2D: Totally Revamped

Starting today, the 2D view in Eyewire is getting a big upgrade. We’ve totally rewritten the 2D view to make it load faster, change axis instantly (and eliminate 10 MB of data download per an additional axis, up to 20MB total). We’ve added a new zoom feature that is much more powerful than the old one, and more! We’ve updated the help menu with our new controls, so hopefully you won’t have to consult this blog post too much.

Meet Your New Friend

In the above screenshot you can see that we’ve added three new buttons to the 2D interface.

• Change Axis — The X. Some of you knew about this feature before, but could switch the slicing of the cube from xy, to xz, to yz using the A,D, left, and right keys. We’ve now included a button that can do it too! In the past, you’d have to load the cube on the new axis when you switched. No more, it’ll be instant!
• Zoom to Selection — The rectangle. This action will zoom to the last place you clicked on the 2D. More below.
• Explore Mode — The binoculars. The explore mode button has moved from the bottom toolbar to be with the other 2D tools.

Also of note, when you select a piece, we now invisibly move the other axes to that location so that when you change plane, the new plane is centered on something you care about.

One known issue is that the 2D slice looks a little blurrier on Chrome 48 and versions below. This is due to broken support for the newer CSS directive “image-rendering: pixelated;”. This was fixed in Chrome 49, so give your browser and update if you notice a little blurriness.

Zooming into the Future

The old zoom feature was mega broken and mostly unadvertised. The new zoom feature is everything it was and so much more. Zooming is useful for players with small screens or on particularly tricky segments. Here’s how to use it:

1. [ ] Button — You can use the zoom button in the above section to zoom in and out on your last click
2. Space Bar — Use space bar to zoom in and out on your current mouse position
3. Alt + Scroll — Zoom in and out at a magnification of your own choosing to the current mouse position

Once zoomed in, you can also pan around similarly to how you can in the 3D view. Because left and right click are used in the 2D for selecting and deselecting, we’ve assigned middle click and drag to be the easy pan control. However, for people who can’t use the middle click button, you can also use alt+left click.

To simplify our controls, we’ve removed alt-click on 2D to center on a point in 3D. We’re not aware that too many people were using this, so it didn’t seem like a big loss.

Submit a Cube

We’ve also updated the cube submission process. The traffic light buttons have been replaced with a sleek new green button for submission, restart to the left, and skip cube to the right.

You can also now submit your cube using shift + enter. We’d use just enter, but if you were just chatting, you might make a boo boo. 😉

Bug Fixes!

1. In the past, the zoom math was way overcomplicated, so sometimes your cubes might be clipped on the side. Your cubes will always display correctly now.
2. Selecting “Slow” on the internet selector will no longer download pixelated images first. Some players were seeing them download regardless of what they set the setting to, but that is now impossible.
3. The hover state for scythe tools now indicates whether the action affects parents or children.
4. In Tutorial 1, the segments were supposed to blink when you click the wrong one. They now do.
5. The 2D plane in the 3D view sometimes had some odd transparency glitches. They’re now a thing of the past.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the new 2D view, we’re going to keep the momentum going! Questions, comments, and bug reports are welcome at support@eyewire.org.

Will Silversmith
Developer