Star Explorers News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACWhFG3DMas

I enjoy this guy's show, it's one of the only streaming shows I actually watch (maybe because I like space games ... go figure?) Anyway, if you enjoy space games as much as I do, check it out.

I just wanted to post an update. Not much has happened in the last few weeks. I have taken on a large work related project over the summer and it is severely limiting my time.

I probably won't be able to do much in terms of updates until some time in September.

That doesn't mean I won't be thinking about Star Explorers, or doing anything at all, just hoping to set realistic expectations for updates. Maybe I will get a free weekend or two to do something before that ... you never know.

The next big update will be version 4.0. This will be another stability update, since I am in the process of upgrading the Acknex game engine from A7 to A8. You can try the current A8 version 3.3 under "Star Explorers > Properties > Betas" and be selecting "testing" from the drop down.

A8 seems to run faster and it has solved the problem with Data Execution Prevention that some users have encountered.

As always, please feel free to post any questions or bug reports here on the forum.

I have updated the game in "testing" to version 3.3. It has a new folder in there called "Custom Path."

In that folder there are instructions on how to create a custom install directory for Star Explorers. This is really only going to be useful for people who can't get the game to run normally. If your game works, you can safely ignore this announcement.


Go to your Steam library, and make sure the game updates. This can be prompted by clicking "Star Explorers > Properties > Local Files" and selecting "Verify Integrity of Local Files." It should queue an update, then you can cancel the verification check because we are just using it to get the update.

Now, once the game is up to date, go back to "Star Explorers > Properties > Local Files" and click on "Browse Local Files."

This will open the Star Explorers installation directory. In it, you should see a folder called "Custom Path." If you don't see this folder, it means the game did not update, or perhaps you are not running the "testing" version.

Open that folder and then open the "How_to_create_a_custom_save_folder.txt" file, and follow the instructions.

Basically, you will be creating a file called "custom_path.txt" in that folder. In that file, paste the windows path to the folder you want to use to save games. Make sure you replace backslashes "\" with double backslashes "\\" for it to work correctly. And make sure that folder is not write protected. Something in "My Documents" should work fine.

Sorry it's so complex. I will see if I can streamline this process in the future. It would be better if you could do it through the game itself.

Now when you start a game, it should create a "Star_Explorers" folder in the directory you chose.

UPDATE: I realized that when I exported the game, the problem with the screenshot (F12) key toggling volume was still there... now it should be working. Also just fixed the texture on giant surface emeralds.

I fixed one issue and tweaked the shaders a bit.


F12 is used to take screenshots in Steam. Unfortunately, this was also toggling the volume in Star Explorers. This should not be a problem anymore.


I am testing out the shaders a bit more.

I made the posterizing effect active by default and unlinked it from the pixel shader. Right now there is no way to turn it off in the game menu. However, if you look at your "settings_new.cfg" file, you will see the last two entries are set to 100 by default. By setting these to -1, you will disable the posterizing effect, and the game should appear in its original state.

I may add this as an option in the video settings menu. I kind of like it, so I may keep it as the default look.

I also brightened the game up a bit. I've always felt the game was a bit too dark. Now it might be a bit too bright, but I will continue to try to find a good balance...


I've been testing the game out a bit. It seems to run pretty well so far. I may push this out as the default version soon, like in the next week or so.

I was not planning to do another major release after 3.0 so soon. However, once I realized the DEP issue was fixed in the latest Acknex engine, it was something I could not avoid doing.

I will call the next version 4.0, since it is built on a newer game engine.

UPDATE: I also just uploaded the fix for the post processing shaders, so now you can again choose from bloom, smoothing and the old school pixel shader as before.

I actually was able to tweak the pixel shader in two ways. First, the sky on planets no longer has any transparency sorting problems, This caused the sky to flash annoyingly. This should no longer happen.

Secondly, I added a text file called "pixel_size.txt" to the game folder. It contains a small bit of text and the number 3. This number determines the pixel size in the old-school pixel shader. 3 is standard. 1 will make the pixels match your screen resolution, and higher then 3 will increase the size of the pixels ... just added it there in case people want to tweak things a bit.

What's the point of having it set to 1 you ask? Well, it also uses a posterizing effect for the colors. I thought it looked kind of neat without the pixel effect. I may add that in as it's own separate shader, but right now it is linked to the old school pixel shader...


ORIGINAL MESSAGE: The "Testing" version of Star Explorers has been updated to 3.1. This addresses just one issue. When you return to a cave, it should properly load the water and/or lava.

Having to update the game's scripts to work in the newer engine has given me an opportunity to streamline a few things too. It's all back-end stuff, so you may not notice anything new, but I think this version should be more stable and less prone to crashes.