Access Point 3.19.X – Release Notes

Created OnMay 28, 2021

Last Updated OnNovember 22, 2021

bykamen

Support for TCP port negotiation for games using the SynthesisVR WebSocket integration. The change fixes a concurrency issue between the Haze platform and games like Paranormal Pest Patrol and Blaster of the Universe: Infinity Forever
Initial support for the SDesk remote desktop application
Leaderboard related updates
Turning on Semi-Offline mode now have a confirmation popup
Automated installation of the 64bit 2015-2019 C++ redistributables — required for some games
Automated installation of .NET 5.0 (required for the SDesk app)
Fixed a case where sideloaded games may not appear in front
Previously muted games now gets automatically unmuted right before they get closed.
Leaderboard support for Incarna Chapter 1 and Incarna Chapter 2
Certain mining apps could be detected by SteamVR and that translates to the Access Point. They are now whitelisted.
Support for a new Pistol Whip game plugin, that resets the previous skin selection
The KATVR support is now unlocked for the CDN plan
Fixed a bug where a consequtive launch of the same game is recognized as being a relaunch of the previous game
Other minor adjustments
The Relaunch capability wasn’t supported when the Overlay launcher is disabled.

New: Nested categories for the VR Menu. You can now create a structure like: Multiplayer -> 4 Players -> [LIST OF GAMES] or Single Player -> Kids Friendly -> Multiplayer -> [LIST OF GAMES].
New: The “svr://” URLs are now supported with the Command Calls. This allows the creation of simple but useful Command buttons like: svr://relaunchLatestGame
New: The relaunch possibility itself is new and allows to join players back to crashed multiplayer games and without the need to restart the game for everyone.
New: Windows Registry provisioning. Allows automated configuration for games like LA Deadzone Free Roam and Mission Critical.
Synthesis Lobby – Prioritization of the network “Start” signals, fixing a race condition where a game launch can be attempted twice. Additional “under the hood” optimizations are added as well.
On PCs having 200+ installed Steam games on a HDD drive, upon PC restart, it takes over a minute for the Access Point to fully load. That time is now greatly optimized.
For PCs running the “Access Point Beta”, an easy [Downgrade] button is now available under “Access Point -> Settings -> System”.
In case of issues, the Synthesis debug flags are now added to the AccessPoint as clickable options.
Sideloading your own games is now easier.
Other minor adjustments

Fix: Access Point crash when no cable is present
Fix: Synthesis Voice Chat app may fail to start
Better KATVR support for games available on both Steam and KAT I/O
Support for the new “Experience Type” Engine parameters
The countdown session timer is now processed through the Engine parameters, allowing greater flexibility.
The Engine now uses the | character as an “if empty” operator. An example use case is the desktop timer, where the following example setting “svr:playername|desktoptext|Virtual Reality#” will display the player and if there is no player name, then it will display the desktoptext parameter. If such parameter is not set (for let say the experience type), then it will simply display “Virtual Reality”.
Access Point keyboard shortcuts:
- F1 = Toggles the “VR Menu Mirror”
- F2 = Toggles the “Idle Playback”
- F3 = Opens the “Desktop Menu”
- F5 = Forces synchronization (same as clicking on the [Refresh] button)

The previous Access Point’s UI code is now completely removed from the code base.
Upon starting a session, the games shows automatically under the Access Point.
Starting the 3D launcher from within the VR menu wasn’t functional when there is a running game
The SteamVR Notifications are now turned off automatically. The “steamvrdnd” debug flag would tell the system to ignore the SteamVR Notifications
SynthesisVR Engine support for language pre-selection for Blaston
Support for content installed via the Epic Store

Synthesis Engine now supports multiple Lobby channels. This allows better handling and separation of what the customer is doing in the VR launchers and multiplayer games the operator launches through web
Certain whitelisted processes are excluded from going in front. Example: the cmd program that comes with Project CARS Pro
The Access Point’s local API port now can be changed to any port higher than 1000. The way Synthesis consumes the default 8080 port allows sharing it with other processes, but certain third-party software and apps are not adopting the same level of openness and demand port 8080 exclusively for them. Check our short guide

Better handling of incomplete or non-working idle playback videos
A couple of Access Point options were displaying the wrong state
The “Preparing” state during the installation of CDN content is sensibly improved
Depending on how fast some game load, they weren’t starting in front
The automated Steam’s key activation is back!
Better support for Windows User names that contains space or hash characters
Some unnecessary data has been removed from the logs
Support for the new “ESSP Bill Acceptor” module
Initial support for an upcoming Racing Game
Additions to the “NFC Scripting” capabilities
Bugfix – the player may not be able to navigate back from a game category having multiple assigned, but only one accessible game
Improvements to the “Steam Lock” and how the “Steam Library” button is handled.
Other minor improvements and refinements
Exclusion of some Windows 11 apps from the processes monitoring.

Replacing the standard WebBrowser control with the newer WebView2 control. This results in smoother Access Point experience as well better Idle Playback quality.
Bugfix: Save Games may not properly restore previous files
New scripting event: onWebSessionStart
Platform optimizations

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