FacilityVR — Release notes, September 2026

Changes released in September 2026.

New

[New] Layout Studio: a 2D floor-plan editor - ideal for large and campus-style facilities

Layout Studio is a new top-down floor-plan editor with rulers in metres and separate site and per-storey views. Authors can draw a site boundary, then place buildings, roads, pathways and car parks on it. They can add storeys, stairwells, lift shafts and risers that run through every floor. Rooms, corridors and open-plan areas can be dropped onto a storey and snap to neighbouring walls and cores. Rooms can be square/rectangular, “L” or “T” shaped, triangular or have cut corners. A door tool cuts doorways between rooms and warns when a room has no way in. You can resize rooms with point-and-click or type sizes and positions precisely. Assign finishes to floors, walls, and ceilings. An AI assistant lays out rooms to fill a floor, or sizes a space based on the equipment it must hold, as a proposal you can accept or discard. Each side of a site boundary can carry a fence of a chosen type and height.

[New] Large facilities load area by area to improve VR rendering performance

Large facilities can now load only the building or area the player is in. Other buildings appear as simple solid shells, and the areas nearby are preloaded so walking across a site doesn’t pop at boundaries. The 3D editor has a new Regions panel to enable this, show how a facility divides, what each area costs, and edit one area at a time. Spectators follow the learner’s area, and buildings drawn in Layout Studio load one storey at a time, with a fade when taking stairs or a lift.

[New] Set-Dressing to improve VR rendering performance

Authors can now mark placed equipment as “set dressing”, which stays visible but has no controls, to lighten busy scenes. Five low-cost backdrop types (pallet racking, pipe rack, container stack, panel array, conveyor run) help fill large spaces.

[New] Network and power cabling with realistic plugs and per-port checks

Server, network and power ports are now real cable sockets, and three new toolbox leads plug into them: an RJ45 patch lead, an SFP+ DAC cable and a power cord. Cable and hose ends are drawn as real-size connectors. Each port of a multi-port socket (PDU receptacles, switch ports, router LAN ports) is treated separately, and the confirmation names the port, such as “Connected: Receptacle 6”. Scenario authors can require a lead to connect to a specific port, and reactions can trigger when an individual port connects. A new busway tap-off box with a detachable feed lead lets learners run a full power chain from busway to rack PDU to each server, with the wrong connector refused at each end. Existing click-to-connect scenarios keep working.

[New] Carry and connect refrigerant hoses

Learners can take a refrigerant hose from the scenario toolbox, carry it, put it down and connect each end to a named port. Wrong connector types, occupied ports, crossed connections and hoses too short for the run are all refused with a clear reason, rather than being quietly corrected. Scenario steps can grade a specific hose end going into a specific port, so classic mistakes such as connecting a manifold low-to-high are caught. The Refrigerant Handling Bay now includes a manifold gauge set with colour-coded ports, three colour-coded hoses, and connection ports on the condensing unit, recovery machine, cylinder, and vacuum pump. Learners can step through what they are carrying with the bracket keys or a flick of the right stick.

[New] Telemetry Studio objectives, saved progress and learner results

Authors can give objectives to a Telemetry Studio surface: bring a reading into range (optionally held for a time), use a control, acknowledge an alert or set a switch. Objectives can depend on each other, be optional, and carry hints. Learners see a live checklist beside the panel, their progress is saved so they can resume after a reload, and a course step can complete when they meet the required objectives. Educators can see each learner’s results, which objectives they met and a timeline of actions. The Presenter View’s live roster shows objective progress as it happens.

[New] Sprint, run and teleport for getting around large sites

Getting around a large layout is now much quicker. On desktop, hold Shift to sprint. In a headset, click the left stick to run (with the edges of the view gently darkened for comfort), or hold the right stick, click to aim and teleport onto the nearby floor. Teleporting is blocked by walls or closed doors. Movement speed no longer drops when the frame rate is low.

[New] Animated equipment: running belts, turning fans, cycling machines

Equipment can now animate continuously. Conveyor belts scroll, fans and drums spin at speeds tied to controls or readings, and mechanisms cycle back and forth. Animations stay in step between a learner and anyone spectating. Premium equipment can declare its normal operating state, so every placement starts running as it would in real life. Scenarios can start or hold a machine at a named position, for example, a stretch wrapper’s carriage jammed at the top of the mast until Start is pressed. The 3D editor now shows a layout as the learner will find it, including starting states and machine positions, with a button to pause the animation.

[New] Premium 3D models for eight equipment types

Detailed premium models created in Blender, with working moving parts, are now available for the mtu 4000 DS generator, step-down transformer, counterbalance forklift, reach truck, pallet jack, stretch wrapper, belt conveyor and cooling tower. Each is based on a real machine’s data sheet. Examples: the reach truck’s pantograph extends and lifts, the cooling tower’s fan spins with its VFD reading, and the conveyor belt carries a carton to the drive end. Modelled lamps and indicators now change colour with live equipment state. All six equipment types that previously relied on basic animated shapes now have premium models.

[New] Choose standard or premium models in the 3D editor

A new Model section in the 3D editor’s property panel switches an equipment type between its standard geometry and a premium model. The panel says how many other placements will change with it. Wherever a model is offered, premium models (controls mapped onto the model) are now distinguished from imported models (appearance only). Organisations importing their own model can supply control positions so it can be operated, not just viewed.

[New] AI equipment designer

Platform administrators can describe a piece of equipment in plain English and get a complete design back: a catalogue entry with body, controls and dimensions, and a brief for building its premium model. Up to six reference images, such as data-sheet drawings and photos, can guide the design. The designer checks its own output and flags problems such as controls outside the footprint or names already in use.

[New] AI avatar presenter videos and a single video library

Course authors can draft a script and generate an AI avatar presenter video directly from a course step, reviewing the script before rendering anything. Renders use the organisation’s AI credits. Generated videos and existing Vimeo videos share one organisation video library, so you can use the same video in both course steps and scenario steps. The AI scenario builder can attach library videos to steps by name.

[New] Offline headset bundles you can take offline

Exporting a scenario as an offline bundle now produces a bundle that installs and runs on a Quest headset with Wi-Fi turned off. Exports work from production and finish in seconds. Bundles include fonts, controller models, premium models, and the scenario’s Video Library videos, which download to the headset with a progress line. Scenarios that can’t run offline are refused up front, naming the step responsible. Bundles open with a safety notice and end with a results summary. Platform administrators handle bundle exports on the organisation’s behalf, and the Terms of Service now cover supplied bundles.

[New] Resume a perform-mode scenario where you left off

Authors can tick “Allow resuming” on a perform-mode scenario. A learner who drops out part-way, for example through a headset disconnect, a fire alarm or the end of a shift, can then return within 24 hours to the same step and world state on the same attempt. If the scenario or facility has changed in the meantime, the saved progress is discarded, and the learner is told plainly. The setting is off by default, so existing scenarios behave as before.

[New] Read-aloud in the Presenter View

Educators can have the current step’s narrative read aloud from the Presenter View. Controls include Play, Pause, Resume, Stop and Restart, a sentence counter and a choice of voice. Reading follows the step on screen and keeps the computer awake during long passages. Voices in other languages are offered for non-English courses.

[New] Organisation switch for AI quiz grading

Admins can now decide whether AI grades their organisation’s quizzes at all, using a new toggle on the Settings page. It is off by default. While it is off, short answers go to educator review and no credits are spent. The quiz editor warns the author if the global setting would prevent a question’s AI auto-grade setting from being applied.

[New] Activity charts on the admin dashboard

Organisation admins now see charts of their organisation’s platform activity on the dashboard home page. The charts cover requests, active users, errors, response times and the busiest areas, over periods from one hour to 30 days. Platform administrators can view the whole platform and drill into any organisation.

[New] Licence limits that alert instead of block

Each organisation can now have agreed limits for admins, educators and learners. Learners are counted by active enrolment, and each person is counted once. Going over a limit never blocks an invite or enrolment. Instead, admins receive one email per day naming the limit they exceeded. Usage against limits appears on the organisation and Users pages.

Users are asked to accept the current terms the next time they sign in, and again whenever the terms change. Organisation users see the Terms of Service, and standalone learners see the Learner Terms of Use. The terms and privacy policy shown on the website and in the dashboard now come from a single source, so they always match.

[New] Reusable compounds and the generator acoustic container

Reusable compounds, such as containers and man-traps, can now include pre-placed equipment, fittings and lighting. These are placed automatically when the compound is dropped into a layout and move with it. Administrators can arrange items in the 3D editor and save the arrangement as a compound, with exact positioning and flush-to-wall tools. The first compound is a complete generator acoustic container with the MTU 20V4000 generator, control panel, distribution board, exhaust silencer, cooler, attenuators and safety items. The five enclosure equipment types are also available separately. Rooms can now have a separate outside finish for their walls and roof, with new acoustic-panel and ribbed weatherproof textures.

[New] Zone substation equipment and a second transformer bay

Four new substation equipment types are available: a 33/11 kV step-down transformer, a capacitor bank, a post insulator and an earthing system station. Together with the existing substation equipment, they are enough to build a complete Australian zone substation bay. The substation template gains a 33/11 kV transformer bay fed from the existing transformer, so isolating the upstream transformer de-energises the new bay. This gives learners a realistic upstream dependency to reason about.

[New] Wall shelves and click-to-move in the 3D editor

A new Storage category adds small and large wall-mounted shelves that can hold meters, tools and PPE. Items placed on a shelf move with it. Placed items can now be moved with a Move button, and one click on the destination floor, wall, or shelf, making it easy to tidy items an AI layout left on the floor. New wall items sit flush against the wall, and a numeric Scale field was added.

[New] Review the AI layout builder’s equipment before it is placed

When creating a facility with the AI layout builder, designers choose between no equipment, a proposed equipment list to review, or direct placement. The proposed list is shown room by room with a 3D preview. Designers can remove lines, set quantities, choose standard or premium models, and reject a wrong catalogue match so a purpose-made type is built instead.

[New] Carried-items bar inside the headset

The inventory bar showing what you are carrying used to appear only in the flat browser view. It now also appears in VR, at the bottom of your view whenever you are holding items. You can select slots by pointing the controller at them.

Enhancements to existing functionality

[Enhancement] Layout Studio usability: zoom, tablets and focus

A trackpad or tablet now pans the floor plan. Pinch, Ctrl/Cmd + scroll or the new zoom buttons zoom it smoothly, and the zoom level is kept between edits. On tablets, the side panels stack under the plan, and the dashboard header no longer runs off the edge. Selecting a building on the storey plan hides everything else, so you can lay out one floor without clutter. Site fences now break automatically where a road, driveway or building crosses them, and authors can add their own gates.

[Enhancement] Facility layouts authored by the platform team

The Facility Labs platform team now creates, imports, restructures, and deletes facility layouts. Organisation admins and educators still control how a facility is presented to learners, including its name, description, and publish status. Organisations can raise a “Request a layout change” ticket from the facility page, and the 3D editor opens in a simplified teaching mode. Learners’ own practice copies stay fully editable.

[Enhancement] Course marketplace retired; public course storefront kept

We removed the in-dashboard marketplace for copying other organisations’ courses. Organisations can still sell courses to their own learners through the public course storefront. Course details such as prerequisites, outcomes and duration can now be filled in without publishing the course.

[Enhancement] Facility type chosen from a curated list

A layout’s facility type is now picked from a grouped list of 29 types instead of being typed as free text. Each type maps to its relevant equipment catalogues, so the 3D editor’s equipment sidebar is grouped by catalogue. Readable facility type names replace raw codes across the dashboard and VR lobby.

[Enhancement] Rack mounting in the headset, with a slot preview

Learners using a headset can now mount servers, switches, firewalls, patch panels and blanking plates into rack slots, and PDUs onto the side rails. Padlocks, hasps and tags mount onto their host. While carrying a rack item, a preview shows exactly which slot it will go into, with rack-unit numbers, and turns red when the slot is taken. The AI scenario builder can also mount items on equipment, such as a hasp on a breaker or a server in a given slot.

[Enhancement] Realistic pipe runs

Pipe runs can now reach equipment above a space’s height, such as a cooling tower’s top inlet. Hold Shift to lock a new point to a straight horizontal or vertical line. Pipes come in standard DN sizes, bend through realistic elbows and get bolted flanges where they meet equipment. A new reducer fitting joins two pipe sizes.

[Enhancement] Edit equipment parts: shape, size, hide and name

On the Equipment Types page, you can now edit a part’s shape, size, and rotation, with a live 3D preview. You can link hotspots to a part so they move with it. In the 3D editor, you can hide a part on a placed unit, give it its own name (such as “B-12”), and name its controls. The unit’s information card then describes that specific unit.

[Enhancement] Layouts pick up improved catalogue equipment

Unedited equipment in a layout now updates automatically when the catalogue version improves, for example when a premium model is updated or gains moving parts. A Catalogue version section in the 3D editor shows what would change and lets an author update an edited copy on purpose. On the Equipment Types page, a “Check for updated models” button updates older facilities.

[Enhancement] Broken scenario references refused and flagged

State reactions, pre-conditions and task steps that name equipment or controls that don’t exist are now refused by the AI scenario builder. The dashboard forms offer only real equipment and controls. Existing broken references are flagged in red with a suggested fix, so educators can correct them.

[Enhancement] Telemetry Studio reliability and authoring improvements

The Telemetry Studio editor now protects against overwriting a surface after a loading error, warns about unsaved changes, and can duplicate a surface in one click. A surface used by course steps can no longer be deleted. Educator injects and resets now affect only learners on that course step, and are replayed to learners who join late. Learners’ unfinished copies follow a step when it points to a different surface. Switches can be bound to a signal so they both drive and follow it.

[Enhancement] Telemetry reads every simulation model

The telemetry dashboard now receives live values from every simulation model in a facility, not just one. A SCADA mimic can be set to draw a chosen power model. Saving a layout refuses simulation models that can’t run correctly, and the simulation editor lists each model’s problems before you save.

[Enhancement] Documentation Studio, with editable standard templates

The document template editor is now Documentation Studio, with its own item in the admin sidebar. Organisation admins can edit the five standard templates directly. The standard fields that generated documents rely on stay locked, and a Reset action restores the shipped version.

[Enhancement] Live spectating reconnects after a dropped connection

A brief network drop no longer ends a spectating session. Both the spectator view and the headset reconnect automatically, and the headset’s session is held for 90 seconds. Progress carries over without resetting the scene. Status badges show when the link is reconnecting, lost (with a Reconnect button) or ended.

[Enhancement] Easier-to-reach VR tablet and scrollable checklist

The headset tablet’s Brief, Tasks and Status tabs now sit along the bottom edge, close to eye level. Both in-headset panels sit lower and slightly further away. Long checklists scroll with “Show earlier” and “Show more” and follow the active step.

[Enhancement] Richer desktop visuals and a more detailed AI layout builder

Desktop browsers get improved lighting, ambient occlusion, bloom and equipment shadows, without affecting headset performance. The desktop crosshair adapts its colour to stay visible. The AI layout builder now uses a newer LLM to produce more detailed equipment.

[Enhancement] Gauge styles that suit modelled dials and screens

A new “Needle only” gauge style draws just a moving needle over a 3D model’s own dial face. You can adjust its angle, sweep, and length to match the markings. Modelled digital screens now show their live value as glowing digits, and the screen reads blank when the unit is unpowered.

[Enhancement] Slide decks scale properly when projected

Slide decks now scale to fill any screen with the same proportions in fullscreen, the editor and the Presenter View. In fullscreen, navigation controls appear as an overlay that fades away. When a step has both a deck and written content, the content is shown in a scrollable panel beside the slides.

[Enhancement] Sortable columns on list pages

You can now click any column on the Scenarios, Documents, and My Facilities lists to sort. Difficulty sorts from beginner to advanced, and document status follows its lifecycle. Selections for bulk actions are kept when you re-sort.

[Enhancement] Tidier layout detail page

The layout page’s actions now sit in a toolbar grouped into Open, Tools, and Publish, which wraps instead of running off-screen. Rarely used and destructive actions move into an overflow menu. Offshore rig layouts now get the offshore equipment catalogue.

[Enhancement] Chilled water pump’s drive display follows its start switch

The chilled water pump’s drive display reads 45 Hz when the start switch is on and 0 when it is off, on every placed pump. A scenario can still set its own value.

Bugfixes

[Bugfix] Knowledge-check quizzes no longer block course progress

Learners who used all their quiz attempts without passing could get stuck, unable to move on. A quiz step now counts as complete once an attempt is submitted, whether it passes or fails. Remaining attempts can still be used to improve the score, and educators still see every result.

[Bugfix] Scenario state values now match what controls report

Some reaction and step forms offered values that a control never reports, such as “On/Off” for a toggle switch, so those reactions and steps never fired. The value lists now come from what each control actually reports. Saved values that can never match are flagged so they can be fixed.

[Bugfix] Saving a scenario keeps all temporary equipment settings

Saving a scenario from the dashboard silently dropped details of temporary equipment, such as rotation, scale and per-item settings. Saves now keep every field, including items mounted on other equipment.

[Bugfix] Educator chat messages now appear in the headset

Educator chat messages reached the headset but were hidden behind the in-headset control panel. They now appear just above the panel and stay visible a little longer.

[Bugfix] Educator live-control panels appear in the Presenter View

The educator panels for telemetry steps (applying fault profiles, injecting values and resetting) were never visible. They now appear in the educator’s private Presenter View. The projected class window still shows only course content.

[Bugfix] “Create telemetry” enabled for layouts with no telemetry yet

On a layout with no telemetry, “Create telemetry” stayed greyed out until the pre-filled form was edited. This looked like a permissions block. The button is now enabled whenever no telemetry exists for that kind.

[Bugfix] Roads, pathways and skirting boards no longer flicker

Roads, aprons and footpaths flickered heavily in the 3D view where they overlapped, and roads looked washed out. A similar dark flicker at the foot of walls has also been fixed. Skirting boards now stop at doorways and low windows.

[Bugfix] Organisation-uploaded alarm sounds now play for learners

Organisation-uploaded sounds, such as custom alarms, were blocked for learners in VR, even though educators heard them in preview. Everyone in an organisation can now play its sound library, while admins still manage sounds.

[Bugfix] Authored control sizes apply to every control type

Dials, sliders, levers, latches and several other controls ignored their configured size. For example, the APC Smart-UPS battery panel overhung its rack space and caught clicks meant for neighbouring units. These controls now honour their size, while network and power ports keep their real-world size.

[Bugfix] Facility pages no longer crash on unnamed spaces

A layout with an unnamed space could crash the facility page and become impossible to open. Unnamed spaces now show their identifier, and saves fill in a missing name or refuse a space missing its size or position.

[Bugfix] Stairs and lifts take you to the matching shaft

In buildings with several stairwells or lifts, changing floors could send the player to the wrong shaft. Shafts now match the ones directly above and below. Layouts warn when a stair leads nowhere or a storey can’t be reached.

[Bugfix] Fence and handrail rails run along their length

Fences, handrails and partitions drawn as connectors had their rails rotated across the run. Rails now follow the line, and on sloped runs they meet the tops of the posts.

[Bugfix] A missing 3D model no longer blanks the whole facility

If one equipment model failed to load, the whole facility previously rendered as an empty sky. Now only that item falls back to its standard geometry, and the rest of the facility loads normally.

[Bugfix] Premium models no longer change how controls behave

Adding a premium model had been silently changing an equipment type’s controls, for example a valve’s gesture or a gauge’s range and zones. A model now sets only where its controls sit, and existing equipment was corrected.

[Bugfix] Editor fixes for compounds, rotated rooms and upper levels

Items clicked into a rotated room now land where you aim. Compounds dropped on upper levels no longer float or cut openings into the rooms below. Deleting a compound also removes its contents, and inserting one with unsaved changes now prompts you to save.

[Bugfix] Public course pages update after publishing

Publishing or changing a course used to leave its public page missing or stale until the site was rebuilt by hand. The site now rebuilds automatically on changes and on a regular schedule.

[Bugfix] Organisation picker in the headset lobby for system admins

System admins who paired a headset saw no organisation layouts in the lobby. The lobby now has an organisation picker, remembered per headset.

[Bugfix] Refrigerant rig wall devices raised to working height

The refrigerant rig’s manifold, thermometer and service valves were placed at floor level. They now sit at realistic working heights, in existing facilities as well as new ones.

[Bugfix] Left and right emergency exit signs corrected

The left and right Emergency Exit signs showed each other’s pictogram. Both now show the correct ISO 7010 figure, including signs already placed.

September 2026 Update