Update v0.11.8 "Functionality 101"

Hello everyone! it’s time for another update! This one is the biggest one in terms of fixes and changes since the game release. Let’s not waste any more time and jump right in.

Note the hotkeys changes in the changelog below!

Subassemblies

Save the group of parts into subassembly and use it later during construction of another spacecraft.

Save subassembly

Use subassembly

Part rotation

Use a rotation handle to rotate part groups and already attached parts following the attachment rules.

Rotation of whole rocket

Rotation of attached part

Symmetry works during rotation too

Ocean

I’ve implemented a new ocean system. It includes real waves, foam and it changes color depending on depth to the sea floor. Also simple collisions were enabled for the ocean surface, so you can land spacecraft on it. It is a temporary solution until proper water physics will be implemented

Ocean before

Ocean after

Ocean in motion

Camera modes

Added new camera modes during the flight and on the solar system map.

No rotation involved, just switching between different camera modes

Planet visual improvements

I rewrote the planet shader to improve its performance. During this process, I discovered and fixed several critical bugs. That led to significant changes in the planet’s visuals on a small scale.

Before. You can see noticable tiling here

After. No noticable tiling, improved texture blending

In case of Moon too much detail appeared I would say. I will review Moon texturing another time and will decide if some changes required.

Flights

You can instantly switch between spacecrafts during the flight.

Switching between visible spacecrafts

Switching between spacecrafts using map

You can also switch between command modules if you have more than one installed.

Electricity redesign

Electricity was redesigned from ground up. Real physical units are used (Watt for power and Joules for energy) instead of some unnamed ones. All parts that use electricity now have physically correct parameters (to some extent).

New part type

Added a new type of rocket part — light. It consumes energy and produces light photons. It should improve the experience of flights and landing in the dark. Two light parts were added, with more to come in the next releases.

Let there be light!

New parts

Nine new rocket parts await you in the assembly shop!

Mainly structural elements and electricity

Hotkeys changes

Changed Repeat hotkey from R to Q and cycle symmetry hotkey from X to C. Added many new hotkeys and some button tooltips are showing hotkey labels now. Saved user controls were reset to the default ones because of that.

You can find more changes in the changelog below. Since the game become bigger and bigger it is hard to check every possible test case. So some minor bugs are expected and if you encounter them, please report them on the forum or on Discord. Thanks for playing and see you in the next update which should include one famous red planet.

Release notes v0.11.8

Features:

• new ocean system, that includes real waves and foam, also it changes color depending on depth to the sea floor;
• added subassembly support;
• added Grab and Rotate modes to assembly shop;
• added rotation handle that appears in the Rotate mode, when any rocket part was selected;
• you can rotate already attached part relative to its parent respecting socket restrictions, symmetry works for rotation too;
• instant switch between any spacecrafts by double clicking on it during the flight;
• added ability to switch between command modules on the spacecraft if there are more the one (left click on it -> toggle “control from here”);
• added 5 camera orientation modes and ability to switch between them;
• added new part type — light;
• added real physical units for energy (Jouel) and power (Watt);
• implemented deep space camera rendering, any solar system object in theory can be seen from anywhere (but they are usually too small);
• improved planet shader visuals and speed;
• added shortcuts labels to most button tooltips;
• default planet body (with no height/texture data) will be loaded, when reaching celestial body, that was not added to the game yet (previously game just crashed);
• enabled simple collisions for water surface (this is a temporary solution until proper water physics will be implemented);

New rocket parts:

• Solar Panel GOST 12-12-00-1996;
• “Tesla” Illuminating Device;
• 2239-79 Signal Light Source;
• Conic Fuel Block;
• Hexagonal Prism T100;
• Hexagonal Prism T200;
• Structural Adapter Cube-1.2;
• Structural Adapter 1.2-Module;
• Modular-to-Cubic Adapter.

Part changes:

• сompletely redesigned rocket part stats related to electricity;
• increased energy producing area of solar panel 1;
• improved shape of Small Battery;
• lowered center of mass of command 0;
• deprecated part Cubic Rack Adapter;

Changes:

• launchpad zone directly under the spacecraft could destroy parts now (previously this feature was intentionally disabled);
• increased minimum scale on solar system map when spacecraft is current camera target;
• added additional time scale step equals to 7 days (may be increased in the future);
• implemented smooth transitions between different time scales;
• navball size on UI now independent from screen resolution;
• when placing first rocket part that has variants, selecting its variants will change already placed part instead of creating the new one;
• improved default orientation of rocket parts on connection to side sockets;
• improved socket selection during part attachment, so it tends to have a smallest angle possible between parts;
• added missing collision parts for different structure parts;
• camera will focus on the first placed part or group of parts in the Assembly shop;
• Rocket list changes:
  • edit button in rocket list was removed from list items;
  • double click on rocket item or click on edit button from actions panel to go into edit mode;
  • press ALT+click on rocket item to rename it;
• you can now rename spacecrafts in the Control Center, by pressing ALT+click on its name;
• solar system map markers are much smoother now and have slight dark outline;
• improved part tooltip alignment — it is now consistent between parts;
• updated tutorial, to reflect recent changes in hotkeys;

Settings:

• added ocean quality setting into Performance category;
• added default camera orientation mode settings for space flight and Solar system map;
• added maneuver and assembly handles size settings;
• changed Repeat hotkey from R to Q;
• changed Cycle Symmetry hotkey from X to C;
• added Reset Symmetry hokey: Alt+C;
• added Cycle Camera Orientation hotkey: V;
• added Extend/Retract Solar Panels hotkey: P;
• added Turn On/Off Lights hotkey: U;
• added assembly modes hotkeys: G (Grab Mode), R (Rotate Mode);

Fixes:

• rocket part keeps glowing after destruction sometimes;
• on any resolution other than 1080p, spacecraft list looks wrong in the control center;
• failed to launch spacecraft if its name is too long;
• rocket can stuck in one place, if fuel was depleted and there were a lot of engines and fuel tanks in it;
• only first part are correctly aligned to the attachment, if you try to connect group of parts to the rocket;
• exception, when several connected in a row decouplers were decoupled at the same time;
• decoupled part sometimes gets incorrect position;
• rocket with bad orbit breaks the save file;
• when flying straight up from Earth until transitioning from elliptic to hyperbolic orbit, spacecraft appears in the center of sun and game sometimes crashes;
• spacecraft shadows are flickering on high orbit altitudes;
• when passing the Moon SOI Earth atmosphere sometimes appears in the wrong place;
• if you have two payload fairings attached to decoupler 0 and then move the decoupler, part group will always reset its position;
• exception when trying remove part using Delete when it has red outline;
• exception when group of parts was cloned but not placed and Undo was pressed;git;
• stars sometimes disappear when rocket is flying on low orbit;
• sun disk is missing on solar system map and in the start scene;
• shadows are flickering sometimes in assembly shop;
• orbit markers change their brightness depending of sun angle relative to camera;

Known issues:

• maneuver planner not correctly finding encounters, when building trajectory from Earth to the outer Planets;
• rotation symmetry not working for the parts, attached to the same attachment;

28.03.2021 - v0.11.9

Fixes

• solar Panels not working when spacecraft is orbiting around the Sun;
• two suns appear when spacecraft is orbiting around the Sun;
• spacecraft name is not saved when renaming it and then exiting from game;
• sometimes game stuck on starting flihgt;
• sky breaks if you are in spaceport and selecting spacecraft, orbiting another planet and then exiting from map;
• rocket rotating like crazy after changing SOI;
• maneuver panel sometimes doesn’t show up after loading flight if orbit already had a maneuver;

02.04.2021 - v0.11.10

Changes

• Updated “About” window;

Fixes

• rare memory leak, when nothing changes on the solar system map;
• potentiial crash when rocket has a lot of solar panels and lights and they were destroyed.