Major updates

• Added VRExperienceHelper to create WebVR experience with 2 lines of code. Documentation (davrous, TrevorDev)
• Added BackgroundMaterial. Documentation (sebavan)
• Added EnvironmentHelper. Documentation (sebavan)
• Added support for webgl context lost and restored events. Documentation (deltakosh)
• Added support for non-pow2 textures when in WebGL2 mode (deltakosh)
• Engine can now be initialized with an existing webgl context (deltakosh)
• Introduced behaviors. Documentation (deltakosh)
• Added support for WebGL Occlusion queries. Documentation (Ibraheem Osama)
• New behaviors for ArcRotateCamera. Documentation
  • AutoRotation (deltakosh)
  • Framing (deltakosh)
  • Bouncing (deltakosh)
• New InputText for Babylon.GUI. Documentation (deltakosh)
• New VirtualKeyboard for Babylon.GUI. Documentation (deltakosh / adam)
• Added support for depth pre-pass rendering. Documentation (deltakosh)
• Added support for material.separateCullingPass. Documentation (sebavan)
• Added support for Windows Motion Controllers (Lewis Weaver)
• Added support for Particle animation in ParticleSystem. Documentation (Ibraheem Osama)
• More robust TypeScript code with strictNullChecks, noImplicitAny, noImplicitThis and noImplicitReturns compiler options (deltakosh and RaananW)
• Introduced NullEngine which can be used to use Babylon.js in headless mode. Documentation (deltakosh)
• New instrumentations tools. Documentation (deltakosh)
• Complete rework of Unity3D exporter. Documentation (MackeyK24)
• Introducing the BabylonJS viewer, an HTML-based 3D/model viewer, with Babylon at its core. Documentation (RaananW)
• Full NPM support for BabylonJS and its modules, based on UMD and including Typings. BabylonJS on npm (RaananW)

Updates

• Introduced TransformNode class as a parent of AbstractMesh. This class was extensively asked by the community to hold only tranformation for a node (deltakosh)
• Collider object is now exposed on meshes. It can be used to get precise information about mesh to mesh collisions (used with mesh.moveWithCollisions function) (deltakosh)
• Added boundingInfo.centerOn to recreate the bounding info to be centered around a specific point given a specific extend (deltakosh)
• Added mesh.normalizeToUnitCube to uniformly scales the mesh to fit inside of a unit cube (1 X 1 X 1 units) (deltakosh)
• Added scene.onDataLoadedObservable which is raised when SceneLoader.Append or SceneLoader.Load or SceneLoader.ImportMesh were successfully executed (deltakosh)
• Support for adaptiveKernelBlur on MirrorTexture (deltakosh)
• Support for non uniform scaling. Normals are now correctly computed (deltakosh)
• Added MultiObserver. Documentation (deltakosh)
• Added shadowGenerator.addShadowCaster and shadowGenerator.removeShadowCaster helper functions (deltakosh)
• Several inspector improvements (temechon)
• New observables for actions: onBeforeExecuteObservable for all actions and onInterpolationDoneObservable for InterpolateValueAction (deltakosh)
• New observables for gamepads: onButtonDownObservable, onButtonUpObservable, onPadDownObservable, onPadUpObservable (deltakosh)
• New camera.storeState() and camera.restoreState() functions to store / restore cameras position / rotation / fov. Documentation (deltakosh)
• POW2 textures rescale is now done by shaders (It was previously done using canvas) (deltakosh)
• Added SceneLoader.CleanBoneMatrixWeights to force the loader to normalize matrix weights when loading bones (off by default) (deltakosh)
• Added camera.onViewMatrixChangedObservable and camera.onProjectionMatrixChangedObservable (deltakosh)
• Added support for folders when drag'n'dropping into the sandbox (deltakosh)
• Better serialization support (deltakosh)
• Introduced performanceMonitor class to get better FPS analysis (deltakosh)
• GUI: Added support for pointer move events on projected UI (deltakosh)
• Normals are generated automatically by StandardMaterial if meshes do not have normals (deltakosh)
• Added mesh.onMaterialChangedObservable to notify when a new material is set (deltakosh)
• Improved the SPS perfs for dead or invisible solid particles (jerome)
• Added enableDepthSort parameter to the SPS in order to sort the particles from the camera position (jerome)
• Added pivot property to the SPS solid particles (jerome)
• Added the mesh facet depth sort to FacetData (jerome)
• Added LineSystem and LineMesh per point colors (jerome)
• Added AdvancedDynamicTexture.renderScale to allow users to render at higher DPI (deltakosh)
• WaterMaterial works on VR (RaananW)
• Playground has an optional createEngine function to replace the default engine. Example (RaananW)
• Error handling in the Assets Manager was revamped and now also includes a message and an exception (if provided). Documentation (RaananW)
• Asset Task has a state (INIT, RUNNING, DONE and ERROR). Documentation (RaananW)
• Added new options to the physics impostor constructor - ignoreParent and diableBidirectionalTransformation. Documentation (RaananW)
• It is now possible to define which loader to use when loading assets using the SceneLoader. Commit (RaananW)
• Added scope option to Observerable (adam)
• Added shadowBlur, shadowOffsetX, shadowOffsetY, shadowColor to GUI Controls (adam)
• Added alignWithNormal to AbstractMesh (adam)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug with ellipsoid offset not being taking in account on cameras (deltakosh)
• Fixed a bug with ellipsoid offset badly taking in account on meshes (deltakosh)
• Fixed a bug with PBR on iOS (sebavan)
• MTLLoader didn't parse values correctly (RaananW)
• Fixed an error with child positions of parents in the physics engine (RaananW)
• Fixed a bug with error while executing onSuccess callbacks in the Assets manager. (RaananW)
• Fixed a bug with the Heightmap impostor when the heightmap is scaled or rotated. Commit (RaananW)
• Fixed an error with deterministic step. (RaananW)
• Fixed a bug with controller jitter when in VR. (RaananW)
• Fixed a bug with impostor jitter when in VR. (RaananW)
• Fixed a bug with GUI Slider not working correctly when rotated (adam)
• Fixed IE11 "spacebar" bug with GUI InputText (adam)

Breaking changes

• Gamepads was removed in favor of scene.gamepadManager
• DynamicFloatArray, MapTexture and RectPakingMap were removed because there were not used anymore
• IAssetTask was removed in favor of AbstractAssetTask class
• WebVR 1.0 support removed.
• BABYLON.MathTools.Scalar was moved to BABYLON.Scalar