Protocol Squad Full Report

We post this here because we want some extra characters to format our final report message, this post will be quoted in our last grant update :slight_smile: We leave some tech details, feel free to ask anything

1 · Project Vision

We set out to deliver two fully open-source Decentraland explorers, built on a shared SDK-7 runtime but optimised for different audiences:

Technology Focus Primary Targets
Bevy Rapid-iteration desktop client for creators, modders, and power users. Ships experimental features first. Windows • macOS • Linux
Godot Production-grade explorer for mobile and VR with a strong emphasis on performance, store compliance, and UX parity with the official app. iOS • Android • Quest • Desktop VR

The grant funded six months of engineering, tooling, and release work. Below you will find the full April update followed by a curated timeline of the most meaningful accomplishments from the entire period.


2 · April 2025 — Monthly Report

2.1 Bevy (Desktop)

Category Delivered in April
Rendering & World View Depth-of-field distant imposters: seamlessly blends baked imposters with live parcels.
• Imposters optional ZIP bundling and hot-download support.
• Configurable GPU bytes-per-frame + antialias defaults.
Camera & Visual Tools TextureCamera + CameraLayer routing finalised.
• Scenes can now render “live security cams”, mirrors, and picture-in-picture UI.
System-UI APIs • New runtime calls: reloadUI, hideUI, listScenes, getHome, setHome, getRealmProvider, systemActionStream, chatSend/Receive.
Scene-UI Modules Emote-wheel merged with animation-loop metadata support.
Backpack Search & Filter live.
Outfits feature-complete (load/equip) — PR opened for review.
• Scene-info card/sidebar polished; likes, favs, rating, photos.
Input & UX • Browser-spec onMouseLeave/Exit behaviour, editable input profiles, extended gamepad bindings.
Fixes & Polish 30+ bug-fixes (permission dialogs, nametag distortion, drag-out, Steam Deck quirks, video flicker, minimap realm check, etc.).

2.2 Godot (Mobile & VR)

Category Delivered in April
Engine Upgrade Rolled Godot 4.4.1 to all platforms; automated artifact pipeline (GitHub Actions + hashed buckets).
Performance Enabled Metal on iOS/macOS and introduced a 3.5 GB “High-Memory” flagGenesis Plaza now holds ~45 FPS on an iPhone 14 Pro.
Satellite Map MVP • Low-res tile rendering, pinch-zoom, one-finger pan, parcel tap-select.
• POIs, category bar, places-API, hot-scenes, search.
• Responsive layout (portrait / landscape) and clearer plot markers.
VR Track Jet-pack showcase world demo built with new input rig.
• Fixed controller ray jitter, UI focus issues, and several Quest-specific crashes.
Publishing New iOS & Android builds pushed to TestFlight / Internal testing, including Metal and asset-pipeline optimisations.

3 · Six-Month Retrospective (Nov 2024 → Apr 2025)

Month Milestone Highlights
Nov ’24 Kick-off — imposters prototype, desktop UI proof-of-concept, first asset-pipeline diagrams, sign-in overhaul for mobile.
Dec ’24 Imposters v1 released (live parcel mip-mapping, CLI/ingame baking). Asset-pipeline v1 doubles load-speed on phones.
Jan ’25 Render-to-texture & pointer-drag protocol land; Scene-UI photos/events panel online. Portrait/Landscape UI groundwork on Godot.
Feb ’25 Bridged to new Foundation comms, introduced cache system, large Backpack UI push. Asset-optimisation pipeline finished; Godot fork binaries for every OS.
Mar ’25 Server-side imposter generation (ZIP bundles), revamped Bevy UI API, gamepad binding overhaul. Worlds asset-optimisation live.
Apr ’25 (See full April report above) — depth-of-field imposters, System-UI API suite, Emote-wheel merge, Godot 4.4.1 rollout, Satellite Map MVP, new VR demo.

Cumulative Wins

  • World-scale viewing — high-fidelity imposters let explorers render *all 90 k parcels * without exploding draw calls.
  • Creator toolset — TextureCamera, CameraLayers, action streams, chat hooks, pointer-drag events, and live UI reload unlock richer SDK-7 experiences.
  • Mobile viability — asset-pipeline + Metal rendering slashed load times and lifted FPS on iOS/Android, getting the parity with desktop closer.
  • One-click builds — cross-platform GitHub Actions now spit out Godot & FFMPEG artifacts for five OSes in ~15 min.
  • VR footing — first complete scene running on Quest with a jet-pack traversal demo and headset-friendly UI.

4 · What’s Next (Just Post-Grant Roadmap)

  1. Merge Backpack → Outfits with Catalyst persistence.
  2. Satellite Map 1.1 — multi-res tiles, clustering, and larger info cards.
  3. VR Beta — polish jet-pack demo, Quest store submission, performance profiling.
  4. Photo/Share Panel and additional system-UI APIs (permissions, notifications).
  5. Continue upstreaming fixes to Bevy & Godot, and cultivating external contributors.

All code, build scripts, and discussions remain open and active; the grant may end, but the explorer ecosystem it powered is only getting started.


5 · Resources


Thank you for funding and following the journey.

2 Likes

Thank you for the report! Will there be future grants needed to complete the mobile IOS? What would a roadmap for this completion be?

Hi Matthew! We are trying to publish to iOS; it is currently available in Test Flight.
We are filling out the iOS requirements. We tried to publish some times, but we got rejected. We got a review request about the UI and the sign-in method, which was out of our grant roadmap.

We plan to continue working at DCL Regenesis Lab with a better product strategy. The roadmap will be announced soon, but I can get ahead. Publishing to iOS is a priority.

2 Likes