Star Explorers News

[h3]Video Options Menu[/h3]
In this update, the Video Options Menu has been improved. It now shows you a list of resolutions supported by the monitor to choose from. Previously, it had just a few options, all of them 1280 pixels wide, due to the poorly optimized UI system I had in place. Now that the UI is independent of screen resolution, it will accept any resolution that the monitor supports, as long as it is above 1280 x 720.



You can still set a custom resolution, as before, and have the standard choices between full screen and windowed mode. There is a known problem which effects computers using DPI scaling. If you try to set the game to window mode, it may think your monitor's resolution is smaller that it actually is, as it will be scaling the window up as required by the DPI scaling.

I have a fix for this, but for now you can right click on the Star_Explorers.exe file, select "properties," go to the "Compatibility" tab, and check "Disable display scaling on high DPI setting" to avoid this problem for now.

[h3]Interactive Tutorial[/h3]
This is the next thing that will be improved. I will be adding an optional tutorial that will take players through the first mission. This will involve small pop up text boxes with specific instructions on what to do and how to do it. Later, I may add voice-over to each of these text boxes.

[h3]Ultrawide Support (third attempt)[/h3]
I am adjusting all the game menus to work more smoothly, and to not rely on scaling, which has unfortunate effects on menu fonts sizes.

All the in-game menus are now scale-independent, and should look better than before, when using different screen resolutions other than 1280 x 720.

There are still some minor issues to deal with, like the location of some buttons and alert messages, but these should not be disruptive to play at all. Once those are taken care of, I will improve the screen resolution dialogue, so that it detects available resolutions, and allows you to pick the desired resolution from a dynamic list, instead of having to type it in.

[h3]Tutorial[/h3]
Once this whole resolution thing is settled (it's getting there!) then I will focus on making a solid, in-game tutorial, that teaches the basics, so new players can get into the game right away. This has been a long time coming, and I do apologize for not attending to it earlier.

[h3]More Features[/h3]
Once those two things are done, and fully tested, it will be time to have some fun with content. I still have a long wish-list of features I want to add to the game, but I think I will focus on improving the variety of planets, caves and other existing game features. Caves should have different kinds of wall textures, based on the type of rocky surface ... planets with liquid methane should support a different kind of plant-life than planets with water ... and so on...

I will be looking at things that I can add relatively easily to the game, without a lot of new programming required, more variety of models and textures, rather than completely new features. One of the things I find most interesting about this game is how different planetary features interact with one another, so having a wider range of potential features will make for more interesting interactions.

[h3]Ultrawide Support (second attempt)[/h3]
Improvements have been made to the ultrawide monitor support. Now the helm of the ship has a new, custom overlay menu, that allows the player to enjoy ultrawide support while piloting the spaceship.



I have had a realization that I made the menus all wrong in this game. To really be able to enjoy it at all resolutions, something I am planning to fix soon, I will be creating new, size independent menus, rather than the fixed type I've been using.

These will remain the same size, regardless of the screen resolution used. I already did this for the game menus, like the options menu and such. The main issues are with the ship's helm, and the ship's computer, where scaling the menu to match the screen size causes all sorts of problems with the fonts.

Once I create a new system with scale independent menus, then I will add a proper resolution dialogue (with a list of supported resolutions to choose from) and the game will be playable at any resolution without the 1280 x 720 recommended size restriction.

A couple new features have been added.

[h3]Ultrawide Support (first attempt)[/h3]
A user requested that I include support for ultrawide monitors. Star Explorers already has a custom resolution dialogue, but in this case, either the game would get stretched out, or certain menus would get cut off, making the game unplayable.

Version 4.6 is a first attempt to address this issue. It checks if the screen resolution ration is higher than 1.7 (normal wide scree) and if so, it will scale the menus according to the y axis (height) of the screen, instead of the x axis (width).

This makes ultra wide possible without cutting off important menus. The main areas this effects are in the main menu, the ship's helm, and when accessing the ship's computer. For now, this fixes the main problem, but it doesn't look too great, as there are black bars on the sides of the screen while these menus are visible...

Main Menu


Ship's Computer


However, once you are away from the ship's computer, the game will show the full, ultrawide view like this:



[h3]Improved Fog[/h3]
I should have caught this a long time ago! The fog I was using on vapor planets was linear fog. That meant, that as you turned the camera, certain features of the landscape would appear out toward the edges of your vision, and disappear as they came closer to the center of the screen. It was not a big deal, but it did not behave like real fog.



You can't tell from a single screenshot, but in the above image, it is using radial fog, which curves with the camera, so objects should no longer change their visibility based on camera rotation any more.

[h3]Version 5.0[/h3]
I am still working on my other game Paradox Vector. However, that game is getting closer and closer to being done. Once it is finished, and fully released out of Early Access, I plan to focus much more attention back on Star Explorers (which I miss working on).

This will eventually result in a Star Explorers 5.0, which will improve on a lot of things. The main issues I want to address are the following:

Technical Issues:

• Finally fix the screen resolution issue, so you can play at any resolution without text issues (in progress)
  
• Improve the Video Options menu to include all available resolutions (I'm planning to get this working in Paradox Vector first, then it should be easy to do in Star Explorers)
  
• Make sure Star Chart works, and commands behave as they are described. For instance, right now, clicking M will face you towards the mothership, but will not initiate Warp. However, it says "warping to mothership" it's small things that will confuse new players, and make the game look silly.
  

New Features:

• I want a few different terrain types that will work with the existing algorithm. Having the same sloping hills on each planet gets boring ... I want to have something like terraces, where flat areas are built up with more vertical faces ... not sure what else yet
  
• At least five new grass, plant and tree and leaf models types (each) for a wider variety of vegetation
  
• I would like the different vegetation types to match a particular liquid type. The current tree types might all be used only on water planets. The current fungus types might supply vegetation for Ammonia based planets, so there would be a few other styles of vegetation for the other liquid types ... I hope that makes sense.
  
• Friendly alien spaceships - you could board them and trade with aliens etc...
  
• Crashed alien spaceships - these would be like caves, but with spaceship interior and different kinds of loot.
  

These are just a few ideas. Nothing set in stone yet.

I'm probably using this feature the wrong way, but here I go...

[h3]The Problem[/h3]
There seems to be an error that happens occasionally if you save and exit the game while near the mothership. This bug presents itself when you try to reload your saved game. It will start loaidng then freeze. Now, it normally works, but a couple players have reported errors when saving and exiting, or reloading the game near the mothership.

Here is the original discussion: https://steamcommunity.com/app/502720/discussions/0/1747896085859674969/

For the record, I was able to restore the saved game file, but have been unable to reproduce the bug.

[h3]The Challenge[/h3]
Your challenge, should you feel worthy to attempt it, is to find a way to reproduce this error. If you can explain how this bug gets triggered while playing, you will be doing me and other players a huge favor, and you will be greatly rewarded!

Note, it would probably be best to start a new game, or make a backup of your game files before attempting this. I was able to restore the game in which this error occurred, but just to be safe, keep a backup handy if you are going to attempt this.

[h3]The Reward[/h3]
If you can describe a way for anyone to reproduce this error, I will provide you with free Steam keys for all the other games in my catalog.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9006/Schmidt_Workshops_SuperFantastic_MegaBundle/

That would include my latest Early Access game Paradox Vector, my oldest game Anomalies, and my Hand Drawn Shoot-em-up Rocket Blasters.