SimAirport News

Dawn Of The First Patch

Last week we said we'll deploy two patches and while we were not specific about the timing for Patch #1 - besides saying it will be on edge soon - we're happy to announce that it's now released publicly on the default branch!

This patch includes many bug fixes along with a number of improvements sprinkled about in terms of performance and quality-of-life/UX enhancements. Check out the full patch notes below for a detailed overview!

With a patch comes a live-stream announcement! Be sure to join us for a fire-side chat, to ask questions or to just listen to us ramble!

Live Stream Details

When: Saturday, November 4th @ 2PM EDT // 18:00 GMT // 19:00 CET

Where to Watch
YouTube
Twitch
Steam - or directly on this page, once the stream begins!

[h2]Patch Highlights[/h2]

Picking (using Q by default) on bare concrete now selects foundation.
Improved visuals of luggage cars when driving to/away from baggage depots.
Fix gates wrongly selecting baggage claims that may result in pax not being able to actually get their bags and bags laying around unclaimed.
Rework metal detectors and body scanners. Pax now have to wait for a little after going through a MD or BS and there is a chance Pax have to wait longer (manually being checked) - this chance is lower on body scanners. In addition metal detectors now have a small chance for PAX to have to go through again and re-scan.

[h2]Looking Ahead.[/h2]
Up next, we're already hard at work on the next patch which is slated to bring an even beefier chunk of new & exciting things to SimAirport! Stay tuned to the edge branch for updates and to follow progress of the upcoming second patch.

[h2]Thank you! [/h2]
As always, massive thank you to the community for helping us get this one through edge so quickly (and extra thanks for catching a last-minute bug). We truly couldn't do this without the community's continued support -- thank you!

[h4]PS - We ❤ SimAirport! :)[/h4]

[h2]Full Change Log[/h2]

[h3]Hotfix patch November 5th (Build date November 2nd)[/h3]

Bunch of minor performance improvements (will mostly impact larger airports - the larger the bigger the impact of these).
Fix fire truck spawned at midnight (i.e. the decorative one) getting stuck if the game is saved and loaded while it is on map. This includes a save fix for existing saves.
Fix modded ticketing desk and kiosks not recognized in ticketing zones.
Fix tutorials not showing assigned keys in texts.
Fix basics tutorial not continuing on the assign queue text if the gate agent desk did not finish construction when the step starts.

Fix assign to dialog opening when changing floor while an object is selected.
Secure area report now shows outside as light green if it is secure.
Add flooring under doors of the starter airport.
Fix metal detectors & body scanners entry delay causing long pause between Pax using it.
Fix work schedule naming dialog showing last entry instead of current name.
Fix clicking on notification sometimes opens the wrong dialog or showing the wrong position.
Fix AI sometimes failing in security and ending up in a loop.
Fix "Assign To" available on ID Check Stand without advanced security unlocked.
Fix security bins sometimes being picked up without one being placed after loading a save.
Fix security bins rendering underneath bag scanners in some configurations.
Fix on screen keyboard not coming up for some inputs on SteamDecks.
Rework new scenario UI to make sure it fits on SteamDecks.
Rework metal detectors and body scanners. Pax now have to wait for a little after going through a MD or BS and there is a chance Pax have to wait longer (manually being checked) - this is lower on body scanners. In addition metal detectors now have a small chance for PAX to have to go through again and re-scan.
Fix script mods failing to load causing the game not to load in some occasions.
Fix removing a gate may cause gate policies to reset.
Rework airline details view. The window now better fits without clipping out of bounds on the top or bottom. In addition it now has a list of accepted flights and the option to cancel them.
Increase escalator speed.
Several minor performance improvements.
Fix ticketing zone validation not correctly detecting missing ticketing desk/kiosk.
Fix move cursor appearing when hovering over flight entry in flight scheduler while the cursor is still over another UI.
Fix "hidden" button on flight scheduler having inconsistent behaviour (now works similar the other filter buttons).
Fix game time/day hover information not taking UI scale into account and possibly overlapping the UI elements.
Fix notifications not scaling correctly in some cases.
Picking (using Q by default) on bare concrete now selects foundation.
Fix missing keybind for zone picking (Ctrl + Q by default).
Fix construction indicator not clearing when upgrading while the upgrade is partially off-screen.
Fix accepting flight from airline jumps the available flights list to the top.
Improve visuals of luggage cars when driving to/away from baggage depots.
Fix gates wrongly selecting baggage claims that may result in pax not being able to actually get their bags and bags laying around unclaimed.
Fix pathfinding issue to prevent reachability problems. NOTE: This may have broken something downstream so please let us know (either here or on discord) about any pathing change that seems wrong or any stuck agents!

Time for an Update!

Hello, SimAirport Community! We're alive!!

As we've talked about on our live streams, Discord, and on the forums -- we're dying to ship an update for SimAirport, we owe you an update. So, that's exactly what we're working on! We wanted to take some time today to let you know that we're alive, that we're working on a few patches, and provide some insight and a brief overview of what's in the pipeline, and what you can expect to see coming to SimAirport in the near future.

[h3]We're Alive![/h3]
First off, we're not dead (and no one is dying - as of writing this)! Stuff happened, much of it relatively unavoidable, which unfortunately resulted in this period of downtime. The good news is that we're back at it now, and a SimAirport update is actively in development -- and we're looking forward to being able to release it to you as soon as it's ready! :)

[h3]Live Stream[/h3]
As per tradition, we'll do a fire-side chat live stream coinciding with the patch releases - we always enjoy these and we love to chat with you all. We'll announce date/time of the live stream at the same time the patch is released, which we anticipate will be very soon!

[h3]What Are We Working On?[/h3]
We're targeting several specific points and we intend to break them up over two upcoming updates/releases

The first update will consist of general improvements, mainly fixes and improvements to things that already exists, including bug fixes and addressing several major pain points. We're aiming to have an edge patch out as soon as the end of this week, with a public release following soon thereafter.

That will then be followed up by a beefier second patch -- which is slated to include a number of actual gameplay enhancements, changes and additions(!!). While we don't have a firm timeline on this larger patch, internally we're hoping to be able to ship it by the end of November, but we'll ship it as soon as we feel it's ready.

Keep an eye on the Edge branch, Discord, and the Steam forums -- you can expect a flurry of activity in the very near future!

Here's a high-level overview of what we're hoping to be bringing you over the coming days and weeks!

[h2]- Patch #1[/h2]

-- Steam Deck UI/UX
Since our input rework several issues and quirks have been noted regarding SA's Steam Deck compatibility - we'll be taking a closer look and resolving these quirks, ensuring that SimAirport can be enjoyed just as well when on the go as it can from your desktop!

-- Logic Quirks & Bug Fixes
We know the game isn't perfect in regards to bugs and this will be a major point for us for this patch. Whatever we find we'll take a look at! We already have a list on our end of things we need to check out but if you have any bug or weird thing be sure to post or bump it in the Bugs Discussion subsection of the Steam Discussions - we'll check and note whatever we haven't taken care of!

[h2]- Patch #2[/h2]
-- The tale of Bridges, Overpasses and Roads
Bridged building and roads going up to floors above the ground floor have been a major ask for a long time. While bridged building has been an option via the Skywalk mod by TBFlash - very well done on that note! - going up with roads is still not possible. This is going to be the main change with this release, and it will allow you to finally build airports with separated - above ground(!) - Departure and Arrival sections, like many (most?) IRL airports use today.

-- Baggage Changes
The baggage system is not a great user experience currently -- it's challenging, sure, but it's also tedious (some might say it's a PITA) -- there are certainly some pain points, to put it lightly. We'll be working to make some major improvements on this front, and we're currently evaluating some concepts & ideas for expanding it a bit, too! Once the aforementioned rework for bridges and roads are done, it should open the door to allowing vehicles into the ground floor of terminals, - which may not sound like a massive change, but it'll allow for a indoor/ground-floor baggage depots, without having to go below ground -- making a 'starter' baggage system a lot cheaper, and simpler, to get up and running!

-- Research / Tech Tree
The tech tree is quite short and often completed rapidly - it simply doesn't add more "late game" gameplay, as it was intended to, and that's something we intend to improve upon. It's also visually quirky, at best, and we'd also like to fix that aspect. With the upcoming second patch, we're going to revamp & augment the current tech tree, with the goal of having it add actual gameplay value for mid-to-late game airports. This may include some changes, not locking some things that currently require research, as well as adding some new features that can be unlocked -- and perhaps an additional twist or two, that we'd like to see how they "feel" during gameplay.

Fear not -- existing saves will not be (forcibly) impacted. We'll implement logic that ensures you can continue your existing airports as you have been, potentially allowing you to "opt in" to the updated version, but certainly such that your existing saves won't be negatively and forcibly impacted.

-- AI
This is such a big and broad topic but it's probably also the general area that we hear the most feedback about; it's a non-trivial "problem", and there are numerous types and variants of AI within SimAirport, but we'll be looking to make some positive strides on several fronts:

Construction & Worker AI is an area we hear about quite a bit -- from acting weird or inefficiently, to to sometimes seeming to completely ignore instructions and priorities. We'll be taking a deep look, making some adjustments and testing them thoroughly, to make sure it's smarter and that workers finish the job and are never slacking around or requiring you to reload the game.

Passenger AI is another area we're going to be taking another look at; we've spoken in-depth about Pax AI, and it truly is a tough cookie overall (for a number of reasons). It's obviously a critically important aspect of the game, though, and it's an aspect that we think we can iterate on and further improvements to -- and that's exactly what we plan to do!

-- Quality of Life Improvements:
We have a number of items from this category on our list and we're going to try to get as many done as possible; we don't want to hold up a larger content patch for these, but we're going to do our best to tackle as many as we can.

-- Performance
We always profile code, but we're going to do a bunch more profiling -- we generally do this every so often but over time, as we've looked through the codebase, we've noticed a few things and there are a few areas that have some low-hanging fruit. We'll do our best to tackle those and, if we're lucky, find some more performance wins along the way, too! :)

[h2]We ❤ SimAirport[/h2]
Just to reiterate -- we still absolutely love SimAirport -- we love working on it, playing it, and we adore the SA community. While the time we've had to take away has been difficult, and frankly was suboptimal for us too, the reality is that we truly ❤ SimAirport and we're thrilled to be able to jump back into the code to improve the game that we all love to play.

Something you'd like our eyes on? Speak up! Let us know about anything on Discord or over on the Steam Discussions / Forum!

[h3]Thank You!![/h3]
As always, thank you for your patience and continued support -- and a special thanks to the great community members who are always active and willing to helping others. There are far too many to name everyone, apologies in advance to those we'll inevitably miss, but we want to extend an especially large thanks to: Alo, chick1000 and modair -- and many others on the modding side -- for your continued support of SimAirport, and the LVGameDev team as a whole.

We're extremely happy to be able to make this post; and even more enthused for the next one, because it'll mean we've actually released a patch!!

Thank you everyone -- we sincerely couldn't do any of this without you!!

Summer 2022 - Performance Upgrades, Translations, and New Game!

It's summer for us and it's really heating up (and probably starting to really get cold for those of you in the southern hemisphere) -- and with the heat on, it's time for an update to SimAirport!

In this iteration we've taken an even deeper look into Performance and we have some solid gains for you on that front. We have also brought to SimAirport the same Localization system that we've been using for SimCasino, which will make adding & improving translations much simpler for the community. Finally, we'd like to take a short look at our newly-announced upcoming title and talk a bit about how it came to be!

Before we get into the details, we want to make you aware of our upcoming Live-Stream -- planned for this Sunday! We haven't done one in a while but Arthur and Joscha are excited to join you once again to play SimAirport alongside the community and chat with you -- we'll be talking and answering questions about SimAirport and, as usual, it will be a "fire-side chat" style discussion where we'll talk about anything interesting, from gaming & aviation to world news, and anything in between.

We're excited to be back streaming with you and playing SimAirport, so be sure to join us!

Live Stream Details

When:
Sunday, July 3rd @ 11AM PDT // 20:00 CEST

Where to Watch
YouTube
Twitch
Steam - or directly on this page, once the stream begins!

[h2]Performance[/h2]
As we've always said - we're always looking for performance improvements and if/when we find something actionable, we won't hesitate to jump at the opportunity. Sometimes, however, this isn't enough -- and to get a really deep look into how and what we can do to improve performance improve we've been sitting down together in multiple-hours-long calls and delving deep into the profiling tools at our disposal. For a reference, this is one of the reporting tools that we have available and is a good example of what we're talking about:

Note: This is the Profiling view of our last default build - it helps us see the areas we can Improve on.

Since the last release we've been able to find major performance gains in several of the "systems" that the SimAirport gameplay relies upon to function. Notably, agent movement updates & calculations - these are now parallelized, meaning several threads can run these updates at once leading to a relatively substantial improvement especially for those who have robust CPUs with high core counts.

The second major improvement comes from improving how we organize and approach the agent rendering aspect of the code - specifically the organization & layout of the data, and how many "indirections" were required simply to update the position or facing of PAX and staff. While the new code may not be quite as optimal from a maintainability standpoint, due to the "hot path" that this code has (translation: extremely high-frequency invocation), making this code more 'direct' (even if a bit less legible) directly translated to a relatively major boost in performance -- and one that doesn't change the underlying results whatsoever, meaning the improvements made here will affect everyone!

Lastly, we've improved several aspects related to our "object validation/functional requirement checking" systems -- this handles things like ensuring that objects or zones are functional. We won't dive too deep into the weeds on this one, but suffice it to say that we uncovered several aspects of the system that were substantially slower than they should have been, bordering on egregious even, and much of this code was still nearly "original" from early in SimAirport's development. Suffice to say, after updating these systems and applying better paradigms we were able to make several areas of this system run quite a bit faster! :).

Besides these major systems, we've also fixed various issues as we encountered them across them - check out the full change-log below for all the details!

[h3]Results - An 18% Performance Improvement![/h3]
We've been able to improve performance by a whopping 18% -- and that's on a massive 14k+ PAX airport!!
A big thank you to Chick for letting us test on his save!

Check out the some of the detailed profiling results we've gathered; this screenshot displays the "before" vs "after" (a comparison between last default and today's default release):

If you'd like to know more about what, why or how we took care of profiling SimAirport, or if you want to understand the things we talked about a little deeper, then be sure to join us on Discord or join us on the upcoming live stream! :)

[h2]New Translation System[/h2]
As you may know, we "crowd-source" translations via you -- the community -- for both SimAirport and SimCasino. While this has been working really great for SimCasino, we've been using an older and antiquated system to handle collaboration by the community for SimAirport, a system that has been in place since the initial release of the SimAirport localization functionality, and which even predates the existence of the system. The new system is MUCH easier, though, and far more user-friendly -- and so we're now making the switch to Localizor for SimAirport, too!

We've been using Localizor on SimCasino since release - it's easy to use for everyone, and now both games can much more easily be translated into many more languages and further refinement/improvement to translations of already-supported languages can continue with far less friction than before.

If you'd like to help us translating SimAirport into your language be sure to check out SimAirport on Localizor - If you have any questions or need any assistance you can always let us know on our Steam Forums or join our Discord Server!

We've also taken a look at, and fixed, several issues related to translations, language-specific fonts, and fonts/text in general. Some fonts (e.g. the one used for Chinese) were not correctly displaying all characters - this is now fixed for all fonts! We also received and confirmed reports of some font-related issues when playing on Apple M1 systems, where only some text would be displayed while other parts were completely invisible - this has also been fixed!

[h2]Newly-Announced Upcoming Title![/h2]
Escape: The Endless Dogwatch is the next game from LVGameDev and is a project spearheaded by Michael. It's a new and unique genre for us, a point-and-click adventure set on a creepy ship where you, as the 2nd Officer, have to to uncover a secret that the Captain is hiding from you. Wishlist on Steam: Escape: The Endless Dogwatch

[h2]Final Words[/h2]
You may have noticed somewhat of a downtime from us the last few months, in terms of updates for SimAirport and SimCasino. To be honest, we've all been a little burned out to some extent, or at least close to it. To avoid burnout and stagnation, we have all been on vacation recently, and we've all spent some time working on various 'passion projects' to keep the fire alive (along with new game), all in an effort to continue keeping things fresh and fun. Also, some of you may know, Joscha is still in University -- so, in addition to working on SimAirport, that has added a bit of additional downtime as he (hopefully!) starts to wrap up his studies, too.

Luckily, working with ya'll is always a treat - whether on the forums, live-streams, email, or Discord -- we're always happy to chat and discuss how we can best improve SimAirport!

Be sure to check out Escape: The Endless Dogwatch and join our Discord server for some chatting!

Happy Summer (and/or Winter) To All - the LVGD Team

[h3]Changelog for the Hotfix of July 5th[/h3]

Disable LRT Sounds until we can either improve it or add a slider for it.
Fix text settings and make sure we're using the right font in all places.
Fix setting font in some places - we don't need to set the font, it should be correct from the get-go.
Fix setting objects constructionstate to finished twice when constructing using instant build which may have caused an issue where the AI would only chose one object instead of spreading out to several of the same type.
Update TMP package to fix texts going missing.
Fix mod closing mod status menu using ESC while mods are being downloaded causing the game to be stuck on paused.
Actually fix fonts being broken - I thought I had fixed this for Chinese and some other Languages but it appears it was still broken; Should now be fixed.
Fix some text being displayed all scrambled up due to using the wrong Font.
Fix deleting non-functional queue resulting in non-functional warning being left until reloading the save.

[h3]Full Change Log[/h3]

Prevent functional object updates from being calculated on threads which could have caused problems. Dev Note: It was probably fine and wouldn't be noticeable but this just makes sure nothing can break while not impacting performance :)
Improved performance of functional object checks.
Check up to 20 objects at once for whether or not they're functional (this will result in faster updates if e.g. the secure area is broken).
Fix PAX being spawned all at once causing a lag spike whenever a bus, LRT or plane unloads.
Various smaller code refactors to improve performance.
Improve runtime of some agent tasks.
Improve performance of updating agent positions (~3.5x faster on our tests, should result in a pretty good improvement overall).
Improve calls on (smart) objects.
Fix some objects/elements using the wrong font possibly causing some objects not to display text on M1 Macs.
Add a system to concurrently update agent movement.
Fix some texts not receiving the right font when switching language.
Add Radial menu for tools and UI (two separate ones); these are mostly for controllers but can be used on desktop to; On desktop they're setup for Mouse Button 4 and 5, if your mouse doesn't have any extra buttons check out the keybindings!
Theme hotkey bindings menu to be in the same look as the rest of the game.
Update steam integration libraries to prevent possible crash on launch and other inconsistencies with Steam.
Update translations from github.
Moved translations to localizor - update about this with a more detailed description to follow soon.
Fix issue where too many characters in one Font may cause an overflow and all further characters to only show up as rectangles.
Fix possible issue where pax don't go home after a flight was unable to land.

Our New Game! Escape: The Endless Dogwatch

[h2]An Adventure Like No Other[/h2]

This autumn we'll be releasing a new point and click adventure game set on a creepy ship.

January, 1928. The SS Carolina is lost deep in the ocean. There's a deadly chill outside. The captain is hiding something from you. By night 2 you're attacked and the crew is missing! It's a nightmare!

You play as 2nd Officer Walton. Explore the ship, use items, find the crew, and try to survive! You must get back to land and not let the ship sink.

[h2]Let Us Know What You Think![/h2]

Check out our store page!

Feel free to speculate in the forums what you would like or expect to see in the game, and if you have any interest in testing in the near future.

Please also give us feedback on our screenshots and trailer!

Finally, add this game to your wishlist for future updates!

March Update - Performance, Input and the Steam Deck

Celebrating the launch of the Steam Deck, we're happy to bring you today's patch containing improvements to Input handling (including full Controller support!), several performance improvements, and a bunch of general bug fixes, too!

[h2]Input Rework[/h2]
To support all inputs of the Steam Deck and to have support for Controllers we've completely overhauled our input system. Previously we've done most of the input stuff ourselves (we're really the people who'd like to do everything by ourselves) but have now upgraded the whole system to use Rewired - a well-known and highly regarded input system for Unity.

This rework allows us to not only support the Steam Deck better but also allows basically all Controllers, Joysticks, or other Gamepads to be used in SimAirport - the list of supported hardware is indeed rather long. In addition, it does simplify the code for us by a lot and helps us with any new features or additions requiring input.

In addition to what's in this update, we've also got some further improvements planned that didn't make it into this update. For example, having a radial menu (which will be usable from KB/Mouse as well as Controller) makes it simpler to open tools or windows - especially without having to remember the keybindings!

[h2]Performance Upgrades[/h2]
We'll keep this one short as we've already spoken about what exactly changed on our dev-log in the beginning of February; Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/598330/view/3118182224262686059

In short, however: We've found a good performance improvement that will have a good impact, especially on bigger airports where a lot of AI agents need to check if objects can be reached.

We have also improved the handling of 'queue overrun' conditions and how the game handles it to keep the airport running well even on high load (e.g. when first loading a massive save) - check the above-mentioned dev-log for more information on that topic, too! :)

Lastly on this topic we've been experimenting with some further changes that may improve performance - we need to test these experiments further to be sure they're actually improvements and more work is needed in general; We'll update you as soon as we have more news on this!

[h2]Final Words[/h2]
As always thank you all for being around! If you have received a Steam Deck be sure to leave some feedback for us on how the controls feel and what games you're playing besides SA :)

If you want to see some of the experiments and/or early previews of stuff we work on be sure to join the Discord server - always happy to talk to ya'll!

All the best wishes and hopes ya'll are safe from the team!

[h3]Full change log[/h3]

Add a button to teleport apron vehicles to their hangar in case they're completely stuck without a road.
Add detection for whether or not a mouse is connected to hide the virtual cursor on launch (The virtual cursor is the one used when you're controlling the on-screen cursor using a controller).
Add setting for virtual cursor speed.
Add on-screen keyboard component to input fields for use on the steam deck (this can probably be used on other systems too - let me know if you'd like to use an on-screen keyboard anywhere!).
Fix RESET startup option not running correctly sometimes.
Some minor UI improvements.
Update Steam integration.
Fix issue in ModLoader possibly causing some mods to not load correctly on new saves.
Add check to make sure one-way paths cannot be placed on security zones (placement in security zones may cause issues with the zone, you can still place them behind the zone though).
Fix "Show Non-Secure Path" not being removed after closing the selected object dialog.
Fix a possible issue that may cause planes to be missing completely instead of showing UFO sprite.
Fix possible issue where some data is not reset when sectors rebuild causing areas to rarely not show correct status for security availability or reachability.
Rework automatic slowdown - the game was already slowing down when the job queue got overwhelmed but will now do so in a more consistent manner and will show it in the speed display under the clock.
Improve several reachability and object choosing algorithms - this should give a boost across the board but especially for big airports.
Fix some missing mods not correctly listed in the missing mods list.
Fix build menu overlapping bottom menu buttons when UI scale is not 100%.
Fix issue with how the game looks at neighboring cells in several places of code.
Fix issue where agents would rarely overshoot and run out of a secure area re-doing security (this was caused by the above issue).
Add check to make sure pax can walk diagonally and improve flow field generation (basically how agents move around).
Fix old save-fix possibly despawning cars that were on a road ramp up causing pax of a flight to go missing.
Some cleanup of the scene to fix some missing warnings.
Fix possible scaling issue with notifications.
Improve animations of new agent sprites standing at or boarding from the LRT Platform.
Improve default stationary state for new agent sprites.
Fix runway upgrades working while being under construction.
Fix "Fastest" quality setting causing mods to render incorrectly.
Fix mod-loader not taking into account all loaded mods when checking for missing mods causing a lot of mods to show up as missing but installed.
Add early setup for some user settings to make sure they're setup even on the first launch of SA.
Fix some sprites of multi-level objects being rendered on the same/wrong floor due to some missing configuration.
Fix modded sprites being offset by the SpriteManager - now rendered correctly.
Add a fallback in case a floor goes missing (e.g. when a mod is removed) - the game will now use concrete in this case instead of just having no floor and failing to load the save.
Add seeding to agent names so saves now get a different set of names for initial agents.
Fix taxiway not placeable if extrusion is on the spawn road or LRT track.
Fix mods using auto-foundation visible on all levels but the one the object was actually placed on.
Fix some input devices randomly scrolling in dialogs/UIs.
Modding: Fix LRT boarding not using all doors on modded LRT trains.
Modding: Use SpriteManager for LRT Tracks allowing LRT Track modding.
Modding: Fix modded sprites pivot calculation.
Modding: Fix mod OnLoad causing an exception stopping the game to load completely.
Modding: Add an exception for .pdb files in scripts folder to help debugging mod code/scripts.