PICARTO

We got news! Yet again, we are hosting an Art Contest this Year! Get the chance to win your share of up to $2000 prize pool! The more Entries the bigger the prize pool!!（人´∀`*）Check it out!!

Dear Picarto community, We are happy to announce that we have made several updates to our streaming infrastructure over the past weeks. Our goal was not only to provide new server locations like Dallas, Miami and New York, but also to optimize the overall performance on Picarto.

To improve playback delivery, we now offer all streams in lower bandwidth versions. All streams on Picarto are available in 1080p, 720p and 480p resolution free for everyone. If you have buffering issues, you can always switch to a lower bandwidth version in your player settings. In the future we will optimize this feature even more. Please keep in mind that due to the extra computation that has to happen, transcoded streams have more delay.

Furthermore, in addition to the classic HLS protocol, we now offer new streaming protocols that provide much better latency. As you may have noticed, we now offer two new streaming protocols:  MP4 over WebSocket (WS/MP4) and WebRTC. These protocols have significantly lower latency.

Latency by protocol:

HLS has 6-12 seconds (best stability)

WS/MP4 has 1-3 seconds (best trade-off between stability and latency)

WebRTC can go down to 0.3-1 second (best latency)

In the example above you can see that HLS has the best stability but the latency is not good compared to WebRTC or WS/MP4.

However, low latencies can also be more sensitive in terms of stability. Because there is much less room for compensating issues or hiccups while transferring data through the internet. Therefore, a good connection and a propper OBS setup is important. If a specific streaming location does not work out for you, just use one of our other 5 server locations.  

WebRTC offers extremely low latency between streamers and their viewers. Because of this low latency, streamers can engage much better with their audience. The WebRTC protocol is only available if the stream (OBS settings) meets the requirements. WebRTC is also not the default playback protocol, viewers have to select it manually. Click here to find out how to enable WebRTC

Last but not least, we would like to introduce you to the stream surveys, which appear at the end of each stream and ask you how satisfied you were with the stream quality. This function will help us to see which streamers we can help with their stream settings or if there are any other problems.

Dear Picarto users,

it's been a long time since our last changelog, the more we are happy to present you our latest one. We have fixed several bugs and added some very nice improvements.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] 

 - Your Picarto Team

Improvements

MP4 playback over WebSocket:

MP4 playback over WebSocket for low latency streaming is now available for everyone in the player settings. Depending on your stream settings and the streaming software you use, the delay can vary between 0.5 and 3 seconds. This feature is currently in public beta.

Improved e-mail notification delivery:

Some users reported that email notifications were inconsistent. We have improved our delivery system to guarantee higher reliability.

Global whispers: 

Thanks to global whispers, users can now write messages to each other across Picarto, no matter on which channel you are at the moment.  You can also choose if you want to see the global whispers directly in the chat or in the whisper section in the chat.

Fixed Bugs

"New message" bug:

A bug where the chat indicated there is a new message in chat even though there were no new messages in the chat.

 Stream hide and expand bug:

Some users reported that as soon as they used the hide or expand function, the player either disappeared or did not appear at all. This is now fixed.

 Mobile chat loading bug:

On some mobile devices the chat was not displayed correctly or not at all.

 Multistream whisper message bug:

If you were in a multistream and sent a whisper message to another user who was also in the multistream but on a different channel link, the message did not reach the user.

 Internet Explorer & Edge Emoji displaying bug:

In Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, emotes were displayed incorrectly.

 Emote window resize bug:

As soon as you resized the chat, emotes were partially cut off or not displayed at all.

 App session bug:

Description Panel image cropper

We have improved the image cropper in the description panel to increase the visibility of the images.

Dashboard design improvements

The dashboard design has now been improved to have more space in chat and a narrower user list.

Improved /kick command

/kick has been improved and now kicks users not only from chat but also from the channel. Kicked users will be redirected from your channel to the start page.

NEW FEATURE: Font size option

The font size option for the chat has now been implemented in order to give users the possibility to view chat messages in bigger font sizes. This setting is currently not persistent and will soon be updated as a persistent setting.

NEW FEATURE: /copy

With /copy, users can copy the latest chat history available to them to their clipboard.

Changelog April 20, 2021 Shadow ban whispers Whispers from shadow banned users are no longer displayed.

New design for raffle winners The raffle winner announcement has been improved. The announcement message of the raffle winner will now be displayed at the top of the chat. The announcement can be closed if you don’t want to see it.

[message]* & *[message] is back If you know, you know ;)

Whispering Streamers in Multistreams A bug caused users to not be able to send whispers to streamers that were in multistreams unless they were on the direct channel link. This bug is now fixed, users can now whisper streamers in multistream no matter which channel link they are on.

Whispers not appearing in the dashboard Chat whispers will be displayed correctly in the dashboard again.

Description Panel Encoding Some description panel markdowns were not displayed correctly, all markdowns are working correctly again.

Dear Picarto users, It's been a few days since our last changelog and a few things have changed since then. So today we are happy to present you the latest bugfixes and changes. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] - Your Picarto Team

Changelog April 7th of 2021

Bug where channels are stuck as online Some channels were stuck in an online state even though the channel went offline, causing the channel owners to not be able to reconnect to their channel. This bug has now been successfully resolved. E-Mail notifications optimization We have improved our e-mail notification system. The notifications are now much more reliable and arrive on time. Confirmation popup for recording deletation We have added a confirmation popup before deleting a video to prevent accidental deletion of recordings. API live status bug The API live status is now displayed correctly in the channel settings again. Network disconnect in chat Some users had sporadic chat disconnections. We have now optimized our chat so that these disconnections should no longer occur. Optimization for potrait mode For users who use their screen in portrait mode, we have adapted the UI so that individual elements fit better into the screen.

Custom Emote rename bug This bug caused emotes not to be displayed correctly once you changed the name. Emotes can now be renamed again. Auto-complete for custom emotes Auto-complete is now available for custom emotes. Emotes rendered as URLs bug For some users, emotes were displayed as URLs, which of course should not be the case. We have now fixed the error and the emotes should now be correctly visible again for everyone. Multistream bans Multistream participants can now see on which channel a user is banned. 

March 30 2021 

Chat text to emote translation Emotes written for example as :), :D, <3 are now displayed as real emotes.

Disabled notifications Users who disabled their notifications, will no longer receive them.

Private stream bug Some users reported, that they couldn't start a private stream. This issue has been fixed now and the private stream feature is now working again.

Showing banned users in the userlist Banned users were only displayed in the user lists when they were online. This is no longer the case. Banned users are now permanently displayed in the user list.

Recording download Some users reported that they could not download their recordings. This bug has now been fixed, recordings can be downloaded correctly again.

Dear Picarto users,

we hope you had a wonderful weekend. We are happy to present you today's changelogs.

❗❗❗ Important notice regarding our app, we have submitted an update to google play and appstore that let’s our app be compatible with the new release, however, it is still in the process of being reviewd and validated by google and apple. We will make sure to let you know when the new app update is available as soon as we can, until then you can use the mobile browser version of picarto that has also been improved with the update. ❗❗❗

Changelog

March 29th of 2021

Moderator banning Streamers have now the ability to ban their moderators again.

Featured streams on homepage Featured streamers are now being displayed on the homepage again.

Whispering shadowbanned users It is no longer possible to send whisper messages to shadowbanned users.

Welcome modal in pop-out/mobile chat We removed the welcome modal from the pop-out and mobile chat.

Infinite Raffle loading Some users have reported that when they start a raffle, they only get an infinite load with no result. This bug is now fixed and the raffle feature is working again.

Emote filesize We increased the Emote filesize to 256kb.

Responsiveness of the chat resizer We improved the responsiveness of the chat resizer, since it wasn't working properly in some resolutions.

Dear Picarto users, we are still working on fixing as many bugs as possible and would like to present you the bugfixes we have made since yesterday. We will now provide you with changelogs on a regular basis to keep you up to date. The next changelog will be on Monday, but that doesn't mean we won't continue to fix bugs until then 😊💚 ❗❗❗ Important notice regarding our app, we have submitted an update to google play and appstore that let’s our app be compatible with the new release, however, it is still in the process of being reviewd and validated by google and apple. We will make sure to let you know when the new app update is available as soon as we can, until then you can use the mobile browser version of picarto that has also been improved with the update. ❗❗❗ If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] - Your Picarto Team

Changelog

March 26th of 2021

Streamer icon not updating

When a streamer now goes live, their icon color now changes from white to red in the chat

Notification clearing

Clearing the notifications is now possible again.

Message flickering issue

The chat messages have been reworked so that there is no flickering when a message arrives.

Private stream notification

No notifications for Private streams will be sent out.

Missing Thumbnails

Dear Picarto users as you may have noticed, the switch to the latest version of Picarto took place. We have successfully passed the stress test, however there is still work to be done. This update is not only a change to the UI, but a complete overhaul of Picarto as everything was reprogrammed from scratch. This was a necessary step to bring Picarto to the latest standard of web development. The internet is changing fast and we have very big plans for Picarto, which would never have been possible with the old code. This update was urgently needed and will allow us to release bugfixes and features faster in the future. We are well aware that unfortunately not everything went 100% smoothly during the update and some features are not yet working as they should. Our team is already working on fixing all bugs as soon as possible and providing you with daily updates. We will keep you up to date with regular changelogs to let you know what has been improved and what bugs have been fixed. We would like to thank everyone for their criticism and feedback, it is a tremendous help.

Currently we are collecting all the feedback we get together and ask you to continue to send feedback. Your ideas and wishes have a very high priority for us and some of them are already being implemented. This update serves as a basis to build a unique platform based on the wishes of our users.

If you have any difficulties with your channel, please contact us at [email protected].

Important notice regarding our app, we have submitted an update to google play and appstore that let's our app be compatible with the new release, however, it is still in the process of being reviewd and validated by google and apple. We will make sure to let you know when the new app update is available as soon as we can, until then you can use the mobile browser version of picarto that has also been improved with the update.

We thank you for your years of support. - Your Picarto Team

Changelog 

March 25th of 2021

Channel following issue Many users had the problem that they could no longer follow their favorite channels, this issue has been fixed.

Long links in chat were cut off If a long word such as a link was posted, the text would be cut off and only become visible when you changed the chat size. Words that are too long are now automatically broken depending on the chat size.

 Browser tab red dot favicon It is now possible again to see through the favicon in the browser tab whether a user is live or not.

Explore sidebar not showing a stream preview The left sidebar now shows the stream preview for both recommended and followed channels when hovering over them.

 Explore Sidebar not showing any streames that are live There were some users who complained that their followed streamers were not shown as live even though they were live. These are now displayed correctly again.

Missing Mod icon Mods are now displayed again with their icon in the user list and in the chat.

Social Media links issues Many users experienced an issue where they could not add or delete links. In addition, some also had wrong links on their channel that did not belong to them. Users can now edit their links again and have their correct links back.

 Emotes not visible for anonymous users Users who are not registered can see emotes again.

Condescending Mimi emote missing The Condescending Mimi emote is back again 

Emote Migration Some users had difficulties with their emotes not being displayed correctly. We have now successfully migrated all emotes.

Subscription emotes Subscription emotes could not be used despite a valid subscription. These can now be used completely again.

Nickname Color flickering in chat The colors of the nicknames were reloaded with each chat message. Nicknames now retain their colors and no longer flicker.

Chat history limit We have now increased the chatlog from 40 to 100 messages. Now 100 messages are stored in the chat history and 255 are stored locally in the browser.

Whisper message box Whisper messages are now better displayed to make them stand out more from the normal chat mesages.

Userlist autoschroll On some smartphones, the user list is scrolled up as soon as someone joins the chat. The bug has now been fixed so that the userlist no longer scrolls up.

Closed sidebar shows all users as live The sidebar on the explore page had all streamers shown as online when closed. The users are now displayed correctly in the sidebar both when open and when closed.

Dear Picarto users,

we have some news regarding our update.

Due to recent events and rumors, we would like to make a statement on the subject. We have delayed this step so we could gather information and investigate thoroughly first.

To clarify the most important thing first: The personal data posted in some chats did not come from our database or from any of the services we provide. Even if a hacker could get full access to the chat server they could not even read the information, as all the information stored is encrypted.

Several users from our community could also confirm that the information was not leaked from our end. We have found that an harassing individual is posting malicious links in chats to get users into clicking them. Remember, Never click on unfamiliar links sent by unknown users! Even if it looks familiar make sure to read the link thoroughly to ensure it is not a fake copy of a known site.

Further evidence that the data does not originate from us is that the harasser has published information that we do not ask for or hold in our database, such as age, birthday, education, work and discord details.

It has also been confirmed to us that this type of harassment has occurred to users on other platforms as well. these kind of incidents are not specific to picarto and unfortunately can happen in every public social platform.

If you use paypal for donations and commissions, we recommend upgrading to paypal business. Its free and it lets you hide your name to prevent any malicious acts of getting your personal information through refund exploits. If you use Ko-fi make sure to connect your business paypal to it as well, as donating to Ko-fi can also be used to reveal your name.

Incase of DDoS attacks, if you believe your IP was compromised and you are currently subjected to a DDoS attack, we highly recommend contacting your ISP to issue you a new IP address for free.

If your personal information has been posted online, unfortunately there is not much to be done but we still recommend changing your passwords and remove as many ties and references of your identity from public services online.

Regarding our chat restrictions settings, we are currently working to improve the banning mechanism even more. We already operate with Account and IP based banning mechanism similar to other platforms, However with VPN services it is unfortunately easy to get a new IP and evade the ban. What was meant to be an important tool for privacy on the internet is unfortunately also abused here by people with bad intentions.

Currently if you are in a Multistream:

All streamers in the multistream must have the same chat restrictions active in order for them to apply globally. We will change this in the future so that only the hosts settings will apply to improve the effectiveness of chat restrictions in multistreams.

Here is what we have done so far:

Our first update regarding the chat was published two days ago. Further security measures have been added there. Furthermore the guest function has been temporarily disabled due to abuse from harassing users who use a VPN to easily evade bans with guest accounts.

Here is what you can do for now:

Enable the white list function or 14 days registered mode for your chat.

Do not click on any suspicious links.

If you are in a multistream, make sure, that everyone has the same chat restrictions you have.

If you use services like Ko-fi upgrade your paypal to paypal business and hide your info.

We are planning to take legal action against this individual, as we have collected some information. We take harassment very seriously and everyone should feel safe, no matter what website they are on.

Our focus currently is finding a solution to give you more security, but we must also ask for your patience. We monitor the situation very closely and also monitor all access to our servers 24/7. Further security precautions were taken as well.

We always do our best to provide our artists a nice place to share their creative content. We have done so in the past and will continue to do so even more in the future. The security and well being of our community is our top priority.

Apologies that you had to wait so long for this statement, and we thank you for your patience.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Dear Picarto users,

We have launched new chat features to help you deal with possible future spam.

· One feature would be to enable the chat only to users that have been registered for at least 14 days.

·  The other feature is labeled as "Whitelist mode", meaning that users can only participate in the chat, if the respective admin or moderator grants permission to do so. 

We’ve prepared a small video tutorial for you to test these features out yourself, so feel free to check it out!