JBII Version 8.0: A Brand New Show

After 11 months of struggles and upgrades and the discontinuation of the Unity WebPlayer, JBII Version 8.0 is online... in multiple formats! There are 3 versions of it available:


The Original Unity WebPlayer: This is the web viewer that I've been using all along. However, because most browsers no longer support NPAPI, this will most likely not work for most of you anymore.

The New Unity WebGL: This viewer is still in "Preview" and is not quite up to speed with the original WebPlayer. But since it is really the only available option, I am using it. In order to make it work, I had to make a lot of adjustments, the biggest being that the simulation is split back into 4 separate scenes (Outside, Ride, Theater, Image Works). This was done for memory management reasons. Also, some scripting behaves a little strangely here. So far, I've noticed that the mouse look-around does not spin a full 360, music sync is bad, and the new laser effect in the Image Works isn't quite right. Let em know if you have any issues with the WebGL viewer and I'll fix it as best I can.

The Stand-Alone Player (exe) for Windows. It is in a zip file. There is no Mac version at this time. Long story.

For all of these options CLICK HERE.
What is new in this release?

- The entire thing has been upgraded to Unity 5. That upgrade changed the way a lot of things worked and that has taken a lot of time to fix. I also attempted to convert all of the models to Maya instead of Sketchup and that broke EVERYTHING. After undoing that, I decided to keep the existing parts in Sketchup and future additions (especially organic parts) will be in Maya.

- The ride system has been completely scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. It now runs much smoother and more accurately. The new system also gives you the ability to Fast Forward (O key) or Pause (P key). The ride is also full trains of 4 cars now and using the 1 through 4 keys, you can pick which one you want to sit in. You can also choose from 2 new overhead views using the 5 and 6 keys.

- The ability to walk around in the ride (W key) is still available, but I added a flashlight (L key) because it gets dark in there. All of these new keyboard shortcuts are available using the H key to toggle the menu on and off.

- The outdoors has been re-landscaped with new trees that blow in the wind. There have also been a few minor texture fixes.

- A couple of small additions in the ride like lighting on the turntable and flowers in the Dreamport.

- New lighting everywhere, but most updated in the Captain EO Theater.

- Some new effects in the Image Works including a chasing rainbow tunnel and laser scanners in the Light Writer. I had some animation in the Kaleidoscope but had to remove it because of a bug with video. Working on fixing that now.

That's it for now. More coming soon and let me know how things are working (or not working) with the WebGL.

Thanks!