Alpha 8, and a new lead programmer

[tomm]

http://pioneerspacesim.net/sites/default/files/pioneer-alpha8.rarChanges since alpha 7:* Temporal aliasing fixed so framerates above 60fps do look smoother.* Joystick support* New adverts and textures on space stations* Some system generation fixes* Red giant stars* New ships* Model viewer lets you change model by hitting escape* New ship definition syntax (http://pioneerspacesim.net/wiki/index.php?title=3D_Modelling#Defining_ship_types_for_models)* Commodity icons* Cleaned up the ship control panel and HUD* HUD rendering when HDR lighting enabled should be fixed (untested).* Fixed crash bug (often seen when fighting police)* Fixed thruster rendering (depth sort)A big thank you to all the people who have contributed to this release!This will be the last release with me (TomM) as project leader. Happily, John Jordan of JJFFE fame will be taking over, and he has lots of cunning plans up his sleeve. Consider this a lead programmer upgrade - he is much sharper than me and keeps pointing out the stupidities in my code. Things will be awesome.If you want to try out his new AI work, the source code is here: https://github.com/jaj22/pioneerI'm still the guy to contact with coding questions, art submission questions and all that. JJ just has final say on gameplay, aesthetics, technical wotnots and everything in between.

[RedRiver]

nice. downloading!

[memnoch]

Thanks Tom. Just downloaded and will check it out tomorrow.Congrats on the new programmer too. Shows real character to step aside like that, especially for something you almost certainly feel passionately about! Salut!

[s2odan]

Nice one Tom. There's a few things you missed from my branch though, a new ship and the newer icons by Jamie as well as some stat changes that fix the Lanner(engines are too small, it cannot take off) and few others. I just added changes by Luomu too which allow selecting of nav targets from the system info view.EDIT//I quickly compiled those changes into Alpha 8.1* Luomu's Changes to allow selecting Nav targets from the System-Info view. No more aimlessly spinning round trying to find your target on entry to a new system * Gave Lanner more thrust, it only had around 1.1 G empty.* Viper more thrust, had same engines as Talon I assumed this was a mistake. As there is a weight difference of about 8-1 between them.* Slowed Talon a little, it is still 60+G (down from 90)* Changed Constrictor .lua so that the game reads the information correctly.* Updated Icons by Jamie Grant.* New ship Imperial Explorer.Alpha 8.1Don't forget the 8.11 FIX to correct planetary terrains and colours. :http://pioneerspacesim.net/sites/default/files/pioneer-alpha8.11FIX.7z

[s2odan]

Yes thats from the joystick support, since I have a gamepad with a trigger I assigned all axes to the trigger which does not need a dead zone, and that will stop the spinning without having to unplug your joystick or gamepad.

[Marcel]

Thanks people! I saw JJ's name in the credits on Github. I was afraid I'd spilled the beans. Pioneer is getting more awesome every day!

[Subzeroplainzero]

Fantastic! Trying it now :)Btw, what's the best way to contact Mr John Jordan to ask him about the photofits I'm working on?

[s2odan]

Quote:
I saw JJ's name in the credits on Github.
I think JJ has had a hand in coding Pioneer in the past, as his name has been there for quite some time.Anyway as far as I'm concerned JJ is pretty much a celebrity (I'm a fan) We are in good hands.That's not to say anything bad about Tom of course, he's done an awesome job!!!
Quote:
Btw, what's the best way to contact Mr John Jordan to ask him about the photofits I'm working on?

tomm wrote:
I'm still the guy to contact with coding questions, art submission questions and all that. ....
But whether its Tom or John you are after, you will get them both on the Dev mailing list.

[shenle]

Welcome JJ, and thanks for JJFFE - been using it for years. Actually, been hacking it for years, removing the autopilot fudge fix from 2.8alpha7 and such. You see, I actually like to be turned into jello by decelerating from 57000km/s to zero in a microsecond.

[Subzeroplainzero]

Wow I'm noticing a vast improvement with the graphical glitches with my ati card. Shaders are still acting a little odd, but whole planets aren't dissapearing when I get close to them anymore Cant wait to try it on my nvidea machine

[shenle]

Looks gorgeous with the ship models and the planet models all in HDR lighting splendor. Is it me, or is Epsilon Eridani G really modeled after a lemon? :)But... bulletin boards are empty! Is everyone gone on vacation?Will test it on a lowly ATI 3200 tomorrow, see how it holds up.

[Subzeroplainzero]

shenle wrote:
Looks gorgeous with the ship models and the planet models all in HDR lighting splendor. Is it me, or is Epsilon Eridani G really modeled after a lemon? :)But... bulletin boards are empty! Is everyone gone on vacation?Will test it on a lowly ATI 3200 tomorrow, see how it holds up.
did you try upping the speed and waiting a couple of hours? That should populate the board

[Taquito]

Whooohoooo! *faints*

[ollobrain]

having john jordan on baord will be a good move - well will be interesting to see where it goes very good job all round

[KingHaggis]

This is good news. I really like the joystick support (it's a bit sensitive though). I've been buzzing over Io (which is a water moon now ) for a while with my X-52 Pro. I'll test the new alpha further this afternoon. A big thanks to Tom for all the work he put in his Pioneer. I welcome John Jordan as the new Pioneer project leader. With the creator of the excellent JJFFE, surely Pioneer's future must be in good hands. With the coming of Pioneer and especially in its current state, the future for spacesim fans looks bright again. It's been a long while since there was anything decent to play regarding spacesims.What an excellent release, this Alpha 8!

[Geraldine]

This is great news! What John Jordan doesn't know about the Elite games isn't worth knowing. Pioneer is indeed in safe hands. Hope he will pop over to the SSC to say hello. <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />Glad your still involved in the project though Tomm. Your contributions kept the dream alive and I thank you for that and for all the great work you have done thus far. <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />Finally, Alpha 8! Great list of new features too, downloading 8 and 8.1, thanks to you too S2odan <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_cool.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8-)' />

[s2odan]

Welcome to IO:[attachment=487:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-01-30 15-37-20-30.jpg]Yep I have no effing idea about that Kinghaggis. The code hasn't even changed for the planets. For some reason a totally incorrect terrain and colour have been picked for IO, Its pretty annoying for me as I spent many an hour lining up the terrain with the base placement... Grrr .Btw, The Moon is still bright red, I added a change in december or early january to make the moon white and give saturn rings. I thought they had been added?
Quote:
thanks to you too S2odan
Your welcome Miss G.

[s2odan]

Ah.. there you are you dirty stinking BUG..... :You forgot this Tom:
Code:
// TYPE_STAR_M_GIANT{},
In GeosphereStyle.cppEvery Terrain and colour in the game will be wrong because of that.... Ok 8.2 on the way hehe.Any other bugs that anyone has noticed that I can fix for 8.2?

[s2odan]

I aim to please:Its just that one change I made. Planets now have correct terrain and colour settings, however the bases now no longer line up with that Terrain.. To be expected I suppose, I'm surprised they stayed in-line for this many alphas.http://pioneerspacesim.net/sites/default/files/pioneer-alpha8.11FIX.7z

[KingHaggis]

Good to see Io back in the way it should be. It sucked that it had become a waterworld. Io and certain dead worlds are still the best looking planets in this game. I especially liked Io in alpha 6. For some reason, Io looked a bit different then when those weird pikey mountains were still around.But I'm glad you put it back because I was just trying to find a way to ask without whining if you could please make Io look like Io again .