Update, October 9th, 2014: Linden Lab announced that development work on Patterns has been discontinued.
In March I reported on plans to overhaul the Patterns user interface at some point in the future. These plans took a step closer to being revealed on April 5th, when Sandoval Curse (aka HappyHappyGaming on YouTube), keeper of the Patterns community on Curse, issued an initial sneak peek at the current updates to the UI. The changes are both extensive and appear to be exceptionally well thought through.
While the video comes with a warning that it shows elements of the UI from a Patterns nightly build, and are thus subject to possible change, what is presented suggests that the team are looking to make using Patterns a look easier and the ability to move between elements of the UI and modes of operation a lot more fluid, while at the same time offering a less cluttered build / play space.
The changes to the UI are evident right from start-up, with the log-in panel moved over to become sidebar on the right, which also doubles as a game mode launcher once a player is logged-in.
Once logged-in, the panel allows the player to select from world building, continuing game play, accessing the Patterns tools (I assume these are the shape forge and the substance editor) and change their settings.
Selecting any of these options many display a further slide-out panel. For example, clicking on the world building option displays a list of available worlds in the Cosmos the player can use as a template, together with options to select either single (default) or multi-player modes.
Inventory and shape / substance management has been completely overhauled, with a new inventory bar at the bottom of the screen which allows for much easier toggle between shapes, materials and models, as well as offering a cleaner drag-and-drop panel when applying materials to shapes, etc.
In-world game controls have been revised somewhat, making shape and model manipulation easier as well as trying to make it easier to move, rotate or delete things. I might be wrong in saying this, as it is hard to tell from the video (and any settings Sandoval uses), but it looks as if the default third-person camera angle may also have been revised.
According to the video, not only may things change between now and the UI being released, but there is a lot more still to be demonstrated, and a further sneak peek video is promised. This being the case, and in lieu of being able to fiddle with things directly, I’ll leave you with Sandoval’s video.
Password Recovery
Nalates Urriah has a piece up on Patterns password recovery, drawing on a video posted to YouTube. The short version is: there isn’t a password recovery option. The support team’s advice, should you forget your password is to create a new account. However, this isn’t necessarily as bad as it sounds. Passwords are only required to access the Cosmos. You can still play offline without logging-in. What’s more, even if you do create a new account and password, you should still have access to all the worlds you have built yourself, whether playing offline or when logged-in to the Cosmos.
The only pain I can see with this – and admittedly, I’m no longer a regular Patterns player – is that if a player is well-known as a Patterns world builder, any worlds you upload to the Cosmos after an account change will obviously be linked to the new account name, and so may not be instantly recognisable to other players. Also, those who regularly play in the multi-player mode will have to advise other players of any change in order to ensure they receive invitations into games.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
RE: no password reset. In the video the fellow can’t access his old account list of prior builds..
I don’t play Patterns but having to make a new email and start all over is a pain- full stop. Guy in video had been using his Steam tied email .
This is 2014 — reset password is last century — LL should catch up.
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“RE: no password reset. In the video the fellow can’t access his old account list of prior builds.”
Quite possibly because he’s not actually tried creating a new account, but has simply thrown up his hands in horror at the lack of any reset option. And by doing that, he hasn’t discovered that you can still access your existing / old Patterns world builds, whether using Desura or Steam to launch Patterns.
Hence my example; I’ve created two additional Patterns accounts, each with a unique user name and password and one with my original e-mail, and other with a unique e-mail. I can access all my Patterns builds, past and present from any, of these three accounts, and I can edit them, delete them and / or upload them regardless of which account I used to original create them. So a reset option doesn’t actually appear to be required.
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