragging never picks the hairstyle, a click still does at once). Above the pictures, Grid, List and Details change how they're shown: List has small pictures beside each name and where it comes from; Details adds whether each is prepared and a large picture of the one under your pointer, which turns too. XF Studio remembers your choice for hairstyles (the command palette sets it for every row), and each maker's heading stays in view while you scroll through its hairstyles. Page Up and Page Down move a screenful, and typing the first letters of a name jumps to it, here and in the Studio's other choice lists. A turning picture is made the first time you look at it (about a third of a second, off to the side, so your own clicks are never held up) and kept for next time. Checked by automated tests (including the turning pictures on a real graphics card) and in a browser test workspace in light and dark.
• XF Studio remembers what you folded and where you scrolled. Sections, rows and groups you open or fold (in the Character panel, the Expression panel, Camera & light and every other panel) stay that way after a reload, and each panel and list comes back scrolled to the same rows you were looking at, even when its content takes a moment to load. If you start scrolling before it has loaded, your scrolling wins. Switching tabs or changing the layout no longer sends a panel back to the top.
• Pictures of every hairstyle. In the Character panel, the Hairstyle row now shows a small picture of each hairstyle, your mods' included, drawn from the files the game would really use, so you can find one by looking instead of trying them one by one. Pictures fill in as XF Studio prepares each choice, the ones you can see first, and never slow down your own clicks; they are kept, so next time they appear at once. S, M and L above the pictures change their size. They follow the light and dark theme.
• Lighting setups you can make your own. Soft studio, Key light, Flat, Rim / dramatic, Mirror and Character creator are now one list of lighting setups. The built-in ones are starting points that never change: move a slider on one and XF Studio makes your own copy, "Custom (from Soft studio)" for example, and shows it, so switching to another setup and back never loses what you changed. Make a new setup from any setup, rename or delete your own, and put one back to the setup it came from. Each setup keeps its own lights, room light, backdrop, exposure and colour grade (the Studio's, or the game's for the creator), and your setups are saved with your workspace. Workspaces from earlier versions open with the lighting you had: an adjusted studio light becomes one of your own setups. In Camera & light, the setups are one list (built-in ones first, then yours), with New setup, Rename, Reset and Delete under it; Surroundings holds exposure, room light, backdrop and colour grade, and Lights lists every light of the setup: pick one to turn it round your V on a dial seen from above, set its height, distance, strength, colour, cone and shadows, or add, duplicate, reorder and remove lights. Checked by automated tests (an unchanged copy of each built-in lights you...