Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator News

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Recently I have started to play around with how the digits on the DSKY are rendered.

The AGC and the LGC is one of the central pieces of hardware you need to work with when playing any Apollo mission. In the (short) video above I will show that this first iteration of this change looks like and what it means.

The changes can be found on the alpha-floor branch with the following changelog:
- DSKY digits 2.0 has been added to the AGC and LGC.
- Apollo Moon Map legend and minor coloring changes.
- CSM VR Mission pad visible when not in VR has been corrected.
- TrackIR sensitivity bug in the CSM and LM corrected.
- Long Press on the EMS increase and decrease, and for the Attitude Set Control panel added. Hold mouse button to adjust instead of spamming the mouse buttons.
- AGC Light Test changes.
- AGC warning light bulb color corrections.
- Apollo VR: Use motion controllers as joysticks for attitude and translation control.
- CSM: Possible to use the NUMBERS selector to change brightness of the DSKY rendering.


The update is based on the following video from CuriousMarc with some changes and refresh rates after a good discussion on it with thewonderidiot on Discord. I recommend you to watch this video if you think this is interesting:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The 0.82 (next) update of Reentry will have features and suggestions based on community requests, lots of bug fixes, the first iteration of VR for Apollo, and other general VR improvements for Mercury and Gemini.

Alpha-floor: I have rolled out the first iteration of this update to the alpha-floor branch for testing, so that you can start to play around with the bits today! Feel free to join us on Discord to discuss the alpha-bits and provide feedback. To get started with the alpha bits, check out the guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/882140/discussions/0/3118160027737663624/

VR for Apollo
This is a long awaited feature by many VR-players. The Apollo program is the only module that does not yet have the preliminary VR support you see in Mercury and Gemini. VR for Apollo will be demanding, and the complexities of Apollo has been one of the biggest blockers for even rolling out a preliminary support for VR. Apollo has two spacecrafts that requires VR support initially, the CSM and the LM. Both quite advanced to render, with a magnitude of more computations than in Mercury and Gemini combined. However, I'm finally at the stage where I can with confidence say that I have solved the major blockers for even making it possible to render and operate the CSM and the LM in VR. It's still a long way to go, especially regarding performance, but at least it`s a start I wish to share with you!

In this video, I will show you the basics of VR in Reentry, and some of the new VR features 0.82 will have.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

To tune performance with your setup, you can do a few tweaks: As with the other crafts, you will need to tweak settings to get it to render with descent framerates on modern hardware. Set the quality to MINIMUM, disable post processing effects and probes, and give it a try, tweak as needed.

In this video, I try to explain how to set up VR in Reentry, and some things you can do to improve rendering:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


VR: Gaze Cursor
I have started to work on a Gaze method for VR, where the mouse controls a cursor that can interact with the panels. It`s a bit cumbersome to implement as it will require its own interaction methods and User Interfaces and so on. I will need to think about how this should be set up (feel free to provide me with some suggestions on this), but in the mean time, I will position the Mission Pad and the Menus that are attached to the controller to a fixed location in the cockpit.

VR: Mission Pad menu
A dedicated VR menu in the VR Mission Pad can be used as an option instead of the Hand Attached UI. You can use it to change timescale in VR, and perform view changes as well as some of the Comm menu options (Apollo). I have also started to develop the User Interfaces for the SPS, TLI and TEI burn planners on the VR menu with a numeric VR keyboard you can use to provide input to the various fields.

VR: Mission Command Subtitles
I have added the mission commands to the VR camera so they function as subtitles in a movie. Each mission command will be shown there, and you can use the right thumbs stick to press ROGER, aka move on. This is the first version of this and I will iterate on it as I progress with VR support for Reentry!

VR: Checklist Guide Panel
You can now also run checklists in VR, where you can see the traditional Checklist Guide UI as well. Open the Mission Pad, select checklists, and hit RUN. The UI will appear below the mission pad.

VR: Change Camera view using the left thumbstick
The View can now be changed using the left thumbstick on the motion controller.

Lunar Module Crew Member features
Two new Lunar Module Crew operations in testing, where you can use the CREW MEMBER menu to let the Lunar Module face the CSM, and then another to align with the inverse attitude of the CSM with the docking port facing the CSM. If you are used to the current implementation of docking, and you start using these modes, it will feel a bit strange in the start, but much easier and more stable as you get used to these to modes.

Moon Tessellation Settings
Lunar Tessellation settings can be tweaked of you experience a low framerate in Lunar orbit. You can select the tessellation factor, and the minimum and maximum distance where tessellation will happen. Everything closer to minimum distance will be tessellated, and gradually face towards zero tessellation towards the maximum distance. Tessellation is an expensive operation, especially for those running on hardware without a dedicated GPU etc.

Lunar Module Quad Heater changes
The Lunar Module heaters for the RCS system has had a bug that would make it take hours to get them into an operational temperature.

Entry Monitor System updates
The CSM EMS system has a set of ground operation tests done before flight. A bug has prevented this from happening due to some late changes, but it should now be resolved, and you should be able to complete the ground operation tests of the EMS again.

Cloud Rendering tweaking
Console Commands for the new cloud system so you can modify density and cloud size scale. The command is "cloud -density 0.5" where 0.5 is a value between 0 and 1.5, and "cloud -height 1.0" where 1.0 is a number between 0 and 3. Remember, you can always revert back to the old cloud system from SETTINGS.

File based camera system with tooling
Added a system where you can use the console to modify the default camera positions on the cockpit views. For example, if you want to modify the default camera point that F5 or F9 moves the view to, you can use the arrow keys to move the camera to where you want it, and then use the console to modify any of the camera points to the current one.

Usage example:
Camera -list
-- shows a table of all the camera points, should be similar to the VIEW SELECTOR, with an index.

Lets say you want to change the view located at index 0 (commanders view, F5):
Camera -set 0

To revert to the factory settings, you can run the command that does this with the Camera tool in the console, or delete the files in the Cameras folder in Reentry's AppData. This will re-generate the files when the game loads the next time.

Other
- Minor needle shake when engines are burning on the various analogue gauges in the cockpit.
- Fixed the Gemini Space Walk campaign mission
- Fixed the CSM SCS roll stutter issue
- Mercury has received some upgrades on the MA-6 mission.
- Faster camera transitions in cockpit views.
- Moved the default camera points for astronauts in the CSM and LM to their correct head positions.

Uploaded a minor patch that should correct the following issues:
- Some rewiring logic in the Atlas and Redstone Launch Vehicles
- Rewiring of the Atlas Abort logic that has blocked the completion on Mission 4 in the Mercury Campaign
- Game Manuals link correction from the Academy

Uploaded a minor patch that should correct the following issues:
- Minor Mercury Ascent logic changes, should prevent the disappearance of the Atlas Booster on CapSep that happens in some occasions.
- Fixed the logic that should prevent saving state when SIVB/LM/CSM is docked (not yet supported in the save state). This is the state where you have separated from the SIV-B, docked with the CSM, but not yet extracted it from the S-IVB.
- Loading Screen for MOCR and MCCL.
- CSI-2 burn corrections for LM ascent and Rendezvous.

The 0.8122.EA patch contains some fixes for the Mercury Guidance logic that has prevented players from completing campaign missions etc. Please give it a try and let me know if your are unblocked.

In addition, multiple changes in the MOCR Voice Intercom logic has been applied to correct the issues regarding not being able to hear others after some of the players has left the session, and rejoined, or joined another session without restarting the client.

Thanks for reporting, still looking into some of the other reported things.