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]
[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.