Sony's virtual abode will be getting a much needed revamped tomorrow.

Home Community Specialist GlassWalls announced over at the US PlayStation Blog that the "PlayStation Home will be taken offline this evening for our weekly content publish. While this downtime will occur approximately 24 hours earlier than what you have become accustomed to per our regular schedule, when the doors are re-opened on the morning of Wednesday, April 20th, you’ll find that PlayStation Home will be updated to version 1.5 and will, in turn, be bigger and better than ever before."

So what's new in the upcoming update? Well, according to GlassWalls, PlayStation Home v1.5 was developed with one singular goal in mind: high-quality games. "The 1.5 update will introduce a suite of new technology for developers with tools that will provide their future games with real-time multiplayer, improved physics, as well as more realistic graphics and animations," he said. "PlayStation Home v1.5 is packed with tools and features that will enable developers to expand the types of games possible on the platform – from first-person shooters with real-time, peer-to-peer multiplayer to racing games and more."

Patch notes:

New Features:

Wardrobes

• We have increased the number of wardrobe save slots to 24.
• There is a new facial structure under “Character -> Structure” in the wardrobe.    
  • We have added a download progress bar and speed indicator to the Navigator when downloading a space.
  • There have been various graphical tweaks to the Navigator.
  • We have added a new option to let you more easily manage furniture that has been placed in your Personal Space or Clubhouse.
  • When you are in one of those spaces you can access the new management screen from the Menu Pad under “Personal -> Redecorate -> Furniture”.
  • The screen lists thumbnail images and names of all of the items of furniture currently placed in the space.  You can alter what is displayed on this list:

Navigator:

Furniture Management

o   By pressing [L1] and limiting it to only one category of furniture (for example just “Actives”, “Seating” or “Lighting”).

o   By pressing [R1] and changing the order in which the list is sorted (for example by “Recently placed” or “Closest” to your character).

• The list changes dynamically so if you choose to order it by furniture that is “Closest” to your character it will update as you move around the space.
• The currently selected furniture item is highlighted with a blue box around it.
• If you hover over an item on the list your camera will turn to face it.
• You can temporarily fade out most of the interface by pressing and holding [L2] to get a better view of the space.  The effect is analogue so the more you press the button the more the interface will fade.
• Pressing [CROSS] with an item selected will take you to the standard furniture movement menu for that item.
• It is possible to “tag” one or more furniture items on the list for removal by selecting it and pressing [TRIANGLE].

o   Items tagged like this have a grey border around them.

o   You can un-tag an item by pressing [TRIANGLE] on it again.

• When you exit the management menu any items tagged for removal will be removed from the space.

o   You are still given the option to confirm the mass removal once it has been applied or undo it.

Chat log

• We have added a new symbol for slash commands “@”.  So “/Local” and “@Local” will both do the same thing.
• You can quickly access the channel switching option menu by pressing d-pad [LEFT] on the text tab or d-pad [RIGHT] on the voice tab.
• There is a new option to find another user in your space.  You can access it by highlighting a line of text in the chat log, pressing [CROSS] and choosing “Locate”.  This will make their name label flash until you get near to them.
• There are several new customisation options for the chat log.  These can be found in the Menu Pad under “Settings -> Personal -> Chat Log”:

o   There is a new chat log text size “small” for people with large, HD TVs.

o   You can adjust the channel prefix attached to each line of text.

o   You can add a time stamp to each line of text.

o   For each channel you can change:

§  Whether text from this channel is visible in the chat log.

§  How the pop-up colour of other users is displayed.

§  Whether chat bubbles are displayed.

• When you attempt to enter text from the VKB or a USB keyboard the chat log will automatically switch to the text tab.
• If the chat log is minimised it will automatically open when you receive a Private Message.
• There is a new “None” option for voice channels which will take you out of voice communication.
• We have added some more keyboard controls so that when maximised the chat log can be controlled with the arrow keys, Enter and Escape.
• We have reduced the stuttering (sometimes interpreted as “lag”) that could occur when you receive a reward.
• The loading of high “level of detail” characters has been improved.
• There is a new “game” icon to indicate when you have a game targeted before you interact with it.

General:

Wardrobe

• We have added 13 new character presets to the wardrobe under “Presets”.

Via [US PlayStation Blog]

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