Powerboat VR News

The buoyage BETA has now finished, so this update applies all the improvements from that BETA. I've tried to base the buoys on real life together with "NavAid / AtoN" light signals so please let me know if I've made a mistake anywhere :)

MAIN UPDATES

1. Added "Safe Water" buoys with realistic light flashes
2. Added "Weather" buoys with realistic light flashes
3. Reduced screen tinting on boat windows so it should now be easier to see through them at night.
4. Added buoy markers to the main map and SatNav
5. Final optimisations for buoy physics.
6. Included some "behind the scenes" code ready for A.I. boats.

NEXT UPDATE/BETA

The next beta will be for the A.I. traffic. I actually have this partially working already and I'm currently focusing on optimising it to allow as many vessels to be present as possible.

A.I. traffic will sail around the map using the new buoys as approximate way points. They will not attempt to dock at any of the ports. However, I hope to make them intelligent enough to do this in the future.

UPDATES

1. New "Weather" buoy added. These are marked on the map by "Special Mark" icons (yellow with yellow "x" on top) and have yellow flashing lights.
2. Updated buoy physics to make them move and rock with the water more realistically.
3. Increased the mass of the "Safe Water" buoy so they are more resilient to small vessels hitting them!
4. Buoys now have bells on them which can be heard once you get close enough to them
5. Buoys now have a physics based anchor system so they will always return to their correct position (approximately). You can still push them around a little bit though but its a fairly accurate simulation of them being anchored by a chain to the sea floor. This system will soon be applied to the boat anchors as well.
6. Various optimisations for the buoys. They are now very efficient in terms of processing overhead.
7. Fixed the map icon so that it doesn't rotate when the buoy rotates.
8. Buoys now have unique id numbers and unique light sequences based on real world information.
9. Map now displays buoy ID number as well as the light sequence text using NavAid (AtoN) notations
For example:
Y QFl(5) 7s - is Yellow light with 5 Quick flashes every 7 seconds while
W ISO(5) 10s - is White light isophase (equal length of time on/off) lasting 5 seconds every 10 seconds.

As far as I can see the buoys are all functioning as expected and, unless I spot anything serious tomorrow, this BETA will be pushed into the live branch.

The next task will be A.I. ships which will travel around the map using the buoys as navigation points and should help to bring the map to life a little!

To temper expectations - A.I. ships won't be able to dock at ports initially but hopefully I'll be able to make them smart enough at a later date!

Quick update to the Buoyage BETA.

1. Placed "Safe Water" buoys around the map in logical positions.
2. Buoys now have numbered ID plates
3. Buoys now show up on the SatNav and World Maps together with their ID number and their light code.
4. Buoys now reflect RADAR
5. Optimised buoy buoyancy code so that full buoyancy calculations are only made when the player is 6. Reduced buoy light brightness with just some subtle bloom.
7. Made buoys compatible with the world resizer. Open ocean buoys will now scale their distances while buoys marking entrances/exit to harbours will remain fixed in place.

Other Updates

1. Fixed a few drag values for boats which were set far too high when dealing with water impacts.
2. Made clouds a bit thicker so that stars are not visible through heavy cover.

Next week I shall be adding some meteorological/weather buoys in as these, together with the "Safe Water" buoys, will provide a network of waypoints for the A.I. ships to use to navigate the map.

New BETA "buoyage" ! This one is dealing with buoys.

For instructions on how to opt in please see the pinned post in the forum.

I have added 2 "Safe Water" navigation buoys to Maupiti. 1 is located right by the cargo loading bay and the other is just outside the main ocean access to Maupiti's bay between the two islands.

The buoys have a working light system with, I believe, the correct isophase of 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off - please correct me if it isn't.

The buoys are full physics models so have fun bumping into them and watching them bob around in the water. They are not currently anchored in place so it is possible to push them around for the moment.

If there are any seasoned boaters out there then please let me know if I'm using buoys correctly/incorrectly or want to suggest places where buoys should go.

This update pushes the World Resizing tool into the live branch. It all seems to be working correctly now so no reason to leave it in a BETA.

Updates
1. You can now resize the world using the option in the "Game Options" menu.
2. Only the distances between islands are altered. Islands remain the same size as do any inland water ways.
3. To prevent cheating on jobs you cannot resize the world when "Quick" or "Standard" jobs are in progress AND you must be inside a cargo loading area.
4. Job payments are now calculated dynamically based on the current distance between ports.
5. Job delivery timer now works and will count down in seconds on the "Current Jobs" page.