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On the new release


nozmajner
(@nozmajner)
Member
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 291
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You might have noticed that there were no release of Pioneer for about four months. The reason for it is the team being busy with some big changes. Some already saw the light last week, but we still had some things we wanted to finish, some kinks to iron out before announcing them:

* The most important among them is the replacement of the flight UI. Ecraven and I are worked on this since a year or so, ping-ponging ideas and mockups, and him doing the heavy lifting of coding. The outdated old HUD is now mostly gone, and the new one, based on [dear-imgui]( https://github.com/ocornut/imgui "dear-imgui") introduces some important quality of life features and improvements.
With the information it presents, you can now fly anywhere without the aid of the autopilot. (Note: the autopilot is still there 🙂 ).
And apart from being useful, we aimed for a simple elegant look. Our goal is to continue this work, and bring over all UI elements to this new system eventually.
You can find the [documentation of it on our wiki]( https://pioneerwiki.com/wiki/Flight_UI "documentation"), along with a [tutorial on how to use it to fly anywhere]( https://pioneerwiki.com/wiki/How_to_fly_without_autopilot "tutorial on how to use it to fly anywhere").
Translators will notice that there are quite a few changed and new strings on transifex , [where our localization effort is hosted]( https://www.transifex.com/pioneer/pioneer/ "new strings on transifex"). I urge you to participate! 🙂
* There is a new type of radar display too: an azimuthal projection one. You can switch between them by right clicking on them.
* We also changed the [default keybindings]( https://pioneerwiki.com/wiki/Keyboard_and_mouse_controls "default keybindings"), to allow for flight with one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. To boil it down: the WASD side is now for lateral movement, the IJKL side and Right Mouse is rotation. Existing keybindigns aren't affected.
* The orbital station lobby now shows the orbital period.
* System info shows local gravity in Gs too, not just m/s^2.
* There is also a new ship in the game, the Mola Ramsayi I've already teased in the screenshots thread. A bigger sister of the Mola Mola.
* There is new music also, thanks to WKFO. The occasion isn't too cheerful though, it is played when your ship is destroyed.
* Landing gear must be raised, or the Hyperdrive will refuse to hyper.
* Ships are now damaged by [excessive pressure](

"excessive pressure"). Fuel scoopers beware!
* Sol has been expanded with additional minor moons and dwarf planets. The Expanse fans should be interested in them 😉
* A bit late to the party, but you can now find TRAPPIST-1. Although not under that name ;). Bonus points for the one who finds it first and posts screenshots (no cheating!) Hint: it's within 5t fuel range if from the Sol start.
* There were quite a few under the hood changes too, and bug squashing. But as with software development, there could be new ones, or old lurkers [so don't hesitate to report them, if you find some]( https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues "so don't hesitate to report them, if you find some")!

Hope you enjoy!
And as always, Pioneer awaits contributors! So if you are a coder or artist, don't hesitate to get knee-deep. 🙂 You can find us on the [#pioneer channel]( https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=pioneer "#pioneer channel") on freenode.

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impaktor
(@impaktor)
Pioneer Moderator
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 166
 

I think it's safe to say that this is the biggest and most active period in pioneer development for many years time. We did a sneak-pre-release earlier this month, but excluding that, this is the first release since April.

It's _strongly_ encouraged to read up on the new Flight UI on the wiki, as nozmajner linked above, but here again, for the lazy, as this will enable some seriously fun game play:https://pioneerwiki.com/wiki/Flight_UI br( https://pioneerwiki.com/wiki/How_to_fly_without_autopilot br>
You can see the [full change log]( https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt), as always, in the source tree.

Also, the plan/progress ahead for replacing the old-old (un-moddalble) Frontier-clone C++ UI and the semi "new" (2014) NewUI/Lua UI:
https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/4078

Please help us spread the word, and [retweet]( https://twitter.com/pioneerspacesim/status/901843003316330497)!

(remember: more players = bigger community = more developers = better game)


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Gernot66
(@gernot66)
Lieutenant Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 522
 

don't get angry but i Start to wonder how i controlled the ship in earlier years without Autopilot, especially when docking had to be performed manually.

it's not that i like to say it's Bad.
it's just that i wonder if i would need this.

i guess i get the idea right just by looking at it.
and thats the goal of a HUD.
though graphically it fulfills the task.

well crafted.


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