Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.2a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.2a RELEASED!
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Added Game Difficulty Setting: currently the following game aspects are affected by Game Difficulty Setting Player selects on starting a new game: a) initial financial subsidy from City Mayor, b) all financial subsidies from City Mayor received as rewards after completing Mayor's Quests (like servicing 100th aircraft, performing 100 upgrades etc.), c) fuel costs on FBO fuel contracts, d) airline rating changes (both increase and decrease), e) initial quantity of fuels (100LL and Jet1A) left in tanks from Player's avatar predecessor on Airport GM position, f) salaries of already hired personnel and personnel being hired due to Airport facility upgrades, g) electric power cost per kWh; e) electric power consumption; added
Added protection to Flight Scheduling system that would not allow scheduling of flights of Aircraft that require higher Airport Upgrade Tier; as a double measure (for hypothetical cases of erroneous data in saved games or Player intentionally tampering with saved games) additional protection was added upon any Flight operation start that would also prevent such Aircraft to appear in game world before the required Airport Upgrade Tier is achieved; added
Added bounds protection that is a fix to a very rare bug report by our Player Steven (thank you!) and also once reported by CAT-tester that exhibited very strange behavior: if upon saving a game an aircraft was starting a new flight op (regardless of type) and then the saved game is reloaded, and aircraft could have been placed below ground level while reporting it's on parking stand or in the air - from now on, a strict protection mechanism is added that addresses this issue - if at any time Aircraft's reported altitude ever goes below ground level - it's simply removed from the game world, without affecting Airline ratings; fixed \ added
Added GSE vehicles driveway east (as part of Airport Upgrade Tiers 3 - leading from FBO Fuel Base East to Cargo Apron and Tier 4 - leading from Cargo Apron via FBO Fuel Base East to Passenger Terminal 2 Apron (Apron East); added
Added FBO Fuel Base East facility with two large cisterns holding (370,000 Liters Jet 1A fuel each); added
Changed how Fuel Tankers are purchased (upgraded) and associated staff hired: from now on, each consecutive Fuel Truck (Tanker) purchase will result in hiring 3 drivers\operators to cover 3 shifts (24 hours); changed
Tweaked fuel transfer rates for both Small fuel tankers and Large fuel tankers based on FBO Fuel Transfer Rate upgrade level: Small Fuel Tanker: L1: 17 L\sec; L2: 23 L\sec; L3: 28 L\sec; Large Fuel Tanker: L1: 35 L\sec; L2: 41 L\sec; L3: 53 L\sec; tweaked
Changed how fuel system (mainly for Jet1A fuel tanks) works in the Airport: all Jet1A tanks (tank A is available at game start, larger tanks B and C are upgrades that become available when upgrading Airport from Tier 3 to Tier 4) are linked together via underground pipeline with 2 fuel balancers installed: one allows Player to balance fuel between Tanks A and B, the other one controls fuel transfer between tanks B and C; when purchasing fuel at Refineries, it is always delivered to tank A; Player may select from one of the following Fuel Balancer modes: NO CROSSFLOW - crossflow is closed between given pair of tanks; AUTO EQUAL - automatically equalizes fuel levels for given pair of tanks; MANUAL TRANSFER - allows for manual control of fuel transfer at any time; note: fuel balancer installed between Tanks B and C has additional mode - AUTO FILL B - now, for Fuel Base located on eastern side (Airport Upgrade Tiers 3 thru 5, serves Cargo Apron and Pax Terminal 2 Apron it is typical to crossflow from both tanks B and C to refill tankers, it is however possible for base operator to issue order to fill a tanker from C - so this additional fuel balancer mode allows gathering fuel in tank B - which is useful when fuel levels are low; Fuel Tanks A and B have nontransferable reserve level, which is currently set to 1 refill volume of a tanker operating using this tank - 17,000L for Tank A and 41,000L for Tank B; Tank C has no set reserve margin, so it is possible to dry this tank completely by transferring fuel to other tanks; if any of the AUTO modes encounters a restriction or is unable to perform as programmed, corresponding fuel balancer switches to NO CROSSFLOW mode and if required, notifies Player via notification system and\or on radio on intercom channel; changed
Changed how notifications are issued (both yellow and red warnings) in regard to low fuel levels: there are now two sets of warnings: set 1 works as previously (25% and 10%) but not for individual tank but rather for total fuel capacity; set 2 issues warnings in case there is a refill or fuel delivery problem is encountered (when refilling a tanker or trying to deliver 100LL fuel to G\A and Helicopters aprons via pipeline); changed
Added new type of Airport Fee: Cargo processing fee, this fee is charged per 1 kg of cargo entering or exiting Cargo Terminal sorting area; added
Added Fire and Rescue Service firefighters training simulator - this modern firefighting simulator can be used to mimic fire on fuselage and all types of engines (jet, prop, wing-mounted, tail-mounted); firefighters training simulator area will be used for Player scheduled firefighters' daily training exercises; added
Added Cargo management module; added
Added first batch of LD3 cargo containers (20 for Fong Air Cargo and 20 for CargoLet), each ULD (including pallets) has its own number and logo painted\stickered on front and back, is unique, can be tracked by Cargo management module (in future versions, when Cargo terminal inside space is implemented, Player will be able to walk among cargo sorting lines and storage in warehouse - and see (and track) which cargo ULDs arrived with which flight etc.; added
Fixed airplanes filing flight plan for local visual circuit training sometimes not getting correct shortened runway in flight clearance for runway 16; fixed
Fixed annoying bug with situations when there is enough fuel left from previous flight (mostly noticeable on local VFR flights) and\or load sheet for new flight has lower value than currently on board - thou the algorithm of checking for this condition was correct it had a small bug with floating point variable used to determine minimum fuel request at FBO, due to incorrect division this figure may have resulted in setting state of the aircraft to 'waiting for fuel via pipeline' thou the miniscule amount would at the same time prevent FBO from actually creating a pipeline job; hopefully fixed
Added Fong Cargo airline (a subsidiary of Fong Air), code FNC; in future versions the mechanics of influence of ratings of daughter\subsidiary on parent Airline ratings and vice versa will also be implemented; added
Fixed CargoLet airline initial rating was incorrect on game start; fixed
Added 37 new ground movement routes around Apron East area and taxiway Papa; added
Added the following Statistical values: Tons of Incoming Cargo Processed, Tons of Outgoing Cargo Processed, Total Tons of Cargo Processed to stats module; added
Added temporary Cargo unloading mode for Cargo Loaders when they encounter aircraft like AN25, in which case making it to the rear loading ramp of such cargo aircraft without colliding seems not-practicable, in such case Cargo Loader would unload ULDs first to the ground and then perform semi-automatic loading on ramp; added
Fixed bug with fuel trucks (small and large) may have reported that tanker refill from FBO's tank is complete while actually it was still underway - this bug manifested rarely, specifically when saving and immediately reloading a game while tanker refill was in progress; fixed
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new helicopter - Airecoach Helicopters A305 (real-world prototype: Airbus Helicopters H125, formerly Eurocopter AS350 B3) - this unique helicopter was able to actually climb the required obstacle clearance altitude and land on Mount Everest summit - which is very important for rescue ops in so called 'death zone' on the mountain; besides, AS350 is among the most popular (3590 built to date) helicopters on the planet and it has some distinctive features: easy to operate, very capable and reliable; helicopters in the following liveries were added: N364B, N8311F, QS-LDA, CA-HZE (Private operators) and HV-TUL (operator: MedEvac); added
Added 2 new liveries for AN25 cargo aircraft - N382P & N202S (operated by Fong Cargo); added
Fixed incorrect prop rotation direction for AN25 left engine; fixed
Fixed rare bug with game being saved and immediately reloaded while an aircraft was lining up or vacating active runway may have caused aircraft to get stuck; fixed
Fixed bug with L20V aircraft type landing and taxi lights halo effects were shifted beyond the light bays glass, resulting in incorrect depiction of both halos and projecting lights; now moved to appropriate distance; fixed
[H1]Vehicles[/H1]
Added new service vehicle type - 41,000L Fuel Truck (model PAS Excelente 41). Perfect Airport Services Excelente 41 high capacity fuel truck with dual frontal steering axis allows for refueling of medium to super heavy aircraft. Its massive 41,000L tank holds enough to refuel most medium and heavy aircraft in one go, while sporting a hydraulic lift platform to allow re-fueling of high-wing heavies and super heavies; added
Added new vehicle movement mechanics: Dual Front Steering Axis Heavy Trucks; added
[H1]ATC[/H1]
Changed how ATC assigns full length runway takeoffs vs shortened runway takeoffs: for runways 17 and 35 - omitted; for runway 34: depends only on aircraft's capability and flight crew decision to perform shortened takeoff (note: general aviation aircraft will in most cases try to acquire clearance for shortened takeoff from intersection Golf); for runway 16: general aviation and cargo flights (that will reach runway 16 via intersections Echo and Hotel) - full-length takeoff is mandatory, shortened takeoff requests will be denied; for aircraft requesting clearance from Apron East (Passenger Terminal 2) and Service Hangars Apron East - depends only on aircraft's capability and flight crew decision to perform shortened takeoff; changed
Changed how Apron East entry and exit taxing is performed: all aircraft regardless of gate \ stand \ hangar assignment, regardless of runway in use (16 or 34) from now on must enter Apron East via taxiway Kilo and exit Apron East via taxiway Juliet; pushback directions to be adjusted accordingly; changed
Changed how handoff from TWR to DEP occurs: now on reporting airborne, VFR traffics and local visual circuit training flights stay on TWR frequency, while IFR departures proceed via proper handoff to DEP frequency; changed
Changed how vacate runway instructions are issued by TWR controller: from now on no runway vacate instructions are issued prior to aircraft slows down to approximately 50-40 knots on landing roll (for future compatibility with touch-and-go's and aborted landings with main gear already touched the runway), instead TWR issues a specific runway vacate instruction and proper GND handoff at the end of landing roll; changed
Fixed ATC incorrectly treating some MedEvac helicopters and airplanes as being privately operated; now actual MedEvac callsign and flight designators on Flight Strips are used; fixed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Added new sounds for A305 helicopter, recorded on actual AS350 R3, startup sequence shortened, shutdown sequence blended with sounds of main rotor spinning down to produce more realistic engine shutdown sound; added
Added new guard rails sound for Headman 14 Universal Cargo Loader; added
Added ULD rolling sounds for two surfaces: Cargo Terminal dispenser and Cargo Loader platforms rollers; added
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Added new 22m high light masts to Cargo Apron area with light cones reaching 100m light dissolve margin; same kind of lights will be used at Passenger Terminal 2 apron area in future; added
Added ULD-container conveyors and loading areas to Cargo terminal building; added
Fixed incorrect use of flashing lights by some Ground Service Vehicles: due to state detection error it was possible to induce such mode in which flashing lights would never go off; fixed
Increased minimal distance at which larger city objects (Soccer Stadium, Warehouses, Expo Center etc.) are drawn unconditionally; changed
[H1]Cameras[/H1]
Fixed AN25 aircraft preset for Object View Camera - from erroneous 22m wingspan to 30m wingspan, so no more steep angles when viewing this aircraft using Object View Camera; fixed
Fixed discretion on float values used to determine the tempo of camera movement acceleration when holding directional keys pressed; fixed
Changed how transparent surfaces\materials are cached\batched when using all forward-rendering path cameras; slightly increased performance on all outside cameras; changed
Tweaked Airport Overview camera maximum range of travel to correctly allow it to reach farthermost corner of Cargo Terminal; changed
Changed how colliders on complex objects affect Airport Overview camera movement near them, new improved algorithm ensures clickable objects are still clickable even when a collider is either dead ahead of said camera or when it already affects camera movement by letting it overflow a collider using nearest gravity-induced path; changed
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Added Game Difficulty selector to New Game Character Selection Screen with Normal difficulty as default setting and options being Easy and Hard; upon clicking on desired game difficulty the description of a difficulty setting is displayed in the box below the selector; added
Changed Flight Schedule Slot Editor window to be movable by clicking its header, holding mouse down and dragging to a new position, so that it does not obscure flights on Flight Schedule screen, previously invisible while Slot Editor occupied center of the screen; changed
Significantly re-designed FBO: Fuel UI; changed
Moved Fuel Contracts to Airport Contracts UI; changed
Added 2 Fuel Balancers UI to FBO: Fuel management screen; note: fuel balancers are only available when Airport is at Upgrade Tier 4 and above; added
Added Total Fuel Volume and Total Fuel Worth display, which reflects currently set prices and is very useful when estimating fuel costs vs sell price; added
Changed FBO Fuel UI - sell price selectors for Jet1A and 100LL were assigned a special area of the screen, data on currently available and active Fuel Tanks became modular and dynamic; capacity of all Fuel Tanks is now shown below current volume of fuel in a tank; changed
Added new cursor - Click and Drag; normal cursor now changes to four-arrow drag here cursor when over drag-n-drop UI elements; added
Fixed time stamp in Comms Box messages not being visible on some screen resolutions; fixed
Changed Airplane Info Window display so that it displays only data relevant to aircraft type: e.g. CARGO is not shown for aircraft without cargo capacity and vice versa - PAX not shown for cargo-only aircraft; changed
Added Cargo Processing fee setter slider to Airport Fees management tab in Airport Management screen; added
Fixed clicking on 'New Service Contract Available' notification leading correctly to Airport Contracts screen but incorrectly to 'Fuel Contracts' tab instead of 'Service Hangars Contracts' tab; fixed
Fixed incorrect Save Game \ Load Game window title; fixed
Fixed typos in some game tips shown on game loading screen; fixed
IMPORTANT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT CHANGE NOTE
IMPORTANT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT CHANGE NOTE
Dear Players! Dear Video Authors!
We are glad to announce an important upcoming change to Airport Master EULA which we have promised to introduce back at the launch of Early Access Public Alpha of Airport Master.
As you know, currently the EULA imposes a requirement for all video authors to obtain prior written permission to use our brand names and graphical logos when producing monetized videos.
During the period of time since Early Access Launch we had established good relationships with many video authors who followed the EULA and received their written permission prior to legally using our brand names and logos in their monetized videos. We thank you and we have prepared something special for your choice of co-operation and partnership (see below)!
As we have promised earlier, at certain time of mid-alpha stage of development we would alter the EULA in such a way that the use of our brand names and logos will not require a prior written permission. And this day is nearing! Starting with v. 0.3.2a, the new EULA allowing unrestricted use of our brand names and logos in producing all kinds of monetized video content comes into effect!
All video authors who have obtained official permission from us to date, will automatically receive our Media Partner Status (your permission document will be replaced with Media Partner Certificate and you shall find an electronic copy in your e-mail that was used during your latest request of permission or addendum to it.
Media Partner Status in turn brings following benefits with it:
a) you will receive important media announcements ahead of time and you will be free to use this information to be the first to tell the World of important development milestones for Airport Master and other upcoming titles by STICLI Games;
b) we will provide media invitations to important gaming industry events, should we be taking part in one (this will include invitation to our booths on Expos, all kinds of promotional materials Media Partners may expect etc.);
c) you will be eligible to request and receive by electronic means of communication our branding and logos materials, specifically optimized for creating video content – including but not limited to game logos, airplane and ground vehicles featured in game – all on transparent background within layered PSD or format of choice (PNG if that suits your needs better);
Additional benefits for Media Partners may become available in future!
Note: it will also be possible to apply for Media Partner Status after the change to EULA takes effect. That can still be done the usual way, by contacting us and providing us with the list of your monetized media channels. As previously, the only kind of channels that are not eligible for Media Partner Status will be those containing hate-speech, propagating hatred towards some group of people or individuals regardless of basis – ethnical, racial, gender, nationality. All other Video Authors will be approved for Media Partner Status, should they prefer to get it.
Have a Great Summer and stay tuned for the upcoming version of Airport Master 0.3.2a!
Team at STICLI Games
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.1a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.1a RELEASED!
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Added new Aircraft Atlas definitions for each aircraft in game: minimum landing distance, minimum tkof distance, minimum airport upgrade tier at which aircraft in question may appear in game world - as a preparation to actually enabling Players to upgrade Airport tiers and to keep sane with shortened takeoffs and mid-runway vacating for new runway 16-34; added
Added 20 new taxi routes around Apron 2; added
Added definitions for Cargo parking stands (S1 thru S3), new Passenger Terminal 2 Apron East parking stands\gates (V1 thru V8, W1 thru W6 and T1 thru T3), service hangars H4 and H5; added
Changed how aircraft on Missed Approach measure minimal distance before first turn as per published IFR go-around procedure, from now pilots actually use distance to APT VOR\DME; changed
Changed how Lights Controller module processes rules for day\night\dusk\dawn and LVP-induced lighting procedures sets of rules: from now on airport lighting schemes are not hard-coded but rather are a dictionary of rule-sets that can be used by ATC (and in future versions freely edited by Player, with regard to realistic lighting requirements, of course) to implement custom light-schemes: e.g. while taxiway centerline green LED-lamps are mandatory if installed during LVP, Player may elect to disable them at dusk and dawn hours, but keep them lit at night (reducing power costs), basically this new implementation gives freedom of airport lighting schemes configuration; changed
Changed how ATC selects Runway In Use - since both new and old runways are facing common prevailing winds in Appleton Airport area and taking into account that we really want Open Alpha Players to test Runway 16-34 operations extensively, temporarily ATC will prefer runway 16 over runway 17 and runway 34 over runway 35 regardless of aircraft type and length of taxi route, later on, when both runways ops are well-tested, Player will have the choice to keep both runways active (higher energy bill, faster taxi times for Business and G\A aircraft) or use only Runway 16-34 (lower energy bill, longer taxi for Business and G\A aircraft); please keep in mind that since there's no required separation of 2000m between runways centerlines (as per ICAO regulations), no parallel runway operations will ever be possible, however in 2-active-runways scheme it will be possible to issue say a 'lineup runway 17 and wait' clearance right after another aircraft touches down on runway 16 and so on; changed
Changed how ground movement segments are handled - a new robust algorithm replaced the old one where segments were initialized on game start (and also any savegame reload, exit to main menu and re-enter game world etc.) and then specifically checked against saved data, from now on ATC preserves its continuous ground segment map which only syncs with savegame data if a disambiguation is encountered, also no pre-initialization is required - this will save loading time and is a step to error-free ground segments management, which is crucial as Player's airport grows larger; changed
Added radar display de-clutter controls to Radar Display Unit in Control Tower: an additional panel with clickable led-illuminated mode change buttons was added to SkyView Radar Unit enabling Player to switch on or off the following markings: VORs, NDBs, Extended Runway Centerlines, Visual Ref Points, Mandatory Reporting Points, Rotating Beam and toggle between full (TWR-style) and brief (APP\CTR-style) target identification labels; added
Fixed smaller G\A aircraft that do not require post-flight services incorrectly reporting there are still passengers, baggage and waste onboard after going to idle mode and until new company loadsheet is received; fixed
Changed monitor sizes in Control Tower (Apron 1) to larger size, also increased resolution on all ATC monitors; changed
Added heliport apron F camera on lighting pole near heliport; the display of this camera becomes available at workplace of heliport controller in Control Tower once the corresponding Airport Upgrade Tier is unlocked (beforehand, said monitor is turned off); added
Increased interval of time between helicopter engines startup/shutdown/control hover operations for smoother and more realistic behavior; tweaked
Fixed bug with Flight School airplanes may not go to proper shutdown sequence due to the fact that their flight number has already changed in Flight Schedule and they were making invalid data requests using non-valid flight number; fixed
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new aircraft - Andronov AN25 (real-world prototype: Antonov An-26-100B) - initially developed as a military transport, recon, radio-relay and supplementary bomber, this aircraft took part in the majority of armed conflicts of second half of XX century and after retiring from military service it's second life as an utility cargo aircraft started, many Cargo operators around the World strived to acquire one as its ramp allows for quick loading\unloading of various cargo units (both pallets and ULD containers); Aircraft in the following liveries were added: VP-POB, VP-PWH (operator: CargoLet); added
[H1]Vehicles[/H1]
Added new service vehicle type - Universal Cargo Loader (model Headman 14, based on real-world Commander 15i). Cargo Loader has bridge and rear platforms (max 7 tons load each) and room for 3 LD3-containers or 3 universal cargo pallets. Cargo Loader is capable of loading\unloading cargo at Cargo terminal from rear, left or right and is compatible with all modern cargo aircraft configurations (ramp, lower deck, full-cargo). As usual, the vehicle features real world performance data as to turn radius, movement speed restriction, platforms lift-motors performance, convey speed etc.; added
[H1]ATC[/H1]
Added the following SIDs: LINTA 2D, LINTA 4F, MONET 1F, MONET 4S, PAROM 2D, PAROM 1C and STARs: LINTA 7E, LINTA 8A, MONET 7K, MONET 8L, PAROM 4W, PAROM 7B for IFR operations on runways 16 and 34; Added
Added routing for VFR flights arriving and departing to and from runways 16 and 34 via VFR points: N, NE, E, W and SW; added
Added ILS for runways 16 (IAT, 109.35 MHz, 163 deg) and 34 (IAP, 111.10 MHz, 343 deg); added
Added NDBs for runways 16 (AT, 520 kHz and TA, 350 kHz) and 34 (AP, 580 kHz and PA, 305 kHz); added
Implemented ILS, VOR and Visual approaches to runways 16 and 34; added
Added go-around (missed approach) routes for runways 16 and 34; added
Fixed ATC giving altitude clearance for IFR Missed Approach in same manner as for visual go-around; now IFR go-around altitude clearance follows published procedure (e.g. climb 1000 ft on runway heading, u-turn to VOR, climb 2000 ft and re-join localizer); fixed
Fixed phraseology for IFR Go-Arounds; fixed
Fixed radar display continued to display STAR name in Clearance Limit section of Radar label instead of 'GO AROUND' even after status changed at ATC; fixed
Implemented conditional display of ATC radar screen aids and markings in relation to current Airport Upgrade Tier, so Radar screen shall only display helicopter visual points PT-HA and PT-HD when Player had upgraded Airport to include Heliport (Tier 2), only display ILS 16\ILS 34 range lines on screen when Airport is at Upgrade Tier 3 etc.; changed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Tweaked (again) engines sounds audibility ranges for all types of aircraft and rotorcraft: smaller piston props range increased; VLJs - range decreased; larger jets and twin-turboprops - range decreased; tweaked
Added new sounds for AN25 aircraft, recorded on actual AN24-RV (same engines as AN26-100B), RU19 (AN24\26 APU\takeoff boost engine) engine sound synthesized; added
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Added new modern-style LED-lights to Apron 2: runway centerline red, runway centerline white, runway borderline white, taxiway borderline blue, taxiway centerline green; those consume 60% less electrical power than old-style lamps and almost never malfunction; added
Added Appleton Airport logos to some ground support vehicles; added
Added new models, lighting models, light maps for new type LED runway centerline and border line lights; added
Added 2 new types of 25-storey buildings to city-side; currently static, in later versions would be used in auto-generated blocks of buildings; added
[H1]Cameras[/H1]
Fixed incorrect requirements of Airport Upgrade Tier for Overview Camera quick cams; fixed
Added 2 new Quick Cam locations: Hangars West and Cargo Apron; added
Changed render resolution on some pre-pass cameras that render transparent details in forward rendering path for better blending of complex semi-transparent materials without the need to use second pass shader; changed
Tweaked how speed of movement for free-cam type cameras (e.g. Airport Overview, Pax Terminal Inside cam etc.) gets adjusted basing on how long the directional key is pressed: camera movement acceleration is slower in the beginning (for slow and fluid near movement and it gets faster the longer Player holds direction key pressed - for faster far movements); tweaked
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Added Financial Graphs to Finance tab in Airport Administration screen; Incomes and Expenses breakup by general type graphs are now available in the left section of the screen for easier analysis of cash flow; currently Incomes are segmented into 5 major types and Expenses are segmented into 7 major types, each represented by its own bar-graph (note: numerical per cent value is omitted on graph when the value is less than 1% of total sum, otherwise it's displayed in clearly readable box above the bar-graph itself); added
Changed how Financial values Brief Line looks in Finance tab in Airport Administration screen: from now on it's one continuous line with left part being Income values (total, per day, per hour), middle part being Expenses (total, per day, per hour) and right part being current balance; all parts are color-coded per our standard scheme (red - expenses, green - incomes, golden on blue - balance); changed
Added radar display de-clutter controls to Radar UI Overlay, including capability to switch on or off the following markings: VORs, NDBs, Extended Runway Centerlines, Visual Ref Points, Mandatory Reporting Points, Rotating Beam and toggle between full (TWR-style) and brief (APP\CTR-style) target identification labels; added
Changed Game Loading Screen: instead of dark background it now features colorful in-game stills, more distinguishable 'game tips' area. In later versions Loading Screen will also display information on current Player achievements; changed
Added Income Per Hour, Income Per Day, Expense Per Hour and Expense Per Day display in Finances tab; also these values will be used by City Mayor when setting goals for Player; added
Added new Status Panel icons to display runways 16 and 34 as active runways; added
Changed LVP\IMC\VMC icons on Status Panel; changed
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.0a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.0a RELEASED!
Changelog follows
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Added Service Contracts Mechanics: service contracts (available in game UI via Contracts button or F8 key on keyboard) present the market of aircraft servicing contract offers. It currently works like this: 1) upon starting the new game (regardless career or free play mode), each aircraft gets initialized with its current service state including date of last Form-A, Form-B and Form-C technical servicing timestamps; 2) upon certain time interval, the technical state of all aircraft is re-evaluated against very complex probability randomizer, which is set up in such a way that aircraft serviced longest time ago has higher chance to malfunction in one of the several categories (airfoil, mechanical, hydraulics, engine, electrics, operational fluids etc.) – if such a malfunction is reported by a pilot (e.g. magneto on piston engine), a corresponding service contract appears on the market – i.e. Player’s airport along with nearby airports (an airport must provide hangar services and lie within reach distance of one flight); 3) when contract is formed by aircraft owner, it may include one or two additional services required (e.g. [eng] 100-hours engine check (hence time has come) + [hyd] hydraulics line check (probability ~32,5%) + [elec] right landing light lamp change (probability ~12,5%, which does not stack with previous random roll); 4) Player evaluates offered contract against hangar(s) he or she has available and against servicing capabilities said hangars have (i.e. cannot accept service contract for customer aircraft with wingspan larger than that of largest hangar, cannot accept contract if the only hangar doing computer diagnostics is already occupied and the contract requires that service etc.); 5) if Player accepts a contract – corresponding ARR and DEP flights are scheduled, if Player rejects contract a decrease in rating with operator Airline (or Private Pilots Association) will be applied; if Player does nothing (does not accept the contract, does not reject it) – the contract has expiry time (about 4 to 8 hours for smaller aircraft and about 22-37 hours for larger aircraft), upon hitting the expiry time – the contract is automatically rewarded to some other Service Hangars operator on the market leading to minimum negative rating change and customer aircraft in question not available in the game world for any purposes while it’s servicing is complete plus some time more; Note: at any time between 30 minutes Service Contract is available on the market and its expiry time, if not accepted nor rejected it may be awarded to a competing airport with Service facilities; a notification is displayed upon new Service Contract becomes available and first 30 minutes are guaranteed to hold contract available for Player to accept\reject; Added
Added capability for an Airline to cancel one, several or all flights for its Aircraft for given day (without affecting Player’s Airport rating with Airline) due to several possible reasons: weather, aircraft malfunction, re-scheduling purposes; added
Added new rules for Airlines ratings changing when dealing with Service Contracts: for accepting a Service Contract – owner’s Airline rating change is +0.5%; for rejecting a Service Contract with owner Airline: -1%; for completing a Service Contract with owner Airline: +1,5%; thus by accepting and then fulfilling a Service Contract Player can totally increase Airline rating up to +2%; note: by not rejecting a contract but letting it expire or be picked up by another Airport’s FBO it is possible to escape -1% penalty to Airline rating but at the cost of new Service Contracts not appearing sooner; added
Added ATIS\ATIS-D: the ATIS (Automated Terminal Information System) message is generated in Appleton airport every hour at all times; a new weather observation is included in ATIS message if one or more of the following conditions are met at any given time: 1) mean measured steady wind speed and\or sporadic recent wind gust speed changes more than 7 knots between two recent observations; 2) prevailing mean measured wind direction changes 20 or more degrees between two recent observations; 3) visibility changes more than 1000 meters on surface level straight line between two recent observations; 4) QNH local air pressure changes 5 or more hectopascal (mbar) between two recent observations; 5) temperature changes or dew-point fluctuates more than 5 degrees C within last 30 minutes – in such case a new ATIS message containing the latest observation is generated; pilots are required to specify ATIS info designator\letter when requesting clearances and ATC is required to confirm the latest ATIS information onboard aircraft is correct; ATIS messages are transmitted on CommBox ATIS channel\tab with every update, also upon switching to ATIS tab the new fresh ATIS message readout is loaded regardless if ATIS itself changed or not; added
Added weather descriptive blocks – instead of previously used fixed variables defining current weather set, new implementation is used from now on – WDB (weather descriptive block) – this expandable information block contains mandatory weather info (such as visibility, temperature, pressure, cloud coverage etc.) and may contain other non-mandatory properties such as weather area-specific differences (example: thunderstorm west of Appleton, transitioning north to south, not passing Airport itself), corrections to existing weather data (example: cloud coverage is 4 octants in general in TMA area but there is an ‘opening’ above the mountains area, where cloud coverage measures 1-2 octants) – the major benefit of this new system is capability to freely mix WDBs, measure differences between 2 or more WDBs etc. – this is a very important step towards full-scale weather engine coming in version updates 0.3.x a; added
Changed how completed flight ops are removed from current Time Schedule – now the actual removal happens when both flights ops in a pair (ARR + DEP) have been completed; changed
Added support for various helicopter rotor types configurations (Fixed Ratio Single-shaft with all possible tail-rotor ratios, gearbox-reduction type, 2-,3-,4-,5-blade main rotors with blade tip speeds all subsonic and NOTAR-specific configuration are implemented; Tandem- and Coaxial- specific configurations – to come in future versions); added
Added support for single-strobe light and single-beacon light on helicopters; added
Added support for blended night-lights over distance – previously the only setting for night-lights of game-world background objects (buildings lights, far lights, road lights etc.) was pre-configured intensity of light, from now on the new setting (will be actively tweaked in following versions) for dispersion of lights facing camera with distance to active camera and eventually taking into account atmospheric characteristics (compatible with both Rayleigh and Mie atmospheric scattering models) is used; added
Modified number of positions taken by hangar specialists and mechanics on initial game start to 10 per each hangar, 3 shifts per day; changed specialties of mechanics and engineers in accordance with new service hangars system; changed
Fixed owner Airline being reported as 3-letter airline code instead of Full Airline Name and vice versa, sometimes causing incorrect depiction of data in various UI screens; fixed
Fixed Flight Strips not always displaying aircraft taxing to parking after landing; fixed
Fixed Service Hangars colliders blocking mouse clicks on Aircraft inside hangars; fixed
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new helicopter - Rovertzone R55 Crow II (real-world prototype: Robinson R44 Raven II) – a classic low-cost private helicopter produced in vast numbers (about 6000 to date including all modifications), a helicopter that one can encounter at almost every heliport or G\A airfield around the World, cost-efficient, reliable and number one choice among helicopter flight schools; Helicopters in the following liveries were added CS-OGJ, DS-PNL, LE-PUM, N401Y, N910R, RGSTA, SVRZO; added
Added new aircraft – Viper 32 Vajano (real-world prototype: Piper PA31 Navajo) – this twin piston-prop with more than half-century history of upgrades and improvements is flying around the Globe in large numbers, for many private pilots it’s the aircraft they use to get their multi-engine rating and also this aircraft is still very popular among private owners; Aircraft in the following liveries were added DA-VOL (operator: Airforce Flight Academy), N120Z, OL-CAF, PE-RTN (all three privately owned and operated); added
Fixed gear up and gear down sound effects were swapped on VE58 aircraft; fixed
Fixed some prop blades materials not having matte-gloss component; fixed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Added new sounds for R55 helicopter, recorded from actual real-world prototype; added
Added new sounds for VA32 aircraft, including specific sound-blend of PT6 engine and Hartzel triple-blade prop found on genuine real-world prototype; added
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Added Tier 3 Airport Upgrade Segments airport structures visual models: 3-1: new runway 16-34, 2530m x 44m, taxiways E (connects runway 17 end to runway 16 end) and G (connects runway 35 end to K taxiway); 3-2: Apron 2 main taxiway P, taxiways H, N (link to runway 16 end, link to Cargo terminal area), J, K (Passenger Terminal 2 entrance\exit taxiways), L (link to runway 34 end); de-icing pads on taxiways L and H; 3-3: Passenger Terminal 2 apron, inner main taxiway R, inner taxiways J and K, Large Service Hangars area taxiway O; Note: Tier 3 Airport Upgrades will be separately purchasable Airport upgrades, each with its City Mayor quest and upgrade cost, each upgrade segment of Tier 3 will unlock specific gameplay: 3-1: capability to accept largest business and medium regional aircraft; 3-2: Cargo operations and capability to accept all categories of aircraft; 3-3: capability to accept Medium, Heavy and SuperHeavy passenger aircraft; added
Added sub-pixel lighting to all new surfaces used on Apron 2; added
Added new segment of MTMLB-detail textures to the area surrounding Apron 2 area, runway 16-34 and infield connecting taxiways; added
Changed Terrain resolution to higher definition in mountains areas to the West and to North-East of Airport; changed
Changed terrain tiles in Airport area for better blending with new Apron 2 area and new city-side blocks of buildings; changed
Changed how Terrain pre-loader treats texture tiles: from now on – first a master tile is loaded in 8192x8192 px resolution and the pre-loader informs game loading module that ‘terrain is in mode 0’, indicating that all meshes calculations are complete and master-tile is loaded, immediately after that loader proceeds with loading all subsequent layers of 3D-objects, while Terrain pre-loader uses multi-threading capabilities of a CPU to continue loading detailed terrain 8192x8192 px tiles in lower-priority threads until all needed terrain tiles are loaded into memory, it then checks whether a high-detail tile(s) need to be loaded at current camera position and does so, however if not – the Terrain pre-loader starts caching detail tiles closest to Player’s Airport into video memory; this new algorithm may significantly speed up game loading (and re-loading from saved game while still in game world) on multi-core CPUs, additionally camera-switching renders more fluently and GPU-buffering micro-stutters are far less likely to happen even on older GPUs and even when using significantly larger number of tiles layers than there are currently in public builds of the game; changed
Added Appleton Expo Center building to the city-side, creating more lively look especially when viewing helicopters on visual approach and departure; added
Added 2 new city buildings types, currently can be seen in various static locations around Appleton city, in later versions will be used for auto-generated procedural blocks of City buildings; added
Adjusted night time lighting of many houses and large city building for better look at dusk\dawn\night time; changed
Detail Draw Distance parameter now is limited on lower side to pre-configured value, below which any limitations imposed on Detail Draw Distance by option is Settings window, are lifted – this is done to ensure proper drawing of large and tiny objects in batches affected by Detail Draw Distance; changed
Added support for both normals and sub-pixel lighting to ground tiles in service hangars; added
Fixed missing emission map on G\A Apron Service Hangars lamps; fixed
Fixed weird bug occurring randomly on some non-16:9 screen resolutions when some game screens would have a tiny `running line` on pixel-coordinates x0,Yinfinity – this was caused by double division error in render camera high-pass shader when it encountered non-standard division and would round up to incorrect value; fixed
[H1]Cameras[/H1]
Added capability for Airport Overview Cam to instantly move to a specific position and view angle; added
Tweaked default movement and rotation speeds for the following cameras: Airport Overview, In-Tower View, Pax Terminal 1 Inside Cam, General Manager’s Office – all ‘move-and-turn’ style cameras are now smoother and faster by default; changed
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Added Airport Upgrade Tier Preview selector to GM tab in Airport Admin screen: the lowest possible setting is currently implemented Airport Upgrade Tier, the highest is Tier 5. At any time the Player can switch the display option on GM tab to reflect any stage of Airport Development; if for some reason Player does not wish to see currently non-functional parts of future Airport Facilities or if Player wants to preview the steps in which the system of Airport Upgrade Tiers will allow him or her to expand the airport – he or she may switch to any Upgrade Tier Display mode at any time; the selection is saved with each individual savegame; added
Added new behavior of Airport Overview Cam button in main UI to display a set of pre-configured specific positions depending on current upgrade tier of the Airport, the following quick-views were added: [T1]: runway 17 threshold, runway 35 threshold; [T2] heliport, helipad; [T3-T5]: runway 16 threshold, runway 16 threshold; added
Added Contracts Screen (available via main menu button or F8 key on keyboard); added
Added Hangar Contracts tab on Contracts Screen, displaying currently available service contracts, currently accepted service contracts, hangar stats, equipment and facility data as well as availability state icon and button to go directly to hangar in question with Airport Overview Cam; added
Added Operator classifier to Flight Schedule Editor for easier ‘first-glance’ identification of operatiom type and operator specifics; currently the following Operator Classifiers are supported: General Aviation, Regular Operator, Flight Training, Cargo Operator, Military, Government, Has Service Contract; added
Added color and bold text markup to Time Slot Editor in Flight Schedule for better readability of data; added
Added new coloring for Flight Strips displaying aircraft currently in hangars, added
Fixed internal logics when CommBox being minimized to a Comms icon would be ordered to start flashing while main UI is not visible (hidden by user or some other UI is visible instead – e.g. Flight Scheduling screen), this in turn would throw an unhandled exception, not crashing the game but effectively disabling Comms icon from flashing in future; fixed
Added mechanism to remove all notifications of the same type (e.g. “New service contract available”) when Player clicks on one of them and gets to desired UI screen (Service Contracts in this example); added
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5.3a RELEASED!
This is a bug-fix build, addressing bugs that affect gameplay. These bugs were reported by Airport Master Closed Alpha Testing group Players as a result of targeted extensive testing. Although it is technically possible to continue a game saved with either v.0.2.5a or 0.2.5.1a, in case you have previously encountered any of the bugs addressed in this patch, it is strongly recommended to start a new game in v.0.2.5.3a
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Fixed bug with fuel quantity required upon re-fueling for general aviation aircraft was calculated in obsolete code fragment: despite that since v0.2.3a all fuel calculations are performed by an Airline and then are fed to an aircraft when requesting pre-flight ground services, the obsolete fuel need approximation code was never removed and it caused very annoying and hard to catch bug when a G\A aircraft would request re-fueling, then display Player interaction icon and notification (‘Aircraft needs re-fueling’) while at the same time the requested amount was less than 3% of fuel tank capacity and thus ignored by FBO Pipeline workflow (it would simply delete such request) – this in turn caused such aircraft to go (in some cases of loadsheet fuel and obsolete-code calculated fuel) in a dead loop; fixed
Fixed bug with types of precision- and non-precision approaches may have become mixed up in descriptions of phases of flight; fixed
Implemented additional check for situations when Player may have forced (with his or her editing of Flight Schedule) the aircraft to still get an unassigned ground parking stand or an erroneous parking stand assignment; from now on (hopefully as a temporary measure, while Flight Schedule Editor is being further developed) – if such an erroneous or empty or invalid or conflicting with actually occupied\free stands chart, parking assignment still exists by the moment of reaching holding points HM2\HM3 on Apron 1 and further on with upcoming version 0.2.6a – on new Apron 2 – the conflicting aircraft in question will be removed forcefully from game world without affecting Player’s Airport Rating with owner Airline; please note: this solution is temporary and in most cases should not be interfere with gameplay; it is intended mostly for Players who play a lot with Flight Schedule Editor (either for purpose of testing or any other) and may eventually run into a logics lockup situation – so in order for these Players to continue playing current playthrough without having to start over – the logically locked up aircraft will be removed from game world and all ATC and management records without any implications – after we complete integrating all new features of the game and the modes of Flight Schedule Editor, this mechanism will most likely be revised.
Implemented additional check for taxi clearances involving aircraft in existing savegames, affected by bug described above: if it is possible to still ‘salvage’ the flight with erroneous parking stand assignment, the taxi clearance is issued in such a manner: first the aircraft is cleared to taxi back to apron and then another taxi clearance is issued for normal taxi to runway of departure; added
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5.1a RELEASED!
Note: This is a bug-fix build, addressing bugs that affect gameplay with various severity. These bugs were reported by Airport Master Players after the release of v. 0.2.5a. Savegame files are compatible between version 0.2.5a and 0.2.5.1a thou if you run across a problem\bug described in this patch note after updating AirportMaster to v. 0.2.5.1a, it is recommended to start a new game, otherwise you can continue playing a game from v. 0.2.5.a
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Fixed ground service vehicles drive resolutions in vicinity of entry to service parking; Catering Vehicles were erroneously giving way to all other vehicles while waiting to enter AeroDelish Catering Building service driveway, thus in some situations creating congestion at this spot, which in turn could have caused vehicles lockup; fixed; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for detailed bug-report and providing his savegame file for analysis
Fixed bug with Flight School theory flight hours not being counted correctly during TimeSkips: instead of adding the time which was skipped multiplied by reduction coefficient, it added only the reduction coefficient itself, which resulted in theory hours filling up too quickly; fixed; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for bug-report
Fixed bug with Helicopter (under some circumstances on some CPUs) may have never actually started the final approach sequence and instead would try to fly precisely (a float point precision bug) to the actual Approach start point resulting flying in circles above said point with ever increasing float point precision; fixed; thanks to Leif Arne Schemann for noticing this behavior and sending us his savegame file
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Fixed incorrect flight surfaces axis, that used to be ignored (arbitrary Y or –Y angles) in our sub-engine prior to introduction of helicopters’ rotor blades surfaces; at that point two aircraft model sets (E30P and P05T) had the following arbitrary axis set incorrectly E30P: Left Aileron, Left Outboard Flap, Left Spoiler); P05T: Right and Left Flaps (had axis reversed) – this bug caused above mentioned flight surfaces of said aircraft to operate in reversed manner (e.g. flap extending instead of retracting, spoiler extending in incorrect direction, aileron reversed) – all axis of all mentioned flight surfaces were fixed to normal non-arbitrary (explicit) coordinate axis; aircraft in all liveries of types E30P and P05T were checked and fixed; thanks to Robert from CAT-group for noticing this bug and reporting to us with screenshots and a theory that proved nearly perfectly correct
Fixed bug with an Aircraft sometimes not resetting it’s HaveActualTaxiRoute flag upon reaching parking when taxing after landing and thus on return flight resulting in crew not requesting new taxi clearance; fixed and installed a mechanism preventing this flag to even be in unrealistic logics state; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for providing his savegame file for analysis
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Fixed bug with sound of jet engines at startup sometimes may have gone out of sync with actual fan RPM causing either a short silence dropout at the end of engine start sequence or incorrectly high RPM on startup of some jet engines in the game which have RPM change profile on engine startup synchronized with engine startup sound set; this was caused by incorrect calculation of interphase discretion, which caused this bug to never manifest itself on high-end newer CPUs while being caught on an older CPU under heavy system load; fixed
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Tweaked minimum range of detail draw distance for taxiways markings; previously, setting the Draw Distance to Near (or around it) may have caused central taxiway markings to be excluded from draw queue; fixed
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5a RELEASED!
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Added helicopters game mechanics, including flight dynamics, helicopter-specific flight-scheduling, helicopter-specific ground service vehicle operations, helicopter-specific ATC; added
Added weather-dependent pendulum-type micro-rotations of helicopters when hovering; the intensity is still being tweaked, not final; added
Fixed discrepancy of relation of vertical speed to current pitch of an airplane, this should result in smoother vertical speed adjustment when changing pitch in climbs and descents; fixed
Added new type and range definitions to Object View camera for support of Helicopters and Large Airplanes; added
Added Helicopters initial visual departure and final visual approach routes; added
Added Helicopters air-taxi routes to and from ground parking stands F1 through F8; added
Added new airline MedEvac (Air Ambulance and Medical Evacuation) - code MED; all MedEvac aircraft that previously been treated as Private are now correctly related to actual airline; added
Changed how MedEvac flights are scheduled; changed
Added Intercomm communication channel (VHF radio), to be used by various facilities, services and personnel of the Airport to communicate directly to Player; Added
Added 34 new ground vehicles routes for Airport Vehicles in Heliport area for a total number of 164 vehicle routes around the Airport; added
Added 10 new helicopter-specific VFR routes (DEP and ARR) to and from existing VFR points; routes are arranged in such a way so that they do not interfere with airplanes flying visual departures and arrivals and cross glide paths of runways 17 and 35 at safe altitudes; added
Fixed bug with PAPI lights on inactive runway being still on even after command from ATC to switch them off; fixed
Fixed very well hidden bug with ATC assigning Ground Service Vehicles jobs identifiers may have occasionally assigned non-unique identifier causing two vehicles share same job and thus first reporting ground service job completion causing the other one to hang dead; fixed
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Added Large Factory building near ILS 35 glideslope entry point; added
Added 3 new city buildings types, currently can be seen in various static locations around Appleton city, in later versions will be used for auto-generated procedural blocks of City buildings; added
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new aircraft [J358] Finelad-Durniere 358 JET (real-world prototype Fairchild-Dornier 328JET) an aircraft with amazing history and amazing fate, whose production (and production ownership rights changed several times throughout last 30 years, including transferring production to different countries - but it still flies and remains in demand for short runway twin-jet operation - aircraft with following registration numbers were added: RK-DBS (Aster), RK-LOB (Aster), N313L (Private), TDHQE (Private), HV-SSA (MedEvac)
Added new helicopter [B409] Bull 409 (real-world prototype Bell 407) - one of the most massively produced and popular modern helicopters in the World with very efficient design becomes the first helicopter type in the game - helicopters with following registration numbers were added: N101M, RK-OZM, FL-TRE, SQ-RTW (Private), HV-LAF (MedEvac)
[H1]ATC[/H1]
Added 2 new Airports: Wellmerton City (JAWL/WLM) and Roulent Municipal (JART/RLN); Both serviced by Aster.
Added full ATC service for Foxtrot (heliport) ground parkings; added
Added new VFR points for Helicopters final approach PT-HA (HeliAlpha) and initial departure PT-HD (HeliDelta); added
Added proper ground communications of Service Vehicles to ATC(GND), including permission to cross taxiway, reports of taxiway vacated, starts and ends of Fire and Rescue and ATC shifts; added
[H1]Cameras[/H1]
Changed behavior of Object Cam when switching from one object to another (but Object Cam remains active camera) - from now on, the change of Info Window information will be immediate and precise; changed
Changed default back to camera action for Object Cam - it now defaults to returning to overview camera (by pressing [Backspace] key at any time, while using Object Cam); changed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Added new engine sounds for J358 aircraft, recorded from a real PW engine; thank you, Tony!
Added new gear operation and flaps motors sounds for J358 aircraft, recorded in hangar, cleaned and remastered to create the full audial immersion for this aircraft type; thanks Tony and our best regards to Heinrich for allowing us to place mics in hangar during maintenance!
Added new engine sounds for B409 helicopter, recorded from actual engine; blades spins and blades sound fade out on engine shutdown were recorded from other helicopter rotors and then digitally remastered into blended sound effects of engine operation; this technique will be used for all helicopter engine sounds from now on as it gives good results rendering blended rotor+engine sound very similar to the real thing;
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Completely reworked CommBox - the new CommBox design allows for comfortable Comms-system usage that will suit various Players' UI-styles preference: CommBox can work in one of the following modes: 1) Unpinned-Normal: when a new radio comm message is broadcast over VHF band, a text message appears in corresponding frequency display tab and the CommBox remains fully opaque while Player's mouse is within its boundaries, once mouse cursor leaves the boundaries of CommBox, it will slowly fade to fully transparent for less cluttered UI; 2) Pinned Mode - the CommBox window stays always visible and fully opaque regardless of whether Player's mouse cursor is within its boundaries or elsewhere; 3) Minimized mode - after Player presses Minimize button - CommBox stays minimized (even when a new message is broadcast over a comm channel) until Player clicks small COMM button in lower-left corner of the screen (CommBox restore button) - for convenience COMM button starts flashing if there are new messages in CommBox that Player has not yet seen due to CommBox been minimized; Changed
Added timestamp and frequency as well as color-coding based on station transmitting to each message on CommBox; Added
Changed CommBox to tabbed layout for more convenient data management: the following tabs were added - ALL FREQs (displays all messages on all frequencies from all stations); ATIS (for Automated Terminal Information System messages), DELIVERY (clearance delivery frequency), GROUND (ground taxing, air-taxing of helicopters in heliport maneuvering area, service vehicles comms, emergency services ground movements, ATC shift changes etc.), TOWER (takeoff and landing clearances, visual circuits); APPROACH (IFR approaches and departures, VFR flight following); INTERCOMM (Player's avatar's - Airport General Manager's personal VHF radio frequency - to be used in later versions for important comms from various Airport facilities to the Player); how tabs work: if a Player elects to keep ALL FREQs tab open - there are no flashing tabs, all messages are displayed in this tab (newest on top), color-coding and frequency are used to easily distinguish one station from another (this mode is default for a new game and resembles having VHF band scanner at your disposal; if Player switches to any other tab - say APPROACH - he or she will only see messages related to this frequency - however, when a new message is broadcast (say on TOWER frequency), the corresponding tab will start flashing, indicating that it contains new, unseen message(s) - upon switching to this tab (or ALL FREQs tab) - it will stop flashing; Changed
Changed slightly location and size of Radar overlay in Main UI to look better with new CommBox; changed
Changed slightly location of Time Skip control in Main UI to look better with new CommBox and shifted Radar overlay; changed
Added logos for new airlines - Aster and MedEvac
Fixed error in VFR arrival phase of flight description in Info Window for airplanes flying VFR arrivals; fixed
Added gust component of wind display to Main UI status panel if gusts are at least 2 knots stronger than steady wind speed; added
Added vehicles Info Window Display (standard Info Window as airplanes and helicopters show on mouse-over and statically in ObjectCam view); added
Added color-coded differentiation to Info Window Display to help Player instantly understand what type of object information is shown about - traditional pale-yellow for airplanes, pale-orange for helicopters, light-gray for ground support vehicles, pale-green for airport facilities; added
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.3a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.3a RELEASED!
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
New mechanics for flight scheduling for all non-regular flights operators: when a new non-regular flight is scheduled, it's now scheduled as VFR if when the following conditions are met: 1) an aircraft can use general aviation ground parking stands (i.e. wingspan < 14m) and 2) flight arrival time is between 0800Z and 1700Z (daytime) and 3) meteorology conditions at the time of arrival are expected to be VMC; otherwise - flights are scheduled as IFR. For the return-flight, it is scheduled as VFR when the following conditions are met: 1) the arrival flight had been filed as VFR and 2) time of return flight departure falls between 0800Z and 1700Z (daytime) and 3) meteorology conditions at the time of departure are expected to be VMC; In all other cases IFR flight plan is filed (even if initial request by aircraft operator has been for VFR return flight). Note: in future versions government, law enforcement and Airforce Academy flights will be scheduled as SVFR if need arises to file VFR flight plan at night (still with regard to VMC meteorology conditions).
Airforce Academy (airline code: ARF) can now operate both as regular and non-regular flights airline; this concerns both weekly and daily scheduling procedures;
New game startup states now include VFR flights; changed
Now flight scheduling and actual flight taking place are more distinguished: a flight plan filed to flight planning system does not necessarily mean a flight would happen as well as it does not mean that if the flight does not happen, it will result in rating change consequences for Player: a whole host of situations are now taken into account as to flight planning and actual flying: a) a flight has been scheduled but been canceled on operator's behalf (no rating change); b) a flight has been scheduled but Player canceled it (standard rating change as per airline master contract); c) a flight has been delayed but not canceled due to weather conditions prohibiting flight to take place on time (no rating change); d) a flight has been delayed by operator (no rating change); e) a flight has been delayed by Player (rating change due to this behavior of Player to be implemented in future versions); f) a flight has been scheduled but for some reason failed to comply with arrival\departure min\max time shift margins (e.g. an operator used that same aircraft to schedule a flight to some other airport than Player's and there it got delayed for any reason) - no rating change; e) flight scheduling on either Player's side or Operator's side ran into some obscure logical condition (e.g. a new arrival for the same physical aircraft but under other Flight Number somehow (bugs or erratic or intentionally interruptive behavior of a Player) got approved to be put on flight planning system while the aircraft is still physically in Player's airport (pending departure + flight time + whatever associated times of service) - no rating change, silent removal of conflicting 'rogue' flight data from flight planning system upon first regular check; added
Changed how IFR departures and arrivals are handled internally: previously an operator was bound to request an IFR arrival\departure point and ATC was bound to provide routing to\from that point; from now on when filing a flight plan, an operator simply specifies To\From Airport and desired routing prior to or after operations in Player Airport TMA - that is fully sufficient for flight planning; on actual operation start ATC may elect to issue clearances to other routing points or vectors for IFR departure\arrival - this is a very important step towards future expansion of routes and airports and especially important for implementing real-world style operations of larger airliners; changed
Changed how Non-Regular Flights flight plan filing works, from now on: no new flight plans will be filed starting 2200Z and until 0800Z time (during night hours), since the majority of private general aviation flights would now prefer VFR, and in accordance with common sense and realism, this is an obvious choice (note: a flight plan filed say at 2150Z for arrival at 0300Z and back flight at 0430Z will, of course, be processed and proposed to the Player for approval or denial; if approved it will be filed as night time IFR according to new mechanics); this change only affects new flight plans filed during night hours - there will be none, making night a less burdened, quieter time of day for Airport Manager; changed
Raised precision of all Meter-to-Feet-to-Meter calculations for altitudes and flight levels - this becomes more important as variety of VFR traffics co-use terminal maneuvering area airspace; changed
Added Heliport facility to the Airport - currently available at the start of new game but will become an upgrade item (requiring certain amount of funds, achievements and City Mayor's rating to be purchased). Heliport is added as a predicate of Helo operations coming in future versions;
Added heliport lighting equipment (approach and pad lights, light masts) and configured them in accordance with standards;
Added VFR arrivals and departures (full-scale VFR flights are now possible); Smaller aircraft scheduling flights to\from nearby airports will prefer VFR over IFR when visibility permits, thou some IFR flight plans by smaller aircraft will still be filed once in a while; helicopters (coming in future versions) will file VFR (and SVFR) flight plans;
Changed: aircraft now take a little more time (from 3 to 7 seconds on average) to start taxing after receiving taxi clearance, making it look more natural as it takes time to check visually 'clear on left side' \ 'clear on right side' and release the parking brake; changed
Fixed runway border lights used same rules for turning on and off as taxiway lights - changed to correct set of rules; fixed
Fixed time-gap between 0700Z and 0800Z when under IMC, incorrect set of rules applied to runway and taxiway lights; changed to correct set of rules; fixed
Fixed departures (smaller aircraft that don't require full ground service) not displaying pilot and pax thou those are onboard and reported to statistics module correctly; fixed
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new aircraft Zeccna Z205 Estateair (real-world prototype Cessna C206 Stationair) - single piston-engine prop, very popular as small cargo and charter airlines workhorse, featuring seating of six (or roomy cargo-space) and signature double-door to ease up loading. The following liveries are added: N1217P, DE-AFG, EC-ORM, RH-JWL, FE-VKX, N881L, LE-RCK (all privately owned);
Tweaked pilot's taxi visual precision for VE58 type of aircraft for smoother following of taxi routes; tweak
[H1]ATC[/H1]
Added 3 new Airports: Suntown Regional (JASU/STR), Sharkole County Municipal (JKSC/SHR), Culfer Airfield (JACL/CUL); all three located to the North or North-East of Player's airport and use IFR SIDs\STARs via PAROM intersection and VFR point PT-N for TMA entry\exit;
Fixed ATC issuing incorrect altitude clearance for STARs\SIDs via MONET, LINTA and PAROM intersections (ATC neglected westbound\eastbound odd\even Flight Level rules); from now on: PAROM and LINTA clearances are: departures - FL110\FL130; arrivals - FL120/FL100; MONET clearances are: departures - FL100\FL120; arrivals - FL130/FL110; fixed
Fully implemented ATC handoffs from APP to CTR on any of 4 conditions: a) aircraft reached designated point of standard instrument departure procedure (SID); b) aircraft reached VFR departure route point (or reported leaving TMA); c) aircraft reached maximum radar-control-distance; d) aircraft reached assigned Flight Level while flying a SID - in any of these cases, Approach controller hands the aircraft off to the Control\Center controller;
Fixed aircraft not reading back taxi instructions to GND controller in some cases; fixed
Fixed GND issuing taxi clearance from holding point HC3 to holding point HM2 via taxiway Charlie (now correctly via taxiways Charlie & Delta); fixed
Fixed ATC phraseology when clearing an Aircraft for ILS approach (both APP and TWR); fixed
Fixed ATC phraseology when being called on DEL frequency, Delivery responded with TWR callsign; fixed
Fixed ATC not giving next frequency when transferring aircraft from DEL to GND; fixed
Radar flight following mark now displays only TMA entry\exit point (instead of visual route name) for VFR arrivals and departures; changed
Fixed Cleared altitude or FL not displayed on a flight strip after loading a saved game; fixed
Changed default time on visual orbit left or right from 30 seconds to 1 minute for more realistic traffic separation on visual circuits and VFR arrivals entering downwind leg; note: IFR arrivals if assigned an Orbit on ILS maneuver by ATC - by default, still orbit for 30 seconds; changed
Fixed Landing Clearance issued by Tower sometimes not appearing in Comm-Box; fixed
Fixed (hopefully!) the rare occurrences of ground stand scheduling for Flight School aircraft when a Player could cause any other parking stand assignment than G7 & G8, which in turn caused pesky bug with completed time table operation by a Flight School aircraft to stay persistently on Flight Schedule Management screen; hopefully fixed
Added differentiation between clearing VFR arrivals for visual circuit altitude (1000ft) and issuing a 'maintain 1000 ft' resolution to aircraft currently already on visual circuit (local training flights and VFR go-arounds); added
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Added 3 new types of 5-storey houses to the city;
Added 3 new advertising posters to Pax Terminal automatic ad-changer displays;
Added new detail layers to MTMLBs covering airport area, mostly grass underlay details, occasional dirt and nature details;
Added new set of MTMLBs covering area next to existing runway, where a new runway (purchasable as mid-game upgrade) will be situated; two other sets of MTMLBs (one covering Second Pax Terminal area and the other one, covering city-side area were tested but not included in this update as both require more compatibility work with regard to coming auto-generated (autogen) blocks and streets of buildings, trees and other non-systematic detail objects);
Added new experimental shader for MTMLBs - depending on GPU load it may use double pass to render ground details MTMLBs in order to eliminate z-buffer flicker; added; experimental
Terrain shader has been modified to work seamlessly with experimental MTMLBs shader both in single-pass mode and double-pass mode; changed; experimental
[H1]Cameras[/H1]
Changed the way Selected Object Camera treats minimum and maximum distances for each object type: instead of old uniform formula for all types of aircraft (wingspan/2+5m for MIN and MIN+35m for MAX values), which was uniform alright but did influence the fact that the larger aircraft gets, the more it's subjective scale in Player's eyes would seem distorted); the new formula takes wingspan groups into account allowing for better perceived MIN and MAX distances; changed
Tweaked MIN and MAX distance for vehicle object type when Player selects Object Camera; tweaked
Fixed the location of Object Camera Reference Point on all aircraft of type D170; as a configuration error, the reference point was shifted too far front, making the rotation of Object Camera uneven; fixed; Thanks go to Mathew Ellison for noticing this bug and reporting it!
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Changed how Flight Schedule gets updated when an operation completes: previously Flight Schedule window was updating in sync with Airport Time Table Displays, so when a flight arrived at the stand or left TMA, the actual update of both would happen with regular 5 minute intervals - thou this behavior is realistic for Airport Time Table Displays it is not for Flight Schedule - so now: once an operation completes the data of arrived\departed flight stays on Time Table Displays for 5 minutes, but gets instantly removed from Flight Schedule; changed
Added new flight phase descriptions displayed in InfoWindow for VFR arrivals and departures; added
Changed flight phase descriptions displayed in InfoWindow for IFR departures and arrivals to display actual STAR\SID instead of associated intersection; changed
Added current balance display to all management UI windows, where purchases are possible, namely: Airport Administration, FBO, Flight School, Electric Power Management, Meteorology Office, Vending Machines Management, Cafeteria, as per multiple Player requests; added
Changed balance display format: leading zeroes display is now optional; grouping by thousands digits added;
Added option to display or hide leading zeros in balance display to settings window;
Fixed Flight Schedule Management Screen information update performance issue caused by non-optimal 'Update Slot' calls; this may have resulted in some slots that has already been updated to receive a command to update data another time - thou not critical and rarely encountered, this bug could have caused a slowdown when updating Flight Scheduling Screen; fixed
Added two options, 'Display Airline Rating increase notifications' and 'Display Airline Rating decrease notifications' to Airlines Relations Management tab of Airport Administration Screen: if checked - each time a corresponding Airline Rating change occurs (increase or decrease) a notification is displayed, clicking it switches Player to Airlines Relations Management screen; this way each Player can decide whether they want such notifications displayed or not; added
Fixed Airlines Ratings numbers roundup to one digit (one tenth of a per cent) in all screens displaying Airlines Ratings; fixed
Changed layout of Flight School student view bar for better readability; changed
Added %% of completion of Theoretical, Practical and Solo Flying courses with color coding of completion progress; added
Fixed actual flight hours of a Flight School student were displayed incorrectly (multiple digits after comma), now fixed to standard e.g. 13.1h; fixed
Fixed some notifications not switching to corresponding tab in Airport Administration UI when Player clicked notification, thou opening the Admin UI itself, no tab change happened; fixed
Added new game main menu backgrounds;
Added game main menu animations;
Added animation to STICLI Games logo; clicking the logo now opens our website
Changed scrolling credits view screen to close and return to game main menu on any key or mouse button press, not just [ESC]-key (as it was before); changed
New color coding of ATC Flight Strips now distinguishes IFR and VFR departures and arrivals (with VFR ops being slightly dimmer colors of IFR counterparts); also changed Missed Approach flight strip to brighter 'pale-red' color; also changed ground ops and ground service flight strip colors to define commonality of ground ops; changed
Changed Help Screen #3 to reflect new color-coding of ATC Flight Strips; changed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Added new engine sounds for Z205 aircraft, recorded from a real Lycoming TSIO-540 engine; thanks Tony!
Changed engine sounds for V28A aircraft, previously it used generic PT-6 sounds making sound clearly unlike the real-world counterpart, but now that we've got a possibility to record live sounds from vintage hangar-stored Archer with Lycoming O-360 engine, VE28 finally gets its real-world engine sounds; changed
Changed engine sounds for ZN17 aircraft - recorded from Lycoming O-360-A4 engine after restoring - one can hear the definite difference of later two; thanks Tony!
Tweaked audibility zones ranges of all nature ambient sounds for better sound blending of overlapping ambient sounds; tweak
Crickets and cicadas ambient sounds zones located in Heliport area are now only working when Heliport upgrade is not yet purchased by Player; once Heliport upgrade is purchased, cricets and cicadas move further out to the east; changed
Airport Master v. 0.2.2a RELEASED!
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.2a RELEASED!
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Changed how flight scheduling works: from now on: Regular Flights (Airlines) add flight plans to flight schedule as per agreed Airline Master Contract; Non-Regular flights add flight plans only via Player's input (each new proposed flight is to be accommodated and approved by Player); each and every flight (regardless, regular or non-regular) that upon being filed interfere with currently allocated time slots (and\or ground parking stands allocation) requires Player's input to resolve the conflicting slots. Note: essentially Airline Master Contract penalties apply here in case that Player elects to resolve conflicting slots by moving regular flight's slot from previously agreed allocation; if the opposite way to resolve conflicting slots is elected by Player (e.g. move non-regular flight's slot and preserve the regular flight's one) in most cases, this will result in no penalties (other than cases when non-regular flight's slot is moved too far away from initially requested). For such cases, Player may elect to disapprove a planned flight of non-regular operator taking standard rating penalty. Also note: no Time Skip operations are possible if there is at least one non-allocated flight waiting approval\disapproval of a filed flight plan at any given moment.
Changed how initial startup state templates work; now more elegant implementation compatible with new flight scheduling system is used;
Added new (4-th) initial startup state template;
Added Airport Maintenance Center (and waste processing facility) buildings and equipment to the airport;
Changed mechanics of waste removal from aircraft: now upon requesting cleaning & maintenance, a maintenance vehicle arrives to stand of aircraft being serviced, removes the waste in batches of 8 units (this refers to liters of liquid waste, used food trays, etc), performs interior cleaning (as a separate operation), completes servicing at stand, proceeds to Airport Maintenance Center, unloads waste at the waste processing area, replenishes cleaning supplies, then proceeds back via security checkpoint to service vehicles parking; the UI for Maintenance Center will become available in future versions;
Changed mechanics of catering delivery onboard aircraft: now upon requesting catering, a catering vehicle arrives to stand of aircraft being serviced, delivers food rations onboard, proceeds to AeroDelish Catering Building, replenishes food rations supply, then proceeds back to service vehicles parking; the UI for managing Catering Facility will become available in future versions;
Added 3 new solar-panel blocks: 2 x 2kW roof diagonal blocks added to Airport Maintenance Center roof, 1 x 2kW PVB added to Fire and Rescue Station building roof;
Added and configured power consumption to Airport Maintenance Center;
Increased minimum interval for scheduling of non-regular flights from 10 minutes (since last scheduled) to 35 minutes - a temporary measure to ease workload on Players who do not purchase 'Fuel Transfer Rate' FBO upgrade early in game and get jam-locked airport due to high frequency of non-regular flights; this feature will still be available as a late gameplay upgrade (hiring a schedule manager) and will not affect the manual scheduling of flights performed by Player using the new scheduling system; changed;
Reduced sale probability for all Vending Machines, especially not upgraded, especially after the machine has recently performed a sale - the resulting re-balance should render about 30% less frequent sales by each Vending Machine; upgrades improve this stat by a percent of the corrected re-balanced value; changed;
Fixed Departures on Airport Time Table not updating; fixed
Changed how Airlines' Rating of Player's Airport changes: instead of legacy system, which re-calculated Airlines' ratings once a game day, the new system is 100% dynamic, and displays updated ratings as they change; a notification is also displayed; Changed
Fixed very rarely manifesting bug with Flight School student taking theory class under some circumstances being reported by Flight School both as taking theory class and as flying a training flight - this bug caused an exception breaking further play; We express our gratitude to Airport Master player - maxmilan76 for catching this bug and sending us his save-file along with very detailed description of circumstances under which it manifested itself. Thank you!; fixed
Flight School students initial capacity increased from 10 to 13, theory class capacity increased from 6 to 8; in future versions this will become an upgradeable option; changed
Fixed Time Skip mechanics bug resulting in Time Skip control becoming visible under certain rare conditions when ATC first reported that it has no actually executing operations and then once Time Skip control became visible a new ATC op became active. This allowed for mixups with actual and scheduled times for operations. Currently Time Skip control will become disabled (if it was enabled but a new ATC op began at that moment); fixed
Added Aircraft Atlas, a centralized aircraft data repository, significantly optimizing the way various aircraft data (including physics-engine parameters, UI data, data used in intermediate processing etc.) being processed by the game engine - instead of storing aircraft related data in a variety of localized data spots, it is now centralized, has its own high-priority processing thread which leads to overall performance increase with any element of the game world depending on getting aircraft data;
Fixed Maintenance Vehicles reporting removed 1 unit of waste instead of 1 pack of waste (8 units) both to Aircraft being serviced and to ground vehicles management causing erroneous display of waste removed in Aircraft Info Window and incorrect value in Statistics (thou waste was removed correctly and all charges\costs involved were also calculated correctly); fixed
Maintenance Vehicles now display work progress indicators (0-100%) during all three activities, namely: cleaning airplane (waste removal), maintenance procedure, dumping of waste at maintenance center and refill of cleaning supplies; changed
Added standard work progress indicator (0-100%) to Catering Vehicles, Pax Mini Buses, Baggage Carts, Fuel Trucks; added
Added Follow Me \ Administration vehicles apron operations. Currently implemented: Apron Check (ATC may call for Apron\Taxiways visual checkup by Follow Me car once in a while at own discretion); Personnel Transfer between Control Tower and Admin Building; added
Added Fire & Rescue vehicles apron operations. Currently Emergency Fire Engine at main Apron shift changes take place roughly every 2,5 hours game time during day hours and roughly every 4 hours at night;
Added 37 new ground vehicles routes for Airport Vehicles in Admin\Maintenance area, Fire & Rescue Station area, Apron fire truck emergency parking area, Control Tower area
Added event-driven barrier-gates operation to Security checkpoint located between Apron and Admin Building / Maintenance Center areas: every car passing in and out of Apron now must stop at Security checkpoint, obtain permission to proceed from Airport Security, only after that corresponding barrier-gate opens; added
Changed parking stands assignment for FlightsCool aircraft: now stands G7 and G8 are always reserved for Flight School aircraft; changed
Removed performance analyzer from Passenger Terminal doors; previously a special tool was attached to each of 4 doors to visually demonstrate memory leaks by causing doors to 'run away' from door frames - this has now been replaced by far more sophisticated performance analyzer and reporter tool; changed;
Redesigned Passenger Terminal automatic doors, new optimized open\close routines, dispatch by Pax-bus, dispatch by Passengers arriving to terminal from City; darker glass material; changed;
[H1]Aircraft[/H1]
Added new aircraft Poggio Davanti D170 E (real-world prototype Piaggio Avanti D180 II) - the fastest commercial twin-turboprop in the World utilizing the unusual pusher-prop (duck) scheme, capable of high-altitude cruise at speeds comparable (and sometimes exceeding) those of business-jets, fuel-efficient, innovative and also the first truly commercially successful pusher-prop aircraft. The following liveries are added: N-210LS, BA-SLT, M-ASZO, GE-RLJ, N-134V (all privately owned);
Implemented 3-section flaps (to be used later on larger aircraft and with D170's front wing coordinated flaps);
Changed aircraft brief description, displayed in Info Window for the following aircraft types: CT55 (fixed typos, shorter description), L20V (fixed typos), PC13 (fixed typos), E30P (shorter description), P05T (shorter description), V28A (shorter description), RJ5X (longer description, fixed typos), ZN17 (longer description), VE58 (shorter description); changed;
[H1]Visual enhancements[/H1]
Implemented new FPS-effective Physically-Based Subpixel Lighting Model on some ground surfaces in and around the Airport;
Added new computation maps (used by new PBSLM-lighting model) to various surfaces in and around the Airport;
Implemented new shader pass batching \ caching for use with new PBSLM-lighting model;
Added Player-configurable Details Draw Distance parameter to graphics sub-engine: as most flight environment simulations, our sub-engine relies on draw distances to balance FPS-loads on Player's GPU. Previously, it used single setting optimized at the game design time to fit most GPU configurations, however we think it would be appropriate to allow Players with decent modern GPUs to be able to set Details Draw Distance farther while Players with older graphics cards, integrated video boards or simply running a weak PC configuration may benefit from setting closer Details Draw Distance. Note: this parameter explicitly affects FPS, as we use many detailed objects with draw distances crossing at various possible combinations and we use more and more such objects with each new version - so a sound advice: if you're happy how your game looks - leave this parameter at Normal (Default), you may as well play with it to match your GPU-performance on the go - the slider in Settings menu affects the Details Draw Distance changes immediately;
Added several Wind Generator Farms, consisting of groups of typical modern wind power generators - 5-10mW with rotor diameters of about 110m and total height on towers of about 150m; each wind generator is accurately modeled and all visible wind phenomena are simulated - those 'wind farms' allow for better visual immersion as they slowly rotate into wind, speed up and slow down rotors depending on wind speed etc. - 2 farms are installed in proximity of each runway end's ILS glidepath entry points making a nice live view on final approach, some windfarms are located on mountain ridges and can be visible on IFR departures and arrivals; additionally Wind Farms will become a part of gameplay when Helicopter operations are implemented;
Added Soccer Stadium to the city, visible when watching aircraft on final approach runway 17 or go-around runway 35; in future versions, Stadium will become one of the venues generating passenger ops demand;
Added parking lot in front of Passenger Terminal as a part of city side details enhancement (road traffic - buses and automobiles will be added in future versions);
Added bi-directional x3 lanes road part serving as entry-exit road to Passenger Terminal area from M20 highway (to be added in future versions);
Added bus stops at the airport and several key city locations;
Added benches outside Passenger Terminal at city side;
Added baggage carts inside and outside Passenger terminal;
Added several types of highway and road signs to the roads nearest to the Airport;
Changed asphalt textures of Power Substation and StoreStar Warehouses to new, compatible with subpixel lighting shader; changed
[H1]Sound[/H1]
Added new engine sounds for D170 aircraft, recorded from a real PT-6 engine (from another aircraft) and slightly re-mastered to implement signature 5 blades prop swoosh sounds at low-RPM prop revolutions;
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Added Flight Scheduling UI Screen (available via button on main UI buttons panel or by pressing F5 on keyboard); Each day's Flight Schedule consists of 24 1-hour allocation blocks, each consisting of 12 5-minutes spanned slots (as IRL);
Improved Facilities and Businesses tabs in Airport Administration UI: new large buttons with images corresponding to each manageable item, easily readable large headers and brief description texts added;
Fixed mouse cursor changing to hand-cursor over wrong click-areas due to incorrect order of 3D and UI elements when camera was in the following management screens: Airport Administration, FBO: Fuel, Flight School, Meteorology; fixed
Re-designed in-game Settings window: now it is split into Visual, Audio and Interface sections in a more orderly fashion;
Added Fullscreen\Windowed mode toggle button to in-game Settings window;
Added Details Draw Distance control slider to Visual section of in-game Settings window (read more on how Dynamic Details Draw Distance works in Visual Enhancements section of this changelog); the slider is liked directly to graphics sub-engine, so all changes take effect as Player moves the slider; default and recommended setting is Normal (feel free to play with it to match your GPU performance);
Added three new help screens to Help and Knowledgebase: #5 - definition and explanation of IMC and VMC, IFR, VFR and SVFR; #6 - International Radiotelephony Phraseology and help on ATC comm-box and two-way communications explanations; #7 - flight scheduling principles of operation and tips for efficient Flight Scheduling;
Fixed bug with mouse-clicks going through the in-game menu and settings window overlays if an aircraft is visible right under an overlay; fixed
Redesigned in-game menu overlay for more crisp and volumetric look;
Changed some descriptions of current aircraft states, displayed in Aircraft Info Window during some stages of flight and ground operations; changed
Fixed Average Airlines Rating not updating correctly in GM tab of Airport Administration screen; fixed
Added Average Airlines Rating display + date and timestamp of latest ratings update to Airlines tab of Airport Administration screen;
Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.1.1a Service Update RELEASED!
This is a service mini-update. It fixes two gameplay-critical bugs found by Airport Master players after the release of v.0.2.1a. Savegames created in 0.2.1a are readable\usable in 0.2.1.1a.
Changelog follows:
[H1]Game workflow[/H1]
Added computation maps for several surfaces around airport in preparation to adopt the new Physically-Based Subpixel Lighting Model to be introduced in v.0.2.2a
Fixed TimeSkip's dayskip bug that may have caused several critical game lockups with arriving aircraft - this non-regular bug manifested itself as Game Day suddenly changing from 1 to 8 (also Monday, but a week in the future) during a Time Skip operation initiated by Player, which in turn caused the arrivals schedule to break badly on actual day 1 - this has been fixed (hopefully for good!) and a protection against this type of bug's been introduced; fixed; thanks go to Christophe Lemaire for quickly letting us know of this bug in his playthrough and sending us his savegame files for us to analyze!
Fixed bug with Chronometer on aircraft performing 'visual orbit left', 'visual orbit right' and 'orbit on localizer' on ATC request: if the game was saved while aircraft was flying an orbit and then the game was reloaded the pilot's Chronometer would have never been re-started and thus the plane would fly out of game world eventually depleting fuel reserves; fixed; thanks go to Lei Fo Schermimann for catching this one and for providing us with his saved game file for analysis!
Fixed solar panels blocks, installed by Player on Passenger Terminal roof being displaced vertically by 1ft at the moment of installation and thus elements of these PVBs protruding the roof into visible area of passenger lounge; fixed
[H1]User Interface[/H1]
Fixed Radar overlay in Main UI looking dim\dark after sundown; fixed
Fixed daily Salaries payout value not shown until Player presses any Department's 'Info' button; fixed
