Juno: New Origins News

Starting today, our games can be used for free for education. Educators now have access to download the Windows and Mac versions of SimpleRockets 2 and SimplePlanes (DRM-free) from our website and install them on any number of classroom computers.



We've heard many great things over the years about how teachers are using our games in the classroom. They lend themselves well to teaching physics concepts and students seem to enjoy them. Fundamental concepts such as velocity, acceleration, gravity, lift, drag, etc can easily be demonstrated with an airplane or a rocket hurtling through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds and that has a way of grabbing and maintaining a student's attention. SimpleRockets 2 goes a step further and can demonstrate advanced concepts such as orbital mechanics and many other rocket science concepts.

If you are an educator, just visit this page and click the Submit Request button. After we review your request, you will be given access to the downloads page where you can freely download our games for Windows and Mac.

If you are a student, help spread the word and let your teachers know!

Today's Deal: Save 20% on SimpleRockets 2!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Tuesday at 10AM Pacific Time

We just released a huge update for SimpleRockets 2 today and we're celebrating it with a 20% discount.

Pro Tip: If you already own SimplePlanes, you can get SimpleRockets 2 with an additional 15% discount if you complete the Aerospace Engineer Bundle.


Did you think we would let this aggression against rocket engines stand? No sir!



You no-longer have to be content with basic cookie-cutter rocket engine variants, you can build your own with the eight new engine types, seven new nozzles, and six new fuel types that are available which allows for hundreds of possible rocket engine configurations. They also have slider options for size, nozzle length, throat radius, and chamber pressure so really there are infinite possible configurations.



The new Performance Analyzer window in the designer will give you immediate feedback. You can see how their performance characteristics change with altitude as you tweak the rocket engine's parameters.



One of my favorite details of the new engines is how dang good the exhaust looks, and that they react realistically to changes in their design and environment. From over-tightened shock diamonds to huge bulbous clouds of supersonic gas, the exhaust really amps up the variety of the already diverse rocket engine aesthetics.


This update also brings a lot of improvements and bug fixes for building airplanes. There is now a plane/rocket building mode option available on the command pod and a new tool to help visualize and adjust your pilot's orientation/direction of travel.


A lot of issues with creating airplanes boiled down to control surfaces, airfoil directions, and their relation to the pilot. Some highlighted changes include:

• You can now visualize the airfoil direction in the designer (and show live lift values in flight).
  
• Wing control surfaces set to auto now show which axis they're assigned to instead of having to hope it has assigned them correctly.
  
• Unlike rockets, most airplanes fly best with a single axis (Roll/Pitch/Yaw) assigned to a control surface, not multiple...you now have that option.
  
• Invert just the airfoil w/o impacting the control surface direction.
  
  • Manually inverting should not frequently be necessary...adjusting the pilot orientation correctly should auto-orient airfoils properly in most cases.
• Ability to switch between Airplane/Rocket configurations for a design.
  

Before Adjusting Pilot Orientation - Control surfaces assigned incorrectly/airfoils inverted.

After - All good!


You can find the full release notes here

Version 0.7 includes a big upgrade to rocket engine customizability, major improvements for building airplanes, and a whole lot more. This is the third round of beta testing. Hopefully the last. Most of the high-level, boss bugs have been vanquished.

You can read the previous beta posts here:

• Version 0.7.0.0 link
• Version 0.7.0.1 link

• Added new nozzle called the 'Echo' that is available for the solid rocket engine type (inspired by the Space Shuttle SRBs).
  

• Added shock diamonds that show up when exhaust is over-expanded
  

• Reduced Isp of (most) rocket engines.
  
• Changed near clip plane to 1 meter in flight scene.
  
• Changed command pod's "Dock Reorients Controls" option to "Auto Config Controls"
  
• The command pod's "Auto Config Controls" option now defaults to true.
  
• Added the RcnThrottle property to the ReactionControlNozzleScript (this one's for you [user]pedro16797[/user])
  
• Tweaked starting camera angle in the designer to an angle that works well for both rockets and airplanes.
  
• Improved smoke trail drag behavior.
  
• Changed Stage Isp, Stage Delta V, and Stage Burn Time in flight view to no longer be dependent on the craft's current throttle setting.
  
• Updated stock crafts and crafts in challenges to use new rocket engines.
  
• Added tooltips to performance analysis window
  
• Added the ability to tilt the game camera with middle mouse button drag.
  

• Darken smoke trails at night.
  
• Fixed a bug where the inspector windows could be dragged on top of the dialogs in the flight scene.
  
• Fixed issue which caused a craft's throttle to be reset to zero when switching between crafts.
  
• Re-open the performance analysis window in the same place it was closed instead of always resetting back to the original location.
  

• Fixed issue causing translate gizmo to no-longer work with connected translations.
  
• Fixed a bug with the designer tutorial where the fuel tank placement hints were incorrectly positioned.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it very difficult to dock.
  
• Fixed a bug where the smoke trail would get thicker when in slow motion.
  
• Changed how efficiency is applied to engine performance so that exhaust velocity jives with Isp.
  

Continuing with the beta for version 0.7. If you missed the last beta post, you can read it here. Version 0.7 includes a big upgrade to rocket engine customizability, major improvements for building airplanes, and a whole lot more.

Here's what's new since the last beta:

• Added texturing to (most) rocket engines
  
• Allow resizing aerospike nozzle. Increasing length can increase performance, but it also increases mass.
  
• New sound effects for rocket engines
  

• When using the tinker panel to set stage activation to "None", the following items will no-longer auto-activate upon flight start: fairings, parachutes, and side detachers.
  

• Properly restore joints which were "bent" when saved.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing image effects from working.
  
• Fixed antialiasing on part icons.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause undefined behavior if two docking ports completing docking in the exact same frame.
  
• Fixed bug where translate/rotate gizmos can become sized incorrectly after using part-scale in the tinker panel.
  

• Fixed a bug where the exhaust looked over-expanded when throttling below 20%
  
• Fixed a bug where engines could not be disabled via activation groups.
  
• Fixed a bug with engines not starting when assigned to an activation group that is enabled at start.
  
• Fixed a bug where symmetric engines did not update their attached fuel tanks or their performance correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug where the new rocket engines were not reporting the correct max thrust when not actively burning at 100% throttle.
  
• Fixed a bug where the staging editor would report inconsistent delta-V when rapidly moving the altitude slider in the Performance Analzyer window.
  
• Attempt to scale exhaust particles when engine has a non-uniform part scale.
  
• Allow solid rocket engines to fire in same stage as a detacher.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed solid rocket engines to be active during time warp.
  
• Fixed bug where nudge gizmos would sometimes not adjust properly when using World-Space coordinates.
  
• Fixed issue where zooming camera in designer could cause gizmos to disappear.
  
• Fixed a bug with incorrect price and mass of rocket engines outside of designer.
  
• Fixed a bug where the craft would sometimes explode on the launch pad after tweaking engine properties.