Release notes

The new surface placement functionality enhances the ability to specify the altitude of any object in relation to the ground. This feature offers three primary options for setting the altitude:

1. On the Ground: This option allows you to place an object directly on the terrain surface. It ensures that the object is aligned with the ground, making it ideal for placing buildings, trees, or other structures that need to sit directly on the terrain.
2. At an Absolute Height: This option lets you set an object at a specific, fixed height above sea level. For example, if you want to place a drone at an altitude of 100 meters, you can specify this absolute height, and the object will be positioned exactly 100 meters above sea level, regardless of the terrain's elevation below it.
3. Relative to the Ground: This option allows you to place an object at a height relative to the terrain's surface. For instance, if you specify a relative height of 10 meters, the object will be positioned 10 meters above the terrain's elevation at that point. This is useful for placing objects like signs or lights that need to maintain a consistent height above the ground, even as the terrain elevation changes.

The surface placement feature also has several advantages and is designed for high performance, allowing for efficient placement of objects within a 3D environment. This means that you can quickly and accurately position 3D assets without sacrificing performance. High-performance placement is particularly beneficial in large-scale projects where numerous objects need to be positioned. The optimized placement process ensures that even with a high number of assets, the system remains responsive and efficient. With surface placement, you can avoid the need to make individual raycast calls for each asset. Raycasting involves casting a virtual ray into the scene to detect collisions or intersections with other objects. By eliminating the need for individual raycast calls, surface placement improves efficiency and speeds up the placement process. The surface placement functionality automatically updates as the Level of Detail (LOD) models load or update. LOD models are different versions of an object that are displayed based on the viewer's distance from the object. As the LODs load or update, the surface placement feature ensures that the objects maintain their specified altitude in relation to the ground.

Default basemaps have been updated to use Esri's basemap styles service. The basemap styles service provides access to all the existing styled basemaps plus four new styles: Human Geography, Human Geography Dark, OSM Blueprint, and Outdoor. The basemap styles service will add additional functionality, such as localized place labels and more place locations. This will be available through the SDK in a future release.

• ArcGISElevationMode enum value has been added to support different modes of elevation.
• ArcGISElevationMonitor class has been added to monitor elevation changes at a specific position.
• ArcGISElevationMonitorPositionChangedEvent event has been added so that when the elevation changes at a specific position, a callback is triggered.
• ArcGISElevationProvider class has been added to manage the registration of elevation position updates.

• New node Create ArcGIS Elevation Monitor is added under ArcGIS Elevation Monitor for creating an elevation monitor for a specific position.

• The surface placement option has been added to the ArcGIS Location Component.

• Basemap gallery under the Basemap tab has been updated to accommodate the basemap styles service update.

• Touch support has been added to the tabletop sample.

• Visual Studio 2019 is no longer supported. A minimum of Visual Studio 2022 is required with this release.
• iOS/iPadOS 15 is no longer supported. A minimum of iOS/iPadOS 16 is required with this release.
• macOS Monterey (version 12) is no longer supported. A minimum of macOS Ventura (version 13) is required with this release.
• HoloLens 2 support has been removed. For more information regarding XR devices that have been tested and verified by Epic Games to work with Unreal Engine, see the Supported XR Devices topic in the Unreal Engine documentation.

• Setting the parent group layer opacity before the layer is loaded does not affect the child layer opacity.

  Summary: Changing the group layer opacity before the layer is loaded does not affect the opacities of its child layers (for example, if a child layer initial opacity is 1.0, setting the group layer initial opacity to 0.5 does not update its child layer opacity to 0.5).

• Slower loading speed for building scene layer local packages (.slpk)

  Summary: Loading a building scene layer from a scene layer package (.slpk) is extremely slow when compared to the same data via an online service.

• Changing building scene layer opacity doesn't apply in play mode.

  Summary: After you change the building scene layer opacity and click Play, the opacity value gets lost.

• BUG-000169958: Services cannot be loaded with the item URL if non-ASCII characters are in the service URL.

  Summary: When there are non-ASCII characters in the service URL, the layer cannot be loaded by using the item URL.

  Workaround: Use the service URL that is encoded in UTF-8.

• BUG-000169959: On Zoom to Layer/Elevation, the editor camera is misaligned with the horizon.

  Summary: After you click "Zoom to Layer" or "Zoom to Elevation" and then start and stop Play mode, the editor camera orientation is misaligned with the horizon.

  Workaround: Reset the editor camera in the Pawn actor.

• Question on Esri Community: Collider offsets in rendered OSM 3D buildings.

  Summary: The collision mesh is not properly aligned with the corresponding rendered OSM 3D building, which can result in inaccurate collision detection or unexpected behavior when interacting with the 3D environment.

  Workaround: No workaround available.