The Orville - Interactive Fan Experience News

11 days from the first public release, and 9 patches in!
We're still working very hard on stability and bug fixing for the Orville Fan Experience here at Messy Desk. We've just pushed version 1.0.9 to Steam, and below is the changelog, for all you folks that like that kinda thing.

New: Added a new feature that you may or may not spot in random multiplayer games. Ribbit.
New: There is now a 5% chance of being visited when going into the Bridge. Keep your eyes peeled though, because once you leave the room, the visitor will scamper off.
New: Added the Main Stairwell on B Deck. None of the exit doors go anywhere yet, but you can have fun hurling yourself from the top ;)
New: Implemented a lot of the background infrastructure needed for the upcoming VR release!

Improvement: Our internal tools can now define custom corridor light sequences.
Improvement: More blueprints are now nativized, improving performance slightly.
Improvement: The Orville will now decelerate more rapidy when using Flight Assist.
Improvement: The Orville should fly a bit better now. Let us know how it feels.
Improvement: Removed the large door next to E-Sim 3 because it was breaking the laws of physics.
Improvement: You can no longer close the door at the bottom of the bridge staircase. It was locking people out.
Improvement: The Bridge now has better visual ambience during Red Alert and Emergency Lighting
Improvement: Ship Movement should be a little smoother in multiplayer now. Still not perfect, it's a work in progress.
Improvement: Player can no longer go into Kayon Head Mode when ragdolled, to prevent strange ghost mode issues.
Improvement: Lowered overall polycount in mess hall. Shouldn't be noticable, but GPUs everywhere will be pleased
Improvement: Split B Deck Corridors into Fore and Midship to help with loading hitches.
Improvement: Made some quality changes to the Voice Chat feature. Needs more testing.
Improvement: Player name tags should display more reliably now.
Improvement: Increased texture streaming pool due to lightmap issues

Fix: Voice chat should no longer auto-enable when joining a server.
Fix: Removed a few unwanted door panels around the ship.
Fix: Resolved an issue where the ship going to Quantum Speed in the menu would leave the bridge behind. Oopsie!
Fix: Chairs on Mac builds sometimes had no collision and you couldn't interact with them. Additional fixes may still be needed.
Fix: You should now be able to leave the global voice chat.
Fix: Added a collision plane under the Bar in the Mess Hall top stop players falling through the floor.
Fix: Extended the music area in the Mess Hall to cover the Bar area.
Fix: Earth now rotates correctly west to east.
Fix: The default character before customistion is an Ensign in Security, with correct badge and rank indicators.
Fix: Main Menu looping sequence no longer stops at the end, it loops smoothly.
Fix: The external hull no longer intrudes upon the ship after using the external ship camera.
Fix: The weapons in Multiplayer now fire slightly more accurately. Still working on this.
Fix: The helm control music is now playing correctly when you sit at the helm.
Fix: Newtonian mode on the helm console should now work correctly. Only the thrust and rotation applied over time will be retained, no further acceleration will apply until further inputs are entered.
Fix: Player can now use zoom when setting at the helm in first person.
Fix: A few tiny bugs here and there.
Fix: Hopefully found a workaround for Chat Command crashes on Mac builds.
Fix: Hull shadowing outside of the Bridge is now correct.
Fix: The ESim door is no longer black on the inside and shouldn't sometimes disappear
Fix: Reversed screens in Science Lab 1 and Mess Hall now correct.
Fix: Lift music should now not bleed through to adjucent rooms
Fix: Three tiny little holes at the front of the Bridge floor have been plugged, all the air was leaking out into space
Fix: You now can't reload your gun when piloting the ship. I don't know why people would want to, but now you can't, so...
Fix: Sunlight was sneaking into the mess hall and lighting up the doors from the inside. we used an anti sunlight ray to make it go away.
Fix: Forced the E-Sim Arch to use a different UV map so it lights properly.
Fix: Fixed issue where certain rooms were loading very slowly due to a get reference bug

So we're coming up to a week since the release of the project, and on behalf of the entire team, I'd like to say thanks so much for the interest in our little homage to one of the best Sci-F shows going!

One thing that we did notice after go-live was that there were a metric ton of bugs that we hadn't picked up on, so we've spent the last 6 days trying to knock out some of the worst offenders, and *we hope* get the experience a little more solid for everyone!

As you'll see, we've incremented 5 versions since release. If you're interested in joining our testing branch on Steam, jump on our Discord at https://discord.gg/messydesk and hop into our pre-release-testing channel to find out more!

So, without further ado, here's what's changed :-

* New: Voice chat added for multiplayer!
* New: Added tags for Developer's names in Player List and Chat. Now you know who to shoot at ;)
* New: 2 new rooms magically appeared on B Deck.
* New: DirectX10 support added for older systems.

* Improvement: Adjusted the way the overlap trigger works on interactive items, doesn't perform bool check any more, checks whether actor is overlapping at interact time.
* Improvement: On game load, view will no longer fade up until both bedrooms (spawning points) are fully loaded for the client.
* Improvement: Huge optimisations to shuttle in shuttlebay which should help prevent level loading hitches, and reduce project filesize.
* Improvement: You can now change the input button for Head Bobbing on the Key bindings menu.
* Improvement: Added Join/Leave Session System Message to chat.
* Improvement: System messages in chat now have a unique chat color.
* Improvement: Player List is now scrollable
* Improvement: Added Steam Profile Picture to Player List
* Improvement: A more sensible fade distance for character jump sounds/voices
* Improvement: KevinCam is now able to use the lift buttons!
* Improvement: Nativized a signifcant number of assets for performance.
* Improvement: Ship Movement keys can now be separated from character movement in the options. By default, the keys are the same.
* Improvement: Ship movement system partially rebuilt. Now all players in multiplayer games can control the ship. The non-movement related helm buttons are disabled temporarily!
* Improvement: Optimised the ship movement system to remove unnecesary network packets.
* Improvement: Renamed the locked Sickbay door to "False Door" because it was causing confusion. It is indeed a false door on the studio set.
* Improvement: We now have a completely new Exterior model for The Orville. Behold the glory of the ECV-197!

* Workaround: For people having the horrible 'level not loading' bug, they should now be able to get back to the main menu so they can try again.
* Workaround: SteamVR and OculusVR plugins disabled until we're ready for VR (Soon!). This was causing unwanted VR app launches.

* Fixed: There is now ZERO chance of the player falling through space when they first spawn...
* Fixed: There was a bug where getting into a chair from noheadbob mode would give you a headless body. Spooky.
* Fixed: Sitting players would occasionally be seen by others as standing, and vice versa. So long sitty slidey people! We barely knew ya!
* Fixed: Accidental duplication of space location when going from single player to multiplayer (you'd end up with things like the dockyard orbiting the sun).
* Fixed: Typo in the asteroid space location description
* Fixed: You now can't fly The Orville into the Sun or the Earth, you'll bounce off. I'm sure someone, somewhere, will find a way to do it though :-P
* Fixed: Interacting whilst in air/falling, which will prevent the spinny chair bug.
* Fixed: There was an upside down console in Main Engineering. Now rotated correctly.
* Fixed: A bug where the ship wouldn't seem to disappear at the end of the quantum jump sequence in the menu.
* Fixed: Two bugs concerning activating KevinCam whilst sitting in a chair, you now don't float above the chair, and can't slide around when you take your character back.
* Fixed: A weird bug where the main engineering light panels would vanish at a distance, so you could see out into space.
* Fixed: Replicator should now work correctly in multiplayer for all players.
* Fixed: Game should no longer let you join multiplayer sessions that are on a different version of the game.
* Fixed: The player list will now correctly remove players when they leave a multiplayer session.
* Fixed: Music changes on the ship should now only affect players in the correct locations in multiplayer.
* Fixed: A whole bunch of really silly bugs.

Image courtesy of JackCarter/Falk, made using Nvidia Ansel directly from the game.

A hard weekend of testing, patching and spinning in chairs brings you this, our next Alpha patch!

• New - The player can now choose to start in one of four space locations, including 'The Void' for lower spec computers
  
• New - The E-Sim room now exists on Deck F near Main Engineering. This room is not yet interactive
  
  
• Change - Animated computer screens are disabled by default for performance reasons. These can be enabled via a checkbox when starting a new game
  
• Change - Renamed 'Torso Length' to 'Torso Depth' in Character Customisation screen
  
• Change - Ambient Music now starts at 60% volume by default
  
  
• Fix - Alert Mode and Party Mode buttons now working on the Bridge again
  
• Fix - Minor visual tweaks outside Classroom to stop light leakage
  
• Fix - FPS Cap/Uncap settings in Main Menu should now work
  
• Fix - When orbiting the camera around the ship when piloting The Orville in exterior view, we now don't spin frantically when hitting the bounds of the 'pitch' axis
  
• Fix - Fixed hole in mesh when viewing the Mess Hall from the B Deck Hallway
  
• Fix - Player can't shoot through shuttle window, nor press the buttom from the outside
  
• Fix - Removed door panel from outside Main Engineering as this isn't visible on the show, nor is it required as these doors are automatic
  
• Fix - Ambient music should now fade back after moving to a new deck in the Elevator
  
• Fix - The Elevator shouldn't fade the player view to black when entering
  
• Fix - Reflections causing issues with the exterior hull are now disabled when in exterior view mode
  
• Fix - Weapons are now despawned when the owning player leaves the server
  
• Fix - Crazy ghost door on Deck E has been recombobulated
  

Patch Notes for Alpha 6.2

We're getting close to release, and couldn't be more excited/anxious/hyped/nervous!



So with that in mind, let's go ahead and post the latest changes from the previous internal release!
Duplicated Dan's earth material and removed clouds and fresnel. Reapplied clouds and fresnel to atmosphere material. Set up realtime rotation of the earth and gave clouds movement.
Helm now starts in 'Flight Assist' mode, Newtonian still toggleable.
Helm will no longer accept movement inputs as you get out of the chair.
The 'change view' key will not go straight to exterior view on press, without going between internal viewpoints first.
Third person view now disabled when piloting helm. Only First Person, and ship exterior view.
Character body shape limits have been adjusted to no longer allow such wacky body shapes.
Shuttlebay door now auto-closes 20 seconds after opening.
Weapon scorch marks now shouldn't slide across nearby meshes.
Hopefully resolved the horrible bug where the exterior hull comes into the hallways when someone has been piloting the ship.
Interior/Exterior Postprocess volumes adjusted to make more sense.
Server name and password fields are now limited to 12 characters.
Password field on join mp game is now no longer prepopulated.
Turbolift Deck menu now shows Deck letter, as opposed to number.
Minor styling tweaks to Turbolift Deck Menu.
Turbolift Deck Menu now shows decks in the correct order.
Turbolift doors now auto-open when you go to a new deck.
Fixed lighting bug in Deck 6 turbolift.
Hopefully fixed the bug where rooms and doors cease to exist. Dammit Q!
Fixed some corridor mesh intersection holes.
Fixed muted hallway light panel on Deck A.
E-Sim door gaps fixed.
Fixed the doors so they do not unload the room if another door is still open.
Some new UVs to help lighting/shadowing on some meshes.
Re-jigged the controller bindings for better XBOX controller support.
Added new 'Music Quietener' Blueprint that will automatically fade down the music when you enter its range, and raise it back up again when you leave. This means that when you enter the Turbolifts and Mess Hall, which have their own unique music, the ambient music will fade out, to prevent clashing.
New Dockyard mesh imported and optimised, now only contains 6 static meshes. Polycount is heavy, so I've been VERY aggressive with LODs.
Adjusted the squished orville mesh to use the same materials as the hero ship, without reliance on worldaligned stuffFixed the doors so they do not unload the room if another door is still open
Started adding a new door master so we can split doors down the middle.
Light bounce bug resolved. Let there be light!
Created custom WorldAlignedTexture and WorldAlignedNormal material function to remove dependency on Texture Objects
Classroom added to Deck A. Go learn some edumacations!
Added a new split-door type that allows rooms to be baked independantly of the the whole ship. This is going to save a LOT of build time.
Project now has native Vulkan support. Unfortunate side effect it's killed our interactive object outliner. Object outliner will remain disabled for the time being.
Began replacing all the doors with split-door variants. Only applies to the small doors at the moment. Will do the big ones tomorrow.
Recreated all the room triggers, which is a necessary evil when swapping out the doors.
Rebuilt all the lighting, which was a lot easier than usual given that half the rooms were already built. Yay for the new door system!
Changed the scale on the classroom desk graphic as it was reversed and all the writing was backwards.
some tweaks to the shuttle in the shuttlebay as it was looking a bit weird, giving me shifty eyes.
Quasi C++ Nativization of the project. Needs work over time.
Fixed the weapons locker not opening. I broke it whilst fixing something else :P
Moved Engineering down to F Deck properly, so it's now physically where it's shown on the bridge MSD.
Added all the lift stops from B Deck going vertically downward. The unused stops are not hooked up to anything yet.
Added the groundwork for implementing the split-door system on the big doors.
Re-created the B Deck corridors on F Deck in readyness for the E-Sim inclusion.
Adjusted the corridor lighting levels in accordance with the now-fixed GI bounce.
Moved some test maps into the correct developer folder.
New screens in both the Medical Lab and The Bridge.