Big Update: Version 0.023 is now out.

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    • Schine
    This is a pretty big update.

    Here's a short summary:

    • The game should run a lot more stable, especially because of the Database updates and a lag-bugfix.

    • Most significant for players are the updates in [General], [Balancing] and [Graphics]. The shading of the Block meshes is now much smoother without having to invest any extra performance.

    • When you select objects, only their name is now displayed (without that other useless info). Selected ships will also display a list of players that are currently inside it.

    • Thrusters and Harvest Beams are now groupable. Also, all ships have now a mass that directly affects the thrust (the bigger your ship, the more thrust you need). Shields will now consume power.

    • The compatibility errors from the shield hit shader should now be fixed (for everyone who had to disable it)

    Full list Changes and Updates from 0.022 to 0.023:

    • [CLIENT] Graphics: much smoother lighting with zero impact on performance

    • [CLIENT] Graphics: if the output of a thruster or weapon is blocked by another element, the exhaust plum would not draw (saving unnecessary drawing time)

    • [CLIENT] Graphics: all effects and particle systems now supporting frustum culling (means: effects can be ruled out before drawing, if they are not 'on screen')

    • [CLIENT] UI: Team Deathstar Match. The indicator for your own team's death star will now always be drawn, no mater how far away you are for it (prevents, that players get lost in space)

    • [CLIENT] Graphics: Fixed the shield hit shader to be more compatible with ATI and some older graphics cards

    • [BALANCING] Weapon capabilities (Speed, Reload, Distance, Damage) will now grow much faster with the sie of grouped elements

    • [GENERAL] fixed very ugly bug that caused lags (in single as well as multiplayer) when certain element positions got connected to a controller. The lag was a security mechanism, that prevented the client from crashing, when something goes wrong recalculating neighboring elements

    • [GENERAL] Thrusters now work more efficiently as groups.

    • [GENERAL] Added a mass factor for ships. The more elements a ship has, the more thrust is needed to make it go fast.

    • [GENERAL] Harvesting Modules & Controllers now behave exactly the same way as Weapon Modules & Controllers do. Which means they can be mapped like a weapon to a number on the keypad. Also grouping now effects the harvesting such as the more element are grouped, the more amount can be harvested with that group at once

    • [GENERAL] Shields now consume power. Recharging shields costs extra power. Shields will only recharge, when there is enough power for it.

    • [CLIENT] Graphics: Added indication on how much has currently been harvested (similar to the damage indicator)

    • [CLIENT] Selection of other objects cycles now instead of suddenly stopping at a random entity

    • [CLIENT] Description of selected entities now looks a lot better. Also, ships now list all players, that are inside of it

    • [DATABASE] Fixed two very hard to find bugs: The first caused a strage cancer on fixed structures, because the data was probably overflowing in the header in the database. The second caused Segments not be empty on client even if they were successfully transferred from the server. This was caused by a running condition*
      (*TECHNICAL: When a client was re-requested, because the server version was newer, an active segment's data was (for memory reason) only resetted and therefore considered empty for the short period of time it takes to request from the server. If now the writer decides to write the segment to disk for the client, an empty segment is written causing the missing segment. This error happen even fewer times before when the requests were in fact blocking. This problem is now finally fixed by removing a rerequested segment for the time it takes to request from the buffer and canceling all pending writing jobs for that segment.)

    • [DATABASE] Fixed bug that caused some segment data to be corrupt on the client