What’s new.

The river, the waterfalls, the fountain, the ponds and the sea are quiet now. Their running-water sound came across as static, so it's gone. The wind, birds, crickets, footsteps and the tram still play.

Make an account while you're a guest, and a world you're still in somewhere else (another tab, the sidebar) lets you come back in with your account straight away, instead of saying you were removed.

The tram runs a loop round the whole town now, about four minutes round, with six stops: Town Square, the University, the farm, the base gate on Shore Road, the games studio and the airfield. Each stop has a platform, a sign and a shelter with a bench to wait on.

Walk in while its doors are open and ride it. It takes you along, round the corners, and the roof over you lifts off so you can see yourself inside, with the rest of the tram as it is (from low down, looking in through the windows, nothing lifts at all). Sit on its benches, or stand. The doors open on the platform side at every stop.

Its windows are glass you can see through: watch the town go by as you ride (in first person too), and see who's on board from outside. At night it's lit inside, with its headlamps on.

It sounds like a tram: its bell as it sets off, a chime as its doors close, and its motors and wheels as it goes, quieter further off. Its wheels squeal round the tight corners.

The map shows the tram's route, its stops and where the tram is. Waiting at a stop, you see when the next tram's due, and once it's in, that its doors are open and when it leaves. On board, you see the next stop and about how long until you're there. The card is up for a few seconds each time something changes, then out of the way, except for the driver's button while you're in the cab. On a phone with the map closed it sits right under the top bar.

A Drive the tram permission. People who have it can stop the tram from its driver's cab at the front, and start it again: it stops for everyone, and stays stopped until someone starts it. Every world's Admin role has it, and owners can give it to any role in world settings.

The tram now runs between the Town Hall and the square, and stops there, where everyone arrives. Its two old stops on Main Street, by the promenade and by the ring road, are gone.

Container stacks, parked planes and helicopters, cars, humvees, the ambulance, the tractor, market stalls, the statue, the games studio's mascot and signboards fade when they're between the camera and you, as trees and bigger things already did.

A container stack, a vehicle or anything else big the camera swings into fades away instead of filling the screen, and roofs, vehicles and other things in the way fade further, so you can see yourself clearly.

Trees, the market hall's roof, carports, pavilions, pergolas, the tram and other big things fade when they're between the camera and you, so you can see yourself. A tree the camera swings into fades away instead of filling the screen with leaves.

Every front door on a garden lane has a path across the wildflowers to the lane, with no tree, lamp, bench or bike in the way.

Walls, floors, roofs and paving no longer flicker where they meet, and furniture and fittings no longer poke through walls, floors, ceilings or roofs.

Monitors and keyboards sit fully on their desks and face whoever works there, and pairs of monitors no longer run into each other, in the games studio's server room and everywhere else.

Ceiling lights hang clear of walls and glass, and the games studio's meeting room has a single doorway.

Bikes, motorbikes and cars stand on the ground instead of sinking into it, and there are no boats in the river.

The glass dome in the park can't be walked through any more, and its entrance faces the lanes.

You stand on door steps and on the Town Hall's and the Great Hall's front steps instead of sinking into them.

Names painted on the ground read the right way up as you walk up to them: outside the games studio, In-Processing and Special Operations, on the beaches and on the runway.

Climbing plants and name boards no longer hang in the air when a wall turns see-through to show you inside.

Shadows no longer jump as you zoom or turn the camera.

Names on the teleport map and the minimap no longer run into each other where buildings crowd together, as round the Town Hall. When two would collide, the more important place keeps its name: the Town Hall, the library and the Great Hall first, then the airfield and the colleges, and shops last. The other name moves along its own roof, or is left off until you zoom in on the minimap.

Names on the map are easy to read on dark roofs, like the Town Hall's, the Great Hall's and the bakery's, on the minimap and the teleport map.

The map has a compass, and a cone on your arrow shows which way you're looking.

Turn the map with your view in Settings → Map, or press the compass on the map. What's ahead of you stays at the top, so pushing forward walks you up the map, and place names stay the right way up. Press the compass again to put north back at the top. North up is still where it starts.

While the map is hidden, as it starts on a phone, the Map button shows a compass that points north from where you're looking.

On an iPhone, opening Direct to message someone no longer pops up an offer to sign in with a saved password. The same goes for sharing an artifact with someone and inviting someone to a world by username.

On an iPhone, typing your name in the character creator no longer leaves the world shifted up with its top bar off the screen and a grey strip below. After chatting in a world, the top bar comes back when the keyboard closes.

On a phone or tablet, swiping near the thumbstick to look round turns the camera instead of picking up the stick and walking you off. The stick still comes to your thumb when you touch it or just beside it.

On a phone, the character creator gives your character the whole screen, with the options in a panel over the bottom. Fold it down to see your whole character: tap or drag the bar on top, or swipe down on the options. Tap a part or swipe up to bring it back. Your name and the save button are always in reach.

On the smallest phones the character creator shows the styles to choose from, not just its tabs. Parts and colours each sit in one row you swipe sideways, and “describe a look” is a button on the stage. On a phone held sideways, your character stands beside the options.

Pinch to zoom in on your character in the creator, move round them with two fingers, and double-tap to zoom in where you tap. With a mouse, scroll to zoom. Reset view takes you back.

In a world on a phone or tablet, the thumbstick appears under your thumb wherever you touch its corner, with Jump, emotes and Sit by your other thumb. Chat and the map are placed for each way you hold the device.

Choose which side the thumbstick is on in Settings, for left or right hands. It starts on the right.

On an iPhone, nothing in a world sits under the notch, the Dynamic Island or the home indicator. In Chrome held sideways, the controls no longer sit a notch’s width in from the edge, and the strip Chrome leaves beside the Dynamic Island is black instead of pale grey.

In a world, pinching with a finger on a button no longer zooms the whole page, and pulling down no longer reloads the world.

Buttons, menus and fields are big enough for fingers. Typing in a field no longer zooms the page on an iPhone, the keyboard suits what you’re typing, dialogs open from the bottom of a phone’s screen, and the top bar fits the smallest phones.

Creating a world on a phone shows the town first, so you can shuffle it before you fill in the rest. Signing up shows which step you’re on and lets you go back from the second.

Add Firstlight to your home screen and it opens in its own window, without the browser’s bars.

Big screens show four columns of worlds.

Every town is rebuilt for walking and cycling: terraced homes round shared gardens, garden lanes, a green square with a market hall, and a tram that runs Main Street. Cars stay on the ring roads.

A Town Hall under a glass dome, a library under a glass vault, a conservatory café, the Workshop (a makerspace anyone can drop into), and a co-working office joined to its Garden Room by a glass bridge you can walk across, over the lane between them. Homes have porches and flower balconies, arched roofs, or stepped garden terraces you can climb up to.

Solar trees in the square, a glass biodome in Meadow Park, solar carports, a mobility hub for e-bikes and a car share, solar panels over the farm's fields, and a wind farm out at sea.

The first time you visit after this update, you arrive at the town square instead of where you left off, because the streets have moved. The countryside beyond the ring roads is laid out afresh, this once.

Furniture no longer stands in front of windows, in any building in town. Plants and lamps move along the wall, a bed under a window gets a low headboard, and behind a desk, shelf or cupboard that can’t move, the wall is solid.

In buildings whose door faces south or west, armchairs, beanbags, bookshelves, the piano and the office whiteboard were turned the wrong way, some to face the wall. They face the room now.

The benches by the university track face the track, and those outside the office tower look out across its forecourt instead of at its wall.

Wildflowers no longer grow up through the town square’s paving, or any other paving, street or deck.

Upstairs in the stepped houses, you no longer bump into invisible furniture from the room below.

No tree or bench stands in the bike shelters at the ends of the garden lanes.

Zoomed out, roads, lawns and fields, the military base’s among them, no longer flicker as you move the camera, and nor do the crossings where a garden lane or a paved street meets a road.

Buildings no longer flicker at their corners, roof edges and doorways or round shop signs and awnings, and next-door houses’ and shops’ roofs no longer run into each other.

Everyone is now a grown-up townsperson drawn in the same ink and flat colour as the town, instead of a round-headed figure. Your saved character comes along, dressed in the nearest new look.

Choose your height, build and figure, and your nose and freckles as well as your eyes, brows and mouth.

A new wardrobe: chore coats, aprons, cardigans and haoris over your top; overalls, cuffed chinos and pleated skirts; socks and clogs.

Everything you wear fits together, in every combination, standing, walking or sitting: trousers rest on your shoes and go over boots, tops hang over trouser tops, coats lie over skirts and laps, and hair lies over collars and hoods.

Standing, your arms hang relaxed at your sides, elbows easy.

Sitting in a skirt, it lies over your lap and falls to the seat instead of flaring out.

Glasses and scarves are gone from the character creator for now, and its options are no longer marked as for men or for women.

Roll a random character of either figure, as well as a man or a woman.

The character creator shows you in the world’s own look, and so do the previews of every option.

Characters walk with bending knees and swinging arms, and sit, wave and dance with their whole body.

Everyone sits properly on every seat in town: on the chair, bench, sofa, stool, log, step or fountain rim, not sunk into it, back against the backrest, feet flat on the floor (or on a bar stool's footrest) and hands resting in the lap. Shorter people slide forward to reach the floor, as they would.

Chairs, benches, sofas and armchairs are an everyday seat's height and depth, and bar stools have a wider footrest.

Some armchairs and beanbags faced the wrong way, two long dining tables were turned across their chairs, a market stall stood on a bench in Town Square, and the reception desks had no room for the receptionist's knees.

Calves, heels and skirts no longer sink into the front of a sofa, armchair or step, the amphitheatre's seats are square to their rows, three-seat sofas have three cushions, the recording studio's mixing desk and the round meeting tables leave room for your knees, and a show car at the dealership no longer stands in the lounge.

Sitting needs a seat: away from one, the Sit button tells you to walk up to one instead of sitting on thin air.

Reloading a world no longer leaves your browser tab’s loading spinner going while you play.

The chat’s “new” count goes away once you’ve read those messages in the full chat, not only in the small one.

With the chat collapsed, its button counts new messages in the chat it was showing too, such as Nearby.

The mic button lights up while your mic is on, like the camera and screen-share buttons. It used to light up while you were muted.

AI residents now answer when you talk to them. Until now they could only wave and say a simple hello.

The island runs on to a coast: two beaches, the open sea, and a fenced military base with a gate, barracks, headquarters, a medical station, a hangar and heliport, and a naval pier with a ship you can walk aboard.

TVs, boards and cupboards no longer hang over windows, in any building in town.

Screens and boards hang flat against their walls instead of floating off them, and the office whiteboard faces the room.

The logs round the campfire in the woods face the fire, and you sit on them.

The ring roads no longer run out over the river where there’s no bridge.

Parked cars all face the way the traffic runs.

A new name, a new icon, and a landing page that says plainly what works today.

A page on why we’re building Firstlight, and this changelog.

The landing page’s reel is re-recorded in the world’s new clear-line look.

The landing page’s buttons are easier to spot, and the reel peeks in below the first screen.

The university lawns no longer flicker, and the pitch has real goals with nets.

The road bridges lost the grey block that stood across their middle, which people used to walk straight through.

Ink outlines, flat colour, hard shadows and a paper grain, like an illustrated map come to life.

Roof tiles, brick, timber and paving you can read up close; stippled grass and clustered trees from afar.

Zoomed all the way out, the town reads like a map.

Every screen now shares one design, from sign-in and the character creator to your worlds, settings and the panels in the world: the same type, colours, buttons and spacing.

A new landing page, with a highlight reel recorded in Firstlight’s own engine.

Read and post in the channels of any world you belong to without travelling there, with unread counts on each world.

Join a world’s voice channels from anywhere.

Direct messages, with a “Seen” when they’ve been read.

Since the bigger island arrived, AI residents had gone quiet in every town. They answer again.

On a slower device, building the town could take long enough that joining failed for good with “Invalid or expired token”. Firstlight now gets a fresh pass and tries again.

Jumping across town, from the map or straight to someone, is now its own permission, so owners decide who can skip the walk. Admins have it to start with; everyone else walks.

The big screen shows images only. Presenting a PDF on it is gone.

Calls with up to eight people, wherever they are in the world.

Share a window, a tab or your whole screen.

An amphitheatre with a lectern mic, a floor mic and a 12.8-metre big screen.

A Stage mics permission decides who can be heard by the whole venue. Everyone has it to start with.

A four-storey games studio, with a data centre next door.

Report a person or a world. The chat you saw in the last fifteen minutes goes with your report.

Our trust and safety team can ban accounts, devices and networks, and take a world offline.

Roles with a name, a colour, a rank and their own permissions. Every world starts with Admin and Moderator.

Text channels, which can be private or read-only.

Moderation in the world: delete messages, mute someone in chat or turn off their mic, kick or ban.

Sign in with your Discord account.

A failed sign-in brings you back to the form with a clear message, not an error page.

Buildings that fade out of your way now come back fully solid.

The island is four times the size: woods, farmland, an industrial estate with a robot factory, an airfield, and a university in place of the school.

Walk into shops and houses.

Lighter on your graphics card, with a Frame rate setting: 60 fps by default, 30 on battery or while you’re in another window.

Hair sits on the head, and looks are labelled for men, women or anyone.

A smaller on-screen display, and panels close with Escape.

You can sit on the pavilion’s benches.

Hats, backpacks and capes are gone from the character creator. Scarves stay.

Each town has one AI resident instead of up to six.

Other people and AI residents showed up headless, gliding along without moving their legs. They walk properly now.

AI residents: up to six townsfolk who chat with whoever’s nearby, wave, point the way and remember you. Owners can switch them off.

Describe a look in your own words, and the character creator builds it for you, up to 20 times an hour.