Hello! This past month I've been knocking out bugfixes along with continuing pre-production work on the next map. This includes more work towards moving all the Arena missions to the updated Sand Island terrain. Most of the bugfixes included are small, but there are two very important changes with not so obvious effects and hopefully (crossing my fingers!) no side effects.
Revised cockpit rendering
Now that I've been working on cockpits again, I finally did a long-overdue change to how cockpit rendering works since. It doesn't look much different from the player's perspective, but the plane exterior is no longer duplicated in the cockpit model. Instead, when in first person view, JSON specified meshes get hidden. E.g. the third person canopy frame is hidden, because the cockpit model contains its own version of that geometry. Previously, the hiding third person geometry was done through a pushed out near clip plane, cutting off the third person model geometry near to the camera, but this is a very inflexible way to handle the problem and doesn't always line up the way you'd like it to.
To compensate for things not always lining up correctly, the whole front of the plane was included in the cockpit model, which caused some annoying issues and visual glitches, and it was annoying to keep the two models perfectly in sync whenever something minor changed.
This is all gone now. The intended workflow is now much more straightforward and robust. Simply model the cockpit, and just the cockpit. This cockpit model is always drawn on top of the third person geometry. Then, on the third person model, mark objects to be hidden while in first person that would look strange since the cockpit model includes a high res version of them. Things like the third person instrument cluster, canopy bows, etc.
The pilot model is now automatically hidden while in first person as well. For modded planes, this should make cockpit rendering a little nicer and more convenient.
Vertical floating origin
For very legacy reasons, the game's floating origin worked only in the horizontal. If I recall correctly it was a quick hack to get over something related to either spawning or ground handling. Over time, as systems have been reworked, they've been written with a vertical floating origin in mind, to the point where I think it's feasible to finally make the jump. This should solve all the jittering that was visible as planes got higher in altitude, particularly in the cockpit.
The AI in particular had to be gone over with a fine tooth comb and while I think I got everything, if you notice any oddities with altitude reporting or the AI acting strange (more so than usual) then please let me know either here or on the MicroProse Discord server.
Changelog
Improvements: - Cockpit design changed so that ONLY the cockpit is in the cockpit model, no more duplicated geometry (e.g. fuselage in both models) + "Third person" parts of the model such as the canopy bow are hidden when in first person + First pilot automatically hidden when in first person + Cockpitless planes no longer require special h andling regarding camera clip planes - AV8B model updated for new cockpit modeling workflow and removed unused vertex colors - AV8B no longer uses unique shader - Near clip plane for ALL cameras is now 0.05 (most were 1.0) - Far clip plane for ALL cameras is now 100k - When escape menu modal dialogs are open, escape will close it - Floating origin now applies in the vertical
Bugfixes: - Page selectors on database mode now work - Instant action wing selector pages should work correctly when multiple pages are visible - Pressing escape during the pause menu while settings or bindings are open won't continue game - Fog and clouds no longer disappear when loading Instant Action after Arena - AI aircraft flying in formation automatically switch back to nav mode - Cockpit no longer shakes at higher altitude - "Investigate" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin - "Idle Orbit" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin - "Climb" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin - Arena icons no longer appear for a single frame near origin when a unit spawns - Camera text correctly accounts for the floating origin
JSON: - Warning shown in log when collider is missing - Added "HideInFirstPerson" list to aircraft definition (see AV8B JSON for example)
0.13.4.3 New Years Bugfixes
Glad to be back into things after the holidays! There are lots of things that I'm really excited about in the coming months.
Changelog
Improvements: - Start button on gamepad is rebindable - Pressing the keyboard escape key, or the "Escape Menu" bind, will close the escape menu while open
Bugfixes: - Restored the hills to the east of Nazrin - Fixed select previous weapon logic
0.13.4.2 Hotfix
Changelog
Improvements: - PAPI lights more visible
Bugfixes: - Restored missing sprite lights on the new island terrain
0.13.4.1 is now available on the main branch!
Hello! All the major features from 0.13 are now available on the public branch, along with a couple extra features.
New to this patch!
Nav Lighting
The final feature that was needed for night time environments was the lighting on the aircraft themselves. This is a feature that I've been iterating on behind the scenes for quite some time, with this final version being by far the best. It re-uses the scaling and display tech created by the tech artist for the street lights and various other environment lights. Features include:
When viewed up close, they are little "bulbs"
When viewed from afar, they turn into small point lights that are always visible (prevents flickering)
The lights are directional, so the correct nav lights are seen from the correct aspects
Blinking is supported
Each light can be configured individually for each aircraft (no presets required)
Even better, all these features are built right into the shader, which means that they have essentially no CPU-side cost. On TCA, the CPU is basically always going to be the bottleneck, so being able to move computations off to the GPU when possible is always a win.
Nav lights are toggle on/off by whether or not the HUD is in NAV mode. Basically, when out of combat, they are on, when in combat, they are off. Most important, this applies to the AI as well. Especially at night time, AI aircraft can be visible from quite some ways away while "idle" and out of combat. However once they enter combat, the lights go out and it's all business. I really like how this gives a clear "out the window" tell for whether or not you've drawn the AI's attention. Expect mechanics like this to play an important part in the future!
M48 Infrared SAM
A minor addition, but one that was a long time coming. Replacing, the placeholder US SA-9 is the M48, an M113 descendant adapted to fire AIM-9 missiles from a very "Mech" looking quad rail launcher. The M48 can be found in the dev test Arena mission, as well as a selectable formation in the Strike test.
This is will be an area of ongoing work that will have pretty sweeping effects on most parts of the game. As such, this is only the first part of a much larger revision to air combat, which will eventually include radar guided missiles and new tactics by the AI.
For the time being, the AI is restricted only to firing IR guided missiles. Until chaff is functional (which will come with radar guided SAMs) I wasn't comfortable with allowing the AI to fire radar guided missiles since there'd wouldn't be much in the way of counterplay yet.
NAV Mode
The Arena map symbology isn't meant to be overlaid while flying, but it was a convenient hack at the time. NAV mode is meant to clean up and declutter the HUD, and to give a non-combat "strategic" view of the map while flying on it. This update is just the first part of this
Changelog
New Features: - NAV Marker system to replace Arena symbology for bases while in flight (NAV mode is WIP feature) + When in NAV mode, strategic targets have faction-colored HUD elements with their names + Arena symbology (big wall of text) is no longer shown while in flight - AI have the ability to fire IR guided missiles + How often missiles are fired depends on skill level (Rookies rarely fire, Aces will spam missiles) - Wave system added to dogfight instant action + When waves >1 all aircraft of a faction respawn when shot down + Endless waves option added + New incoming waves spawn randomly within a 10 mile radius of their mission defined spawn - Added "Random" option for aircraft type in Dogfight - Added 1x, 3x, and Unlimited countermeasures gameplay setting - Nav lights added to all aircraft - Nav light state tied to whether or not aircraft is in Nav mode - AI will enter/leave nav mode based on what they're currently doing - Added M48 and MIM-72C - M48 can be selected as part of US instant action strike formations
Improvements: - Tweaks to text rendering to make it more reliable at lower resolutions - Optimized show/hide code for vehicle group icons - Proximity fuzing ignores friendlies - Dogfight lowest starting altitude raised to 3000ft - Wings in Instant Action Dogfight/Strike spawn at 3000ft AGL or MSL, whichever is higher - Instant action dogfight respawned waves now appear relative to the player + They also respawn in the original specified configuration, with some random offsets - F-5E model has added fuselage lights - Renamed "Vulcan" in Strike formation selector to "AAA - M163" - Added Tactics text to the SA-9 database entry - US SA-9 in the dev test mission has been replaced with M48
Bugfixes: - Lines no longer draw between strategic targets when not in Arena - Fixed NRE caused by AI running out of missiles - Missile launch notification no longer appears for AI fired missiles - Incoming wave message time reduced 600s -> 15s - Fixed instant action dogfight friendly waves not respawning - Fixed bug where mission failed when instant action dogfight allied planes (but not player) were destroyed - Fixed bug where respawned waves could appear only at 1800m AGL - Selected loadout preserved between instant action missions - Animated parts stop updating if their parts become null - Missile trails and wing trails no longer glow at night - Objects hidden on destroy are null checked before attempting to hide them
JSON: - In Arena definitions, StrategicTargets can have a "HudName" for NAV mode display - "Flyables.json" file added to root of mod directory + Defines which aircraft are flyable (should allow mod aircraft to be flyable without cheat) - Renamed "CountermeasureResistance" to "CountermeasureRate" to reflect its actual usage
0.13.3.3 available on Tester's Branch
Changelog
New Features: - Added 1x, 3x, and Unlimited countermeasures gameplay setting
Bugfixes: - Selected loadout preserved between instant action missions
JSON: - "Flyables.json" file added to root of mod directory + Defines which aircraft are flyable (should allow mod aircraft to be flyable without cheat)
0.13.3.2 is avaiable on the tester's branch
Changelog
Improvements: - Instant action dogfight respawned waves now appear relative to the player + They also respawn in the original specified configuration, with some random offsets
Bugfixes: - Incoming wave message time reduced 600s -> 15s - Fixed instant action dogfight friendly waves not respawning - Fixed bug where mission failed when instant action dogfight allied planes (but not player) were destoryed - Fixed bug where respawned waves could appear only at 1800m AGL
0.13.3.1 now available on the Tester's Branch
Hello! This patch adds IR missile launching for the AI aircraft, new Random and Waves options for instant action, and the building out of the NAV mode HUD. As was mentioned in a previous post, there are two parallel tracks of development happening in order to finish off the game's features.
Arena UI and Mechanics: Mechanically, Arena is close to completion. There are still some features remaining, most notably tactical targets and convoys, but most visible of the remaining work is actually in the UI. The way information is presented on the Arena map, particularly for strategic targets, is still essentially "debug" information. For 1.0, the Arena map is going to get a lot easier to use, and more interactive. Included in this work, is how the information gets presented during a flight, which will be through the NAV mode detailed below.
Air Combat: As was mentioned in previous posts the air combat is still missing a couple features, the most obvious being missile combat with the AI, and AI against AI. Beyond just this, how aircraft fit into the Arena campaign. Initially I was planning on doing this after a lot of the Arena work, but they go hand in hand pretty well, so I've started working on both in parallel.
AI Firing IR Guided Missiles
This is will be an area of ongoing work that will have pretty sweeping effects on most parts of the game. As such, this is only the first part of a much larger revision to air combat, which will eventually include radar guided missiles and new tactics by the AI.
The skill level of the AI dictates how ready they are to part with their own missiles. Rookies will rarely fire missiles, only if they are tailing a target for a good amount of time. Aces on the other hard will fire basically as soon as they have a good lock.
For the time being, the AI is restricted only to firing IR guided missiles. Until chaff is functional (which will come with radar guided SAMs) I wasn't comfortable with allowing the AI to fire radar guided missiles since there'd wouldn't be much in the way of counterplay yet.
NAV Mode
The Arena map symbology isn't meant to be overlaid while flying, but it was a convenient hack at the time. NAV mode is meant to clean up and declutter the HUD, and to give a non-combat "strategic" view of the map while flying on it. This update is just the first part of this
Shoutout to Mors on the Steam forums for planting the seed for this!
Changelog
New Features: - NAV Marker system to replace Arena symbology for bases while in flight (NAV mode is WIP feature) + When in NAV mode, strategic targets have faction-colored HUD elements with their names + Arena symbology (big wall of text) is no longer shown while in flight - AI have the ability to fire IR guided missiles + How often missiles are fired depends on skill level (Rookies rarely fire, Aces will spam missiles) - Wave system added to dogfight instant action + When waves >1 all aircraft of a faction respawn when shot down + Endless waves option added + New incoming waves spawn randomly within a 10 mile radius of their mission defined spawn - Added "Random" option for aircraft type in Dogfight
Improvements: - Tweaks to text rendering to make it more reliable at lower resolutions - Optimized show/hide code for vehicle group icons - Proximity fuzing ignores friendlies - Dogfight lowest starting altitude raised to 3000ft - Wings in Instant Action Dogfight/Strike spawn at 3000ft AGL or MSL, whichever is higher
Bugfixes: - Lines no longer draw between strategic targets when not in Arena - Fixed NRE caused by AI running out of missiles - Missile launch notification no longer appears for AI fired missiles
JSON: - In Arena definitions, StrategicTargets can have a "HudName" for NAV mode display
0.13.2.1 is now Live! Featuring basic mod support, Night, and Updated Island.
Hello! This one is a long time coming and the culmination of a lot of behind the scenes work and also what was effectively a weekend side project for a while.
Tiny Combat Tools
The Tiny Combat Tools have been released on GitHub. The game has always been built with modding in mind. The game's JSON data files were meant to be edited, and with the new mod loader from last patch, no longer required overwriting the game's native files. Unfortunately adding new content is a lot more complicated, which is where the TCA Bundler comes in.
Using the new tools and TCA Bundler, you can import models and preview them exactly as they would appear in the game, using the same materials and shaders as the real game. This finally allows for the addition of new content by mods.
Please keep in mind that there isn't a UI yet to show mods that are loaded and any errors, so if you plan on modding the game it's recommended to stick with the tester's branch in the meantime since it will print error logs to the screen.
Yak-141 by nuclearstonk and giantenemycrab
Night
The progress on night time is both ahead of schedule and close enough that night is now selectable in the game! The time of day system has support night for a long time, waiting only on an implementation of night lighting such as streetlights, runway lights, and beacon lights. All of these are now in the game and thanks to the tech artist look fantastic! The distant point light rendering saw another revision and now looks great at all resolutions and all distances, as well added support for blinking beacon lights.
Finalized Sand Island Map
With a couple new bases and other redesigned ones, the Sand Island map is approaching finished. Only gameplay related work remains, which means updating the Strike Instant Action missions along with the Arena UI improvements necessary to build out the first campaign.
Changelog
New features: - New mod loading system - Mods can be loaded on top of each other - Core game is now a hardcoded "mod" that gets loaded first - Many new buildings and props placed around the updated Sand Island map - Lights rendered as pseudo-sprites for pixel perfect point light goodness - Night is selectable in Instant Action - Automatic HUD dimming at night time
Improvements: - Unified loaders for all JSON data - Text adjusted to work better at low (800x600) resolutions - Better runway lighting - Updated many buildings to use the new point lights - Added PAPI lights to Murasa
Bugfixes: - Added quotes around the names of duplicate/overwritten data error/log messages - Bad campaign data no longer corrupts the persistent Arena save file - Bad campaign data no longer breaks the Arena selection UI - MapList.json now loaded on a per-mod basis - Vehicles initialized through the mod system - Fixed gun display name not showing correctly - Fixed markings not appearing correctly on Expeditionary field
Balance: - AV8B roll rate increased 140 -> 180
JSON: - In Loadout definitions, "Aircraft" renamed to "Name" - In Loadout definitions, "Loadout" renamed to "Loadouts" - "Store" in the Store definition has been removed and made part of the Store definition itself
0.13.1.3 hotfix is now available on the Tester's Branch
Changelog
Bugfixes: - MapList.json now loaded on a per-mod basis - Vehicles initialized through the mod system - Fixed gun display name not showing correctly
0.13.1.2 Hotfix is now available on the tester's branch
Changelog
Bugfixes: - Added quotes around the names of duplicate/overwritten data error/log messages - Bad campaign data no longer corrupts the persistent Arena save file - Bad campaign data no longer breaks the Arena selection UI
