Juno: New Origins News

We just released update 0.7.2.2 for SimpleRockets 2 on Steam. With this update comes official Mod support! This was one of the community's most highly upvoted features and we are really excited to see what everyone can do with it. This was a small update, but it is not the only thing we have been working on lately. We hope to have some customizable landing gear coming your way in the near future.

Check out the following post for more info on getting started with creating mods:
Creating Mods for SimpleRockets 2

Our website has also been updated so that you can easily share your mods with the community:
https://www.simplerockets.com/Mods

• Mod Support
  

• Music tracks no longer loaded when music volume is set to zero
  

• Fixed a bug where the ion engine would consume fuel even without battery.
  
• Fixed a bug where the fuel tanks would report the wrong height when resizing vertically.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Settings dialog where the contents in the scroll view would overflow when the resolution was changed.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the game to revert to native resolution during loading screens for some players.
  
• Fixed a memory leak in the designer related to part icons.
  

The 0.7.2.0 beta is here and with it comes mod support!

Check out the following post for more info on getting started with creating mods:
Creating Mods for SimpleRockets 2

The website has also been updated so that you can easily share your mods with the community:
https://www.simplerockets.com/Mods

• Mod Support
  

• Music tracks no longer loaded when music volume is set to zero
  

• Fixed a bug where the ion engine would consume fuel even without battery.
  
• Fixed a bug where the fuel tanks would report the wrong height when resizing vertically.
  

We just released a small update today that fixes some of the frustrating bugs from the latest update, most notably the staging bugs. The auto-staging algorithm still needs to be improved, but now it shouldn't wipe out your changes anymore.

Here are the changes in 0.7.1.4:

• Fixed a bug where the designer would wipe out player's changes to to the craft's stages in some circumstances.
  
• Fixed an issue where wheels would sometimes sink into the ground on reload.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause old sandboxes to never save the state of any planet added after the sandbox was created. In this particular sandbox, Cylero and Urados were affected.
  
• Fixed a bug where fuel tanks could not transfer fuel after un-docking and re-docking.
  
• Fixed a bug where the exhaust expansion would not be correctly calculated for very small nozzles.
  

We just released update 0.7.1 for SimpleRockets 2 on Steam. A large part of this update was just below the surface, refactoring our old code and tackling some technical debt. Nathan took a quick hiatus from mod support to perform major surgery on the game loop and it has significantly improved performance for large craft. From our testing, we've seen an FPS increase of over 30% for some crafts.

Andrew added a new multi-directional RCS part so now you don't need to cobble together your own cluster of 5+ RCS ports. Just add one of these new parts and enjoy enhanced attitude control.



Andrew also refactored all of the fuel code so that we could support some new features to give you more control over how your crafts consume their fuel. Now you can re-prioritize your fuel tanks, drain from multiple tanks at once, and even automate fuel transfer using cross feeds, which are available on any new interstage part you pull out from the part list.



Kevin revisited the fuselage parts and rebuilt their meshes to remove unnecessary complexity and improve game performance, undoubtedly contributing to the 30% FPS boost I mentioned earlier. Then he went through all of the fuselage textures with a fine tooth comb and fixed issues with alignment that had cropped up in a few bug reports. After that, he freshened up the loading screens to be more reflective of the game's current state.

William incorporated four new songs from Fat Bard (the music guys). Then he added a new, resizable gyroscope part, so now your crafts don’t need to have a command pod for that. The power of the gyro is based on its size.



Philip has been working on procedural landing gear, but that didn't make this update. We are hoping to get that in the next update, in a few weeks.

Here are the nitty gritty details:

• Added multi-directional RCS part.
  
• Added gyroscope part.
  
• Performance improvements. From our testing, we've seen large craft have up to a 30% increase in FPS.
  
• New loading screens.
  
• Docking ports can now be targeted, which makes docking a lot easier.
  
• Added fuel tank priority so the player can change the order in which fuel tanks are drained.
  
• Added fuel crossfeed option to side interstage part.
  
• Allow draining from multiple fuel tanks at the same time when they are set to the same priority.
  
• Added shortcut to open Performance Analyzer window in the designer. Bound to 'O' by default.
  
• Added an option to disable ambient light attenuation in the game settings.
  
• Added more music.
  
• Added craft dimensions and part count to performance analyzer window.
  

• Save command pod input states so they will retain their slider positions when reloaded.
  
• Added button to the Part Inspector to select a part's command pod during flight.
  
• Display fuselage radius and length when resizing in the designer.
  
• Added Propellant Mass to Performance Analyzer window in the designer.
  
• The explode part button now must be clicked twice before actually exploding the part. Safety first.
  
• Slightly increased the default ambient light in space.
  
• Tweaked exhaust visuals for underexpansion and overexpansion.
  
• Added a progress bar for fuel in the fuel tank inspector window.
  
• Paint Emission Setting Now Allows 1% Increments.
  
• Added tool-tips for replication/control options on command pod's flight scene inspector panel.
  
• Engine exhaust now increases in length as it becomes more underexpanded.
  

• Fixed a bug where the center of mass of the craft would not update during flight in some circumstances.
  
• Fixed a bug with opening a craft/sandbox via file associations resulting in launching the game but not actually loading the craft/sandbox.
  
• Fixed a bug where rotating a part with the keyboard would sometimes rotate the wrong part.
  
• Fixed a bug with overlapping text on the dummy inspector window.
  
• Fixed a bug where engines would not continue throttling to last known throttle input after separating from their commmand pod.
  
• Fixed a bug where the part shape tool would not hide its grid after the player had finished dragging with the mouse.
  
• Fixed a bug where disconnected parts would show up in staging display in flight scene.
  
• Fixed the rotation direction of the planet in the main menu :D
  
• Fixed issue which can cause a craft to whip around after undocking if the current heading is locked.
  
• Fixed visual tearing on orbit lines when moving camera very rapidly in map view.
  
• Fixed bug which would occur when the current navigation target is destroyed.
  
• Improved the handling of invalid part styles, preventing them from modifying the part style list of all parts of the same type.
  
• Fixed a bug where control surfaces could be added to structural panels.
  

A large part of this update was just below the surface, refactoring our old code and tackling some technical debt. Nathan took a quick hiatus from mod support to perform major surgery on the game loop and it has significantly improved performance for large craft. From our testing, we've seen an FPS increase of over 30% for some crafts.

I refactored all of the fuel code so that we could support some new features to give you more control over how your crafts consume their fuel (I mean propellant...sorry, Kell). Now you can re-prioritize your fuel tanks, drain from multiple tanks at once, and even automate fuel transfer using cross feeds, which are available on any new interstage part you pull out from the part list.

Kevin revisited the fuselage parts and rebuilt their meshes to remove unnecessary complexity and improve game performance, undoubtedly contributing to the 30% FPS boost I mentioned earlier. Then he went through all of the fuselage textures with a fine tooth comb and fixed issues with alignment that had cropped up in a few bug reports. After that, he freshened up the loading screens to be more reflective of the game's current state.

William added a new, resizable gyroscope part, so now your crafts don't need to have a command pod for that. The power of the gyro is based on its size. He also incorporated four new songs from Fat Bard (the music guys).

Philip has been working on procedural landing gear, but that didn't make this update. We are hoping to get that in the next update, in a few weeks.

Here are the nitty gritty details:

• Added multi-directional RCS part.
  
• Added gyroscope part.
  
• Performance improvements. From our testing, we've seen large craft have up to a 30% increase in FPS.
  
• New loading screens.
  
• Docking ports can now be targeted, which makes docking a lot easier.
  
• Added fuel tank priority so the player can change the order in which fuel tanks are drained.
  
• Added fuel crossfeed option to side interstage part.
  
• Allow draining from multiple fuel tanks at the same time when they are set to the same priority.
  
• Added shortcut to open Performance Analyzer window in the designer. Bound to 'O' by default.
  
• Added an option to disable ambient light attenuation in the game settings.
  
• Added more music.
  

• Added button to the Part Inspector to select a part's command pod during flight.
  
• Display fuselage radius and length when resizing in the designer.
  
• Added Propellant Mass to Performance Analyzer window in the designer.
  
• The explode part button now must be clicked twice before actually exploding the part. Safety first.
  
• Slightly increased the default ambient light in space.
  
• Tweaked exhaust visuals for underexpansion and overexpansion.
  
• Added a progress bar for fuel in the fuel tank inspector window.
  
• Paint Emission Setting Now Allows 1% Increments.
  
• Added tool-tips for replication/control options on command pod's flight scene inspector panel.
  

• Fixed a bug where the center of mass of the craft would not update during flight in some circumstances.
  
• Fixed a bug with opening a craft/sandbox via file associations resulting in launching the game but not actually loading the craft/sandbox.
  
• Fixed a bug where rotating a part with the keyboard would sometimes rotate the wrong part.
  
• Fixed a bug with overlapping text on the dummy inspector window.
  
• Fixed a bug where engines would not continue throttling to last known throttle input after separating from their commmand pod.
  
• Fixed a bug where the part shape tool would not hide its grid after the player had finished dragging with the mouse.
  
• Fixed a bug where disconnected parts would show up in staging display in flight scene.
  
• Fixed the rotation direction of the planet in the main menu :D
  
• Fixed issue which can cause a craft to whip around after undocking if the current heading is locked.
  
• Fixed visual tearing on orbit lines when moving camera very rapidly in map view.
  
• Fixed bug which would occur when the current navigation target is destroyed.
  
• Improved the handling of invalid part styles, preventing them from modifying the part style list of all parts of the same type.
  

• The game occasionally hangs on exit.
  
• Cross feeds are not included in delta-v calculations or active fuel levels. I'm not sure if they ever will, but I do plan to investigate.
  
• Multi-directional RCS can malfunction if a new stage is activated while the RCS is receiving input. Quick Save and Quick Load should fix the issue if you encounter it before we fix it.