BallisticNG News

1.3 Beta 7 is now available! This is going to be our last beta build for a while. A lot of work now is content related, so we're going to get cracking on that and drop it all with the final 1.3 release. Stay tuned for content teasers!

Joining the beta

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select Beta. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  

What is the beta?
For 1.3 we're developing and implementing new modding tools and features, some of which will be part of the upcoming Switch version of the game. We're releasing beta builds for each new feature we add so the community gets to play around with them early.

Unity Tools Notice
While these beta builds ship with Unity 2020.3.5 ready builds of the Unity Tools, they are intended for our internal testing group only. If you want to import the Unity Tools, please make sure you're using Unity 2018.3.8 and import them from the public branch running version 1.2.5 of the game.

Mods built with the 1.3 Beta Unity Tools are not compatible with previous versions of the game and documentation will not be available until the final release of 1.3.



[h2]Forgotten Coast[/h2]
Forgotten Coast is a small vehicle track weaving through a mangrove swamp in New Caledonia, made by Brobama. The entire track is off-road, with most of it having you flying over the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do2_lTH4iz8



[h2]Maria Tide[/h2]
Maria Tide is set in Port Maria, Jamaica and is mostly off-road, with a small asphalt start grid going through the locations town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJn3O-wDoSg



[h2]Animated Characters[/h2]
To complete the Aster LB221, BallisticNG now supports animated characters! This feature will be available to custom ships for the final 1.3 release.

This is making use of Unity's state machine system, meaning mods will get a whole lot of control using a node graph to drive their animations.



[h2]Model B and C updates[/h2]
The Model B and Model C has been flattened down into a single ship with liveries. Not only does this allow custom liveries, but we can now add more internal liveries too!

With the drag and drift categories now only having a single ship, we can potentially look at adding more drag and drift ships in the future and really start fleshing out the content for these modes.

We've also reduced how much the Model B bounces, meaning much less micro-pitching will be required to keep it vertically stable.

These changes also mean the leaderboards are no longer populated with different names for each Model B/C livery, and will now show up as just Barracuda Model B and Barracuda Model C

To celebrate the change, we've added the very original Model B livery to the ship! If you've been playing since the early access days, you might remember this as the original survival ship ;)



[h2]New Ships[/h2]
5 new ships have been added! These are fun extras which are unlocked using the new nanomachines and spacerace cheats, which are typed on the menu. You can also now type funallowed for the game to remember any ships you have unlocked via a cheat.





Tracks

• Added Forgotten Coast
  
• Added Maria Tide
  
• Restored the world hologram on Omega Harbour
  

Engine

• Implemented support for animated ship characters which can respond to steering, pitching, speed and engine power. This will be available to mods in a future Unity Tools update.
  

Multiplayer

• Steer and pitch inputs are now sent to apply character animations. With a full 16 player lobby, this adds an additional 960 bytes per second to the required bandwidth.
  

Commands

• Added debug_logcheats to print all typed cheats and a description of what they do into the console.
  

Cheats

• Added nanomachines cheat. This unlocks the Scorplet, Omnicom CD-AG32 and M-Tech RD-1
• Added spacerace cheat. THis unlocks the Barracuda MT Mini and Wyvern SCC Ares Mk I
• Added funallowed cheat. When activated, the state of ship unlocking cheats will be remrembered across game session. Typing again will disable it.
  

User Interface

• The name of cheats typed on the menu is now briefly displayed for visual feedback
  

Ships

• Added Aster LB221 livery template PSD and XCF
  
• The Model B and C ships have been merged into a single ship with liveries. Custom liveries will now work for these.
  
• The original Survival Model B livery is now available (named Stealth)
  
• Decreased Model B hover rot power from 25 to 20
  
• Aster LB221 now has pilot animations
  
• Moved Aster LB221s camera slightly closer
  
• Increased Aster LB221s hover damping from 4 to 5.5
  
• Decreased Aster LB221s camera sensitivity from 1 to 0.85
  

Stats

• Usage stats for the Aster LB221, Barracuda Model B and Barracuda Model C are now tracked.
  

1.3 Beta 6 is now available! We took a month off over Christmas to refresh and come back with a strong start to the year. We have lots of new modding features and content for you!

Note: We have made major refactoring changes to the game's code base. What we've done shouldn't affect game stability, but code mods will now be broken. See the Codebase Refactored section below for more details.

Joining the beta

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select Beta. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  

What is the beta?
For 1.3 we're developing and implementing new modding tools and features, some of which will be part of the upcoming Switch version of the game. We're releasing beta builds for each new feature we add so the community gets to play around with them early.

Unity Tools Notice
While these beta builds ship with Unity 2020.3.5 ready builds of the Unity Tools, they are intended for our internal testing group only. If you want to import the Unity Tools, please make sure you're using Unity 2018.3.8 and import them from the public branch running version 1.2.5 of the game.

Mods built with the 1.3 Beta Unity Tools are not compatible with previous versions of the game and documentation will not be available until the final release of 1.3.


We now have a public version of our internal roadmap available for everybody to view!
https://trello.com/b/xf49tYpV/ballisticng-public-roadmap

While subject to change, the gist of what we're working towards is:

• Release 1.3 as a major content and modding tools update for PC with some preliminary and fundemental engine changes for the Switch version
  
• Release Maceno Island shortly after 1.3 drops
  
• Begin work on 1.4, a major overhaul to the game's internals to get it ready for the Switch release.
  
• Once 1.4 has dropped, continue supporting the game with new content in 1.5 and beyond.
  

As you can see from the roadmap we have a lot of free content still to come for 1.3, so buckle up ;)


[h2]Alice Mountain[/h2]
The first track from Brobama is here! Alice Mountain is a small vehicles track set at the base of a ski resort in British Columbia and features lots of bumpy offroad track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osV1vCeGxHg





We asked Brobama if there was anything he wanted to add to this betas release announcement, and he had this to say:

"When we were first discussing ideas for the bike tracks, the first thing that came to my mind was motocross racing. Alice Mountain takes inspiration from old Motocross racing games on PS2 and Xbox - which I played a lot of as a kid - most importantly the track Hillsboro from MX: Unleashed, which also had a construction site and gondola line. I tried to incorporate the aesthetic of these old games into BNG’s engine, while also staying close to the guidelines given to me by Vonsnake, which resulted in a hybrid between the “standard” bike track style of Ribble Raceway and a bumpy dirt section. This track also has a few sections where the normal road surface gives way to bare rock, which I just did because it looks cool. It’s taken me a long time to complete, but after Vonsnake personally flew to America to physically assault me for not working fast enough, I’ve finally been able to become the first mod-track creator to have a track added to the game officially. also i was the president"

[h2]Omega Harbour Reworked[/h2]
Omega Harbour has had a much needed facelift to bring up to standard with the game's most recent content. The layout has stayed the same, with the only change being the outer wall on the spiral no longer has a gap in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyYUmoi3Tro





[h2]More Track/Gamemode Combinations[/h2]
When we updated the Model B tracks last year we forgot to enable Eliminator and Team Race on them, since they now have weapon pads, so here's that change!

We've also enabled Survival on the expert tracks. As a side note, Arrivon Peak has had a few scenery tweaks ;)



[h2]Rebalanced Campaign Time Trials[/h2]
We've adjusted the balancing of the campaign time trials by updating the bronze and silver requirements to be much more sane for new players.

Previously the times were split by fixed amounts off the gold medal on each event. This worked fine for the shorter tracks, but for longer tracks like Omega Harbour it was a major problem as the game suddenly started demanding a lot more because of the endurance required to reach even a bronze.

The new way we've calculated these times is by taking the gold medal time and adding a percentage of a single laps completion time to it. For bronze this is 50%, silver is 25%. This results in times that scale nicely across the board, and overall the silver and bronze medals are more forgiving then before.

[h2]Ship Viewer[/h2]
Working on custom liveries? We've got just the thing for you! The ship viewer is a new in-game tool for loading up and looking at any ship in the game, both vanilla and mods.

Using this you can view ships from any angle with varying intensities of light. You can also toggle the different texture maps on and off to see how everything looks individually or all together.



[h2]Custom Ai Rosters[/h2]
One of our larger requested features over the years has now been implemented! When playing in custom race you now have options to set which ship and livery each AI will use. This supports all ships loaded into the game, both vanilla and custom.

Once you have a roster of AI ships you like, you can save them as a preset to recall at any time. This will save an ini file to User -> Config -> Ini -> Ai Presets so you can share your AI setups with others!

When you have less then 16 ships selected the UI will grey out the ships that won't be used by AI. You can still interact with these buttons however, it's just to signify that the AI isn't using them.



[h2]Multiplayer Lobby Presets[/h2]
Sever hosts can now save all of the lobby settings as a preset, using the same system as the new custom AI rosters.

[h2]Sun Rays[/h2]
The game now has realtime sun rays! These were added to spice up Maceno Interchange, but we've gone back through a couple of tracks to add them there too. These are applied specifically on a per-track basis where they make sense and are designed to be a subtle addition instead of a glaring extra. You can of course turn them off, and they'll be off by default on the games first startup if you select the retro or low modern presets.

Options for sun rays will be coming to custom tracks in the future for the final 1.3 release. We also have an in-game sun ray editor, which you can access from the debug hub (F9 key)

Tracks that have sun rays are:

• Cassandra
  
• Zephyr Climb
  
• Marina Rush
  
• Zephyr Ridge Reverse
  
• Nova Split Reverse
  
• Alantica Reverse
  
• Nova Park
  
• Vega Square Reverse
  
• Route 05 Reverse
  
• Maceno Interchange (Upcoming in Maceno Island)
  
• Alice Mountain Reverse
  

[h2]New Track Chase Camera[/h2]
The track chase camera has gone through a major rewrite to reimplement all of the behaviours in a much more mathematically pleasing way. You'll find the camera feels a lot smoother, more responsive and most importantly, much closer to our source material ;)

Of course you can also continue using the old track chase camera if you want. We've added an option for that. The camera will also be sat a bit further back in the new camera and there is an option to reposition it approximately to where it would be with the old camera if you want to keep it consistent.

Finally we've also got new behaviours for when you're using the new camera in 2280 mode, floor hugger, on a magnetic tile or no tilt lock section. The cameras pitch will no longer be based on the ships orientation to the worlds up direction and instead offset itself based on the ships pitch delta, making it much more manageable when tracks get a bit more crazy then usual.


[h2]Mod Options API[/h2]
Code mods can now create their own option menus! Once programmed, players can access your mod options from the new Game -> Mods options menu, where they can select a menu that you've added and configure settings to their liking.

Check out an example here.

[h2]Results Screen API[/h2]
Working on a custom gamemodes that needs to display something other then what the vanilla game does? We've got you covered with a new results screen API!

While still a work in progress, this API gives you access to both the meat of the layout building backend and general purpose macro helpers, such as a table builder, to quickly code out a results screen that displays exactly what you need.

Full documentation is not yet available, however you can check out an example here.

[h2]Neognosis Workflow Tools[/h2]
There's been some updates to our Blender addons and standalone tilemap builder tool.

First things first, we've moved the tools over to Github:
https://github.com/bigsnake09/Neognosis-Workflow-Tools

The url shortcut included with the game now also points to this repository. Having everything sat here puts it in a public place where anybody can benefit from our tools, even for non BallisticNG use!

Changelog

Blender NeoModeling plugin

• Added Rip Edges to NURBS curve operator
  
• Added Setup Curve Array operator
  
• Added Setup Normal Auto Smooth operator
  

Tilemap Builder General

• Improved the layout of the new project window
  
• Updated UI design so it's no longer using the default ImGUI colors
  
• Fixed windows not being resizable from their edges
  

UV Rect Mode:

• Fixed the export button for texture previews only working on the first texture in the list
  

Atlas Creation Mode:

• Added tooltips to more UI elements
  
• Added button to import multiple diffuse textures. This will also automatically detect illum and reflection maps based on _i and _r prefixes in the file name.
  
• Added per texture button to automatically load illum and reflection maps. Like above, this is based on _i and _r prefixes in the file name.
  
• Added sync sets option. When enabled any changes to a single texture set will reflect across all sets.
  
• Added file repathing options. This lets you select a folder and the tool will scan the root and all sub-directories for the texture file.
  
• Added tooltips that show texture map file paths when hovering over the texture map title in the texture manager
  
• The texture atlas is now only rebuilt when the mouse cursor is moved
  
• Fixed alpha blending of textures
  

[h2]Codebase Refactored[/h2]
To begin preparing for 1.4, which is where we'll be getting into the meat and potatoes of Switch development, we've refactored the game's codebase so it's easier to start making the changes we need later on.

If you're just playing the game this doesn't mean much, however this change will break code mods. Most of the work we've done for this is just moving, renaming and consolidating some duplicate code, so upgrading code mods to the new code base shouldn't be too difficult.

A lot of the changes made take code mods into consideration, making sure that everything is now organised in a more logical manner that's easier for modders to search through and figure out what's happening and where.

We have a work in progress upgrade document that you can refer to here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c5CXNsjHFzTRJCPeRlr--OHBkCyFCNizPjkK1f8IEDo/edit?usp=sharing

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
Campaign

• Rebalanced all time trials (DLC included) so the silver and bronze requirements are quarter and half of a single lap lower then the gold
  

Tracks

• Added Alice Mountain
  
• Reworked Omega Harbour
  

Music

• Added Vonsnake - Twilight
  
• Added Xpand - Bay Sound. A vocal mix is also included in the soundtrack DLC
  
• Added Shiftdelete - Shockwave
  

Modding

• Added Ship Viewer to provide an environment for custom livery development
  
• Fixed code mods not loading from the external txt file
  

Gamemodes

• Increased the upsurge shield time from 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds
  
• Eliminator can now be played on the Model B tracks
  
• Team Race is now playable on the Model B tracks
  
• Survival is now playtable on the expert tracks
  

Engine

• Major code refactoring
  
• Unified game initialization into a single set of tasks. This will change where the ingame console opens to show errors with things like code mods.
  
• Updated to Steam Audio 2.0.20, fixing continuously degrading performance when spatial audio is enabled.
  
• JSON data for light flares is now always read and written with an invariant culture rule
  
• Fixed custom livery resources not being purged when refreshing the available custom liveries
  
• Fixed soft locks in specific scenarios when speed pads are being disabled
  
• FIxed virtual scenery track illuminations not displaying in 2280
  
• Removed the final bits of the legacy ship importer (.ship and .shp files are still read)
  

Commands

• Removed the debug_refreshliveries command. This functionality has been moved to the debug hub, under the Content Explorer
  

Debug Hub

• Added log event/ship packet options to logger
  
• Added sun ray editor
  
• Added loaded CSF bundle list into Content Explorer
  
• Resource references for UGC liveries can not be shown in the Content Explorer
  
• Fixed windows that were closed still being written to disk as being opened
  

User Interface

• Added Game -> Mods options menu, allowing code mods to add their own options to the game.
  
• Added custom AI roster options to custom race
  
• Moved the VR controls notice to the top of the introduction interface
  
• The selection highlight color now applies to the titles of selectors and slider
  
• All content is now selectable in the campaign editor, even if it's locked
  
• Fixed the mouse cursor still contributing to highlighting UI elements after it's been hidden
  
• FIxed elements loosing their highlight if the mouse cursor leaves it while it's selected
  

Mac/Linux

• Fixed issues when using Discord Rich presense.
  

Options

• Added shield display mode option (percentage and absolute)
  
• Added track introduction style option (Track Overview, Start Grid Pan or None)
  
• Added option for sun rays post processing effect
  
• Added options to toggle the old track chase camera behaviour and approximate the old track chase camera distance in the new camera.
  

Multiplayer

• Added lobby preset options to the lobby host settings
  
• Added option to set whether IP hosted servers will attempt to use UPNP or not
  
• The available weapons handshake is now split into separate packets when the list of weapons is large enough
  
• Optimized the creation of peer ship tick packets
  
• Fixed the back button in the lobby settings menu not returning when clicked
  
• Fixed the server forcing the Aster LB221 when switching to a small vehicles track
  

Physics

• Forced grounding has been changed so the maximum height is now the minimum threshold for applying the downwards force, instead of the trigger threshold for throwing the ship at the ground.
  

Camera

• Track chase camera rewritten from scratch to improve its feel. The new camera sits a bit further away from the ship due to changes in how the position is calculate.
  
  An approximation of the old distance can still be used with the Use Legacy Distance setting in options.
  The old camera can also be used using the legacy track chase option.
  

Joining the beta
Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
From the dropdown select Beta. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam

What is the beta?
For 1.3 we're developing and implementing new modding tools and features, some of which will be part of the upcoming Switch version of the game. We're releasing beta builds for each new feature we add so the community gets to play around with them early.

Unity Tools Notice
While these beta builds ship with Unity 2020.3.5 ready builds of the Unity Tools, they are intended for our internal testing group only. If you want to import the Unity Tools, please make sure you're using Unity 2018.3.8 and import them from the public branch running version 1.2.5 of the game.

Mods built with the 1.3 Beta Unity Tools are not compatible with previous versions of the game and documentation will not be available until the final release of 1.3.

[h2]C.Y.G.O.N Tempest Livery Template[/h2]
A livery template for the C.Y.G.O.N tempest is now available. Our friends at Caged Element have given us the all clear, so it's now included!

You'll find the template PSD alongside all of the others in the modding folder. If you're new to custom liveries, you can check out our documentation which covers how they work here.

Here's a livery that community member Vista has already made!



[h2]Aster LB221[/h2]
For those of you who have been with us for a while now, carving is back.
The Aster LB221 is a fully realized version of the original cheat, coming back with its own category of tracks!

The bike has a livery for all of the main teams and can be used to set leaderboard times. If you'd like to race other bikes on normal tracks, type carving on the menu to force the AI to also use the Aster with you ;)

To select the bike you'll want to move up to the new Small Vehicles category on the turntable interface.





[h2]Ribble Raceway (and future tracks)[/h2]
Small Vehicle tracks are a new type of track which are designed for smaller vehicles, namely the Aster LB221 at the moment.

Currently we have plans for 8 of these tracks, and to help make them are community members Kabelsalat and Brobama!

Small vehicle tracks have lower top speeds but the tracks themselves are much smaller. We're allowing any ship to be raced on them, but ideally you'll want to use the Aster. They're 30% slower then the normal game, so if you want to race them at normal speeds you can use hyper speed to counter the speed reduction.

In the future, custom tracks will be able to be setup as small vehicle tracks. We'll have template layout creator and blender files alongside the final 1.3 release for this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKQVv4kkv4





[h2]Arrivon XI Reworked[/h2]
Arrivon XI has had a major update. We've made improvements to the pitlane entrances and gave the scenery a fresh coat of paint to bring it up to spec with other tracks. We'll be giving Omega Harbour the same treatment next!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7-QwnD7LQ





[h2]Campaign Update[/h2]
Note: this change adds more events to the campaign. Your campaign rank will drop as a result of this.

The base game campaign has been updated to better space out events, add new events for post-release gamemodes and make tweaks to existing events to make it more fun.

Ascension and Decension have also seen a major update so they introduce and use all of the game's reverse tracks.

The Barracuda events have also been restructured so they're not such a grind, now with only 4 time trial events and the tournament only covering a handful of tracks. The Model B tournaments have also been split out into individual races, with two tournaments at the end to challenge your consistency across the forward and reverse versions of the tracks.

All campaigns have also been updated so you now only need 4 points to unlock the next set of events instead of 6. This means you'll need 2 silvers, a bronze and a gold or a single platinum to progress to the next set of events.

Unlock requirements for DLC liveries have also been reduced to 50% overall completion of the DLCs campaign.

[h2]Layout Creator 2.14[/h2]
Layout Creator 2 has had a major update, bringing it to version 14. Some of these are previews of features you can expect out of Layout Creator 3! Refer to the in-game hotkey reference window for more information.

• Added tangent rotation snapping. Defaults to 15 degrees and is enabled alongside grid snapping.
  
• Added option to set the track refresh poll rate. Now defaults to 60fps thanks to some major optimizations
  
• Added orthographic camera modes. Refer to hotkey reference
  
• Added node scaling tool, bound to the S key.
  
• Added node orbit tool, bound to the R key.
  
• Added a ship speed option
  
• Implemented a new junction connection smoothing algorithm that deals with geometry much better. The old one can be turned back on in the route editor and will still be used by default when opening files created in V13 or lower.
  
• Added options to copy shape data when appending a new node and interpolate when inserting. Both are enabled by default.
  
• Insert Segment hotkey moved to I key
  
• Move reference image hotkey moved to W key
  
• Grid snapping now defaults to 2 units
  
• Grid and rotation snapping can now be set using a text input field at the top of the editor
  
• Track mesh generation now takes place over three separate passes, fixing numerous issues caused by the original single pass
  
• Improved handling of section transforms near the end of a closed route
  
• The editor no longer responds to play mode toggle inputs until the ship has been spawned
  
• Using the move to cursor tool now supports multiple nodes
  
• The default camera speed is now faster
  
• Fixed an issue where routes with a single note would create connections to sections near the world origin
  
• Fixed input fields not being deslected when ending an edit
  
• Fixed a slow memory leak caused by materials not being purged from memory after exiting play mode
  

[h2]Custom Virtual Palettes[/h2]
We've added custom color palette support for virtual scenery! For more information, check out our reference sheet below. Once you have a palette, you can enable it in the Game -> General menu.

We've included the game's built in palettes with this release. You can find them in the Modding -> Palette Templates folder where the game's installed.



[h2]Upsurge Improved[/h2]
There's been some minor tweaks to Upsurge to make it more enjoyable, and a major backend change has enabled something new.

• Added obtainable target message and notice sound
  
• Ships no longer lose zones after being eliminated
  
• The shield fill bar now correctly correlates to the shield refill percentage
  

And the big one:
Upsurge now uses the same dynamic environment colors that Survival does, including when playing in splitscreen!

https://youtu.be/cg3tqvhXMc4

[h2]Collision Improvements[/h2]
Collisions have seen some major improvements for the first time since pre-1.0 builds of the game. Scraping the backend of the ship against walls is now smooth and in tracks making use of scenery walls, ships will no longer clip through them.

The math that keeps the ship from sliding up sloped walls has also been reworked, fixing issues where ships would stick at the height they were at when entering the collision and even slam into the floor on hills because of it.

The invisible track boundary collisions now also correctly catch airbrake velocity and stop the ship from flying away from the track when above the wall with improved stability.

[h2]Some other cool stuff[/h2]
The complete changelog between Beta 4 and 5 is a chonker so we'll be saving all of the nitty griitty details until the final 1.3 release. But here's some more cool stuff:

Accessibility

• Added an option to disable the Ai player stat sharing. Disable this option and Ai ships will always use the actual top speed of their selected ship. This does not affect campaign progression.
  
  This option will now always be off for AI in multiplayer lobbies.
  

Campaign

• Implemented support for the event description field. The ingame campaign editor has been updated to support this too.
  

Custom Race

• Barrel rolls and sideshifts can now be turned on in 2159 and floor hugger physics. Barrel rolls have also had some major improvements that apply to all three physics modes.
  

Multiplayer

• The lobby settings menu has been redesigned and is now generated on the fly, making it easier for us to add more stuff to it ;)
  
• Implemented bot count option
  
• Implemented barrel roll and sideshift options
  
• Clients are now restricted to the hosts installed weapons. (for custom weapons)
  

User Interface

• Fixed formatting issues with campaign editor UI elements
  
• Improved the formatting of text on the stats menu
  

Engine

• Implemented error handling for Survival music visualization. If there's a problem the game will now continue going without music effects instead of softlocking.
  
• Fixed total races with X ship stats not tracking properly
  
• Fixed ships not rendering for player 2 in splitscreen
  

Assets

• The 3d track pads have updated textures with bloom baked into them for a better look
  
• 3d weapon pads now pulsate their color between pink/yellow like their tile brethren, instead of being a fixed red
  

Tracks

• Removed the slalom on Luijazui Parks cave exit
  

1.3 will be updating a few tracks to bring them up to spec with the rest of the roster. The first of these is Metro, which is the focus of this update. We also have some news regarding the game's switch port, which you can find below the beta release information.



Joining the beta

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select Beta. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  

What is the beta?
For 1.3 we're developing and implementing new modding tools and features, some of which will be part of the upcoming Switch version of the game. We're releasing beta builds for each new feature we add so the community gets to play around with them early.


Metro ended up being a frustrating track to play primarily due to the long, thin tunnels that demanded an almost impossible racing line on higher speed classes. This updates overhauls the tracks scenery to fix that issue and give it a much needed makeover, opening it up more and better integrating into into Vega City.

Thanks to Kabelsalat and Brobama for the super cool Scorpio construction vehicles!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3D4Uv-4iGg




It's been a little bit since we initially revealed that we were developing a Switch version of BallisticNG. We've had time to get the game up and running and figure out what we need to do, and we're ready to give some more details on the port.

• We're targeting 60fps in singleplayer and online with support to up to 8 AI. Online will support 16 players with up to 8 lobby slots being available to AI.
  
• We're currently targeting 30fps in splitscreen, however we are looking for opportunities to further optimise to potentially get it going at 60fps.
  
• The game will run at 1080p when docked. The framerate targets above are for when the console is both undocked and docked.
  
• The game will have a battery saving mode which will cap the FPS to 30 across the board.
  
• Excluding the CRT filter, all retro effects will be available as options.
  
• The upcoming Layout Creator 3 and in-game campaign editor will be part of the port and cross compatible with PC. We'll be looking at services in the future to enable this, probably Mod.IO.
  
• Custom ships and tracks made for PC may potentially be playable on the Switch using the same service for hosting mods made in the internal game tools. There will be numerous llimitations and workflow requirements for this to work though, but we can talk about those at a later date if we get PC mods up and running.
  
• Online will not be cross platform with PC, however if sales provide the budget to get platform agnostic matchmaking servers setup and maintained we will implement it. Remember to tell your friends about the game ;)
  

We have a few tracks, such as Basin, which we need to optimise to hit 60fps on the system. These optimisations will also be on PC and part of the ongoing 1.3 Beta.

Please note that we still do not have a release window. We have a lot to get through with new features, content updates and new content with the Maceno Island expansion, so all we can say at this stage is it'll be a while.

What we're currently working on is getting the fundamental engine changes out of the way first. As this work is being done alongside new content and new tool development it's taking time, however once it's out of the way further progress on the port should be much faster.

The last month of development has been busy as we start to standardise the game across the PC and Switch builds. This beta isn't focused on a single feature, but is instead more general in getting an engine upgrade to Unity 2020.3.5 available to everyone.

If you are making mods do not update Unity on your end. We have not updated the Unity Tools package yet and you will irreversibly break your projects if you upgrade at this time. Stay with Unity 2018.3.8 for the time being.



Joining the beta

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select Beta. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  

What is the beta?
For 1.3 we're developing and implementing new modding tools and features, some of which will be part of the upcoming Switch version of the game. We're releasing beta builds for each new feature we add so the community gets to play around with them early.



[h3]Engine Upgrade[/h3]
After 3 long years we have finally updated to the latest and greatest version of Unity! We were originally going to only be using the latest versions of Unity for the Switch, but there's plenty of new useful features that we can take advantage of so we decided to upgrade the PC version to it too.

The game is backwards compatible with all content mods developed on the Unity 2018.3.8 based tools so you do not need to upgrade Unity to make mods for this beta. In fact, the Unity Tools for the new version of Unity are not available yet, so don't upgrade until the final 1.3 release or you will break your projects!

Note that certain parts of the Unity API have been removed in this new version of the engine, which could impact code mods that make use of it.

[h3]Moving to asset bundles[/h3]
We've made pretty extensive use of Unity's resource folders for a lot of our on-demand asset loading. On PC this has been fine since the size of it is fairly small and a modern desktop computer can power through its initialisation pretty much instantly.

On the Switch we don't have this luxury however, so across both platforms we're extracting our assets out into Unity Asset Bundles so we can load our asset when we need them.

So far we have moved out ship prefabs, and while they're not part of the resources folder we have also moved out all of the internal tracks too. This gives us faster build times and allows us to better compress the assets to use even less disk space then they did before.

[h3]Fix for a long standing hover issue[/h3]
If you've played BallisticNG long enough you've probably noticed that ships get really shaky at the top of their hover height when they're moving slowly, and when landing at higher speeds while pitching up it can feel like the ship is hitting a solid surface.

This is now fixed! Ship hovering is now in general much smoother and works better across a wider range of track geometry.

[h3]External Mods[/h3]
Mods can now be loaded from any folder on your computer! This is done by creating an external.txt folder in the internal mod folder and pasting a directory path per line. Each directory is treated like the internal directory, so for instance if you point the game to an external tracks folder then the game is going to expect that folder to have sub-folders which will become categories on the menu.

Valid external.txt files are:

User -> Mods -> Tracks -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Ships -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Liveries -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Sounds -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Ingame Music -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Menu Music -> external.txt
User -> Mods -> Campaigns -> external.txt

Asset Bundles

• Ship prefabs moved to an asset bundle
  
• Internal tracks moved to an asset bundle
  

User Interface

• Ships for the UI for internal and custom ships using the CSF format now load asynchronously. The interface will no longer lock up when loading resource heavy ships.
  
• Fixed previously viewed custom ship resources not beeing freed in the lobby ship selection turntable when moving to another ship
  

Music

• Rewritten music playlist backend, fixing numerous bugs and simplifying code for future additions
  
• Fixed the pause menu not showing the name of in-scene song overrides
  
• The All Music custom playlist now includes every song loaded from external.txt
  
• Added Vonsnake - In The Depths
  
• Added Atlanticore - Slipstream
  

Physics

• 2159/2280 ship hover damping computation updated to fix numerous movement issues related to ship being at the top of its hover height.
  

Audio

• Fixed voices being much quieter when spatial audio is enabled
  

Ships

• Barracuda S liveries can now be selected in survival
  
• Fixed custom liveries not being applied to duplicate ship entries
  
• Model C stats update
  
  • Reduced steer steer falloff from 1 to 0.7
    
  • Increased steer gain from 1 to 1.22
    
  • Increased steer slide from 1 to 1.2
    
• Protonic Stats Update
  
  • Increased top speed and acceleration to be slightly slower then Scorpio
    
  • Slightly decreased grip from 3.4 to 3.3
    
  • Reduced tilt angle from 35 to 30
    

Engine

• Upgraded from Unity 2018.3.8 to Unity 2020.3.5 to standardise development with the Switch version
  
• The intro FMV is now smooth (fixed from Unity upgrade)
  
• Updated to the latest version of Rewired. The Dualsense controller is now fully supported with feature parity to the Dualshock 4.
  
• The game now uses incremental garbage collection as part of the Unity engine upgrade. We don't generate much garbage data, but any amount that is collected should now have less of an impact on slower hardware.
  
• Implemented render zones, a new rendering feature that can be used for rendering optimisation and other creative purposes. These are not available for modding yet, but will be in a future update.
  
• Added support for loading all custom content from external locations using external.txt. See the dedicated section above for details.
  
• UI inputs are no longer processed when the game window isn't in focus
  

Controls

• Multiple controllers can now be assigned to players. The UI has been split into separate Add/Remove buttons to manually control the assignments.
  

Tracks

• All internal tracks rebaked with the newer 32-bit lightmapper (unity upgrade broke lighting)
  
• Removed an unused tonemapper component from all scenes and custom track camera prefabs
  
• Removed a light from the final tunnel on Atlantica that bloomed out the exit with the new lighting
  
• Removed light from Nova Park that bloomed out track sections under the 2nd park bridge
  
• Added missing lights to ceiling lamps on Nova Park Reverse
  
• Added light for missing flood light source on Thunderhead
  
• Surge now has a different track illum color. Surge reverse has also been given a lighting makeover.
  
• Outer Reaches holopads particle effect update (unity upgrade broke them)
  

Photo Mode

• Fixed no tonemapping options showing on a select few tracks
  

Options

• Added weapons quality option. Setting this to low uses alternative particles with much less overdraw for weapon impacts.
  
• Renamed the tonemapping option to vibrancy boost to better reflect what the option does.
  

Layout Creator 2.0

• Height labels have been updated from Unity's now removed GUIText components to Text Mesh Pro components
  

VR

• SteamVR updated to the latest version
  

Debug Hub
The Debug Hub is a new WIP debug interface to provide tools for modding with expandabiility through code mods. It currently has a logger and will be expanded with more built in tools in the future.

The hub can be opened and closed by pressing F9.