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Macroverse 42.2 — Mobile VJ shell & audience phones

2026-06-02

Macroverse **42.2** is not desktop-only. The hosted cloud lanes now use a **touch-aware layout tier**: phones and tablets get a drawer shell instead of the three-column desktop grid, and the VJ deck stays usable with fat thumbs in a dark venue.

Pair this with the WebXR VR VJ post — flat phones, Quest headsets, and full co-VJ desks all share one salted gig session.

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What shipped

Mobile bottom tab bar

On viewports under **640px** you get five fixed tabs:

• **Library** — shader index dock
• **Preview** / **Code** — core views
• **Params** — right-hand slider dock
• **More** — VJ deck, Gallery, Split, command palette, Settings, Help

The top-bar **View** dropdown mirrors the tab strip when horizontal space is tight. Settings also has a **Mobile / Desktop** toggle if you want to force the mobile CSS on a laptop (Steam Deck, kiosk, etc.).

Touch-friendly VJ deck

• Deck previews and master mix fill their layout boxes on small screens
• Crossfader and deck sliders use touch-friendly hit targets (`touch-action` so drags do not scroll the page)
• Startup **splash QRs** show VJ collaboration + audience stream while the index loads — scan before the library finishes indexing

Audience on phones (flat stream)

Same tier as VR audience, without a headset:

• VJ deck QR panel → **Audience stream** → `vj-output.html?remote=1&viewToken=…`
• Watch-only SSE preview of the live A/B mix
• Toggle **Audience participation** on the host: phones can touch/drag the stream to steer `mouseX` / `mouseY` only — no deck hijack, no crossfader access
• Co-VJs still use the top-bar **VJ** chip / `controlToken` link for full WebSocket desk sync

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Try it

• Live: macroverse.aday.net.au
• Showcase mobile help: aday1.github.io/macroverse.aday.net.au/#help (section 4 — Mobile bottom tab bar)
• Participatory VJ overview: showcase #participatory-vj

On the host: Settings → **VJ Show Session ID** → Apply → VJ tab → enable **Audience participation** if you want touch steering on the stream QR.

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Caveats (honest)

Mobile WebGL is still WebGL — thermal throttling on old phones can stutter heavy shaders. For venue output, keep the Pi/OBS path on `vj-output.html`; phones are best as remote eyes and light participation, not the main projector feed.

Filter **Macroverse** in Dev logs on this blog for the commit trail (touch-aware tiers, splash QRs, VJ token fixes).