Alpha 11 released

[robn]

The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer alpha 11. Build for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux are available for download from the download page.New features* Visual refresh: new panel graphics, UI font (Titillium Text) and model font (Cousine Bold) (#105, #114, #115, #138)* New star images in system info view (#159)* Manual thruster adjustments can now be made in set-speed mode (#118)* 5 new ground based starports (1, 2, 3, 4 landing pad configs, 1 airport config) (#120)* Major upgrade to coriolis station model (#158)* Clicking on the hyperspace icon a second time after a hyperspace is initiated cancels the jump (#25)* Screenshots are now in PNG format (#91, #140)Fixes* Orbital stations create a small amount of population (#85, #96)* Terrain colour changes based on temperature now works properly (makes Earth look correct again)* Crash when using an illegal goods trader that is a police front (#88)* Crash when restoring bulleting board ads after loading a game (#86)* Crash in AI collision detection in ternary systems* Discovery Base (Sol) orbit too close to its parent (#116)* Don't create illegal goods traders in systems with no illegal goods (#109)* Better layout for hyperdrive ranges in ship purchase screen (#94)* Use power-of-two texture for facegen to support more graphics cards (#83)* Remove duplicate system 'EI Cancri' [2,0]* Crash on call to Lua method Player.AddCrime* Crash on any mission failure (#144)* Mission status screen layout tweaks (#145)Internal changes* Lots of code cleanups, warnings silenced, etc* Fonts rendering controlled by per-font config files (#106, #113)* Background stars & Milky Way use a VBO (#164)* Remove non-VBO code paths in the terrain rendererThis is the first release under our new monthly release process and its come off very well. We've also got a few new contributors this time around, notably in the art department. Thanks to everyone who pitched in with code, art, testing, bug reporting and general goodwill

[ollobrain]

me likey

[paulb1919]

Thanks robn

[Geraldine]

Looking forward to trying it out, thanks robn

[Coolhand]

Thanks Rob, and everyone for their hard work

[Geraldine]

Running with no major issues so far except for Saturn missing it's rings. I wonder if Gernot's planet fix will work with this? Also tried accelerating away on full burn from the Sun and left the game running with the stardreamer set to max for half an hour just to see what would happen. After I got to 40000+ AU from the Sun it was still going after half an hour! Only anomaly I noticed was that the ship was jumping around in the external view, but both forward and reverse views were fine. Geez this game is big! I dont know what you devs have done under the hood of the game, but it's is certainly working. The game is feeling more responsive and that "Frontier itch" is definitely getting a good scratch! :lol:Yes good build guys!

[s2odan]

Quote:
I wonder if Gernot's planet fix will work with this?
Hey, what planet fix is that?
Quote:
Running with no major issues so far except for Saturn missing it's rings.
Hehe, we always forget to update those seeds. In customsystems sol.lua changing the seed under the saturn section should solve that annoying issue.Mainly because there's a better way of ensuring a planet has rings but no-one has gotten around to adding that in.

[Geraldine]

s2odan wrote:
Hey, what planet fix is that?Hehe, we always forget to update those seeds. In customsystems sol.lua changing the seed under the saturn section should solve that annoying issue. Mainly because there's a better way of ensuring a planet has rings but no-one has gotten around to adding that in.
It's on here someplace, but for the life of me I can't find it Gernot re-done Saturn and it was beautiful. Now if I can just find that post! Um,..... do you have a proper seed value s2odan? Pretty please with sugar on top? Someone on the Frontier Forum is having this problem too with Alpha 10. if I can find the fix for it, I will post it on there too

[s2odan]

Oh well he probably only changed the Seed number. And no I'm sorry I don't have a number for you that would work. :(If you feel inclined then the easiest way to get one is make a save next to Saturn, then exit make the change, load ect ect, its tedious but its the only way. Unless there was a change to the object viewer that is, as you can actually change seed with that but it doesn't work for GasGiants due to a small oversight.

[robn]

Geraldine wrote:
After I got to 40000+ AU from the Sun it was still going after half an hour! Only anomaly I noticed was that the ship was jumping around in the external view, but both forward and reverse views were fine.
You're probably hitting precision issues that far out. We considered it a while ago and decided it wasn't worth the substantial coding effort to make things look right at that distance when there's nothing out there anyway.

[robn]

s2odan wrote:


Quote:
Running with no major issues so far except for Saturn missing it's rings.
Hehe, we always forget to update those seeds. In customsystems sol.lua changing the seed under the saturn section should solve that annoying issue.Mainly because there's a better way of ensuring a planet has rings but no-one has gotten around to adding that in.
What update is required? I haven't heard of this.

[Guest]

robn wrote:
What update is required? I haven't heard of this.
I think we missed it.. just did a quick search and I think I found the reference.http://www.spacesimcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2080&p=19239&hilit=seed+13+#p19239He is just changing the seed value of Saturn to seed(13)This is an example as to why we encourage people to use the issue tracker as issues posted in the forum will get missed

[fluffyfreak]

robn wrote:


Geraldine wrote:
After I got to 40000+ AU from the Sun it was still going after half an hour! Only anomaly I noticed was that the ship was jumping around in the external view, but both forward and reverse views were fine.
You're probably hitting precision issues that far out. We considered it a while ago and decided it wasn't worth the substantial coding effort to make things look right at that distance when there's nothing out there anyway.
Oort cloud?

[Geraldine]

robn wrote:
You're probably hitting precision issues that far out. We considered it a while ago and decided it wasn't worth the substantial coding effort to make things look right at that distance when there's nothing out there anyway.
No worries about this robn, I only tried it because the game allowed me to do it. I used to do the same mad things in Frontier just to see how far I could push the game. It is still cool however that the game can still cope with such massive distances. Not even FFE allowed you to do this, so +1 (to add to all the other pluses) for Pioneer! 8-)And thanks Philbywhizz for that link, that is the very post I was looking for I will post that on the Frontier Forum once I test it in Alpha 11.EDIT: Yep that works a treat! For people (like me ) who need a full explanation, here is what you do. Just copy/paste the entry below over the entry in Pioneer-alpha11\data\systems\p00p00\00_solI used Notepad 2 to amend the entry. On this, it is line 246. You can get Notepad 2 here http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html. Although you could just add :seed(13) below the first entry for Saturn. That will work too. Now you can enjoy Saturn as it should be, thanks Gernot! local saturn = CustomSBody:new('Saturn', 'PLANET_GAS_GIANT'):seed(13):radius(f(9,1)):mass(f(95152,1000)):temp(134):semi_major_axis(f(9582,1000)):eccentricity(f(557,10000)):inclination(math.deg2rad(2.485)):rotation_period(f(4,10)):axial_tilt(math.fixed.deg2rad(f(2673,100)))

[Marcel]

Thanks for the reminder about this. I'd be mourning the loss of the rings again without it. I'm going to head over there and check out a before and after seed 13 view. :Dedit: Well, the stock alpha11 had rings and a pale blue planet. Adding the 'seed:(13)' line gave Saturn a better looking ring system and cloud bands that look close enough to the real thing for now. Thanks Geraldine and potsmoke66!

[Potsmoke66]

this is what i still use for whole solar system, i haven't checked it and perhaps some planets or moons might look better unchanged, this needs to be tweaked from release to release.

sol_and_alpha11.zip

it includes some more systems that still work with this release[attachment=783:2011-06-13_185619.jpg][attachment=784:2011-06-13_191659.jpg]

[ollobrain]

now where is alpha 12 aiming for

[robn]

We don't really have a set list of goals for each release. Here's a list of things that I know are in the works right now. Of course these might not make it for alpha 12 or at all - no commitments at this early stage * in-game music* populated systems highlighted in sector map* passenger cabins* cargo scooping* gui visual refreshThere's also a few fixes merged already and some more on the way.Fyi, ways to track what's going on:* Watch the Changelog* Try a nightly build* Watch the issue tracker to see what's being reported and discussed* Use the network graph to see what people are doing on their personal Pioneer code forks

[Marcel]

Quote:
potsmoke66 wrote:this is what i still use for whole solar system, i haven't checked it and perhaps some planets or moons might look better unchanged, this needs to be tweaked from release to release.
I just logged on to ask if someone had a seed for Uranus and Neptune, and I find that you certainly have! Thanks, I'll check them out.edit: Neptune looks excellent. The ring system around Uranus is too extensive, but what the hell, it's beautiful and nobody goes there anyway. I noticed that you added some spaceports to Earth. In my experience that will cause your saved games to crash Pioneer. You have to start a new game to make it work. I just copied the seeds, not the whole file so it works, but perhaps you should warn people about this.

[Geraldine]

Opened a feature request on Github about a ships log.https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/204