Limner 0.2.1

Fixes from the first test in a real headset: ten sessions of 0.2.0 on a Meta Quest 3 over Link. Thank you to the tester.

Fixed

In the headset

• The grip works. In 0.2.0 no grip did anything, because of a name clash in the controller setup. So you could not move, turn or scale the world, grab a selection or a layer, scale with two grips, or pick up and resize panels. All of these use the grip again.
• The gimbal: the trigger on an arrow, square or centre now moves the object, as the grip does. Hold the modifier (the other hand's trigger) to move the pivot instead. In 0.2.0 the trigger moved only the pivot, which looked broken.
• The gimbal goes away when you turn a layer's move key off or deselect, instead of jumping to the current layer.
• Switching from the headset to the desktop no longer leaves old pictures of the panels in the desktop's 3D view.
• Hands without controllers are ignored. Putting the controllers down no longer turns your hands into controllers. To use bare hands, turn on Settings > "Bare hands as controllers".
• Smaller panels: about a sixth smaller. Keys are now 25 mm.
• The keyboard now appears low in front of you, like a laptop's. It stays still while you type, its keys are a little bigger, and what you type shows above the keys.
• Mirror: turning it on now places the mirror in front of you, facing you, so X is left and right. Before, it went through the middle of the room's floor, which could be anywhere.
• The brush cursor shows the brush's shape before you paint: a ball, a flattened ellipse, a ribbon or a cube, turned with your hand.

Layers panel and timeline

• Layer rows and their timeline tracks line up again (in 0.2.0 they were one row apart in the headset).
• Over the timeline, the stick zooms (up and down) and moves through time (left and right).
• Keyframes are drawn larger in the headset, and they are easier to hit.
• New frame and Copy frame keys sit next to the layer keys, so they are there even with the timeline closed.

Files

• Open, Import and Save as can now go to any folder: Up, your usual folders and drives, and folders inside the one shown. Save as has a Folder key for choosing where. In the headset, Export lets you pick among the usual folders. Importing a picture or a 3D model from another folder works again.

Needs a headset to confirm

These were tested with the simulated headset and automatic tests, not in a real one: the grip and everything that uses it, ignoring bare hands, the switch to the desktop, and how the new panel size and keyboard position feel. Reports are very welcome.

Windows

1. Download Limner-0.2.1-windows-x64.zip below.
2. Unzip it anywhere (right-click, Extract All).
3. Double-click Limner.exe in the Limner folder.

Nothing else needs installing. If you have an older version, delete its folder and use this one; your saved work is kept separately.

• "Windows protected your PC": the app is not signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Headsets: with a headset connected through Meta Quest Link, SteamVR or another OpenXR runtime, Limner starts in the headset. Otherwise it opens on the desktop.
• Graphics: Limner draws with Vulkan. If it does not start, update the graphics driver first.

Runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. Tested on Windows 10 with a GeForce RTX 4060. All 634 Rust tests and all interface tests pass (262, plus 30 that need a window).

SHA-256 of the zip: 6C800AEA9744F320E8957AB6973A19657A66B4E5CD6321FE02A743FAF4A9614C

Limner 0.2.0 (Quill-style panels)

The panels, redone the way Quill's work, from a contributor's design study: compact, keys first, one fixed size each, and nothing that scrolls in the headset. Everything they do is as before; how you reach it is closer to Quill.

What's new

In the headset

• Nothing scrolls. Every panel has one fixed size. Long lists (layers, files, fonts) show a page at a time with page keys, and the stick over a list steps its pages.
• No drop-down lists. A choice among a few is a row of keys; a choice among many is the value with a key at each side.
• Quill's round buttons: Tools, Color, Layers, Transform and Monitor below; Document, Settings, Performance and Export above. A layer's own settings open from its kind key in the Layers panel; Text from the Tools panel.
• Bigger keys: 30 mm across. The button map is five short pages instead of one long sheet.

The panels

• Tools: a row of tool keys, then the tool's settings in place (an opacity strip, brush keys, option keys that step through their settings and say which is on, Colorize's blend modes as keys), the guides, and the size.
• Color: paint and background colours, the swatches, a large colour square with the hue strip, and the hex value.
• Layers, with the timeline in it, as in Quill: keys to add and arrange layers and a page of layer rows (shown, kind, moved when grabbing, locked, bounds) beside the timeline, row for row. Closing the timeline is painting mode.
• Text has a panel of its own; Transform, Document and Export are laid out in two columns. Document's Open and Import lists now reach every file, a page at a time.
• New icons and the Noto Sans font, drawn and chosen for Limner by a contributor.

On the desktop the same panels are docked: Tools, Color and Text on the left, the others on the right, Layers along the bottom.

Fixed: tests no longer write to your settings (on a developer's machine they could replace the swatches with a test pattern).

None of this has been in a real headset yet; reports on how it feels are very welcome.

Windows

1. Download Limner-0.2.0-windows-x64.zip below.
2. Unzip it anywhere (right-click, Extract All).
3. Double-click Limner.exe in the Limner folder.

Nothing else needs installing. If you have an older version, delete its folder and use this one; your saved work is kept separately.

• "Windows protected your PC": the app is not signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Headsets: with a headset connected through Meta Quest Link, SteamVR or another OpenXR runtime, Limner starts in the headset; otherwise it opens on the desktop.
• Graphics: Limner draws with Vulkan. If it does not start, update the graphics driver first.

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Tested on Windows 10 with a GeForce RTX 4060: all 632 Rust tests and 282 interface tests pass.

SHA-256 of the zip: D983A98B4C3499AD5ADCCDE28BF465B70B180B05C4738AC3FEEAC4025EAF8219

Limner 0.1.1 (headset update)

The headset update. Limner's first session in a real headset (Windows, a Meta PC headset) found the palette flat and fiddly next to Quill's, plus five bugs. This version answers both. The fixes have not been back in a headset yet, so reports are very welcome.

What's new

A palette that feels like Quill's

• Buttons stand off their panels as keys that go down under the brush tip and press partway down.
• Panels are thicker, with a title bar and a pin key, and their text and icons are drawn at twice the detail, so they look sharp at arm's length.
• Round buttons under the palette choose the panel; the palette rides above the hand, turned toward your eyes.
• A disc on the palette hand shows the current layer, the frame and what the thumbstick does.
• The headset has a look of its own: outlined buttons, larger text, and a light colour scheme by default.

Switch between desktop and headset while you work. "Continue in the headset" and "Continue on the desktop" (top bar, View menu and the Settings panel) keep the document, its undo history and the selection (so far tried with the simulated headset only).

Fixed

• Grabbing: the grip no longer goes to a panel you merely point at; only a hand close to a panel takes it.
• Lights: a new light appears in front of you aimed at the work, and lights the paint if nothing was lit yet.
• Gimbal: it now works on the current layer when no transform object is set.
• The painting sound follows the stroke, not the tool.
• The tools follow the current layer: on a layer they cannot paint into, such as a camera, they say why; on a group, they paint into a new layer inside it.

Windows

1. Download Limner-0.1.1-windows-x64.zip below.
2. Unzip it anywhere (right-click, Extract All).
3. Double-click Limner.exe in the Limner folder.

Nothing else needs installing. If you have 0.1.0, delete its folder and use this one; your saved work is kept separately.

• "Windows protected your PC": the app is not signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Headsets: with a headset connected through Meta Quest Link, SteamVR or another OpenXR runtime, Limner starts in the headset; otherwise it opens on the desktop.
• Graphics: Limner draws with Vulkan. If it does not start, update the graphics driver first.

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Tested on Windows 10 with a GeForce RTX 4060: all 632 Rust tests and 233 interface tests pass.

SHA-256 of the zip: 0D97E50930EAACE88049C1517AFD03AFC8D790426EAF47BCF9C2F11F7DF8B480

Limner 0.1.0 (early preview)

The first build of Limner you can download and run: paint and animate in 3D, on the desktop or in a VR headset. This is an early preview.

Windows

1. Download Limner-0.1.0-windows-x64.zip below.
2. Unzip it anywhere (right-click, Extract All).
3. Double-click Limner.exe in the Limner folder.

Nothing else needs installing.

• "Windows protected your PC": the app is not signed yet, so SmartScreen warns the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Headsets: with a headset connected through Meta Quest Link, SteamVR or another OpenXR runtime, Limner starts in the headset; otherwise it opens on the desktop. Headset support has not yet been tried on real hardware, so expect rough edges there. Reports are very welcome.
• Graphics: Limner draws with Vulkan, which most graphics cards and chips from the last several years support. If it does not start, update the graphics driver first.

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Tested on Windows 10 with a GeForce RTX 4060.

What is in it

Nine painting tools and seven brushes, frame-by-frame and keyed animation with a timeline, light layers that shade the paint, mirrored painting, text in strokes, opening Quill projects, and export to glTF, USD/USDZ, FBX and OBJ. See the README for the full list.

macOS and Linux

No download yet: build from source.

SHA-256 of the zip: 7C27FE49F39AABE2491E9E89A2481C16448A5EC90247022E28B15078E4B6A779