Significant Changes

• Added Tour Guide presentations for Neptune & Pluto (with subtitles), bringing the total Tour Guide content to 110+ minutes.
  
• Re-recorded Tour Guide presentations for the 3rd Earth stop & Jupiter.
  
• Music can now be easily toggled on and off via a new button on the dashboard.
  
• Users going through the tour a second time will have the option to fast-forward to the next tour stop.
  
• Improved visual appearance for Jupiter.
  
• Improved visual appearance for Neptune.
  
• Improved visual appearance for Pluto.
  
• Improved visual appearance for the Sun and all the large stars.
  
• In Side-by-Side mode, users can now only compare bodies they have already seen before in the tour.
  
• Fixed 36 issues.

Minor Changes

• English language font updated.
  
• New loading screen, quicker loading.
  
• Users can now view a miniature close-up of the Moon along with the Earth.
  
• Side-by-Side Comparison mode can now be used at the Pluto tour stop.
  
• In Side-by-Side mode, users can now physically interact with buttons.
  
• Controller labels fade in and out to avoid visual distraction, and to feel less like physical objects sticking out of the controllers.
  
• Desktop mode now includes bloom, and ability to zoom onto the Tour Guide character.
  
• Improved visual appearance for the vortex at the end of the tour.
  
• And lots more.

For those running in OculusVR Mode

• Users may now use either a trigger or button A/X to interact with buttons, whichever feels most natural.
  
• Updated to OVR Plugin 1.40.0
  
• Oculus Dash support.
  
• ASW 2.0 support.

Let's review my initial Early Access goals and their end results

• Result: I believe it's been over three years now? I can't even... So, I mentioned this before, but I'm really sorry for taking so long. As you might have guessed, my confidence in my own ability to estimate how long things will take is now utterly shattered. ːsteamfacepalmː

• Result: After reviewing all the feedback I got and implementing a proper comfort mode, I realized that the non-Sensitive-to-Motion mode was already basically a roller coaster for many players and decided not to remake a whole new mode for this.

• Result: Implemented as the "Change Planet Maps" feature available.

• Result: Implemented Zero-Gravity EVA mode, inspired by Echo VR and shaped by the need to keep the planets the same size. Plus, other titles were doing the spaceship thing already and it's good to differentiate. Original music composed by Karim Elmahmoudi.

• Result: After traveling past Pluto to the vantage point overlooking the whole Solar System, space is shrunk, and the user has an opportunity to use the Zero-Gravity EVA mode to get out of the cockpit and float around in the shrunken Sun and its planets.

• Result: Buttons are now more fun to interact with, no more spoilers for new users as this mode will now only allow comparisons between bodies that the user has already seen in the tour, filled in some missing planets like Pluto, and cleaned up other issues.

• Result: These two features were not a good fit for the Oculus Quest version and they were not popular features anyway, so I ended up leaving these relatively untouched save for some minor improvements and clean-up.

• Result: Tour Guide character aka 'Flying Professor Alien', a mocapped, voice-acted character using the same Zero-Gravity EVA locomotion system that could fly up to a body and point out specific features while talking about them. And it turns out I had so much to share about every planet that this turned into more of a lecture format rather than someone that reacts to the tour along the user.

Significant Changes:

• New Tour Guide presentations for Saturn and Uranus (with subtitles), bringing the total Tour Guide content to 90 minutes.
  
• Last big update to dashboard and cockpit appearance.
  
• Planet labels no longer appear huge when approaching them, and look a little nicer.
  
• Improved menu/UI appearance.
  
• Each hand may now hold a different moon at tour stops with more than one moon.
  
• Vive Cosmos support.
  

Minor Changes:

• Distracting button feedback is now suppressed while sitting and listening to Tour Guide.
  
• Venus is now less yellow.
  
• Cleaned up beeping sound in some Tour Guide presentations (especially at Mars).
  

Fixes:

• Fixes issue where INDEX users sometimes would not be able to see/use one or both controllers.
  

Significant changes:

• Added Tour Guide content for Ceres & Jupiter (with subtitles), bringing the total Tour Guide content to 75 minutes.
  
• Facelift for cockpit and dashboard.
  
• Dashboard height may now be manually adjusted by gripping the bottom of the dashboard. Once it is manually adjusted, it will stop trying to automatically adapt to your height.
  

Minor changes:

• Improved the appearance of the data panel in Side-by-Side mode.
  
• Improved Touch controller appearance when using Oculus VR mode.
  
• Fixed lots of obscure bugs that have been around for ages!
  

Additional changes patched in on Jun 27th in v2.5.7b

• Citrix Workspace no longer interferes with running this app.
  
• Improved cockpit lighting.
  
• If controller can't be detected or loaded by SteamVR, app no longer shows labels floating in space where your controller would be.
  
• Allowed dashboard to move further down and further up.
  
• Seat no longer appears when getting close to the floor in Standing mode.
  
• Cleaned up some log spam.
  

What's next?

Significant changes:

• Users can now see their hands for all supported 6DOF VR headsets except for WMR (will continue working on hands for that). Those using Valve Index controllers can simply grasp their controllers in order to see them in VR, and yes this update includes individual finger tracking.
  
• Added new dashboard buttons: Change planet maps, Rotate planets, Closeup view.
  
• Dashboard buttons now act like mechanical keyboard keys.
  
• Adjusted overall controller appearance + longer interactor tips for pressing buttons.
  
• All new calibration area.
  
• Rift S controller support for SteamVR mode.
  
• Adjusted low-level background noise to avoid crackly pops when using Rift S integrated audio.
  
• Updated Oculus Plugin -> v1.37
  
• Updated SteamVR Plugin -> v2.3.2
  

Minor changes:

• Updated haptics.
  
• Improved appearance of popup messages.
  
• Continued filling in gaps in localization for the supported languages.
  
• Adjusted Sun sound effect to avoid sounding repetitive.
  
• Adjusted laser pointer appearance.
  
• Improved performance later on in the tour.
  
• Lots of bugfixes and small tweaks.
  

The Singular change in this Update:

• Greatly reduced loading time. (From launching to giving user control of the experience: from 46 seconds down to 18 seconds on my PC)
  

Minor Changes

• When returning to the Tour Map, there is now a Settings button to make it clear that you can go back to change certain settings.
  
• The Tour Map area now has buttons for quitting the experience.
  
• When using floor-level tracking and "not sensitive to motion", the tour cockpit's frame is now set to default to appearing "While Moving" (instead of Always On).
  

Command-Line Additions

1. --go-directly-to-tourmap (This skips past the initial options and title menu areas to the Tour Map. Note that the --skip-menus argument will override this.)
   
2. --default-to-short-tour
   
3. --default-to-full-tour
   
4. --comfort-mode-on-by-default
   
5. --comfort-mode-off-by-default
   
6. --skip-calibration-step (Works great when paired with '--default-to-floor-level-tracking' to speed up the flow of getting into the experience, but assumes that the system-level play space is properly configured.)
   

Significant Changes:

• Tour Guide customization is now enabled. Anyone can now record themselves in VR (both motion capture, and microphone capture for voice) to create new Tour Guide presentations (that can be shared with others if you wish). To get started, check the Modding Info area inside the app (green options menu from tour -> Modding Info). It's easy once you know what to do, but perhaps daunting to get started, so I will publish videos in the near future to walk through the process.
  -- Note: If using a Rift/Rift S to record Tour Guide presentations, please run the app using Oculus SDK for now.
  
  
• The Sun's corona is now animated. Same goes for the large stars.
  

Minor Changes

• Monitor: No longer defaults to "sensitive to motion".
  
• Slight visual tweaks for dashboard.
  

Arcade/Installation Support:

1. --maximize-spectator-window (Force fullscreen spectator window)
   
2. --unlock-full-tour-map (Players can go to any tour stop they want without having been there before)
   
3. --start-at-beginning
   
4. --reset-all-preferences (Ensure that the experience starts fresh every time in case users fiddled with settings)
   
5. --skip-menus (Skip all the menu screens and start tour immediately)
   
6. --disable-guide-options
   
7. --disable-guide-editor-mode
   
8. --tour-guide-on-by-default (Ensures that the Tour Guide will start talking automatically when starting the tour, can still be turned off by user if they wish)
   
9. --tour-guide-off-by-default (Ensures that the Tour Guide does not start talking automatically when starting the tour, can still be turned on by the user if they wish)
   
10. --buttons-are-click-activated (Ensures that buttons require a point-and-click in order to activate)
    
11. --buttons-are-timer-activated (Ensures that buttons require only gazing/pointing for 1 second in order to activate)
    
12. --default-to-floor-level-tracking (Forces floor-level tracking for standing/roomscale instead of automatically detecting seated vs standing)
    

• Tour Map: Easily jump to any part of the tour you've already visited!
  
• Tour Guide: A friendly character appears to talk your ear off! Work in progress and only available through Mars for now. Subtitles coming in the next update.
  
• Zero-Gravity EVA: Get out of your cockpit, and then use your thrusters and hands to move around the area for an up-close view of planets and moons, complete with surface labels and points of interest. Original music composed by Karim Elmahmoudi.
  
• Alternate Planet Maps: See planets and moons in a new way! In the below video, Mars is shown with an elevation map. For other bodies it may be something different (radar map, geologic map, etc). You can even add your own!
  

• Valve Index: new Knuckles controllers supported, small tweaks for LCD displays.
  
• Rift S: new controllers supported, small tweaks to account for inside-out tracking and LCD display.
  
• Windows Mixed Reality: official support (though you still need to run through SteamVR of course).
  
• Launching in SteamVR mode with a Rift is no longer terrible.
  
• For any of these controllers, if you wish to change the control scheme, you're free to do so through the new SteamVR Input bindings editor.
  

• Additional Mars tour stop, with more info, photos, and a second Tour Guide presentation.
  
• Updated Jupiter RDV, and included full "Jupiter" song.
  
• Updated or added real photos at Pan, Enceladus, Mars, Earth, and Uranus moons.
  

• Added Simplified Chinese & Japanese.
  
• Automatically defaults the Sitting vs Standing setting based on your height in the "Get Ready" screen, but you can still change this if desired.
  
• Improved Earth & Moon appearance.
  
• Dashboard in standing mode no longer transitions between low and high based on a specific threshold but will now detect arbitrary player heights on the fly.
  
• New loading screen, and running with SteamVR now smoothly loads with a progress bar.
  Expect load times to decrease with future updates.
  
• Improved controller appearance.
  
• After holding planets in your hands, the planet now smoothly goes back to where it was
  Implemented recentering for Standing mode. You can now center and orient the cockpit anywhere in your playspace.
  

• Still need to make a new video trailer and new screenshots
  
• This update brings preliminary modding support, but will polish up and go into more detail in the next update.
  
• Plan is to release additional Tour Guide content in small updates, and to take on board any feedback you have on the new stuff!
  

• Tour Guide character and presentations (instead of simply voiceover narration like on the mobile version of Titans of Space) for the first few tour stops,
  
• Ability to view alternate planet maps,
  
• Zero-G locomotion in EVA mode,
  
• Surface labels on planets and moons,
  
• ...and more!