Rocket Science News

[p]Rocket Science v0.24.7 “Breaking Silence” update has finally arrived! Since it is a huge one, I decided to make a video that clearly demonstrates the most important changes again. As always, you can find full release notes below.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]I will spend the next couple of weeks not only fixing already reported and not yet discovered bugs by players, but working on new parts, including a parachute, I’ve promised in one of the previous updates (finally!).[/p][p][/p][p]That’s all, thank you for your support and have a nice flight![/p][p][/p][h2]v0.24.7 release notes[/h2][p][/p][h3]Features:[/h3][p]🔸 added space communications and antenna parts;[/p][p]🔸 Deep Space Network and default relays as an option on game start;[/p][p]🔸 implemented instruments system;[/p][p]🔸 added flight journal, that records all events that happened to the spacecraft during the flight;[/p][p]🔸 added milestones system, which replace simple contracts like reach orbit, land etc and group it by planet;[/p][p]🔸 added fuel / resource flow priority system;[/p][p]🔸 added part panels and instrument data rate requirement for probe cores;[/p][p]🔸 added rotation tracking module and solar panels that can track the Sun;[/p][p]🔸 added active cooling systems (cryo cooling, liquid will be added soon after);[/p][p]🔸 reworked navball: moved instrument buttons there and added more indicators that show additional information about spacecraft status;[/p][p]🔸 implemented radial to linear velocity conversion on decouple or undock;[/p][p]🔸 electricity overhaul: implemented better production / consumption routines, added total production / consumption information to resources;[/p][p]🔸 added basic game API and extension mods support;[/p][p]🔸 added methane fuel and engines that consume it.[/p][p][/p][h3]New rocket parts:[/h3][p]🔸 command pod 2;[/p][p]🔸 probe core 5, 6[/p][p]🔸 decoupler 9 [/p][p]🔸 structure 12;[/p][p]🔸 antenna 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;[/p][p]🔸 cryocooler 0[/p][p]🔸 radiator 2[/p][p]🔸 thermal separator 0, 1[/p][p]🔸 instrument 0, 1;[/p][p]🔸 solar panel 5, 6;[/p][p]🔸 engine 12.[/p][p][/p][h3]New content:[/h3][p]🔸 new “Communications 101” tutorial.[/p][p][/p][h3]Part changes:[/h3][p]🔸 Payload Enclosed Cap GO-5 added dynamic attachments to the bottom of part;[/p][p]🔸 complete rework of command pod 1;[/p][p]🔸 rework of decoupler 3 and 5, so they are now smaller.[/p][p][/p][h3]Changes:[/h3][p]🔸 conductive heat transfer now uses not average heat transfer coef but harmonic mean;[/p][p]🔸 thermal conductivity can now be configured separately for part skin;[/p][p]🔸 you can manually cut the parachute;[/p][p]🔸 parachute min pressure is now set in kilopascals and not in atmospheres;[/p][p]🔸 most of the contracts were converted to milestones;[/p][p]🔸 active stage TWR is now shown under the dV on action groups UI;[/p][p]🔸 spacecraft will maintain its auto correction rotation on very high time warp;[/p][p]🔸 reaction wheel power consumption no longer overconsume electricity on high time warp;[/p][p]🔸 battaries produce heat on recharge;[/p][p]🔸 wheels with motors produce heat when driving;[/p][p]🔸 docking ports can now transfer hydrazine;[/p][p]🔸 hydrazine is consumed evenly from tanks now;[/p][p]🔸 added "show target markers" button to UI;[/p][p]🔸 all ambient sounds now respect audio settings;[/p][p]🔸 date time format and input values now depends on system culture, but not on selected locale;[/p][p]🔸 all tooltips have consistent positioning relative to hovered item and size now;[/p][p]🔸 reworked font sizes and text clipping in control center and rocket lists;[/p][p]🔸 you can close control center map UI using ESC now;[/p][p]🔸 updated all physical constants using latest CDATA values;[/p][p]🔸 probe cores are now far more aerodynamically stable and will less likely to flip on atmosphere re-entry;[/p][p]🔸 part window module order is now stable;[/p][p]🔸 internally reworked part tooltip system, more data is shown in tooltips because of that;[/p][p]🔸 you can't see instrument and part panel values during the flight if you have no stored electricity or electricity production available;[/p][p]🔸 spacecraft now saves selected command module between game sessions;[/p][p]🔸 added some missing localization strings;[/p][p]🔸 you can deselect spacecraft in the spacecraft list by clicking on the list panel itself;[/p][p]🔸 \[Assembly] improved part initial placement behaviour yet again;[/p][p]🔸 camera zoom now supports continuous controls.[/p][p]🔸 module panels and assembly configs now show units when applicable;[/p][p]🔸 HeatProductionSystem now operates on per part basis to support heat dissipation using coolers.[/p][p][/p][h3]Settings:[/h3][p]🔸 \[Audio] added master and ambient volume sliders;[/p][p]🔸 \[Game] added culture selector;[/p][p]🔸 \[Game] added map camera zoom sensitivity;[/p][p]🔸 \[Quality] added FPS limiter toggle and slider;[/p][p]🔸 \[Quality] SSGI is temporary disabled because it is broken in current Unity version (a lot of ghosting artefacts).[/p][p][/p][h3]Fixes:[/h3][p]🔸 burn vector is incorrect for every maneuver on the orbit with eccentricity higher than 0.2.[/p][p]🔸 you can reset riteg decay by docking recently launched spacecraft and then undocking from other port;[/p][p]🔸 game stuck when decouple and switching to decoupled spacecraft and then quick load.[/p][p]🔸 sometimes values in part panels roll back after change with no reason;[/p][p]🔸 electricity consumption and production is changing proportionally to the number of installed batteries;[/p][p]🔸 celestial filter doesn't affect body tooltips;[/p][p]🔸 mach VFX is swapped with re-entry VFX when rocket part changes physics state and vice-versa;[/p][p]🔸 reentry and mach VFX not changing when part change shape in some cases;[/p][p]🔸 decoupler 4 looks wrong after separation.[/p][p]🔸 quick load is not working when trying to load in the space center and not a single spacecraft was selected;[/p][p]🔸 target orbit changes color when you set it as target and then unset;[/p][p]🔸 decouplers that split lead to NaN temperature after deploy;[/p][p]🔸 exception when dragging one fuel tank over two connected ones;[/p][p]🔸 some strings are not localizable on Chinese, because of font size;[/p][p]🔸 wheels produce electricity, when driving backwards;[/p][p]🔸 \[Assembly] part config incorrectly sets values from the previous part when adding a new one;[/p][p]🔸 \[Assembly] fuel level values are wrong when inspecting fuel tank with bigger capacity followed by the smaller one.[/p][p]🔸 some parts of Navball are changing brightness depending on camera exposure; [/p][p]🔸 you can't expand autocomplete dropdown manually, by pressing on the arrow;[/p][p]🔸 location name overflows when rocket or spacecraft have a very long name;[/p][p]🔸 parachute always fail to deploy when`another spacecraft is nearby;[/p][p]🔸 sometimes spacecraft is not interacting with separated parts after decouple;[/p][p]🔸 conductive heat transfer is slower, than expected;[/p][p]🔸 time panel stops updating when time was reversed backwards (for example, for tutorial).[/p][p]🔸 outline not including parts that have more than one submesh;[/p][p]🔸 landing strut 0 stuck on decoupler in some rocket configurations.[/p][p][/p][h3]Known issues:[/h3][p]🔸 abnormal mesh bouns spam in the console, when you are flying very far from Earth and have an established link.[/p]

[p]Hello, fellow rocket scientists![/p][p][/p][p]It’s been a while since my last post and I wanted to give you a quick update about current development status. It will be the biggest update since the release not only in the new game systems, but also in terms of the size of the changelog: it is already approaching 100 lines, and I'm not done yet![/p][p] [/p][p]The changelog is here just for reference, nobody is supposed to be able to read it[/p][p][/p][p]The biggest time sink was the integration of communications into the game and new rocket parts production. The first one required significant changes all over other game systems. For example, when I’ve added default relays into the orbit, I’ve discovered that on high time warps communications just stop working. Why? Because spacecraft orientation was not stable on high time warps, and orientation matters a lot for high gain antennas. So I need to do something about that.[/p][p][/p][p]Another example is that in the game comms model relay antennas should be cooled down for very low temperatures, to reduce the noise and increase the signal strength, like I told in one of the previous dev updates. But the game didn’t have anything that could support that. So I researched how cryocoolers work on some missions like the James Webb telescope and implemented simplified model of them. The good news is now I am one step away from implementing other active cooling systems. They are similar to cryocooling in some ways, but very different in another. I've also fouund at least two big mistakes in the thermodynamics code while working on it, so be prepared to a slightly different thermal behaviour in the next update.[/p][p][/p][p]It is nice, when game systems finally start to interact with each other[/p][p][/p][p]As for new rocket parts — this update requires a lot of them. I’ve already made 7 different antennas, and it is barely enough to cover the game needs. [/p][p] [/p][p]This is an absolute minimum of needed antennas, but it is barely enough. I need to add at least 4 or 5 more[/p][p][/p][p]And the total planned part count approaches 30. This will include not only antennas, but new probe cores, structures, thermal parts and engines. And I will not release the update untill I finally add new parachute, that I promised for years now! Considering that every rocket part takes at least 3 work days to research, model, add to the game, test and somehow balance and adjust, this time quickly adds up. And a lot of antennas has unfolding animations, that's more unexpected work too...[/p][p][/p][p]Another big chunk of time took the preparation of the game code to the releasing of the game API. I’ve already published one of the samples that shows how to add custom rocket part modules. This is an absolute minimum of an API currently, but I will extend the API and samples on a per players request basis, when they actually start working on extensions and will have specific examples of what they need.[/p][p][/p][p]There are a lot more to the update that I’ve not yet mentioned in the dev updates, but you will discover them in the update itself. But I can give you a sneak peek. For example, could you guess what is the purpose of this new game panel?[/p][p] [/p][p]Please post your guesses in the comments bellow[/p][p][/p][p]So what’s next? I am planning to release the update to the closed beta in the following weeks, so I could start receiving the feedback and bugs from a smaller and more dedicated group of players, while I am still working on new parts and finishing stuff up. (If you too want to participate in closed beta, please join our Discord). And then, as soon as it is ready, it will be finally released for everyone. It took much, much longer than I expected, but this is game development, you never actually know how much work any new feature will take until you start working on that.[/p][p][/p][p]And the last sneak peek of how some of the new parts look in action.[/p][p]Can you guess what spacecraft I tried to replicate here?
[/p][p]That’s all for today, see you soon and have a nice flight![/p][p]
[/p]

Hello,
I am still diligently working on v0.24.0 which finally starting to come together.

Read the full post on my blog.

Hello,

It's time to reveal what I was working on since the last update release. Long story short: another important system is coming, that will affect how you assemble your rockets and how you fly them.

You can read the full post on my blog.

What it could be?

[p]Here is a small patch with a bunch of fixed bugs that were found by our community. Since most of them were pretty critical, I've switched from v0.24 development to fix them all.

[/p][h2]v0.23.16 release notes[/h2][p]
[/p][h3]Features:[/h3][p]🔸 added craft validation and cleanup on load, wich will be able to fix and load broken spacecrafts with missing attachments, parts, etc.;
🔸 added "clear" command to console.

[/p][h3]Changes:[/h3][p]🔸 changed all pivot position of command modules and probe cores to the bottom socket;
🔸 thermodynamics calculations deltaTime now clamped to 2 days / sec max, otherwise it becomes very unstable and parts start exploding;
🔸 further reduced thermal production coefficient on some engines;
🔸 slightly reduced collision radius for dynamic attachments so small parts like rcs mounting point now can fit rcs engines without problems.

[/p][h3]Fixes:[/h3][p]🔸 NaN temperature on crafts where some parts were placed inside the payload fairing after fairings were installed;
🔸 NaN temperature after decoupling part of the craft and then time warping (in case you switch to decoupled craft);
🔸 last time warp button with time warp 1 month / sec sets warp to 7 days /sec;
🔸 missing burn time values for some Hydrolox engines;
🔸 "Rumble" and "Hose" decouplers stay coupled after separation if they were attached using second radial attachment pivot point;
🔸 symmetry stops working when RCS block was mounted longitudinally and other parts attached to it.
🔸 reentry and mach effect suddenly disappears sometimes;
🔸 heat shield stops protecting rocket parts after undocking;
🔸 wrong position of center of thrust and lift if you move craft to the side and then attach engine / wing;
🔸 crash when loading any mod then returning to main menu and then continuing the game;
🔸 improve memory consumption and performance in some cases.

[/p]