Update 0.994 is out! - Unity Engine update, Alpha-Feature opt-in, bug fixes

The main part of the 0.994 patch is a major upgrade of the rendering engine. Finally, after a couple of years in Unity 2019, the engine has been upgraded to the latest Unity Long Term Support version (2021.3). This affects most aspects of the game so you might notice some improvements to graphics, antialiasing, and performance. Due to the size of the project, please expect some upgrade-artifacts that is yet to be detected.

Note: If you are experiencing issues with this update, you can always revert to an earlier build using the Steam Betas Tab.

Unity 2019 -> Unity 2021.3 Upgrade
The rendering engine Reentry runs on has been stuck in version 2019 due to being required to use some features that was deprecated in Unity 2020. The major blocking feature was the research I was doing related to the preliminary VR implementation. This implementation has now been deprecated and move to a dedicated branch named VR.

Along with this I have been working a lot on performance optimization and rendering to improve the visual quality of the sim. You will most likely not notice much here but iterations on this is always a step in the right direction.

With this update, Reentry runs on a modern engine at the latest stable version. This can also fix bugs related to unity engine crashes, but also at the same time introduce new. I wanted to do this update asap, so we can get your experience reports on it before the 1.0 milestone.


Launch, Ascent and the Atmosphere
The launch areas has had some offsets and been moving around a bit during EA. I have now fixed these and positioned things correctly, as well as increased the resolution and quality of the area around launch. This is visible during ascent. I have also made some tweaks to the rendering of the atmosphere.


Quickstart changes
One of the most important parts of the game for new players is the quickstart. This has been modified and updated to only contain two missions, where the focus is camera control, interaction, checklists, maneuvering and mission execution, just to get you started.


Roadmap
A first version of an in-game roadmap has been added. It does not yet contain anything post 1.0 (this will be announced soon), but will be a central location where you can read up on the main features of the game and their goals/purpose.


Fixed the LM LGC sequential button press bug
When running a checklist in the Lunar Module, and the checklist contains multiple presses on buttons such as the LGC buttons, they would automatically proceed as you had been pressing the button in a previous step. This annoying bug as finally been fixed.


Camera snap points
Using the Function keys or the View Selector to move the camera will now also snap the cameras orientation to a predefined orientation that makes more sense with the view. This will make you see the COAS directly when pressing the LM Overhead camera, or seeing the Optics in the CSM when selecting the LEB view, or seeing the ECS in the LM even if its behind you, or seeing the Computers when you select a computer view, etc.


Virtual Reality
The current preliminary VR implementation has been scrapped and moved to a dedicated branch to allow for the engine to be updated from 2019 to 2021.3. This was required to start implementing the new VR implementation as it was with Unity 2020 that the methods used for VR was changed. This has been planned and the new VR implementation will be leveraging what I learned from the preliminary implementation.

If you still want to use the old VR version, you can find it on the Steam Betas Tab, on the branch named Virtual Reality.


Alpha Features
Alpha Features not part of the core game targeted for the 1.0 milestone has been marked as alpha features. You can opt-in or opt-out from any of these incomplete features from Alpha Features section found in the bottom of the MAIN MENU -> SETTING page. Simply enable the features by using the check box and restart the game to install the bits.

If you are using the Alpha-Floor branch and it contains alpha-bits, these features will always be enabled.

Alpha features are features like:
- Mercury Control Center
- Apollo Mission Control
- Challenges
- Virtual Reality
- etc.

Thank you for playing Reentry, and to everyone who has been reporting issues and provided suggestions! A special thanks to all the Test Pilots who have been part of testing these bits.


Change log:
- Major change: Updated the rendering engine from Unity 2019 to latest 2021.3 LTS
- Major change: Updated internally used libraries to support latest version of reentry
- Major change: Old VR implementation moved to a dedicated VR-branch.
- Performance optimizations in all programs, and rendering stability
- Some minor changes to the Earth atmosphere
- Overhaul of the Quickstart campaing
- Added a road map, will soon be populated with post 1.0 features
- Alpha Feature opt-in
- Moved the Mercury ascent data down
- A lot of updates to missions, language, dictionary and campaigns
- Fixed the Checklist Run feature related to Lunar Module button presses
- Made so the camera snaps to an orientation when using the function keys/view selector
- P12 LM ascent guidance updates