In The Black News

[p]Another week, another batch of changes straight from the void. We're continuing our push on UI and quality-of-life, and this time our sights were set on the projectile impact points (PIP). The old lead/lag pips were functional, but let's be honest, they were dumb and static. We've overhauled them completely.[/p][p]Alongside that, we've continued paying down a massive amount of technical debt, ripping out old systems and replacing them with more robust engine subsystems. This work isn't glamorous, but it's essential for stability and squashing entire classes of bugs and preventing future ones before they happen.[/p][h3]Core System Overhauls[/h3]

• [p]Dynamic Pip: The core of this update is the new Dynamic Pip. Instead of just appearing, the pip now has a proper acquisition animation. When you lock a target, the pip will now spawn from the center of the screen, scaling, rotating, and interpolating to the final lead or lag position. This provides a much clearer and more satisfying feedback loop that your weapons are locking on.[/p]
• [p]Onboarding Refinements: The single-player onboarding experience has seen a number of file restructures and logic updates to make the first flight smoother for new pilots.[/p]
• [p]Singleton to Subsystem: We finally killed the [c]UObject[/c] singleton pattern for [c]Player Manager[/c]. It is now a proper [c]Game Instance Subsystem[/c]. This means better lifecycle management and fewer "accessed none" errors when the world tears itself apart.[/p]
• [p]Content & DLC Framework: The "Modular Content Availability System" (MCAS) was created to replace all our Demo, Base Game content custom code. We have expanded on this system to now handle DLC and unlockable content. This makes development and management of different content states easier to work with, meaning we can get new content out sooner.[/p]
• [p]Camera Fader Fix: The camera fader logic has been tightened up. Fade-complete delegates now fire correctly and unbind themselves, preventing them from firing multiple times. This should resolve issues where players would get stuck in a fade or a transition would not complete as expected.[/p]

[h3]Combat & Gameplay[/h3]

• [p]Tobii Eye/Head Tracking Options: In a previous update, we threw out the old smoothing system that felt disconnected and jittery. The new system is based on a complex prediction model that will guess where you're looking next. In this update, we've exposed more of the buttons and dials for these smoothing algorithms to the View settings menu. Take a look at velocity, prediction and smoothing for both head and eye tracking.[/p]
• [p]Turret Controller & Gimbal Logic Refactor: Gimbals are no longer wasting CPU cycles constantly telling their turrets to aim at the same spot. We've added a tolerance check, so the controller only gets new tasking when the target location has meaningfully shifted.[/p]
• [p]CIWS Optimization: Significant optimizations to the projectile managers have drastically reduced CPU overhead. Large battles won't melt your frame rate anymore.[/p]

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed a splash-screen crash on slower CPUs.[/p]

[p]We've updated our Tobii head and eye tracking smoothing algorithms to reduce jitter and lag. We also slipped in a few bugfixes on some nasty edge cases that have been plaguing us.[/p][h3]Core System Overhauls[/h3]

• [p]Tobii Eye/Head Tracking Rewrite: We've thrown out the old over-simplified smoothing system that felt disconnected and jittery. The new smoothing system is based on a complex prediction model that will guess where you're looking next. The result is a much tighter, 1:1 feel with significantly less jitter. We also tweaked the default acceleration values to something that feels more balanced out of the box[/p]
• [p]Turret Controller & Gimbal Logic Refactor:[/p]
  • [p]Performance: Gimbals are no longer wasting CPU cycles constantly telling their turrets to aim at the same spot. We've added a tolerance check, so the controller only gets new tasking when the target location has meaningfully shifted. Every cycle counts.[/p]
  • [p]Aiming Stability: We've fine-tuned the turret controller's micro-corrections. A new damping factor prevents the annoying "wobble" when the turret over-corrects.[/p]

[h3]Quality of Life & Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Default View Settings:[/p]
  • [p]Head and eye tracking will now be disabled while zoomed by default. The old behavior felt jarring and counter-intuitive. You can, of course, still change this in the options menu.[/p]
  • [p]Default Eye Tracking Acceleration: x0.3[/p]
  • [p]Default Head Tracking Acceleration: x0.3[/p]
• [p]UI Initialization: Fixed a subtle bug in our list entry widgets that was causing some buttons to not work.[/p]

[h2]Tobii Support & Backend Update[/h2][p]Alright pilots, listen up.[/p][p]This week was about ripping out the guts of our singleton managers and replacing them with actual Engine Subsystems, because we're tired of race conditions and "spaghetti code" being a valid architectural pattern. We paid down a massive amount of technical debt, but we didn't leave you empty-handed. We’ve finished the Tobii Eye Tracking integration, so you can finally aim where you look.[/p][h2]New Feature: Tobii Eye Tracking[/h2][p]We’ve added full Tobii integration. It’s not just a wrapper; we did the math to make it feel right.[/p]

• [p]Head & Gaze Tracking: Full support for both.[/p]
• [p]Gaze Boost: Your look direction now subtly influences camera rotation, helping you track targets faster. It feels like telepathy, but it's just math.[/p]
• [p]Smoothing: We dampened the jitter, but it still needs some work. It shouldn't feel like you're having a seizure anymore riding the raw Tobii data-stream.[/p]
• [p]Auto-Disable: Tracking optionally automatically cuts out when you zoom, keeping your precision rock solid. Settings for eye and head tracking are in the view settings menu.[/p]
• [p]Fixes: We've been working hard on getting the game ready for EA, and all the systems overhauls we've done to squash the bugs we have and prevent more from coming back in the future.[/p]

[h2]Core Systems & Refactors[/h2]

• [p]Camera Fader: The old camera fading subsystem has been deprecated and removed. UI transitions are now handled more directly by the UI framework itself, resulting in faster and cleaner menu navigation.[/p]
• [p]Player Manager is now a Subsystem: We finally killed the [c]UObject[/c] singleton pattern for [c]Player Manager[/c]. It is now a proper [c]Game Instance Subsystem[/c]. This means better lifecycle management and fewer "accessed none" errors when the world tears itself apart.[/p]
• [p]Contract Info is King: Refactored our [c]Game Instance[/c] to stop hoarding contract state. [c]Contract Info[/c] is now the Single Source of Truth for active contracts. It caches match registration and post-match results, so the UI stops guessing what happened.[/p]
• [p]Content & DLC Framework: The "Modular Content Availability System" (MCAS) was created to replace all our Demo, Base Game, DLC and unlockable content custom code. This makes managing different content states a breeze to work with, meaning we can get content out sooner in smaller time windows.[/p]
• [p]Input Persistence: We hardened the some parts of the input system pipeline. Custom joystick mappings will now persist correctly even if you load the profile while the device is disconnected. Tobii and TrackIR are now hot-swappable, so no need to restart the game if you forgot to plug something in or launch a supporting app.[/p]

[h2]Combat & Performance[/h2]

• [p]CIWS Optimization: Significant optimizations to the projectile managers have drastically reduced CPU overhead. Large battles won't melt your frame rate anymore.[/p]
• [p]Lag PIP: You can now switch between Lead and Lag Pip Aiming modes in [c]Settings -> Misc[/c].[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Weapon Reliability: Squashed a nasty bug where projectiles were registering multiple hits erroneously. Damage multipliers were adjusted to compensate. This sounds huge but we only had to swap two lines of code, hehe.[/p]
• [p]AI Upgrades: Bots figured out how to use Railguns again. Good luck.[/p]
• [p]Input Flexibility: You can now fire weapons using joystick triggers/gamepad buttons even while in "Interact Mode" (e.g., holding Left Ctrl).[/p]

[h2]Multiplayer & Matchmaking (Early Access Prep)[/h2]

• [p]Matchmaking Fail-safes: The [c]HandleMatchmakingTimeout[/c] logic in [c]SessionManager[/c] was... optimistic. It now actually verifies that the random fallback contract has a valid Map Name and ID before trying to launch a session.[/p]
• [p]Session Metadata: Rewired the backend. Changed session setting key [c]SessionType[/c] to [c]Mode[/c] to align with the backend and stop modes from mixing.[/p]

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[h3][/h3]

• [p]Features & System Changes[/p]
  • [p]Head Tracking Overhaul: The system for head tracking and vehicle cameras has been completely rewritten for significantly smoother and more accurate 1:1 control.[/p]
    • [p]Head tracking rotation is now independent of manual freelook (mouse/joystick), allowing for simultaneous input.[/p]
    • [p]It's recommended to reset your look multiplier back to 1.0 found in Options > Misc.[/p]
    • [p]Tracking input settings can be found under Options > Input > View as the last two options.[/p]
      • [p]Pause Tracking: Freezes the headtracking look orientation.[/p]
      • [p]Toggle Eye & Head Tracking: Disables head tracking and restores the player view back to center.[/p]
  • [p]Player Camera System Rework: The entire camera system for both cockpit and external views has been refactored to be more robust and responsive.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Visual Improvements[/h2][p]Augmented Vision: Added Augmented Vision on activation of Sensors to help new and seasoned players find their way in the dark of space.[/p][p]Ultra Wide Support: FOV now adjusts dynamically based on screen aspect ratio to ensure that all vital parts of the ship cockpit remain visible regardless of monitor aspect ratio.[/p][p][/p][p]Vehicle HUD Update: When the HMCS widget is triggered to be visible, the HUD brackets will now hide themselves to reduce visual clutter on screen.[/p][hr][/hr][h2]Game Resource Menu[/h2][p]The new Game Resource menu is now available. You can access it through the News button in the hangar. This menu provides ongoing updates about current development progress. If you opened this message inside the game, you are already using it.[/p][p]You will also find quick access to the Pilot Manual, the FAQ, and the Steam Community page. These are available if you have questions or want to share something with other pilots.[/p][p]Work has started on a series of short tutorial videos. Once released, they will appear under the Videos tab. Each video will cover a focused topic such as flight maneuvering, combat tactics, or general piloting fundamentals.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Development Updates[/h2]

• [p]We are putting the last touches on the new Input system, which will be coming your way very soon.[/p]
• [p]Adjusted Pegasus lighting configuration in the hangar for improved visibility on the ship.[/p]
• [p]Reworked CI/CD and build pipelines for more stable and reliable game builds.[/p]
• [p]Optimized numerous art assets, reducing memory usage and improving loading times.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Stay up to date by visiting the In The Black YouTube channel. We post regular updates and a weekly stream that breaks down new features and upcoming content.[/p][p]Start with the newest episode: Mission Briefing #6[/p]