Release notes
What's changed in each version of Motion. The newest is at the top.
Lighter, smoother scenes, a much more stable Studio, and a lot of polish everywhere! Here's what's changed since 0.5.1.
A lot of this release is also getting things ready for 0.6.0, which brings a new renderer and material system. You won't notice that part yet.
Motion Studio
New
- Learn Motion is in the Help menu and on the Start page, with step-by-step tutorials. Open in Studio gives you your own copy of a tutorial's scene.
- The preview bar shows how long each frame takes on your graphics card, and turns amber when it can't keep up.
Changed
- Opening a scene made for a newer Motion tells you so.
- Damaged scenes and failed imports tell you what went wrong in plain words.
- Small tidy-ups to the window title, menus and Assets.
Fixed
- Studio doesn't crash on start-up anymore.
- Ctrl+Q works from the Start page too.
- A scene saved for the first time keeps its picture.
- Two files with the same name in a scene don't get mixed up when you save.
- On Windows, scenes you had open when Studio crashed come back with all their pictures.
- On Android, you can start a scene from a picture or video on your phone.
- On Android, materials work.
- On Android, the save sheet and everything else above the keyboard stays on screen.
- On Android, Delete and Move up in the layer menu work after you've opened a visual script.
- On Android, the side rail fits when your phone is sideways.
- Screen readers read more of Studio, including node graph pins, node search and the Inspector.
Motion Player
New
- On Windows and Linux, screens showing the same scene can share one player to save memory. Turn it on in Settings › Performance.
- On Windows and Linux, Learn Motion is in Settings.
Changed
- On Windows and Linux, Home tells you when a screen is paused because a window's covering it.
- On Windows and Linux, the tray menu has Motion's look, and Settings uses simpler words.
- On Android, Graphics and Quality are now Presets, Frames a second and Detail, and each one says what it does.
- On Android, if you've blocked Music's permission, Motion shows you how to allow it.
- On Android, sideways phones use the whole screen, and switches and dialogs are easier to see.
- On Wear OS, Remove and Add are easier to use on a small screen.
Fixed
- On Windows and Linux, a few tray and Settings fixes.
- On Android, the page you're on stays put when you change theme, font size or language.
- On Android, very large text fits, and TalkBack reads buttons as buttons.
- On Wear OS, the status line stays clear of a round screen's edge.
Player and Studio
Changed
- Scenes use up to a third less graphics card time and often a lot less memory, especially on big screens and in scenes that glow.
- On Windows, frames are smoother and wallpapers use less graphics memory.
Fixed
- On Windows, updates don't give up when a virus scanner holds a file for a moment.
- On Windows, See what's sent in the crash reporter opens straight away.
Mostly fixes for phones and tablets, and no more device limit! Here's what's changed since 0.5.0.
Motion Studio
Changed
- On Android, the first Save asks for a name.
- On Android, a tablet held upright opens with the Inspector beside the preview.
Fixed
- On Android, Back asks about work you haven't saved instead of leaving.
- On Android, tapping a number and typing replaces it, and the field you're typing in stays above the keyboard.
- On Android, buttons and the Outliner's rows have room for their names.
Motion Player
Changed
- On Windows and Linux, Resting in Settings is now Pausing and battery, under Performance.
Fixed
- On Android, the app doesn't ask you to sign in for Motion Full when you already have.
- On Wear OS, the watch tells you when it has nothing it can read, instead of saying Sending.
- On Wear OS, a permission you give the watch while it's sending works right away.
Player and Studio
Changed
- On every platform, Motion has no device limit, so go ahead and use it on any number of devices.
- On every platform, text in the UI has been adjusted to be simpler and hopefully easier to understand.
Fixed
- Scenes with sound now play on Android.
- On every platform, the scenes that come with Motion fit every screen dynamically.
Mostly fixes this time, and there are a lot of them. Here's what's changed since 0.4.1.
Windows
Fixed
- The wallpaper now shows on Windows 11 24H2 and later. Motion was running, but nothing reached the screen.
Motion Studio
New
- In the Inspector, click a value to type it. Return keeps it, Escape leaves it, and a double click puts the default back.
Changed
- The preview stops drawing when Studio is in the background, so it no longer uses your GPU for nothing.
- Deleting something that's in use asks first and tells you what uses it.
- If a file is missing, Studio tells you which file and which layer.
- Deleting a file warns you that Undo can't bring it back.
Fixed
- Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate and Delete work on the editor you're in, not on hidden layers. Rename (F2) and Quit (Ctrl+Q) work too.
- Clicks and keys stay in the dialog, menu or page you're using instead of reaching what's underneath.
- Return and Escape do what they should in every dialog, and the Start page, timeline and Mixer work from the keyboard.
- Renaming something keeps everything that uses it working.
- A layer pasted into another scene brings its files with it.
- After a crash, your recovered scene has every tab's changes.
- Lots of smaller fixes.
Motion Player
New
- You can import several files at once, and Motion tells you how many came in and why the rest didn't.
Changed
- Setting a scene ends that screen's playlist, and unplugging a screen doesn't move your choices around.
- Same on every screen and One across all remember your Different on each screen setup for later.
- Deleting a scene takes it off your screens and out of your playlists, and tells you which first.
- Motion tells you when a file can't be saved, or when you hit the limit of 200 scenes or 100 playlists.
Fixed
- Time-of-day playlists stay in order, and timer playlists carry on when the clock goes back.
- Pause all and Play all pick up from the same scene.
- Keyboard fixes: Space no longer deletes a playlist by accident, Return presses what's focused, Escape goes back, and Tab scrolls to what it reaches.
- Search shows the right words on each page, and Find a setting no longer shows Weather for everything.
- Buttons, chips, search and Home's cards grow with larger text sizes.
Player and Studio
Changed
- Empty, cut-short or fake media files are refused at import, with a plain reason.
- The visualizer only listens when Hear is on, and Hear tells you if there's no sound device.