World and session thumbnails: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:03, 7 October 2025

Within Resonite, worlds and sessions have thumbnails which give a glimpse of the world or session without needing to join it. These thumbnails will always be 360 degree images, allowing one to project the image onto a sphere and pan around. These thumbnails are usually captures of the world or session at various points, which can be either world-defined or automatically positioned based on users in the session.

Thumbnail types

Session

Session thumbnails are used when the world is viewed in the context of an active session. This includes:

On the main page of the world browser when there is an active session of the world
In a session orb
In the Resonite Discord within the #active-sessions channel. These images will look warped and distorted as the 360 degree image is projected on a flat surface.

In an active session, the process for capturing a session thumbnail is as follows:

Every few minutes, each user in a session takes a 360 photo at a session capture point and stores it locally.
The session host's computer negotiates with the users in a session to randomly choose one of the taken photos.
The session host's computer uploads the chosen thumbnail to the cloud and thus updates the thumbnail of the world.

If any active slot in the world has a SessionCaptureThumbnailSource component on it, session captures will be taken from the position of said slot. If multiple slots have this component on them, one of them will be chosen at random, weighted such that points with more users nearby are more likely to be captured from.

World

World thumbnails are used when the world is viewed without the context of an active session. This includes:

On the main page of the world browser when there is not an active session of the world
In the world browser when on the <new session> tab of a world
In a world orb

World thumbnails are automatically captured when the world gets saved. By default, this capture is taken from the host user's head slot and excludes all users from the capture. This thumbnail can be customized in two ways:

A custom world capture point can be defined with the WorldCaptureThumbnailSource component. This component allows the option to include or exclude users from the capture.
A completely custom world thumbnail can be defined with the WorldTextureThumbnailSource component. Note that only 360 degree images will be rendered properly with this component.

If multiple slots have either of these two components on it, a slot will be uniformly picked at random to capture from.

Overlays

Both the SessionCaptureThumbnailSource and WorldCaptureThumbnailSource components allow an Overlay image to be imposed on the capture. For session captures, this overlay must have an average alpha channel value of 25% or less or else it will not be applied. World captures do not have this limit.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<languages/>
+<translate>
 <!--T:1-->
-Within Resonite, [[World|Worlds]] and [[Session|Sessions]] have thumbnails which give a glimpse of the world or session which you are browsing. '''In all cases these thumbnails are 360 Degree photos of the session/world'''. Depending on settings they may contain users who are present or items within the sessions.
+Within Resonite, [[worlds]] and [[sessions]] have thumbnails which give a glimpse of the world or session without needing to join it. These thumbnails will always be 360 degree images, allowing one to project the image onto a sphere and pan around. These thumbnails are usually captures of the world or session at various points, which can be either world-defined or automatically positioned based on users in the session.
+</translate>
+== <translate><!--T:8--> Thumbnail types</translate> ==
+=== <translate><!--T:9--> Session</translate> ===
+<translate>
+<!--T:22-->
+Session thumbnails are used when the world is viewed in the context of an active session. This includes:
+</translate>
+* <translate><!--T:23--> On the main page of the [[world browser]] when there is an active session of the world</translate>
+* <translate><!--T:24--> In a [[world orb|session orb]]</translate>
+* <translate><!--T:25--> In the [[Main Page#Social_links|Resonite Discord]] within the <code>#active-sessions</code> channel. These images will look warped and distorted as the 360 degree image is projected on a flat surface.</translate>
+<translate>
+<!--T:10-->
+In an active session, the process for capturing a session thumbnail is as follows:
+</translate>
-== Locations == <!--T:2-->
+# <translate><!--T:11--> Every few minutes, each user in a session takes a 360 photo at a session capture point and stores it locally.</translate>
-Thumbnails show up in a number of places, which in some cases may look different:
+# <translate><!--T:12--> The session host's computer negotiates with the users in a session to randomly choose one of the taken photos.</translate>
-* In Resonite within the [[World Browser]] - You can pan around these using your laser to take a look around the session.
+# <translate><!--T:13--> The session host's computer uploads the chosen thumbnail to the [[cloud]] and thus updates the thumbnail of the world.</translate>
-* In Resonite within World/Session Orbs - As orbs are 3D objects in Resonite, you can see the entire 360 image project within the orb.
-* On the Resonite Discord within the <code>#active-sessions</code> channel - These look flat as they are rendered flat within Discord but still use the 360 images. This leads to warping or distortion.
-* On third party sites or tools - These may look flat as they are rendered flat the tool. This may lead to warping or distortion.
-== Default Behavior == <!--T:3-->
+<translate>
+<!--T:14-->
+If any active slot in the world has a [[Component:SessionCaptureThumbnailSource|SessionCaptureThumbnailSource]] component on it, session captures will be taken from the position of said slot. If multiple slots have this component on them, one of them will be chosen at random, weighted such that points with more [[users]] nearby are more likely to be captured from.
+</translate>
-=== Sessions === <!--T:4-->
+=== <translate><!--T:15--> World</translate> ===
-Without any intervention from other sources, the default thumbnail behavior is to:
-# Every few minutes each user in a session's computer automatically takes a 360 photo and stores it locally.
-# The session host's computer negotiates with the users in a session to choose one of the taken photos.
-# The session host's computer uploads the chosen thumbnail for the locations shown above.
-=== Worlds === <!--T:5-->
+<translate>
-When the Host of a session saves the world a thumbnail is captured from their location. It ignores users in the world.
+<!--T:26-->
+World thumbnails are used when the world is viewed without the context of an active session. This includes:
+</translate>
-== Customizing Thumbnails == <!--T:6-->
+* <translate><!--T:27--> On the main page of the [[world browser]] when there is not an active session of the world</translate>
-You have the ability to customize the thumbnail of your [[World|world]] or [[Session|session]] using a couple of components. When doing this it is important to remember the difference between the two groups of them.
+* <translate><!--T:28--> In the [[world browser]] when on the <code>&lt;new session&gt;</code> tab of a world</translate>
+* <translate><!--T:29--> In a [[world orb]]</translate>
-=== World Thumbnail Components === <!--T:7-->
+<translate>
-World thumbnail components only control the thumbnail of a [[World|world]]. These will only show up if you're looking at a World Orb or the [[World|world]] in the world browser. If there are active sessions of this world you'll likely see a [[Session|session]] thumbnail instead.
+<!--T:16-->
+World thumbnails are automatically captured when the world gets saved. By default, this capture is taken from the host user's head slot and excludes all users from the capture. This thumbnail can be customized in two ways:
+</translate>
-<!--T:8-->
+# <translate><!--T:17--> A custom world capture point can be defined with the [[Component:WorldCaptureThumbnailSource|WorldCaptureThumbnailSource]] component. This component allows the option to include or exclude users from the capture.</translate>
-* [[Component:WorldCaptureThumbnailSource|World Capture Thumbnail Source]] - Specifies a customized location to capture a thumbnail from when the world is saved.
+# <translate><!--T:18--> A completely custom world thumbnail can be defined with the [[Component:WorldTextureThumbnailSource|WorldTextureThumbnailSource]] component. Note that only 360 degree images will be rendered properly with this component.</translate>
-* [[Component:WorldTextureThumbnailSource|World Texture Thumbnail Source]] - Specifies a completely customized texture to use for the world thumbnail.
-=== Session Thumbnail Components === <!--T:9-->
+<translate>
-For [[Session|Sessions]], there is only one component at play. It will be used if it is present.
+<!--T:19-->
-* [[SessionCaptureThumbnailSource (Component)|Session Capture Thumbnail Source]] - Specifies a customized location to capture a thumbnail for the session.
+If multiple slots have either of these two components on it, a slot will be uniformly picked at random to capture from.
+</translate>
-=== Overlays === <!--T:10-->
+=== <translate><!--T:20--> Overlays</translate> ===
-Both '''Capture''' components have an '''Overlay''' property which allows you to overlay an additional 360 image on-top of the captured image. This should be an image of mixed transparency, anything opaque will be overlaid. There is also a limit on the amount of content which you can overlay, the overlaid image must have 25% Opaque coverage or less.
-=== Multiple Copies of Components === <!--T:11-->
+<translate>
-It is possible to have multiple copies of both '''Capture''' components. In these cases one of them will be chosen at random to be used.
+<!--T:21-->
+Both the [[Component:SessionCaptureThumbnailSource|SessionCaptureThumbnailSource]] and [[Component:WorldCaptureThumbnailSource|WorldCaptureThumbnailSource]] components allow an <code>Overlay</code> image to be imposed on the capture. For session captures, this overlay must have an average alpha channel value of 25% or less or else it will not be applied. World captures do not have this limit.
+</translate>