Powerboat VR News

This applies the current BETA performance update together with some more performance enhancing updates to the main build.

1. Procedurally generated trees are now all instanced on the GPU. This means that any where that had large numbers of trees/palms (e.g Ko Lan) will benefit from a performance boost.

2. Above water terrain is now instanced correctly.

3. Underwater terrain has now been corrected to use the right LOD level

4. Maupiti port has been semi - optimised. Other ports have not yet been optimised.

This essentially takes care of the easy to do optimisations. Ports still need a lot of work but I'm confident that I can significantly reduce the overhead in these areas.

On a 2080ti i9-9900k @ 1920x1080p setting at Maupiti harbour I get over 150 fps now and easily tops out my frame rate limiter of 200fps when nearer the open ocean.

At 5120x1440 it's a very steady 110fps in the same settings. This is just under true 4k resolution.

Let me know what your performance gains are in the forum :)

I have now added a new Opt-in BETA for the performance pass update called "performancebeta". No password is required, just leave the field blank.

Please follow the instructions on the forum to opt-in.

This update is purely focused on improving both the VR and Non-VR performance of the game. I've already made pretty good progress...

1. Added loading bar to the initial start up as islands are now streamed in. While this doesn't actually speed up the loading process overall, at least now you can see that something is happening!

2. Rebuilt a lot of the tree instancing systems so they run faster and are now self contained per island allowing me to turn them off when not needed i.e. when you're too far away to see them

3. Baked a lot of the meshes for Maupiti's harbour area resulting in significant performance gains in this area.

As a rough benchmark I have now gone from around 60-70fps at Maupiti's harbour to well over 100fps @ 1920x1080. At 5120 x 1440 (nearly 4k) I get a comfortable 60-70fps even in this quite demanding area.

I shall be applying the same performance updates to the rest of the harbours shortly.

Of course, depending on your hardware, you will get different amounts of performance gains but whatever you get should be quite noticeable.

All ships now have their own horn sound so you can Peep! and Parp! at other ships ːsteamhappyː

By default the horn is mapped to "H". VR Players will also find a new "Ship Horn" button in all ship cockpits.

Other Fixes
1. Updated buoyancy of the Flounder and reduced its initial ballast load.
2. Reduced the bow thruster power on the Jupiter

This update brings together a number of important additions to Powerboat VR and sets them live in the public build.

Voice Commands
You can now control many different aspects of your ship using built in voice recognition. Obviously you will need a working microphone to make use of this update but it is perfect for those who want to run their ships from their "Captain's Chair" rather than take direct control.

It is also an accessibility feature with the idea of being able to control everything via voice commands.

Please see the forum and the guides section for a list of current voice commands.

Time Acceleration
You can now cycle between 1x - 8x time acceleration using the "Page Up" or "Page Down" keys. You can also adjust the time acceleration in the "Game Settings" menu.

Relative/Sticky Controls - Non VR Only
You can now toggle between "Absolute" and "Relative" steering/throttle controls by pressing the "r" key. Absolute controls are always on by default and work just the same as before. Relative controls allow you to set the steering or throttle to a specific value where it will be held until you adjust it.

It is roughly equivalent to "non follow-up steering" on a real ship or how the steering & throttle work in VR mode and also another accessibility feature.

Other Updates/Fixes
1. Palm trees are back! I accidentally hid them!
2. Clouds have been improved
3. Bluefin has had its centre of gravity altered to help keep its stern in the water on tight turns.
4. The new Cuttlefish is fully operational.
5. Swapping to a different owned ship will automatically align it with the port correctly.

Yes, you read that right - you can now pilot your ship using just the power of your voice!

The voice commands are part of the "newship" beta so you will need to opt into it to try them out.

To use the voice commands you will obviously need a working microphone. Ensure it is working in windows 1st and that it is your default recording device.

Voice recognition is not 100% accurate. It is more than likely the game will ignore your commands occasionally. Speak clearly and if you're having real trouble then try doing the windows voice training to improve detection.

Unfortunately I cannot influence the speech detection system at all. I am using a Windows built in system so if it doesn't work I can't fix it :(

VOICE COMMANDS
There are 2 types of voice commands. "Standard" and "Autopilot". "Autopilot" commands deal with throttle and steering controls while "Standard" commands deal with every thing else.

AUTOPILOT COMMANDS
To use these commands you must activate the ship's autopilot by saying "Autopilot On". The ship should respond with "Autopilot on, Aye Captain!".

Control inputs from gamepads, wheels etc and mouse controls are disabled while the autopilot is engaged. However, you can still manipulate the bow thrusters if the ship is equipped with them.

To turn the autopilot off just say "Autopilot Off", your ship will respond and hand controls back to you.

AUTOPILOT COMMAND LIST
"Autopilot On" - Turns the autopilot on.
"Autopilot Off" - Turns the autopilot off.

"Ahead Slow"
"Ahead One Quarter"
"Ahead Half"
"Ahead Three Quarters"
"Ahead Full"
"Ahead Flank"

"Reverse Slow" or "Back Slow"
"Reverse One Quarter" or "Back One Quarter"
"Reverse Half" or "Back Half"
"Reverse Three Quarters" or "Back Three Quarters"
"Reverse Full" or "Back Full"
"Reverse Flank" or "Flank"

"All Stop" - Engines to neutral

"Port 5" - Left rudder 5 degrees
"Port 10" - Left rudder 10 degrees
"Port 15" - Left rudder 15 degrees
"Port 20" - Left rudder 20 degrees
"Port 25" - Left rudder 25 degrees
"Port 30" or "Hard to Port" - Full left rudder

"Starboard 5" - Right rudder 5 degrees
"Starboard 10" - Right rudder 10 degrees
"Starboard 15" - Right rudder 15 degrees
"Starboard 20" - Right rudder 20 degrees
"Starboard 25" - Right rudder 25 degrees
"Starboard 30" or "Hard to Starboard" - Full right rudder

"Rudder Amidships" or "Zero Rudder" - Centre steering

STANDARD COMMANDS

These commands are always active, you DO NOT need to switch the autopilot on to use them.

STANDARD COMMAND LIST

"Lights On" - turns the ship lights on
"Lights Off" - turns the ship lights off

"Engines On" or "Start Engines" - turns the engines on
"Engines Off" or "Stop Engines" - turns the engines off

"Raise Anchor" or "Anchor Off" - raises the anchor
"Deploy Anchor" or "Anchor On" - activates the anchor

"Radar" - switches the MFD to RADAR mode

"Sat Nav" or "GPS" - switched the MFD to GPS map mode

I will add more commands as we go forward. Suggestions for voice commands always welcome.

Let me know in the forums what you think of everything so far :D