Apollo Build 3.4.19 Release Notes
In short
This release focused on two things: opening the experience to people without a VR headset, and making group sessions far more reliable when the internet, a headset, or any other device misbehaves. The result is a session that more people can join and that recovers gracefully from the everyday hiccups that used to derail a group.
1. Play on a PC - no headset required
The A role can now be played from an ordinary Windows PC with a mouse, not just from a VR headset.
The controls are simple:
- Hold and drag your right mouse button to look around.
- Left click for all interactions, including, pick-up/drop/slot parts, use tools, drag sliders and push buttons.
- Use the scroll wheel to rotate a part in your hand.
What it means for you: you can include participants who don't have - or don't get on with - a VR headset, lower the hardware needed to run a session, and support remote or streamed setups. It widens who can take part without changing the mission everyone shares.
2. Stay connected through the rough patches
Real sessions have interruptions - someone lifts their headset for a moment, the Wi-Fi stutters, or a device goes to sleep. Previously these small events could drop a player entirely and/or delay the group.
- Brief interruptions no longer drop you. A short gap - a headset briefly removed, a momentary network blip — is now ridden out and the session simply carries on, the stalled participant automatically catches up to the rest of the group once they're back.
- No more "stuck on a black screen" If one person's device freezes during a transition, the rest of the group used to be stuck staring at a black screen. Now, the facilitator can use a new Force Advance button to ensure the team doesn't have to restart the experience.
- See the room at a glance. The facilitator view now shows which participants are stalling or have connection issues - the struggling participant's tile along the bottom of the screen gently pulses.
What it means for you: fewer avoidable dropouts, and a group that isn't held hostage by one person's momentary glitch. Less guesswork about who's having issues.
3. Drop out and come back - seamlessly, or join mid-game
If a player does fully disconnect, it used to mean that they could not come back in until the next round, or the facilitator would have to restart the game, this has now changed.
- Rejoin straight back into your place. A returning player is reconnected into the game lobby and rejoins, no matter what stage of the game the group are in.
- A participants who didn't make it to the lobby can catch up. If a participant is delayed getting into the lobby, they can now join in even if the group has skipped past the lobby, they simply fast-forward to the same stage as the rest of the team.
What it means for you: a disconnect or delay in joining becomes a brief absence instead of a lost participant. People can step away or recover from a crash and slot straight back into the group.
4. Turn off in-game voice chat when needed
If you are running a fully remote desktop workshop, you will likely already be using a conference call alongside Apollo and therefore don't require the in-game voice chat functionality.
- Turn voice chat off per session. Voice chat can now be cleanly switched off for a session from the dashboard when it isn't wanted - the related on-screen buttons are hidden too, so nothing looks broken.
What it means for you: Turn off voice chat when it's not needed to get rid of unwanted echos.
What this adds up to
Together these changes make Apollo more accessible (more people can join, with or without a headset, locally or remotely) and more resilient (the everyday interruptions of a live group session - a headset off, a network blip, a disconnect — no longer break the experience). The goal is a session you can run anywhere, for any group, with confidence that it will hold together.