# Hyperfy Discord - 2025-06-02

## Overall Discussion Highlights

### New Rendering Pipeline
- Ashxn is developing a new rendering pipeline that addresses transparency issues and improves culling capabilities
- The pipeline optimizes LOD (Level of Detail) logic by only processing visible elements
- Distance-based culling is being implemented to match fog effects
- The pipeline is approaching alpha release and will need community testing before moving to the main branch
- Ambient occlusion will be included in the new pipeline

### Texture Optimization & 3D Design
- Vox discovered that 512x512 PNG textures can provide better quality than 2048x2048 WebP textures for baked lighting while using less VRAM
- WebP is recommended for most PBR textures and as a PNG replacement for transparency, but performs poorly with gradient effects
- Vox shared a workflow of skipping denoising during baking and applying it via compositing later for better results
- A PBR atlas was created that allows building large scenes with minimal draw calls by joining or instancing meshes

### Voice Chat & Collaboration Features
- Voice chat is available in certain worlds like Fallen and Play
- Self-hosted worlds require LiveKit API keys to enable the mic button
- Screen sharing functionality is available via a .hyp file
- Several users discussed world hosting, with Gert-Jan Akerboom successfully setting up a hosted world

### Content Consumption Tools
- hiroP suggested using notebooklm to create audio summaries of research papers
- Discussion about controlling the tone of AI-generated content summaries

### Game Features
- Cars with guns can be implemented in "v2" (a feature not possible in v1)
- Networked guns can be placed on cars

### Security Concerns
- Warning about a potential scam project on Solana claiming to be associated with the legitimate Hyperfy project

## Key Questions & Answers

**Q: What are the chances we can do cull by distance in a hyp?**  
A: You can already do this in Blender using LODs with a max distance to match your fog. (Ashxn)

**Q: Is the screen share screen available as a hyp?**  
A: Yes, it's a .hyp (b0gie)

**Q: Is voice chat still in dev too?**  
A: We've had voice chat for months. Can try it out in Fallen or the Play world. (Ashxn)

**Q: Can voice chat be done with the free tier?**  
A: Yes, we currently only use a free tier for all of our worlds. (Ashxn)

**Q: Is there an easy way to have the texture offsets not affect the normal map?**  
A: They're linked right now but it would be nice to control them individually. (Ashxn)

**Q: Where can I find the docs right now?**  
A: https://docs.hyperfy.xyz (Ashxn)

**Q: What compression level should be used for WebP textures?**  
A: You might be able to get away with 95% WebP, and builders should use 100% WebP by default unless it causes issues. (vox)

**Q: How can the enthusiastic tone of LM-generated content be modified?**  
A: Use a custom prompt specifying the desired tone, such as requesting a "BBC Radio 4 level of enthusiasm". (hiroP)

**Q: Are there cars with guns?**  
A: That's something we couldn't do in v1, but totally can in v2. Networked too. We also have just guns. You can put them on your cars. (Ashxn & drdoge.eth)

**Q: Have you launched on Solana?**  
A: Not yet. (CheddarQueso 🧀)

## Community Help & Collaboration

1. **Voice Chat Implementation**
   - 0mka helped Mugenomics with LiveKit environment variables for voice chat by providing a link to GitHub example file
   - Ashxn explained to Mugenomics that self-hosting requires adding LiveKit API key for the engine to enable mic button

2. **Texture Management**
   - b0gie helped Shiffty with texture scrolling affecting normal maps by creating a demo with separate planes for diffuse and normal textures with independent scrolling control

3. **World Hosting**
   - b0gie successfully helped Gert-Jan Akerboom set up a hosted world at akerboom.fyi

4. **Content Consumption**
   - hiroP suggested to maximus using notebooklm to create audio summaries of research papers for easier consumption

5. **Texture Optimization Knowledge Sharing**
   - Vox shared significant findings about texture format choices with the community, comparing PNG and WebP formats for different use cases
   - Vox created and shared a PBR atlas that enables building large scenes with minimal draw calls

## Action Items

### Technical
- Fix transparency issues with chat bubbles when in front of transparent objects (Ashxn)
- Move LOD logic into new rendering pipeline to optimize performance (Ashxn)
- Release PortalBundleV1 (0mka)
- Implement ambient occlusion in the new rendering pipeline (Ashxn)
- Test and provide feedback on the new rendering pipeline alpha (Ashxn)
- Use PNG format for baked textures with gradients to maintain quality (vox)
- Skip denoising algorithms during baking and apply via compositing later (vox)
- Use WebP at 100% quality for most textures except where it causes visible issues (vox)
- Address the wiped out "play world" situation (Ashxn & Gert-Jan Akerboom)
- Monitor for scam projects on Solana (Kicale)
- Use notebooklm for creating audio summaries of technical papers (hiroP)

### Documentation
- Update GitHub Main Readme with correct docs link (from hyperfy.how to docs.hyperfy.xyz) (Ashxn)

### Feature
- Add ability to control texture offsets and normal maps individually (Ashxn)
- Add push-to-talk functionality for voice chat (b0gie)
- Implement fishing mini-game functionality (drdoge.eth)
- Cars with guns implementation in v2 (Ashxn & drdoge.eth)
- PBR atlas for efficient scene building (vox)
- Custom tone control in language models (hiroP)