The Orville - Interactive Fan Experience News

We're back! With another huuuuuuge update. Multilingual translations! A Minimap! The E-Sim! and waay more.

New Features!
- Added an in-game map to help you find your way. Our #1 most requested feature!
- Multi-language support, with SIX initial languages, and more on the way. Thanks to our awesome community volunteers!
- E-Simulator is now functional!! We've loaded in three simulations -- Ed's Earth apartment, Leviathan Bridge, and the Bowling Alley (as seen in S2E06: A Happy Refrain), plus a bonus one you'll need to play detective to find.
- You can now spawn Kaylon ships from the session host menu. Epic space battles commence! Pairs well with our beautiful new Nebula space location.
- Upgraded the shipboard damage system to allow players to go around repairing the ship! Check out the Damage Report at Bortus' bridge console to see what's amiss.

Our designers have been busy building out the ship and bringing it to life!
- New simplified deck labels (A-J)
- Lots of new and reworked corridors and stairs let you walk from bow to stern. To making getting around easier, we've activated the lifts throughout the ship and added some comfy lounge areas to stop and catch your breath.
- Mess hall has been relocated to C Deck Aft to match the actual ship's design (vs. set). Also moved Yaphit's and officer/family quarters here, and added a number of additional officer quarters variants to check out.
- New offices, break area and an Officers Lounge added to Deck A. Lookin' buff, A Deck!
- New multi-level Quantum Control room added aft of engineering, for those who like to tinker.
- Space Bathrooms! Now you don't have to hold it like Bortus.

Additional Enhancements:
- Improved ray-tracing capability detection and support for users thusly equipped.
- Color tone and several materials updated to more closely match the show aesthetic.
- New menu, battle, and simulator music cues from the amazing Patrick!
- New Character Customization backdrop in the main menu
- New door system and level loading approach in use throughout the ship. RIP, original door blueprint -- we hardly knew ye!
- Fully retired our janky old NPCs. You'll find a few newer NPC crew wandering around D Deck. We'll expand on these in future releases.
- Literally hundreds of bug fixes, and performance enhancements to maximize your FPS.

Some Known Issues:
- Bowling alley E-Sim program doesn't let you actually bowl (yet). Stay tuned!
- Multiplayer guests can't control the external camera while piloting

Howdy folks,

since the release of the latest update yesterday, we started hearing reports about folks having issues running the game, so here's some suggestions to try and help with the most common problems :

- If you're not running on Windows 10, you must select the 'DirectX11' option when launching the game through Steam. Our newest features are taking advantage of DirectX 12 and so the game defaults to this, but you can override this when launching through Steam.

- Additionally to the above, if your graphics card isn't listed on either of these pages, launch in DirectX11 mode through Steam.

https://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/technology/dx12/supported-gpus
https://wccftech.com/nvidia-amd-directx-12-graphic-card-list-features-explained/5/

- If the above doesn't help, try launching in DirectX11 mode anyway, because this is the same DirectX version that all previous releases of the game defaulted to. If it worked for you then, it should work for you now.

- if it's still looking disastrous, perhaps give the Vulkan version a try also, but please bear in mind that you might need to get the latest drivers for your GPU from either of these pages -

https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver
https://gpuopen.com/vulkan/

- Finally, it may be that you need to install some prerequisites to run the game. You'll find the installer for these in the folder where you installed the game in Steam, in "\WindowsNoEditor\Engine\Extras\Redist\en-us". Run the file named "UE4PrereqSetup_x64.exe".

We hope the above helps, and there are a few other tips and tricks to help solve issues, so if you're still having trouble, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/messydesk and we'll try and help.

Thanks! The Messy Desk Team

In our biggest update yet, The Orville Interactive Fan Experience brings you all the cool things!

More detailed information can be found on our website update page here
https://www.orvillefangame.co.uk/v14-update/

Game Mechanics:
- Engine update and tons of optimizations to improve performance
- Added support for dynamic upscaling and Anti-Aliasing options to further improve FPS
- Initial support for RTX!
- A new ship-wide damage system, for when things get 'splody. Some systems may short out when damaged. Don't worry -- server host can reset damage in the Session menu.
- New NPCs with custom animations that are both more realistic AND easier on performance; we will be phasing out the old NPCs over time
- Added Emotes! Use middle-mouse button to properly express your happiness at this new release.
- You can now inspect items. Thanks, Adam!
- Improved System menu, including Alan's new "sorted by deck" Teleport UI. Slick!

New Spaces:
- LOTS of new corridors to explore, courtesy of tenko. To help you find your way, main stairwell is now labeled by deck, and HUD displays current Deck and room.
- Added Fritz's awesome Arboretum to E Deck. You can also check on the seedlings in the nearby Botany...lab.
- Added a shipboard gym with MartianDays' space-age equipment. Do you even lift, brah?
- Added the Cargo Bay on E Deck, for supplies, spare bits, and visiting Krill shuttles
- Welcome back to brainbox's beautiful shuttle interior!
- Added Communications Array Room, as seen on TV!
- Added Kelly's quarters, and adjusted command quarters to a more realistic location.
- Added airlocks on C Deck. Watch your step.
- Added engineering corridors and maintenance bays on F Deck

Other New Features:
- Hooked up the synthesizers on Deck C, and installed cool new lab equipment on B Deck.
- New music from the amazing Patrick, and improvements made to music management, just to set the right scene.
- Added a few righteous friends around the ship for you to play, find, and enjoy!
- Added ability for server host to activate the main viewscreen. Suitable for RP sessions and reviewing B-Roll.
- LEVIATHAN! But wait, what's wrong with her....?

We're happy to announce the release of The Orville Interactive Fan Experience version 1.0.13!

With a ton of core foundational changes (most of which you probably won't notice, but we know they're there) that will give us a lot more flexibility when adding cool new features later, and a bunch of fun stuff to check out.

IMPORTANT NOTE: VR support has been removed from the project for the time being. We're a very small team, and supporting both desktop and VR versions has been incredibly troublesome, so for the time being we're removing VR support. We have every intention of bringing this back as and when we have the capability to support it properly.

NEW FEATURES
* Added Quantum Drive! Access it from the navigation console next to the helm.
* Added forward-facing weapons systems to The Orville, controllable via the helm. Fire away!
* Changed the way shuttles launch from the bay, which should cut down on the need to re-paint. Note you cannot launch a shuttle while the ship is in Quantum Drive, and you must return to the bay before the ship can Jump.
* Shuttles are not permitted to fire directly at the Orville. Why would you want to do that?
* Asteroids in the Asteroid Belt space location now explode when hit, which is super pretty. Makes a huge mess though.
* Added a new *spooky* space location. Not for the faint of heart, although we've equipped The Orville with some temporary protections.
* Increased the ship's speed to make hugging the donkey a more loving experience.
* New music cues from the super-talented Patrick!
* Added Space Location images in for each location on the main menu.

ROOM UPDATES
* Mooska's Restaurant is on Deck C-Upper, perfect for some relaxation and a glass of wine, or 5.
* Enlisted Crew Quarters added to Deck C. Suitable for 28 enlisted crew members. Quarters all need customising so they have unique furnishing. Currently all the same.
* Yaphit and his quarters are now available on Deck C-Upper. He'll be sleeping though, and waking him up would just be rude.
* Added a new Power Down/Up button to the bridge for the lights so you can turn the lights off completely.
* You can now toggle shuttlebay door on Session Settings.

GAME MECHANICS UPDATES
* Lighting system completely rebuilt to use dynamic LED lighting rather than baked lighting. This has a performance impact, but gives us a ton of flexibility for future interactivity.
* Improved multiplayer performance.
* Changed the way the interior of the ship interacts with the exterior, eliminating mesh poke-throughs, because no one wants that ugliness.
* All the prop lights in rooms can now be interacted with, and shot. It's the little thing.
* Player view will only now fade in when the room they spawn in has loaded. There still might be quirks in multiplayer, until the client has been assigned their character.
* Project version number now shows in bottom right during play. This is to help us match screenshots to version for bug tracking.

And much more! By more, it's mostly bug fixing, because there are always lots of bugs which keep us busy. We're always excited (well kinda) when we get new bug reports.

please join us on our Discord channel at www.discord.gg/messydesk and let us know what you find. We're very active on there and our Discord members get access to our early Beta builds, long before the final updates go live.

It's been quite some time since the last game update, and during all this time, many have talked to us or merely posted under the community forums, implying that this project was dead because of the lack of posts on Steam announcements and game updates. But here we are, releasing our first major game update. We do take more time to get things up and running than other developers, but never forget that we are a group of not many developers which are working on their free time to bring everyone a free game.

NOTE: Due to issues regarding Mac and Unreal Engine, the Mac release of v1.0.12 was delayed. Hang on tight since we are working on a way to solve the issues we are currently experiencing and an update should go live soon.

Now, time for the patch notes! Since there have been an ENORMOUS amount of changes between the two versions (v1.0.11 and the new v1.0.12), here's a list of all important new game features:

[h2]Play in Virtual Reality[/h2]

Step into the body of your favorite character! The project now supports Virtual Reality via both the Oculus SDK and SteamVR. Currently only single-player is available, but full cross-platform multiplayer support is in-progress.

[h2]NPCs[/h2]

Walking around an empty starship can feel a little lonely sometimes, so we’ve added a first iteration of our NPC crew. They’re a work-in-progress, and will be expanded over time.

[h2]New Rooms[/h2]

Several new rooms have been added to the project, including the ships Armory (on Decks A and E), 3 Brigs (on Deck G), the Chief of Security Office, with working security cameras, and an expansion to Main Engineering.

[h2]Flyable Shuttles[/h2]

What use is a shuttlebay without some flyable shuttles? Go for a joyride in local space in one of the ships shuttles, but be careful when re-entering the bay, you don’t want to scratch the paint! The shuttles fully support multiplayer so if dogfights are your jam, have at it!

[h2]Shuttlebay Redesign[/h2]

The shuttlebay itself has been completely overhauled and should be far more accurate to the show, with the Upper-level control room now available so you can sit back and watch the madness taking place in the bay below.

[h2]New Playable Characters[/h2]

You can now play as a Krill and bring glory to Avis! Or suit up in the Planetary Union EVA suit, which in future updates will be required for some Extra-vehicular antics!

[h2]New Original Music[/h2]
Many new unique musical pieces are in the project and are triggered based on various events, composed by the talented Patrick Phillips for the project.

[h2]More Space Locations[/h2]

Several new space locations are available to start your adventure in, including several Solar System planets and even an interstellar black hole! Many more to come.

[h2]General UI Redesigns[/h2]

General UI improvements all over the board! Most of the UIs in-game have been completely redesigned to be more straightforward and match the aesthetic of The Orville!

[h2]Quick Session Options[/h2]

The all-new session options will allow you to carry out quick actions in Single Player, and also if you’re hosting a multiplayer session. Is there an unruly player replicating too many bananas? Teleport them to the brig so they can think about what they’ve done.

All of this and many more bug fixes and small updates and features should be released soon for everyone!

Finally, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Messy Desk Interactive!