Announcing Oolite v1.88

[another_commander]

We are pleased to announce the release of Oolite 1.88. The game can be downloaded from the Oolite website, where versions for 64/32bit Windows and Linux as well as 64bit OS X are available.

This release significantly revamps Oolite graphics and lighting system. Modern lighting techniques have been deployed, applying physically accurate and energy conserving models for specular reflections on both ships and planets. Visual effect entities can now utilize transparency while the planet atmospheres have received an eye-catching makeover as well. This fusion of physically based rendering techniques and effects produces spectacular Oolite visuals that have never looked better. The new lighting system also works in favor of Oolite's materials system, enabling the creation and usage of materials not possible before.

Furthermore, new features have been added in this version, such as the increase of the maximum number of supported joysticks to four, mouse control improvements, battle AI enhancements, additional game-engine properties made available for scripting expansions and more. As always, several bugs identified in previous releases have been fixed and optimizations have been made to ensure even better game stability.

The improvements delivered with version 1.88 are developed with one thing in mind; to offer you the best Oolite gaming experience to date. Feel free to visit the What's New page at Oolite's website for more information or refer to the list below for the full set of changes since the previous release.

Enjoy the game, Commanders, and... fly safe!




Changes between Oolite 1.86 and 1.88

General:
========
* New lighting shaders for physically accurate specular reflections
and light energy conservation.
* Improved planet lighting to make use of the new lighting system.
* New and improved shader for rendering planets' atmospheres.
* Enabled blending when rendering visual effects for increased
effects flexibility.
* Specular maps alpha channel can now be used for storing material
gloss information.
* Updates to the base and shader materials system.
* Number of supported joysticks increased to 4.
* Improved flee AI.
* Energy damage is no longer applied to player occupied escape pods.
* Linux port: Added the command line argument --systemwide-directory
to chose an installation directory other than the default /opt.
* Improved mousewheel handling. When mouse control is active,
speed change rate corresponds to mousewheel roll rate.
* Optimization: When an entity explodes outside of its visibility
range, it is no longer rendered.
* Added multi-page ability to primeable equipment manager.
* Windows DPI awareness applied to all monitors.
* Windows port: Ensure that, in the case of both an integrated and a
high-performance GPU being available, the high-performance one is
selected.

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

Modified Plists:
----------------
* Introduced the gamma_correct and gloss base and shader materials keys.
* scanner_minimalistic boolean shipdata key introduced, defines a scanner
without gridlines.

Scripting:
----------
* player.ship.chartHighlightMode property.
* chartHighlightModeChanged world event.
* New mission screen properties:
"customChartZoom" sets the zoom level of a CUSTOM_CHART, must be between
1 and 4.
"customChartCentre" and "customChartCentreInLY" sets the centre point for
a CUSTOM_CHART.
* New "backgroundSpecial" options for mission screens:
"SHORT_RANGE_CHART_SHORTEST" to show the shortest distance between the
current system and destination. ANA equipment required.
"SHORT_RANGE_CHART_QUICKEST" to show the quickest distance between the
current system and destination. ANA equipment required.
"CUSTOM_CHART", "CUSTOM_CHART_SHORTEST", "CUSTOM_CHART_QUICKEST" displays a
custom chart, based on the customChartZoom and customChartCentre
properties. ANA equipment required for "SHORTEST" and "QUICKEST" options.
* New player ship scannerMinimalistic property.
* Introduced the %G###### string expander, which works like %J###, but allows
one to specify both the planet ID and the galaxy number.

Bug fixes:
==========
* Fixed issue where Station JS AI was not triggering an alertConditionChanged
event.
* Fixed issue with the primable equipment manager not being able to handle
more than 21 items.
* Fixed temperature due to air friction not rising when more than one planets
were present in the system.
* Fixed mouse control disabling keyboard speed shortcuts.
* Fixed oddities with mouse control when Caps Lock was active on view
directions other than front.
* Fixed memory leak when setting screen texture descriptors.
* Fixed erroneous behaviour when NaN was passed via script for pitch, yaw
and roll.
* playerCancelledJumpCountdown JS event now firing when starting autopilot,
* Fixed occasionally 'stuck' lighting when in witchspace.
* Fixed keyconfig.plist not being reloaded when using in-game Expansion Pack
Manager.
* Restored orange planet terminator tint, which was accidentally removed
when the atmosphere shaders were introduced.
* Player comms messages are now fully expanded before shown, just like any
other ship's messages.
* Fixed inconsistency between script and configuration files setting of sun
color.
* Windows port: On Windows versions newer than Windows 8, the correct version
is now reported in the log.