Updates & Changes 2022

[Archian]

---

Greetings community!

The Workshop forges continue to blaze! We've been hard at work, and today we want to share with you our latest updates to the Hive Workshop.

As you've probably noticed by now, our menu is different. We know this is a big change, because this is something our members use every time they visit our site. It will take some time to get used to. We've made this change because many of our site's features were hidden or hard to find. It was also a way for us to make the menu more simple. But don't worry. We will soon release a Customize Menu option, so that you may customize the menu to your preferences e.g. if you primarily visit our model section, you will be able to add that as the first menu item etc. or recreate our old default one. We are also planning to create a more user friendly method of submitting resources.

Do you like this new menu? Let us know in the comments below.
In other news, we've also added two new features: Asset Scanner & Icon Borderizer.

---

Asset Scanner

The asset scanners has two main ways of scanning. The first mode allows a user to upload a map having its contents scanned and matched against resources posted on HIVE. It allows you to see which assets were used in the map and to generate a credits list. The second mode allows you to upload an asset and having it cross referenced with assets scanned from all maps uploaded to hive, to show you where it is in use.

---

Icon Borderizer

The icon borderizer is a quick way to create all needed versions of an icon based on a raw borderless one. Upload a 64x64 image and have Classic bordered versions generated. Upload a 256x256 image and have Reforged versions generated. The result is zipped and dropped in a pastebin that expires after some time.

---

We have other major site features coming soon.
So stay tuned.

For now, thank you all for making this a great community.

Oh, and don't forget to vote:

---

Special thanks to all our Heroes! You help keep the Hive alive HIVE FIVE

@Achille, @Bernkastel, @BlakeAVENGER, @Bribe, @Daemonic_Sword, @Daliox1, @Eikonium, @Falasae, @Footman16, @Gismo359, @Goffterdom, @Gyrosphinx, @Harynar, @Kam, @Kick King, @King I Rat, @Lich Prince, @Maynard, @mori, @NiGlOo-ShOoTeR, @Nihilism_Is_Death, @rangger16, @Ravenwood Skye, @ScrewTheTrees, @Skopetski, @Tarrasque, @Tauer, @ThompZon, @tulee, @Vendro the Wind Mage, @Xthreo

 

[Kam]

Asset scanner is pog for those of us who failed to keep notes on what resources were used and now have 1,200 imports. =p

 

[Villagerino]

Hive is evolving and that is great news! Thank you for these really smart updates

 

[Ralle]

Great news!

Artists. I want to make a drop down of alternative icon borders to pick from. Anyone interested in helping out?

 

[Archian]

Over the next weeks, we will update several landing pages of the menu, including: rules, contact, staff and more.

And other menu items will be added later, including "Submit Resource". A user friendly method of submitting resources.

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

I love it. It's both more intuitive and community friendly!

 

[_lycan]

Nice thing on the asset scanner!

 

[StormKnight]

I'm not sure what was the purpose of removing the Discord button from the top right to be under community area when just like the other social media platforms, it too is one.

The website looks less cluttered and more visually clean now, however, i'm not exactly in agreement with the design of having us use drop down menus, funnily enough Hive 2.0's design of things looking like tabs was pretty clean but understandably you needed bigger button change to make people pay attention.

I'm going to retain from commenting too much on the top area until i'm able to muscle up myself and provide photoshopped visual showcase of suggestions.
things like this can always be changed later anyway, if your objective was to make it look less messy, then objective technically accomplished.

Meanwhile, this is crystal clear, images dont tell me anything so i dont know why change it to this.

Even if you wanted to keep images it would be best if they're box like and compact, not circular, i disagree either way. plus we can't summon those menus unless we scroll down, now granted the old wooden ladder icon is something i had issue with because it was unclear, but no button isn't a good compensation.

Edit: i just noticed the button is moved to the right, why is something that's summoned from the left area have its summon button moved to the right ?

If the asset scanners reveal means its now finished and updated then awesome, thank you so much.

Artists. I want to make a drop down of alternative icon borders to pick from. Anyone interested in helping out?

shoot me a message on Discord chieftain, if its within my abilities i could help.

This thing can be smoother it flickers and its uncanny, i suggest making it so when we click on a button that has drop down capability it sticks and doesn't vanish when we mouse away until we click somewhere else.

Actually make the click sticky part anyway so we can drop it down and open many tabs from it in one go.

 

[Astromen]

It would be awesome if you add an offline version of the Sanity Checker

 

[Antares]

Borderiser is really useful! Could we get the World of Warcraft button frame as an option for the 64x64 one?

 

[Spacebuns]

What happens to 128x128 images in the Borderizer? Will they be put into limbo?

 

[Retera]

an offline version of the Sanity Checker

Maybe this is just a feature request for Retera Model Studio?

 

[deepstrasz]

It's a bit more clicks and a mouse drag to access some place than before and sometimes the header shows one of the lists after I open new tabs as I go down on the page from the top but I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

 

[Spacebuns]

Maybe this is just a feature request for Retera Model Studio?

In reply to this feature, Retera Model Studio will require an active Internet connection to run?

 

[TheDarkGiganotosaur]

It would be awesome if you add an offline version of the Sanity Checker

Or preferably as a third-party and portable application tool (to be later added in the Tools section) for everyone to download and use. Not all the people use the Internet all the time and not everyone likes using online applications.

Maybe this is just a feature request for Retera Model Studio?

An excellent addition, though (and as an alternative for those who can't run Retera Model Studio) it would still be preferable as a standalone and portable application that doesn't have any compulsory dependency requirements (such as .NET Framework, Java, et cetera) and should be at least (and fairly) compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP and/or 7 (and also WINE for us Linux users)... nobody should be forced to use the "Spyware" Windows 10 and beyond.

In reply to this feature, Retera Model Studio will require an active Internet connection to run?

I hope not. Such compulsory requirement is what most people frown upon.

 

[Villagerino]

It would be awesome if you add an offline version of the Sanity Checker

I wish only the Sanity Checker had animation speed control and a Hide Menus button like RMS because it's the best tools to observe mesh, look up for animation glitching, making gifs and some other stuff that helps people submitting models However, it's already a blessing that it exists.

 

[ThompZon]

I wish only the Sanity Checker had animation speed control and a Hide Menus button like RMS because it's the best tools to observe mesh, look up for animation glitching, making gifs and some other stuff that helps people submitting models However, it's already a blessing that it exists.

RMS (twilac edition) has this tool for generating .gif. I haven't really used sanity checker for gif, so unclear to me what is more useful.

Spoiler: How to GIF in RMS

 

[Villagerino]

RMS (twilac edition) has this tool for generating .gif. I haven't really used sanity checker for gif, so unclear to me what is more useful.

Spoiler: How to GIF in RMS

View attachment 407100

Well, the Sanity Tester has a better resolution, lighting, it shows literally all particle emitters and doesn't bug with Material visibility when there are multiple layers in multiple animations. All in all, it is a more narrow-profiled viewer that, as I believe, is based on the Model Reviewing engine of the site. Ah, and I also wish it could allow to change background colors

Spoiler

Case 1: a color overlay in a Geoset Animation made the hair dissapear. Case 2: there are 2 face Material layers, and one of them has its "Unshaded" box unhecked. RMS shows this unshaded Material layer over all in all animations instead of only "Portrait" sequences, though in-game it looks correctly.
No matter how incredibly cool the RMS tool is and without detracting from its amazing cons, if I didn’t have such a visual experience with it, then without the Sanity Tester I would sometimes try to fix things that weren't really broken in the model.
So, every time I apply changes to a model I use only Sanity Tester before this model is ready for its final check in-game.

 

[deepstrasz]

An annoying thing is trying to open up the resource pages via that header. Before I could quickly do right click-left click to open them sequentially but now I have to move the mouse over the header button every time to open the list and then move the mouse over the resource text button I want to open. In short, it takes much more time to get to the resource pages than before.

 

[Shar Dundred]

It might be "old-fashioned" but I very much prefer being able to just click one button to go to
the main forum page instead of having that drop down menu on PC.

 

[Himperion]

On my ending, since the update there hasn't any "failed to load page" error. Cursed menu begone.

 

[Archian]

Meanwhile, this is crystal clear, images dont tell me anything so i dont know why are they removed.

We did have a discussion about this: Text or icons for the 'more' menu. For now it's icons. But we will add text to it later as new members don't know what the icons stand for.

The 'more' menu is also there, because when we release the Customize Menu option, people still need a way to gain access all sections of the site, if they customize the menu to only have 1 menu item.

Well, I suppose we could have the menu appear to the right instead.

It might be "old-fashioned" but I very much prefer being able to just click one button to go to
the main forum page instead of having that drop down menu on PC.

An annoying thing is trying to open up the resource pages via that header.

Luckily for you guys, a Customize Menu option will soon be added So you can customize the menu to your heart's desire

WIP

 

[_lycan]

I'm not sure what was the purpose of removing the Discord button from the top right to be under community area when just like the other social media platforms, it too is one.

The website looks less cluttered and more visually clean now, however, i'm not exactly in agreement with the design of having us use drop down menus, funnily enough Hive 2.0's design of things looking like tabs was pretty clean but understandably you needed bigger button change to make people pay attention.

I'm going to retain from commenting too much on the top area until i'm able to muscle up myself and provide photoshopped visual showcase of suggestions.
things like this can always be changed later anyway, if your objective was to make it look less messy, then objective technically accomplished.

View attachment 407043

Meanwhile, this is crystal clear, images dont tell me anything so i dont know why change it to this.

Even if you wanted to keep images it would be best if they're box like and compact, not circular, i disagree either way. plus we can't summon those menus unless we scroll down, now granted the old wooden ladder icon is something i had issue with because it was unclear, but no button isn't a good compensation.

Edit: i just noticed the button is moved to the right, why is something that's summoned from the left area have its summon button moved to the right ?

If the asset scanners reveal means its now finished and updated then awesome, thank you so much.



shoot me a message on Discord chieftain, if its within my abilities i could help.

View attachment 407044

This thing can be smoother it flickers and its uncanny, i suggest making it so when we click on a button that has drop down capability it sticks and doesn't vanish when we mouse away until we click somewhere else.

Actually make the click sticky part anyway so we can drop it down and open many tabs from it in one go.

Discord unlike the other 3 is not just a social media for Hive to communicate things but is more prominently a community thing, hence why it is on the community tab, it would also be good for people to not just insta join discord as soon as they come to the website for a question, the forum is much more useful long term way longer after discord will have stopped being used for answers. To this day you can search up topics of threads from 2009 and so.

 

[Retera]

not just a social media for Hive to communicate things but is more prominently a community thing

People have called me paranoid in the past, but referring to one of our social media systems as not social media because it is "a community thing" sounds like a form of living in denial to me.

I have often felt like Discord probably sent all of my messages to Google Analytics but that Hive probably did not send my direct messages to Google for analytics purposes. Although I suppose I have technically never asked either platform and did not carefully read their security policies, this has been my general impression. Also, Discord does that thing where if I send someone a URL in a DM, then the URL is sniped by Discord first and downloaded by the monitoring systems first before the other person had time to read it. I don't think Hive does that; presumably a direct message on Hive only actually goes to that other user.

I pay for the monthly donation to Hive but not to Discord Nitro for a reason. It's very intentional. Discord seems too successful, as though it was probably taking advantage of me and I did not figure out exactly how yet. Hive on the other hand feels like it probably doesn't know how to take advantage of me. I like that about them. They're too ignorant and human. So, they get my money for their wholistic goodness. Am I wrong?

 

[StormKnight]

Discord unlike the other 3 is not just a social media for Hive to communicate things but is more prominently a community thing, hence why it is on the community tab, it would also be good for people to not just insta join discord as soon as they come to the website for a question, the forum is much more useful long term way longer after discord will have stopped being used for answers. To this day you can search up topics of threads from 2009 and so.

I thought about that before i wrote my comment, but my point doesn't really change something feels off about having 3 social media platforms on the top right that isn't even used that often to be easily accessible while the 2 that are far more active, twitch and discord, go hide under community tab.

it would also be good for people to not just insta join discord as soon as they come to the website for a question

I have no idea how to feel about this at all, on one end, i have always pushed away grand ideas from being implemented on the Hive discord because the main focus is the website, on another hand, i really dont think its hurtful to let people jump in discord and ask something quick.

If anything i would put Twitch and Discord there and throw out facebook or hide it under somewhere else.

 

[Shar Dundred]

As someone who isn't in Hive Discord I'd say removing it from easy accessibility via the main
page is probably not a good idea if it is meant to be used by its userbase.
Unless ofc the idea is to deliberately "hide" it to reduce the amount of people from joining it.
In that case it should remain that way.

 

[deepstrasz]

Luckily for you guys, a Customize Menu option will soon be added So you can customize the menu to your heart's desire

Well, at least the menu doesn't close each time you open something if you access it through the three horizontal | to the left of the username button on the header. That's a good thing. However, that menu button move to the far left when scrolling down a page. It's a bit confusing.

 

[Archian]

Thanks for pointing that out we can move it.

 

[Linaze]

It appears a bit janky (at least on my PC, using Chrome):

Hidden

Edit: Oh and on the phone there's just icons with no text which is a bit tedious when you don't remember what section each icon corresponds to.

 

[Archian]

Thanks for reporting that @Ralle

We have to adjust the res on those icons too.

@Linaze we will add text later.

 

[Ralle]

It appears a bit janky (at least on my PC, using Chrome):

Hidden

View attachment 407247

Edit: Oh and on the phone there's just icons with no text which is a bit tedious when you don't remember what section each icon corresponds to.

Which browser is this?

 

[deepstrasz]

Which browser is this?

It appears a bit janky (at least on my PC, using Chrome):

 

[Linaze]

Indeed I use Chrome.
I guess it's because of the OnHover tooltip that appears when you hover over an icon. When I move the mouse down towards the menu it appears to get focus. Then again I am no web developer so I might be mistaken in my assumption.

 

[Ralle]

You got it. That was exactly the bug.

I have addressed some of the mentioned things here:

🛠 Ralle's Development Updates 🛠

Changes: Apply cache busting when rotator images are updated (Thanks @Archian). Replace default avatars with Warcraft versions (Thanks @Archian).

www.hiveworkshop.com

 

[Retera]

I like the new text (today's update?) on the mobile version so I know what icons represent. Thanks!

 

[Linaze]

You got it. That was exactly the bug.

I have addressed some of the mentioned things here:

🛠 Ralle's Development Updates 🛠

Changes: Apply cache busting when rotator images are updated (Thanks @Archian). Replace default avatars with Warcraft versions (Thanks @Archian).

www.hiveworkshop.com

Thanks for the quick fix!

 

[LovG]

I find the Asset Scanner really helpfull.

Sometimes is hard to keep track with a lot of stuff, specially on the credits.

Edit: I still have (and want) to try the icon borderizer, sounds pretty cool.