Announcing Oolite v1.86

[another_commander]

The Oolite Dev Team is pleased to announce the release of the new stable version of Oolite, tagged v1.86. The game can be downloaded from the Oolite website with versions for 32/64-bit Windows and Linux and 64-bit OS X being available.

In this version we have improved significantly the look of planets by adding shader-based atmosphere scattering effects, deploying a new terrain generation algorithm for more realistic looking land sections, bringing back the cloud layers and adjusting ambient lighting for an overall more aesthetically pleasing result. This is the main feature in this release but certainly not the only one. The maximum resolution the game can support has been increased to 8K UHD levels. We improved heavily on the HUD and UI customization options to enable HUD designs previously not achievable. Furthermore, following player feedback about the difficulty of the game in its early stages, we added an Easy Start scenario which can be a preferred option for those commanders who struggled to get their Lave based MkIII combat-ready.

As always with a new release, there has been a number of stability and gameplay fixes and various other features for further enhancing the gameplay experience. Those include but are not limited to, high-DPI support on Windows, ability to load expansion packs over HTTPS, ability to use the mouse wheel for speed control when piloting your ship using a mouse (Windows / Linux), ability to launch the game in silent mode and more. If you would like to get more detailed information about the new feature set, please refer to our What's New page in the Oolite website and the full changelog at the end of this announcement.

This particular release has received significant input for its features from the Oolite community, both in form of suggestions and code submissions. We are grateful for your support and thrilled by the drive and dedication of this community. We hope and expect that Oolite v1.86 will offer an equally thrilling gaming experience in return.

Thank you and enjoy the game!


Changes between Oolite 1.84 and 1.86

General:
========
* Added number of jumps to route information on F6 and F7 screens
* Reinstated rotational velocity also for base entities.
* SDL builds: Expansion Pack Manager can now download OXZs from HTTPS
addresses.
* Economy, government and Tech Level icons added to commander load
screen information.
* Default sound volume is now set to mid-scale rather than full-scale.
* Shader now used for rendering planet atmospheres. Old style atmos
are still available at detail levels less than Extra Detail or if
the newly introduced shader is not found or fails to compile.
* -nosound command line parameter now available for those who want
their game to be silent.
* Page Up and Page Down keys are now used on all screens that can have
more than one page of information.
* Mouse wheel can now be used to control speed when mouse control is on
* Easy start scenario added - start at Tionisla with Cobra MkIII and
1000Cr.
* Oolite is now DPI-aware on Windows.
* Default ambient light level is now set to 0.25 for all core systems
* Improved planets surface appearance using Perlin3D textures when the
in-game option Graphic Detail is set to Extra Detail.
* SDL builds: Max supported resolution upped to 7680x4320. 8K-ready.
* OSX port: Entering the OXZ info screen in the OXZ Manager copies
the OXZ's info URL to clipboard automatically.
* Test Release builds: The planet's relief intensity can now be
adjusted using the user defaults "p3dnsf" key, which takes a float
value. Default is 1.0.

Expansion pack development:
===========================

Modified Plists:
----------------
* descriptions.plist: Contains "sysdata-line-1" thru "sysdata-line-16"
for controlling the layout of information on the F7 system data screen.
* hud.plist: In the drawTargetReticle: selector section, the keys
target_rgba, target_sensitive_rgba and wormhole_rgba can be used to set
the target reticle colors for standard targets and wormholes.
* hud.plist: In the message_gui section, text_color and text_comms_color
can be used to set the color of standard and communication gui messages
respectively.
* hud.plist: In the message_gui section, background_rgba can now set the
background color of the message gui area.
* hud.plist: In the message_gui section, background_automatic can now be
used to define the behaviour of the message gui. Default is yes, which
makes the background fade out together with the messages. If set to no,
the background persists while on in-flight screens.
* hud.plist: In the drawWeaponsOfflineText: selector section, the key
rgb_color can be used to set the color of the Weapons Offline text.
* hud.plist: In the drawFPSInfoCounter: selector section, the key
rgb_color can be used to set the color of the FPS and objects info text.
* planetinfo.plist: The boolean key perlin_3d can be used for each system
to determine whether a Perlin3D or a normal texture will be used for it.
* equipment.plist: A "display_color" property has been added, which
controls the color used to display this item on the Ship Outfitting and
Status screens.

Scripting:
----------
* player.ship.nextSystem property.
* player.ship.compassType read/write property (use with caution).
* player.ship.compassMode read/write property (use with caution).
* player.ship.massLockable property.
* player.ship.primedEquipment read/write property.
* player.ship.addCargoEntity(cargoEntity) method allows cargo ship entities
to be added to the player ship directly when in space.
* station.canDockShip(shipEntity) method.
* playerDockingClearanceGranted world event.
* playerDockingClearanceCancelled world event.
* playerChangedPrimedEquipment world event.
* Scripts are now notified of the change to forward view when a witchjump
begins.
* player.ship.requestDockingClearance(station) method can be used to request
docking clearance from a particular station.
* player.ship.cancelDockingRequest(station) method can be used to cancel a
previous docking request at a particular station.
* Sound.musicSoundSource() method, returns the music sound source object,
enabling direct control on music (volume etc.).
* Added optional volume gain parameter to the Sound.playMusic function.
Gain is capped between 0.0 and 1.0 and is relative to the master gain
* player.ship.reticleColorTarget can set the target reticle's color.
* player.ship.reticleColorTargetSensitive can set the target reticle's
color when the target is lined up for a direct hit.
* player.ship.reticleColorWormhole can be used to set the reticle color
when a wormhole is targeted.
* player.ship.messageGuiTextColor property now sets the color of the
standard gui messages.
* player.ship.messageGuiTextCommsColor property now sets the color of
the gui messages that are tagged as communications.
* selectedMFDChanged and mfdKeyChanged scripting events added.
* player.ship.setPrimedEquipment method now available.
* weaponsSystemsToggled script event handler. Takes the new weapons
state as argument.
* player.ship.compassTarget is now a read/write property.
* EquipmentInfo.infoForKey().displayColor can read and write the display
color used to display equipment items on the ship outfitting and status
screens.
* global.getScreenBackgroundForKey() and global.setScreenBackgroundForKey()
added to allow scripting access to background image information held in
screenbackgrounds.plist.

Bug fixes:
==========
* Fixed Advanced Space Compass not breaking when damaged.
* Fixed fee column alignment in passenger and parcel contract screens.
* Fixed weird behaviour when a startup scenario planet name could not be found
in planetinfo.plist.
* Fixed custom population description duplication in system data screen.
* Fixed exception when accessing shipyard in interstellar space.
* Fixed equivalentTechLevel sometimes returning NSNotFound.
* Fixed MFDs resetting to number 1 when a HUD change occurred.
* Fixed exception when accessing the market screen while docked in
interstellar space.
* Fixed event order - now playerEnteredNewGalaxy is executed correctly before
shipWillExitWitchspace.
* Fixed broken concealment behaviour.
* Fixed native exception when a commander dictionary was requested while not
docked.
* Linux builds: Fixed freezes when using GNUstep 1.24.9 or later.
* Fixed adjacent systems distances not being equal on F6 and F7 screens.
* Fixed planet strings searching not targeting found planets and inability to
use Alt + arrows during planet string search.
* Fixed crash due to uninitialized missile_list (issue #204).
* Fixed issue where, when there is more than one page of ships available on the
Ships For Sale screen, and the display is moved back one page, information
for the first ship on the page will be displayed, even though the "More"
item is actually the selected item.
* Fixed mouse control issues where mouse was not reset properly when external
camera was toggled on and off (issue #237).
* Fixed light color on the system data screen being that of the current system
than that of the system shown (issue #239).
* Fixed awarding bounty even when the player died while trying (e.g. when
crashing into an asteroid).
* noteGuiWillChange notification is now emitted also when going to short and
long range chart screens (issue #233).
* Windows port: Fixed broken first-time window resize when starting the game
with -nosplash.
* Fixed crash in JavaScript profiler.
* Fixed bogus warning about not setting v-sync even when v-sync was corrrectly
set.
* Fixed potential mode duplication in screen modes list, which in some cases
could result in not being able to select desired fullscreen resolution
properly.
* Fixed nova screen backgrounds when traversing route (issue #225).
* Fixed clouds not being drawn on the system data sceen.
* Windows port: Reset to desktop resolution is now forced on exit, if the game
was run fullscreen and in a resolution different to that of the desktop.
* OSX port: Fixed broken target reticle direction cue indicator.
* OSX port: Mouse can now be reset.
* Route is not calculated on every frame now when on the Chart screens; it is
calculated only when the departure system, destination system or Advanced
Navigation Array mode change.