Major features and improvements:

• Introducing ArticulatedObject API via Bullet physics including: URDF file import, Revolute|Prismatic|Spherical joints with joint position/velocity/torque control, JointMotor control interface. (#1300, #1312, #1326, #1309, #1228, #1254)
• Rigid point-to-point and fixed frame constraints between objects. (#1328)
• Query detailed contact point information from previous collision detection pass (#1257).
• Customize collision groups and masks for objects with the CollisionGroupHelper. (#1280)
• New, user-friendly ManagedObject interface deprecates previous ID-based interface through Simulator class. Now apply commands and set/query properties directly on objects. (#1189, #1246, #1286, #1288)
• RobotWrapper for defining high-level robot interface on top of ArticulatedObject API w/ initial Fetch robot platform example. (#1341)
• Option to enable asynchronous rendering via background thread for improved end-to-end performance in simulation heavy scenarios by overlapping CPU-side simulation and GPU-side rendering. (#1229)
• SceneDataset improvements:
  • Automated scene instancing loads stage, rigid and articulated objects, lights, navmesh, etc... from scene config handle. (#1034, #1274)
  • Support for glob wildcards '*' in config paths. (#1152)
  • User defined custom fields in JSON now passed through to programmatic structures. Cache your own metadata! (#1302)
  • CSV information report output. See your full config system at a glance. (#1331)
  • Reference assets (e.g., .glb) directly by filepath in configuration. (#1255)
• New utility habitat_sim/utils/datasets_download.py with versioning and custom data paths simplifies the asset download and setup process significantly. (#1198)
• Hierarchical Sensor Framework re-design (#1064, #1098, #1090, #1117, #1138, #1118, #1159):
  • Decouple sensors from agents.
  • SensorFactory and VisualSensor hierarchy.
  • Extensible design enables straightforward contribution of custom sensors.
• New spherical sensors with RGB, depth, and semantic rendering:
  • CubeMaps (#1011, #1306)
  • Optimized FishEye sensor with 5x speedup. (#1131, #1168, #1291, #1221)
  • Equirectangular sensor. (#1179, #1187, #1221)
• Integrated VHACD to produce convex decompositions of mesh assets after import into Habitat-sim with .obj export. Optimize collision detection for your assets with a utility for configuring parameters and visualizing output. (#1055, #1294)
• New VoxelField data-structures supporting multiple layered data types and a variety of features, including (#1140, #1154, #1172):
  • Automated boundary voxelization of stages and objects via VHACD.
  • Scalar gradient vector field computation.
  • Signed Distance Field (SDF) computation on boundary fields.
  • Visualization of boundary voxels, heat maps, vector fields in object local frames.
• Frustum culling on inserted and physically simulated objects for faster rendering of staged and dynamic scenes. (#1095)
• Added a pre-process utility tool for basis compression of asset textures resulting in faster load and render times. (#1290)

Other improvements and bug fixes:

• Stand-alone MetaDataMediator can be configured outside of a Simulator instance and provided during construction for more control + improvements. (#1099, #1243, #1265)

• Option to specify shader_type for assets in configuration. (#1183)

• Option to scale all lights in a scene uniformly brighten or dim. (#1339)

• Stages default to falt shading. (#1307)

• Allow custom primitives to be re-constructed from their unique string key enabling de-serialization of procedural assets. (#1314)

• Added a variety of automated code formatters and style checks to pre-commit, linters, and CI. (#1075, #1094, #1102, #1108, #1200, #1219, #1220, #1222, #1240, #1241, #1250, #1249, #1259, #1267, #1275, #1301, #1303, #1313, #1337)

• Optimize CI testing and conda build with parallel execution (~6x test speedup). (#1238, #1239)

• Add custom background clear color for VisualSensorSpec. (#1153)

• Physics simulation benchmarking example utility (#1048)

• Setup pytest-benchmark CI integration. (#1323)

• Better logging paradigm (ESP_CHECK) for C++ assertions which propagate failure message and stack trace to python. (#1111)

• WebVR examples replaced with WebXR and improved controls (#1139)

• Added some object instancing and physics functionality to JavaScript bindings (#1146, #1271)

• Improved Viewer application features including:

  • Depth and Semantic sensor visualization options. (#1066, #1207)
  • Add interactive mouse mode with RigidConstraints and removed old-style interactive key-binds + default lighting override. (#1351)
  • Serialization and loading of agent and sensor transforms. (#1180)
  • Bullet debug draw toggle with ','.

• Added XML parsing support via tinyxml2. (#1137)

• PrettyWriter and precision JSON export. (#1340)

• Added Colab tutorial for easily visualizing asset turn-tables in Habitat-sim. (#1318)

• Upgraded Magnum version to include a variety of new features and optimizations.

• Upgraded Recast submodule. (#1194)

• Change default lighting to better support PBR materials. (#1351)

• Set render buffer properly based on sensor type to speed up rendering. (#1104)

• Optimize PBR shader to improve speed. (#1320, #1317)

• Various bug fixes, including:

  • Set bounds correctly for programmatically recomputed NavMeshes. (#1192)
  • Fix Mac driver bug for depth display (#1181)
  • Correctly support vertex-colors for flat shaded assets. (#1289)
  • De-duplicate sequential points in trajectory visualization. (#1316)
  • Fixed and improved some doc-string issues. (#1281, #1204)

Corresponding Habitat-Lab v0.2.0 release.

Kudos to our community contributors: @vauduong @ScottCSteinhauser @ldcWV @Ram81 @naokiyokoyama @BlaiseRitchie