Pioneer Elite II Remake

[Miggy4000]

Hi Folks
I am not expecting this thread to get much attention, but just in case someone might be interested, here goes anyways. :oops:

I know you are all Sub Sim fans and that's great because so am I, but I am also a big fan of space sims, specifically space sims with a Newtonian flight model. Right now I am updating Pioneer's Mod DB page with the latest monthly Alpha build straight from the devs themselves, Alpha 23.

As for Pioneer itself, it's a free open source game that uses the old David Braben game Frontier Elite II as it's design starting point, but with much improved graphics, for example, a full sized galaxy model, seem-less surface to space transitions, full orbital mechanics, trading and a load of classic Elite ships to fly. Anyone can contribute work to the project, in fact all the work done thus far has been done by a dedicated team of volunteer devs.

As I said the game is still in Alpha phase so lots more work is still to be done and bugs can pop up from time to time.

If you would like a look, drop by here

http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer

Or Pioneer's own site where you will find additional builds for Mac OSX and Linux

http://pioneerspacesim.net/download

As a sub sim fan I would love to see underwater modelling put into this game as planetary terrain models are still being worked on, but I am a lone voice. It would be great to pilot something like a Moray Starboat under the surface then hit the main thrusters and keep on going as you breech the surface. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Emergency Surface"! :cool:

Also here is a vid of an early Alpha of the game, the visuals have come along quite a bit since it was created, but it will give you an idea of what the game is like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aVf-8qVdsg

Anyways, thanks for reading :salute:

[Sailor Steve]

Subsim forum devoted to non-subsim games:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=177

[Miggy4000]

:doh: Drat! Have I posted this in the wrong section? :oops:

Apologies. Perhaps one of the mods could move it?

[Sailor Steve]

Not at all. I was just pointing it out for future reference. Also, you might find some threads you like there. :sunny:

[Miggy4000]

Thanks for that Sailor Steve! :up: Yes interesting topics.........oooh look, theres one about DOS games........:yeah:

[Egan]

Ooooh....Elite....I don't think I've a single game since I first played that on a BBC Micro in the mid 80s that ever captivated me quite as much.

I'll check this out. Thanks for the link!

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

HURRAH!!! Thank you VERY much for the link! :yeah: I tested it and it works (so far) very well. Brings back good old memories! :D




Yes, even this kid played Elite, Frontier: Elite II, Frontier: First Encounters et. al. once upon time :DL

[Miggy4000]

Hey, your welcome guys :up:
Glad someone found the thread useful.

If your also fans of the original (Non Newtonian) Elite, you might want to take a look at Oolite. This is another free open source game and is very nice indeed, especially so when stuffed to the gills with mod packs or "oxps" as they are are known.

Here is some links

Oolite: http://www.oolite.org/

OXPs & General Info: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page

Oolite Forum: http://aegidian.org/bb/index.php

Oolite SSC Section: http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/60-oolite/

Also there is another free Elite re-make based on Elite III First Encounters. Its called FFE3D.
Russian devs (with some help from others) have modded the original game almost beyond recognition, but it is still not quite finished. However, its still fully playable. Rumours of ongoing work are rife on the Russian Elite boards though.

Here is a link to some very handy sites for all things Elite: http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/ and http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/

SSC Section for FFE3D: http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/39-ffed3d/


Have fun! :up:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Folks
A new Alpha build of Pioneer has just been released (Alpha 24). Lots of little tweaks and general improvements for this month by it's wonderful devs. Check out the download links in the first post :salute:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Folks
Another monthly Alpha build for you. This one does a few bugs related to dwarf stars but it does have extra features over Alpha 24. As usual the download links are in the first post :salute:

[CaptainHaplo]

I am downloading as soon as I can.

Do you want me to give it a review even though its alpha? I can do so while keeping that in mind.

[Miggy4000]

Hi CaptainHaplo

Apologies for taking so long to get back to you. Been busy with that annoying real life thing again :/\\!!

Anyways, yes feel free to do a review, but you might want to hold off until Alpha 26 is out. It's release is imminent. I will update the thread once it's out :salute:

EDIT: some FFE3D news. This game is undergoing a complete re-write by it's Russian devs that will not use any of the original games code. Its being retitled to "Final Fronter" and promises (amongst other things) to have multiplayer. Have a look at this thread for details and links to the Russian Elite board

http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/1516-is-this-project-slept-or-dead/?p=30133 (http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/topic/1516-is-this-project-slept-or-dead/page__st__20#entry30104)

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans :salute:

Its that time again, a new Alpha for Pioneer and I've just uploaded it to ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer). Here is a run down for the features for this month from Robn :)

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 26. This month sees the addition of two popular features of the original Frontier, the Imperial capital Achernar and the Imperial Trader, as well as various graphical and internal tweaks. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download page

Alpha 26 is dedicated to the memory of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)

New features

Achernar (4,-9,-16) is now a fully custom system (#1452)
New Imperial Trader (a variant of the Imperial Courier) (#1069, #1496)

Minor changes and tweaks

Updated station splash advert (#1429)
Updated the Imperial Courier model (#1069)
Updated the "pilot" and "squadsign" sub-models (#1069)
Updated surface stations (#983)
Made month names translatable (#1490)

Fixes

Fix atmospheric pressure calculations (#1431, #1395)
Fix lighting glitches in systems with multiple stars (#1430, #1411)
Fix flipped EYE ship texture (#1436)
Fix Caribou laser position (#1435)
Fix broken planet ring textures on Intel GMA 900 chips (#1442, #1439)
Fix Lua console tab completion for some oddly constructed tables (#1447)
Fix Lua console tab completion for tables with numeric indices (#1461, #1462)
Fix ambient light state leak from intro/tombstone (#1472, #1445)
Fix blank UI after game load failure (#1481, #1479)
Draw the city before its starport to avoid a glaring graphical bug (#1487)
Fix Lua stack leak in console completion (#1492)

Script changes

Ships now identified by the filename the ship is defined in (#1444, #1474, #1491)
New Event system allowing Lua scripts to broadcast their own events. EventQueue is deprecated, for removal in alpha 27 (#1441)
New FileSystem module so scripts can list data files (including files from mods) and files in the game's configuration directory (#1350, #1483)

Internal changes

Show frame time in the stats overlay (#1437)
Update COUNTOF macro to fix avoid warnings when compiling with compiling with optimisations on GCC (#1451, #1450)
Force most icons to scale to their bounds regardless of their initial size. Allows hi-res icons (#1448, #1470)
Reimplemented Lua read-only tables (#1460)
Move the global Lua context so it can be used from modelviewer (#1473)
Rewritten material and shader infrastructure (#1432)
Many minor optimisations identified by PVS-Studio (#1480, #1399)
Fix a warning when building with clang (#1488)"

Also here is a screen shot of Mexico City

http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/MexicoCity.png

Also thought I would highlight another retro Elite clone called Galaxias, which recently retailed at £10. Now the dev is allowing the game to be downloaded for free and if you like it, he is asking if you will buy him a beer?

Here is a link http://www.jexea.co.uk/Galaxias/Home.html

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans!

Here it is, another monthly alpha for you to try out. Here is the change list for this month from Robn, one of the Pioneer devs. I've just finished updating ModDB with the new build too. Have fun out there! :up:

http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 27. This month seems the introduction of our new (highly experimental!) faction system. Also new cameras to see everything around your ship, and the usual pile of tweaks and fixes. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download page, here http://pioneerspacesim.net/download .

New features

Factions, with custom goods illegality and colour coding (#1505, #1567, #1562)
New views (Left/Right/Top/Bottom, Cockpit Front/Rear) (#1454, #1539, #1544, #1564)
The settings screen is now acessible from the main menu (#1187, #1512)
There's now an option to enable texture compression (#1522)

Minor changes and tweaks

Smooth zoom animation in World, System, Sector and Galactic views (#1170)
Earth start location has returned to Los Angeles (in daytime now) (#1506)
Player cash is shown on the 'Personal' page of the Info (F3) screen (#1525, #1500)
Equipment listed on the Info (F3) screen is split over two columns (#1525, #1527)
Explosions are now slower and more visible (#1543)
Application icon for Windows builds (#1537, #1166)

Fixes

Avoid icons in some ternary systems overlapping each other (#1510, #1511)
Fix overlapping text for long system descriptions (#1494, #1498)
Fix crash in SystemInfoView from leaking widget references (#1526, #1493)
Clamp some newer terrain heights to non-negative values (#1534, #1530)
Try to avoid placing starports where they will be covered by mountains (#1503, #7)
Don't pass events through the load/save dialog to the widget below (#1547, #1553)
Fix crash when old hyperspace cloud is shown after game load (#1552, #1551)

Script changes

EventQueue, which was deprecated in alpha 26, has been removed (#1485)
Orbital phase (season) and rotational phase (time) can now be set in custom systems with :rotational_phase_at_start and Orbital_phase_at_start (#1506)
Thruster values in ship definitions are now all positive (#1536)
New function Dev.SetCameraOffset to help find good cockpit camera offsets (#1130)

Internal changes

Terrain generation thread now sleeps until being signalled (#1169)
New C++ wrappers for Lua table manipulation and value persistence (#1438)
Terrain patches are now rendered more efficiently (#1507)
Many minor cleanups identified by valgrind (#1524)
Copyright and license is now made explicit at the top of all code files (#1515)
Max terrain height for heightmapped planets is computed more accurately (#1504)
Code to detect supported video modes has moved to Graphics (#1535, #1385)
Cleaned up UI view code for consistency and stability (#1528, #1558, #1547, #1557)
Removed duplication in key bindings code (#1545)
New view (DeathView) to deal with display after the player dies (#1543, #1540)
Simplified terrain thread locking (#1495)
Moved intro and tombstone out to their own cutscene classes (#1559)"

[Miggy4000]

Didnt see any mention of this on the forum so I thought I would let you guys know about a new kickstarter from David Braben for Elite IV. Have a look here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans
Here is another new monthly Alpha for you to try out. The big highlight of this month is a new UI! :cool:

Anyways here is the change list from Pioneer dev Robn

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 28. This month sees the debut of our new UI engine (main menu only so far), flight and combat improvements and a load of tweaks and fixes. Builds for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download) page.

New features

First stages of the new UI system (#1586, #1625, #1623, #1622, #1642, #1634, #1639, #1651, #1615)
Cockpit views have been removed (#1606)

Minor changes and tweaks


Improve placement of cameras in Imperial Courier/Trader (#1599)
Laser bolts are now faster (#1607)
Thruster fuel (propellant) mass is now taken into account in the ship info view and shipyard screens, and in hyperspace calculations (#1574)
Cargo jettison now handled by Lua script (#1443)
Basic support for rendering Cyrillic characters (#1647, #1031)

Fixes


Fix choice of non-/rotating initial frame in Space.SpawnShipNear (#1584, #1581)
Hide thrusters in camera (not cockpit) views (#1578, #1577)
Hammerhead's cockpit camera is now correct when the head is extended (#1594)
Fix placement of docking bay text in 'nice_spacestation' orbital (#1154, #1605)
Fix input (e.g., laser fire key) leaking from one game to the next (#1613)
Don't generate an alert for ships parked in orbit near a station (#1636, #545)
Allow non-ASCII characters in savefile names (#1632, #1627, #1482)
Ensure frames for stars with no orbiting bodies are sufficiently large for the autopilot to compute orbits (#1645, #1626)
Fix Achernar9 mass & radius (#1640, #1626)
Ignore UTF-8 Byte Order Mark in text files edited with some Windows editors (#1661)

Script and model changes


Separation and orientation is now specified for dual laser mountings (#1518)
Removed Engine.userdir (deprecated since alpha 26) (#1602)
Added StarSystem.faction attribute and Faction object to get information about a system's faction (#1568)
Removed Ship.Jettison, added Ship.SpawnCargo (#1443)
Ship.flavour attribute and Ship.SetFlavour method to fully customise the ship model's appearance. Ship.SetPrimaryColour and Ship.SetSecondaryColour are now deprecated (#1637, #526)
New attribute Ship.shipId can be passed to ShipType.GetShipType. Ship.shipType is now deprecated (#1589)

Internal changes


Code clean-up in the handling of world view cameras (#1601)
All file access operations now go through FileSystem (#1632)"

Have fun! :up:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans

Got another update for you, Alpha 29 of Pioneer. This month as well as the usual code clean ups, factions have an increased presence in the game.

Here is the change log for this month:

The Pioneer development team is pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 29. This month we have a rewrite of the infoview, including per-mission screens and player name/face customisations. Also we have over a hundred new factions with varying government types, and sector map updates to view them. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download page (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download).
New features



InfoView (F3) rewrite. Now has player name/face customisation and per-mission info screens (#1633, #1785)
Economical autopilot. Trades fuel for time (#1582)
Your ship's automatic rotation damping can now be turned off (#1570, #1156)
Almost 100 new factions with varying government types (#1621, #1620, #1675, #1761, #1771)
Zoom out the sector view to see a faction map (#1754, #1764, #1761, #1796, #1784)
modelviewer can now dump models to Wavefront-format files (#1763)

Minor changes and tweaks


Cargo scooping now only requires a collision against the ship rather than a specific part of it (#1674)
Refueling now handled by Lua script (#1649)
Fixed navigation lights on Courier, Trader, Meteor, Natrix (#1710, #1711)
Added transparent backgrounds to planet icons to avoid some visual glitches (#1572)
Don't clear hyperspace target when the current system is selected in the Sector View (#1662)
Improved scanner draw performance

Fixes


Workaround shader glitches for planets with zero temperature (#1712)
Pioneer should not be marked as "Not Responding" on startup in Windows (MSVC builds only) (#1743)
Fixed flight log crash after visiting 1000 stations
Barnard's Star is now a member of the Federation (#1620)
Reduce use of random number generator in sector generation. Fixes
super giant distribution and makes it go a little faster (#1765)

Script changes


Custom Systems: Faction allegiance can now be set for custom systems (#1621)
Factions: More than one government type with weighting can now be specified for a Faction (#1621)
Factions: A radius attribute is available on the Faction object (#1660)
debug.deprecated function to warn when a deprecated function is used (#1718)

UI changes


Gradient container to provide a linear gradient background (#1682)
Expand container to force a widget to fill available space (#1685)
SmallButton widget (#1722)
Icon widget (#1737)
TabGroup controller
Label exposes SetText to Lua (#1690)
Box containers no longer take expand/fill flags (#1665)
Margin can now apply a margin to a single side or direction (#1747)
Grid can now have nil entries and has a ClearCell method (#1723, #1738)
Functions taking a widget can now take a table with a 'widget' field (#1723, #1738)
Widget.SetFontSize has been replaced with SetFont to select both type (normal
or heading) and size (#1684)
UI constructors for 'Single' widgets take an optional final argument specifying the inner widget (#1723, #1738)
MouseMove event also receives relative mouse travel (#1767)
Improved UI sliders/scrollbars (#1720)
UI elements can now be disabled (#1749, #1721)
More flexible UI widget size control (#1746)

Internal changes


Wrapper to allow new UI to provide views for the old GUI system (#1691, #1755, #1756, #1759)
Fix the LuaObject the Check/GetFromLua, which were swapped round (#1730)
Models moved to data/lmrmodels to make space for new model system (#1762)
Code cleanup in StarSystem (making several members private) (#1773)


Grab the windows build from Mod DB here http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer

Mac OSX and Linux builds from here http://pioneerspacesim.net/download

Finally, I thought I would give The Elite Dangerous Kickstarter a little bump. Its just passed the £1 million mark in its funding with 8 days to go for it to reach it's target of £1.25 million. If you can offer any support, please do so.

Here is a link to the kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

:salute:

[CaptainHaplo]

I just reserved my copy!

[Miggy4000]

Well done CaptainHaplo! See you "out" there come 2014 :up:

[Miggy4000]

Just a little update on Elite Dangerous, the kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous) in an unprecedented flurry of pledges cleared it's initial target goal today of £1,250,000 with 50 hours still to go before it ends. New stretch goals have been announced in the form of a Mac version of the game and extra ships.

[Skybird]

Just a little update on Elite Dangerous, the kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous) in an unprecedented flurry of pledges cleared it's initial target goal today of £1,250,000 with 50 hours still to go before it ends. New stretch goals have been announced in the form of a Mac version of the game and extra ships.
:)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20897768

If they end up with a nice game welldone, I will consider to buy it. But I am thankful for having been cautiuous over Carrier command, and after seeing how that episode ended, I have become even more hesitent to separate from my money prematurely. So hope and good wishes, but no money from me until I can check the final product.

If something is really good, I accept however to pay more than the average game price for it then.

[Miggy4000]

Fair enough Skybird. ;)
Mac goal reached, extra ship pack almost reached, just shy of £13k (ish) with 9 hours to go.

[Miggy4000]

Hi Folks
Back with another monthly Pioneer update for you. Here is the extensive change list for this months alpha from the dev team, highlights include a new easier to use model system. :salute:

I have already updated it's ModDB page (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer)

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 30. This month we have beautiful new atmosphere, lighting and terrain effects, a rewritten autopilot that now allows you to intercept other ships and fly in formation (and pirates to catch you!), and the introduction of our new purpose-built model engine, SGModel. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download page (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download).

New features

New model system (SGModel) (#1676, #1208, #813, #1852, #1914)
Rotation damping icon and control on the panel (#1842, #1837)
OSX: Hold the option key down when launching pioneer.app to launch the model viewer instead (#1803)
New volcanic surface effects on some planets (#1782)
New and improved autopilot (#1812)
Improved atmosphere rendering: scattering, sunsets, thinner fogs and ground lighting fixes (#1888, #1891)
Russian translation (#1899, #1713)

Minor changes and tweaks

Don't allocate projectile geometry for every projectile. Huge performance increase during combat (#1822)
Main menu now has keyboard shortcuts again (#1821)
Player's name now updates during editing in Personal Information view (#1845)
Rondel system moved further away from Sol and surrounding stars (#1861, #1815)
Star fade-in has been adjusted to make stars less visible in daytime (#1881)
Some missions now state the distance to the target system (#1886, #1909)
Try harder to find a populated homeworld for a faction (#1860, #1792)
Clicking cancel from the Load dialog now returns you to the game (#1847, #1325)
Bulk ships are now only placed at orbital stations (#1890)
Improve building self-shadowing and lighting (#1898, #1811)
Low/medium/high orbit altitudes reduced to be more likely to fit in object frames (#1903)

Script changes and model changes

New attribute StarSystem.explored (#1793, #1797)
Custom systems can now define gravpoints (#1701, #1074)
Added attributes in space/ground station models info table: ship_launch_stage, parking_distance, parking_gap_size (#1812)

Fixes

Interpret galaxy density bitmap as unsigned values (#1818, #1813)
Invert mouse cursor movement in rear view (#1820)
Missions no longer vanish from view when other missions are completed (#1824, #1826, #1854, #1856)
Fix crash when switching away from settings screen after death (#1844, #1698, #1742)
Move SystemView time control buttons above the dash to work around input priority problems (#1853, #1851)
Fix occasional bug that could leave a trailing slash on some filesystem paths (#1843, #1486)
Fix division-by-zero bugs in missile AI (#1873, #1872)
Fix loading of player's criminal record and fines (#1877, #1874)
Selected systems are now always shown in the sector view (#1864)
Fix crash bug in Lua function SystemPath.DistanceTo
Fix long-broken mouse flight under Linux by disabling DGA. Set config option SDLUseDGAMouse=1 to revert to old behaviour (#1892, #5)
Fix system info view to ignore irrelevant mouse wheel scroll events (#1894)
Don't toggle labels and rotation damping while console is active (#1897, #1364)
Don't save/restore GL_POINT_BIT attribute, it breaks GL state on old Intel chips
Update all material light components when applying a material (#1908, #1887)

UI changes

Improved appearance of Dropdown widget (#1789, #1766)
Fix layout of non-contributing widgets inside pack boxes (#1789)
UI widgets can now have keyboard shortcuts (#1821, #1841, #1840)

Internal changes

Improvements in text rendering performance (#1791)
Move MSVC headers and libs to pioneer-thirdparty repository (#1807)
Removed legact MissionStatus code from core (#1824)
Optimisation in access to ship type information (#1827)
Add support for high precision timing and floating-point exceptions (#1836, #1846)
Enable floating-point exceptions during AI processing (#1838)
Lua methods can be marked "protected", stopping them being called by user-supplied scripts and mods (#1706, #1869)
Rotation damping code cleaned up (#1866)
Various minor cleanups (#1867)
Allow point sprites to be rendered with different alpha blending modes (#1880)
Unknown tokens for Lua translations are no longer treated as errors (#1865, #1862)
Rename terrain noise macros to avoid global namespace polliution (#1883)
Various code improvements in frame handling and other things (#1812)
Cleanup SectorView system index usage (#1884)
Split FileSelectorDialog and LoadGame/SaveGame out of GameLoaderSaver (#1847)
Font optimisations and support for language-specific font overrides (#1899, #1907, #1904)
Avoid use of strtof, it doesn't exist on MSVC (#1905)"

Other news
Oolite has had a new update 1.77. Have a look here (http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13287) for the change list.


The Elite kickstarter finished with an impressive total of £1,578,316, not including (still ongoing) pay pal pledges.

[Sammi79]

Put a small paypal donation in. Will gladly pay top dollar for the finished product.

Been waiting since Frontier on my old A1200. 1993?

Still play that one on emulators. First Encounters autopilot was bugged and regularly flew into planets at high time compression so never really got into it. Also it didn't look much better than Frontier I guess the same engine. Am now downloading Pioneer for a test before I decide to donate but looking at the screens and vids it definitely seems like something I'd like to support.

Cheers for the thread, I was unaware that Elite IV was actually rolling again, I checked a couple of years ago and it sounded pretty negative. How things change. :)

Regards,
Sam.

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sammie
I think I just recently welcomed you to the Frontier forum here (http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4079).
I had no idea you were a sub sim fan too! :up:

One thing about Pioneer, most of the mods for it are on the SSC and unfortunately that is down at the moment for maintenance, it should be back up soon. However, for yourself and anyone else wanting to try out a whole host of Alpha 30 mods, Vuzz has put together some very neat packages of the most popular ones and updated them too. Have a look here (https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6d6a2432ee451cea&id=6D6A2432EE451CEA!145&authkey=!APcU6CIvIfqcwWI) :rock:

[Sammi79]

Hey Miggy!

So that was you amongst the many warm welcomes?

Thanks for that it has been the highlight of my decade to learn about this project. In the meantime as I wait I have downloaded Oolite, Pioneer and FFE3D - modding Oolite is very satisfying, I have my own personalised HUD already! Plenty there to keep me going while we wait for Dangerous.

Cheers!
Sam.

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim fans!
Back again with another Alpha for you, 31.
Here is the announcement post from the devs...

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 31. This month sees the introduction of crew. Hire folks for your ship and they'll do things for you and improve your skills in trade and combat. We also continue the conversion to our new model system, with several ship and station models converted. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the download page (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download)

(Note: This is the last alpha release that will include LMR).

New features

Crew! Hire people to do stuff for you (experimental) (#1973, #2025, #2030, #2039)
New ship "Deep Space Miner" (#2023)

Minor changes and tweaks

Cargo scooping now only requires a collision against the ship rather than a specific part of it (again) (#1922)
Improve point sprite (LMR billboard) rendering performance (#1927, #1929, #1928)
Improve city rendering performance (#1927)
Removed per-light ambient color and building fade (#1930)
Ship thrust and fuel tank size have been rebalanced (#1689)
Restore "Pioneering Pilots' Guild" text (#1987, #1989)
New Hope is now located on land (#1977)
Debug information overlay now includes latitude and longitude (#1994)
Missile spawn and control moved to Lua (#1663)
Add more names to the name generator (#2021)
Labels on SGModels can now be set (#1979)

Fixes

Collisions with stars now work again (#1942)
Dates before 3200-01-01 no longer display negative (#1955, #1954)
Text on SGModel ships now uses correct character offsets (#1980)
An unset decal no longer displays a black square on Intel graphics (#1976)
Fixed various crashes caused by console completion (#1998)
SGModel animation timing fixes (#1978, #1970)
Greatly reduced chance of police ships spawning on top of each other (#1993)
Fixed station names being repeated within a single system (#1958, #1911)
Handle missing material definitions by providing a basic white default material if none are specified (#1817, #1916)
Detect conflicts between animations (#1938)
Animations now work correctly across detail level switches (#1978)

Model changes

Converted Lanner ship to SGModel (#1957, #1969, #2002)
Converted Wave ship to SGModel (#2022)
Converted "big crappy" spacestation to SGModel (#1964, #2017)
Converted "hoop" spacestation to SGModel (#1932)
Converted standard building set to SGModel (#1923)
Removed "mushroom" ground stations
Removed long-unused building models (#1923)
Modelviewer: Reloading model also reloads textures (#1968, #1939)
Modelviewer: View controls are improved (#1982)
Modelviewer: Larger models are displayed without z clipping (#1982, #1933)
Modelviewer: Improve zoom behaviour (#2020)
New material parameters: unlit, two_sided and alpha_test (#1995, #1935)

Script changes

Remove deprecated Ship methods.SetPrimaryColour and SetSecondaryColour and shipType attribute
Ship thruster efficiency can be specified with effective_exhaust_velocity value, instead of thruster_fuel_use (either can be used) (#1689)
Add max_crew & min_crew params to ship def (#1973)
Missile control methods Missile.Arm, Missile.Disarm, Ship.SpawnMissile and Ship.AIKamikaze (#1663)
Separate station defs from LMR station models (#1913, #1931, #1934)

Internal changes

Cameras are no longer attached to a body, and World View camera controllers are no longer derived from Camera (#1889)
Remove kill count from core (#1944)
Intro & tombstone can now use SGModels (#1956, #2006)
SGModels now have priority over LMR models of the same name (#1956)
Console completion now handled through the LuaObject dispatcher (#1945, #1672, #1972, #1974)
Queries for near-by objects now use a very basic acceleration structure (#1910)
String <-> Integer enum mapping tables have been separated from Lua (#1996)
Improve MultiLineText draw performance (#1999)
SGModel nodes all carry a pointer to the renderer (#1986)
SGModels can now be instanced, with separate appearance and animation state for each (#2007, #1975)
Bad terrain generator output will now emit lots of debug info before crashing (#2005)
Fixed some memory leaks (#2011)"

I have also updated it's ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) page with the new Alpha, have fun out there! :salute:

Edit: One of the Frontier Forum members Synchromesh, has set up a fan site (after getting Frontier Developments ok to do so) called Elite Forever (http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/) with all the original games and the re-makes in easy to use packages (with emulators included) that can run on most setups, highlights include all the BBC versions Of Elite!

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim friends!
Some more Pioneer related news for you. The next build Alpha 32 (due soon) will be dropping its Elite related content as the dev team feel they want to take the game off in it's own direction.

This decision has caused some controversy within it's fans, but with Elite Dangerous now being worked on by Frontier Developments, the dev team feel this is the right time to do such a move and make it a fully fledged game in it's own right without any IP worries.

However, for those who may miss the Elite content, there is an alternative. An offshoot of Pioneer has appeared called Genesia which still contains many Elite related goodies plus a whole load of spanking new ship and Starport models.

Have a look at this screenshot
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/[IMG]http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/screenshot2013030515252.pnghttp://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/screenshot2013030515252.png
If your interested have a look at this thread (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3443-new-game-total-mod-pioneer-genesia/) on the SSC. Currently the latest Genesia build is R4. Have a look for that here (https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwxrcpwcptst6sa/Genesia_R4.7z).

Have fun out there! :salute:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans!
Back again with news of the new Alpha 32 Build of Pioneer. As I said in my last post, all the Elite ships are no more, however a range of spanking new ship models have replaced them with more to follow I am sure. Lots of little changes and tweaks for this month so have a look at the change list for this month. I have also just updated ModDB with the new build and that should be available shortly, here (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer). If you cant wait of want the linux or Mac OSX builds, drop by Pioneer's homepage here (http://pioneerspacesim.net/).

Anyways, here is the changelist.

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer alpha 32. This release is the first running entirely on our new model system, and includes three new ships to show it off. There's also the usual bunch of improvements, fixes and other tweaks. Full changelog and builds for Windowws, Mac OS X and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the homepage (http://pioneerspacesim.net/).

New features

Ship parade on the menu screen (#2112)
New ship "Kanara Interceptor" (#2037)
New ship "Lunar Shuttle" (#2082)
New ship "Deneb Transport" (#2119)
New fast random number generator (#1893, #2078, #2079)
Upgraded hoop station (#2046, #2131, #2114)
Removed Lua model system (LMR) (#2029, #2071)
Removed LMR-based ships (#2061)
Removed Elite/Frontier content (#2093)

Minor changes and tweaks

Balanced DSMiner fuel use (#2062)
Added laser mount to DSMiner (#2055)
Model animation state saved and restored to savefile (#2044)
New missile AI (#2094)
Shortcut key to launch missiles ('m') (#2094)
Show realtime orbit positions in system view (#2104)

Fixes

Work around missing model UV coordinates (#2034, #1952)
Fully initialise Body object in its constructor (#2048)
Fix crash when refueling (#2050)
Reduce terrain "grid" effect (#2053, #1631)
Fix crash in several mission screens when accessed during hyperspace (#2064, #2056)
Fix crash when missiles explode before activation (#2067, #2066)
Fix duplicated model animation groups (#2063, #2024)

Model changes

Converted Natrix ship to SGModel (#2033, #2095)
Upscaled DSMiner model (#2096)
New missile model (#2036)
New cargo model (#2101)
Downscaled building models (#2052)
Add test_gun model (#2060)
Converted tombstone to SGModel (#2083)
Basic support for station door animations (#2046)
Support for navigation lights (#2080)
Support for per-instance skinning (#2088)
Modelviewer: Scale/landingpad test model (press 'p') (#2034, #1981)
Modelviewer: More/better log output (#2034, #1876)
Modelviewer: Enable mods (#2032)

Script changes

UI: MultiLineText objects now have SetText and AppendText methods (#2045)
ShipTypes is deprecated, and EquipTypes has been removed; use the new ShipDef and EquipDef tables (#2026)
Player.SetHyperspaceTarget and GetHyperspaceTarget methods (#2028, #2027)
Model: Ship.GetSkin & SetSkin and skin manipulation methods (#2080)

Internal changes

Removed Text::VectorFont (#2041)
Removed Renderer: DrawPoints2D (#2041)
LuaObject wrapper cleanup (#2026, #2049, #2073, #2075)
Fix SGModel NodeVisitor not applying correctly to all node types (#2076, #2074)
Remove ShipFlavour structure (#2069, #2135, #2113)"

:salute:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans
Back again with news of the new monthly build for Pioneer, Alpha 33.
Have a look at the change list below from Pioneer dev Robn. Have fun exploring out there! :salute:

"The Pioneer development team are pleased to announce the release of Pioneer Alpha 33. This release sees some new eye-candy: eclipses and missile smoke trails. For modders, this release brings a simpler way to define space station docking sequences, supporting stations with over 200 docking ports. Full changelog and builds for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (32 & 64-bit) are available from the homepage (http://pioneerspacesim.net/)

New features

Czech language support (#2136)
Planets now cast shadows (ie, eclipses) on other planets (#1353)
Missiles now have smoke trails (#2154)
Station waypoints are now defined in the mesh themselves and dealt with in C++, and their docking bays can be grouped together (#2058, #2175)
The System View (F3, F6) now shows the player's current orbit (#2084, #2168, #2169, #146, #985)
The Sector View (F2) now has options to hide vertical lines and out-of-range system labels

Minor changes and tweaks

Clean up the Taxi, DeliverPackage and Assassination mission views (#2142, #2151)
Tweak Polish translation (#2167)
Gas giants now have a thin layer of atmosphere (#1788, #1395)

Fixes

Fix hoop station unreliable docking detection (#2153, #2125)
Fix ground and "big_crappy" station docking detection (#2197)
Fix redscreen from TradeShips module when entering a system with only surface ports (#2172, #2171)
Fix object viewer crash (#2187)
Fix Lua console to allow continuation of incomplete commands (#2198)

Internal changes

Converted some remaining GL code to use the renderer interface (#2184)"

The windows build will also shortly be available from ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) once I finish uploading it. :)

[Miggy4000]

Hi sub sim fans.
Back again with more info for you.
First up is Pioneer news. Up to now Pioneer has had constant monthly Alpha builds, but that is now no longer going to happen. Instead much smaller updates will be released instead. This is to save folks constantly re-downloading the full game over and over again.
Anyways here is the official announcement from Pioneer dev Robn

"As you know, for a couple of years now Pioneer has had an alpha release on the second Friday of every month without fail. The dev team has always considered this to be an immovable deadline, and it has been useful in giving us something to aim for. To try and help make sure the alpha releases are sort-of stable, we've also had a "freeze" period a week before the release, to allow testing and last-minute fixes to happen, ensuring a stable release.

Lately its become clear that that model isn't giving the best results. Very few people actually do freeze testing, so we don't usually find any problems, yet real actual bugs are often missed, leading to the situation we've had a couple of times recently where the alpha has a nasty bug. Its usually fixed hours later, but that fix doesn't make a release until the next alpha a month later. Meanwhile, new development continues to happen on the master branch during the freeze week so that by the time the alpha is released it's already obsolete.

All of this means the alpha releases are becoming more of a burden than a useful part of the process, so we've made the decision to drop it. Obviously though we need to get something out into the hands of players and testers, so we're intending to promote the nightly builds to "official" status as follows. Twice a day a complete build for Windows and Linux will be run and uploaded (though obviously not if no changes have been made). Version numbers will be changed to YYMM.BB, where BB is the "build number" for that month. So a build for today might be 1305.2. The latest build will always be linked from pioneerspacesim.net (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download), and the last week's worth of builds will be archived, just in case.

To keep the changes visible, we'll be making a "what's new in Pioneer" post to the SSC (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/23-pioneer/), the G+ page and a few other places at the start of each month with the changelog for the previous month. Of course, the current changelog will always be available from the homepage and in the release archives proper.

This should mean that if you encounter a bug, the fix is available to you in an official, supported build as soon as possible. Of course, there's also challenges involved with this. It will mean that we need to be more careful about ensuring that broken code doesn't make it to the master branch, and we can't be as blasé about breaking savefile compatibility as we have been in the past. That's good though; it puts pressure on us to work towards things that we've been wanting to do for a while now, like a new save system that better supports upgrading old savefiles and stabilising the procedural generation so that minor code changes don't break the entire galaxy.

Right now OS X builds won't have the same twice-daily build schedule, as they're currently compiled semi-automatically by Philbywhizz when he has time. We're working on getting these happening as soon as we can, which might mean changes to this process, not sure yet. We'll let you know the outcome of that. The homepage will list the most recent build available for OS X.

We're aware that asking people to regularly download a 150-200MB archive is a bit of a stretch, so we're also looking at ways to reduce the amount of stuff you need to grab to get a new build. That might be splitting the game data from the binaries, it might be a patch system, it might be something else. Again, we'll let you know.

This change is effective immediately (as soon as I've made the necessary changes to the build system to support it). So there won't be an alpha 34. The first builds under this scheme should be available in the next few days."

I will also update Pioneer's ModDB page (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) as these updates are released.

Secondly Dominion news. This has just launched on Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maksw/dominion-fight-for-your-future-amongst-the-stars) and is looking for backers. Its from a small indie outfit called Mak Software Studios. Its a single player sandbox game, DRM free and will have a star map consisting of 200,000 stars, over 1,000,000 planets, at least 1,200 unique species and civilisations . In terms of roles, its very much like Elite: trader, miner, pirate, explorer or flying for the navy. Interestingly, (well at least for me) the game will feature both Newtonian and non-Newtonian ships in the game, flight model dependant on the ship you choose from.

Stretch goals include Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and mod tools.

[Miggy4000]

Thought I would drop this in here as it is a bit like a space sim, but a sub sim too! Apologies if it has been mentioned else where. GOG have recently released Microprose's old school Subwar 2050. (http://www.gog.com/gamecard/subwar_2050_complete) I loved this game back on the Amiga and played it for hours. The release also includes "The Plot Deepens" expansion pack and its presently selling for $5.99.

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim Fans! :salute:
Due to a slight mix up on my part :lost: (sorry folks) about the new switch over from monthly alphas to ongoing builds, I am a little late this month with my upload. Apologies about that. Anyways here is the latest (Windows) build as of May and below, the change logs for both April & May. ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) is being updated as I type this and the new build should be available shortly there. As always, Linux and MAC OSX builds are also available via http://pioneerspacesim.net/download

Have fun out there! :yeah:

May 2013

* New features
* Multithreaded Job based Terrain Patch generation (#2163, #2268, #2262)

* Minor changes and tweaks
* Model level-of-detail now takes field of view into account (#2257, #2077)
* Improvements to translatability of joystick axis descriptions.
(#2272, #2280, #2281)
* New ships are always fully fueled (#2283, #2162)

* Fixes
* Crew can no longer be hired with a negative salary (#2254)
* Fix landing gear sound repeating when autopilot lowers the undercarriage (#2269)
* Fix landing gear button toggling briefly when lowering gear (#2269)

* Internal changes
* Enum mapping tables now have a visibility specifier (#2276)
* Removal of the unused BezierCurve and RefList classes (#2274)
* The game constants live now all in src/gameconsts.h (#2274)
* Silence some debug printouts for the faction code. (#2274)
* Object property system now uses LuaTable. (#2275)

April 2013

* New features
* New combat music track (#2209)
* Mission list can now be sorted by clicking the column headers (#2183, #2128)
* Mission list now shows distance to system and days remaining (#2234, #2244)

* Minor changes and tweaks
* Commodity Market buy/sell buttons now speed up when held down (#2188, #1734)
* Clamp ambient lighting to avoid pitch black (#2241)

* Model changes
* Station definition 'num_docking_ports' is no longer used; it is computed
from the bay definitions (#2219)
* Station model docking nodes are checked against the station definition
(#2219)
* New 6-bay ground station model (#2227)

* Script and UI API changes
* New method 'SetColor' on Label widgets (#2234)
* Player:GetHyperspaceTarget() now returns path of destination system when
in hyperspace (#2244)

* Fixes
* Fix lua system export (#2229)
* Fix Lua console so that it lets you continue incomplete commands (#2198)
* Fix logical error in crew skill boosting code (#2253)
* Fix assertion when attempting to dock whilst you're also trying to leave (#2239)

* Internal changes
* SpaceStationTypes now loads data using the LuaTable wrapper (#2170)
* ShipType now loads data using the LuaTable wrapper (#2215)
* Reduced allocations and improved data locality in the eclipse code (#2200)
* New dynamic object property system (#2161, #2226, #2225, #2223, #2221)
* Support linking against the LDB Lua debugging library (#2147)
* Stars with flattening due to fast rotation, i.e; ellipsoids (#2178 )
* Update bundled Lua to version 5.2.2 (#2230)
* Model loader: improve instancing (#2228 )

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim fans

Firstly, apologies for taking so long to get around to updating this thread. :o

Anyways, recently uploaded Pioneer another build to ModDB and there has been a ton of changes since my last post here, with new ships, new UI and an whole host of little changes under the hood of the game.

You can grab it here (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer).

And here is the change log for this month.

For January 2014. Full changelog (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt).

New features

New ships "Malabar" and "Vatakara" (#2599 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2599))
Show hull heating effect in atmosphere (#2550 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2550))
Shield meshes with hit effects (#2491 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2491))
Show trails behind ships (#2529 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2529))
Skybox support (#2570 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2570))
Initial cockpit support (experimental) (#2603 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2603), #2614 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2614), #2679 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2679))


Minor changes and tweaks

Ship stat balancing (#2620 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2620), #2673 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2673))
Atmospheres in gas giants are much deeper (#2609 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2609), #1395 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/1395))
New "free software" charity on the bulletin board (#2611 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2611))
Change start ships and initial equipment (#2696 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2696))
Add delta-v data to ship market (#2616 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2616))
Earth start position now starts at 13:00 (Pioneer time) (#2615 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2615))
Misc. tweaks for the intro animation (#2649 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2649))
Improve the sector view map, giving more navigation info (#2640 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2640))
Improve cargo and cabin use gauges, easier to understand (#2657 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2657), #2648 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2648))
Key bindings of sector view are now configurable (#2542 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2542))
Advert type icons in the bulletin board (#2668 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2668))
Remove unnecessary colon from ship empty weight description (#2682 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2682))
Show min/max crew in shipmarket (#2681 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2681))
Show labels on stations and cargo models (#2680 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2680))
Show decals on models (#2680 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2680))
Improve error reporting (#2694 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2694))
Xylophis textures updated (#2700 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2700))
Don't allow cargo to be jettisoned wile docked (#2699 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2699))


Script and UI API changes

Game.StartGame now takes an optional start_time argument (#2615 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2615))
New method, Random:Normal gives a random number with normal distribution (#2651 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2651))
New method, SpaceStation:SetEquipmentPrice to override equip/cargo price at station (#2654 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2654))
New method, ChatForm:ClearFace removes face without clearing whole form (#2663 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2663))


Model changes

Modelviewer: Show bounding box when showing collision mesh (#2664 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2664))
"Landing" tag-point to define where the bottom of the ship is for the landing collision test (#2695 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2695), #2656 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2656))


Fixes

Fix label positioning in orbit and galaxy views (#2608 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2608), #2576 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2576))
Various fixes for keybinding modifiers and repeats (#2524 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2524), #2523 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2523), #2618 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2618), #2630 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2630))
Fix Taxi "group of one" mission (#2623 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2623), #2628 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2628))
Fix Taxi and Delivery assassins never spawning (#2622 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2622), #2624 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2624))
Reset table scroll position when it goes off screen (#2629 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2629))
Clean up station state correctly between games (#2631 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2631))
Fix TradeShips crash when trying to launch after failing to add fuel or cargo (#2634 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2634))
Fix ship pattern selection (#2645 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2645))
Fix shipyard adding ships faster than it sells them (#2653 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2653), #2650 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2650))
Fix that fuel was not displayed as percentage after load (#2659 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2659), #2660 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2660))
Clear chat form face when showing crew candidate list (#2663 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2663), #2647 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2647))
Calculate a sane mousewheel scroll step for scrollable regions


Internal changes

Render screen to texture in preparation for post-processing effects (#2525 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2525))
Various code cleanups (#2621 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2621))
Serializer Reader class can now load data from any file source (#2646 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2646))
Expose models to Lua, move pattern methods from ModelSkin to Model (2645)
Add initial model binary converter/loader (#2643 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2643))
Replace GatherTransforms with a visitor (#2686 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2686))
RefCounted(Ptr) with atomic counter and allowing const correctness (#2688 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2688))





Also there is the Scout Mod for Pioneer, now in it's 14th iteration this mod adds colourful sky boxes, more missions, more ships (Elite ships are back!) and loads of other tweaks to the game. That can be found here (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3229-new-game-mod-pioneer-scout/?p=46407).

Finally in other news, Frontier Developments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDWnBJYTFgs) has recently released their Elite Dangerous multiplayer Alpha. Lots of player videos around, like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FUmkU1REho).

[Miggy4000]

Hi Subsim fans!
Back again with another Pioneer update for you. Lots of improvements & tweaks for this month, so do check it out.
The download for the Windows version is now live on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) and the Linux version is available on Pioneer's own site (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download).

However, there is an issue with the Mac OSX version this month and the devs are appealing for help. Check out the bottom of this post for further details.

Here is the extensive change log for this month.

Changelog For February 2014.

New features

New "Octagon" ground station
Now any star in a multiple system can be the hyperjump target
Rewrote console on the new UI
Characters have reputation, which is required by missions
New (rare) "News" event for commodities on the BBS
Minor changes and tweaks
Added landing tag points to all ships
Draw sectorview stars with sphere imposters
New UI now available as an overlay in all views
Quicksave can now be loaded directly from main menu
Paste support for text entry widgets (ie console)
Improve skybox, restore star rendering
New wheels up/down icon
The `console.lua` script is now run at each game start
Config values can be overidden on the command line
Use tables instead of grids for layout
Donating money or not paying wages affects reputation
Script and UI API changes
Model.SetDebugFlags for adding debug effects to model drawing
ModelSpinner.model to get the spinner model
UI.Image: SetHeightLines to help set image height against text
hasprop method to see if the named property exists (#2734)
Ship:InitiateHyperjumpTo to jump regardless of range or fuel
UI.Table.SetColumnAlignment, various ways to position table columns (#2778)
UI.Table.ScrollToTop and ScrollToBottom, basic scroll control
Empty grid cells now expand to the available size to assist with layout
Model changes
Removed two_sided material property, it didn't handle lighting correctly
Fixes
Complain about custom systems with wrong number of stars
Fixing thruster tags
Fix run-away terrain threads when ending the game
Fix Lua error from TradeShips when colliding and hyperjumping
Reset mouse grab state on game exit
Fix a potent bug when destroying copies of invalid LuaRefs
Fix English in Taxi missions
Fix various glitches and an assertion in system info view
Fix that rotation state of bodies was not saved/loaded properly
Fix pattern for Xylophis
Render to texture Skybox alpha fix
Remove Lua timers at game exit
Properly set terrain detail settings
Always relayout tables and single containers after content change
Internal changes
Moved model debug effects (wireframe, collision mesh) out of ModelViewer and onto Model, and exposed via SetDebugFlags
Handle blend/depth/cull render states as stateset objects
Removed redundant shader cleanup
Split camera state into a separate class
Sector and star system cache improvements
Generation of explored flag moved from StarSystem to Sector
New Vertex buffer class
Code cleanup in StarSystem and SystemBody
Removed Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 support
IterationProxy for save access to embedded containers
Automatically manage the cancellation of jobs with RAII
Added a Profile Config to VS2013

Also two more things. Calling MAC owners! OSX builds are down for this month on Pioneer's own site. Can you help? The devs are looking for someone who can provide MAC builds of Pioneer, here is what Robn, one of Pioneer's devs had to say,

"They can come back if and when someone can produce a working set of steps to build and bundle the game from scratch - something that I can turn into a build script. If anyone reading this feels up to the challenge it would be a huge help."

If you can help, have a look here: Pioneerspacesim.net (http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=146And).

Finally, a new edition of Pioneer Scout is out (G15), do check that out also at Spacesimcentral.com (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3229-new-game-mod-pioneer-scout/page-17#entry46901).

Have fun and thanks for reading Commanders! :salute:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim fans!
Another monthly Pioneer update for you. This one covers all the work done upto the end of March. Download is now available on Mod DB. (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer)

Here is the change list for this month:



New features

Support for CJK fonts and Simplified Chinese translation
Replace WATER with HYDROGEN as the thruster fuel of choice.


Minor changes and tweaks

Message boxes used for warnings in station screens
Textual galaxy dump (#2811 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2811))
Money format with language specific thousand separator and decimal delimiter (#2810 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2810))
Add button to sector view to toggle auto selection mode
Move sector view search results to a text area under the search box


Fixes

Fix volume control layout (#2798 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2798))
Support horizontally-expanding widgets in table rows
Fix compilation with gcc 4.7 (#2799 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2799))
Fix crash with gcc 4.7 compiled binary (#2802 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2802))
Fix crash when attacked during deliver package mission (#2806 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2806))
Try to fix spiky asteroids (#2809 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2809))
Billboards not drawn correctly for some distant objects (#2791 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2791), #2824 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2824))
Division by zero when using unguided missiles (#2421 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2421), #2827 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2827))


Script and UI API changes

New `inherits` function in the `utils` module to quickly implement class hierarchies in Lua (#2767 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2767))
MessageBox.Message and MessageBox.OK for modal alerts
Renamed TabGroup to TabView, better explains its purpose


Internal changes

Update terrain to use the new VertexBuffer (#2795 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2795))
On-demand glyph caching (#2796 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2796), #2804 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2804))
Select fonts by Unicode range (#2808 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2808))
Gas Giant rewrite (#2803 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2803))
Support C++11 enum features in scan_enums.py (#2782 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2782))
Mouse and keyboard events now only distributed to the top UI layer
Code cleanup (#2818 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2818))
Fix glitch in Job code (#2823 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2823))

Linux 32 and 64 bit versions are also available via Pioneer's own site: Pioneerspacesim.net (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download)

Have fun Commanders! :salute:

[Miggy4000]

Hello Sub Sim fans!
Back again with another Pioneer monthly update for you. Lots of tweaks, fixes and new features for this month by Pioneer's ever busy volunteer devs, great work guys!

Anyways, here is the change log for this months build, which should be appearing shortly on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) or if you cant wait or want the Linux 32 or 64 bit versions instead, then head over to Pioneer's own site here (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download). Have fun folks! :salute:

For April 2014. Full changelog (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt).


New features

UI animations (#2830 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2830))
Explosions (#2831 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2831))
Support Fake Baked Ambient Occlusion texture (#2872 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2872))
New Wave Skins (#2822 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2822))
Soft mouse (#2883 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2883))
Autosave when docking/undocking/landing/takeoff and on game exit (#2814 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2814))


Minor changes and tweaks

Add a Return to Game button in the pause/options screen (#2841 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2841))
Disable the Save button when in hyperspace.
More specific warning message in ship market if trying to buy equipment that the current ship model doesn't support
More stat on ship in ship market and ship info view (#1733 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/1733),#2838 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2838))
The autopilot now faces toward its destination during the coasting phase (#2846 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2846))
A "Refuel full" button added next to the refuel button (#2855 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2855),#2853 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2853))
Balance - Exhaust velocity increase (#2835 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2835))
Slightly bigger chat forms (#2856 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2856))


Script and UI API changes

Animation object, UI.Context.Animate and AddAnimation methods (#2830 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2830))
Improve TradeShips.lua (#2851 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2851))
Ship.SetShipType doesn't equip the default hyperdrive anymore
ShipDef.defaultHyperdrive has been removed in favour of ShipDef.hyperdriveClass (#2859 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2859))
New attribute SpaceStation.numShipsDocked to get number of occupied ports
Body.FindNearestTo to find bodies near this body


Internal changes

Emit Lua events and timers in hyperspace
Output some system info for debugging purposes (#2832 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2832))
Add serialization support for LuaRef objects (#2849 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2849))
Add facilities to easily call arbitrary Lua methods from C++ (#2854 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2854), #2869 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2869))
Address some warnings from cppcheck and GCC (#2871 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2871))
Add possibility for synchronous jobs (#2879 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2879))
Assign factions to systems when first needing it (#2887 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2887))
Merge Sector and StarSystem caches in a common template class (#2880 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2880))


Fixes

Fix duplication of cargo during cargo scooping (#2644 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2644), #2828 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2828))
Fix extra crew lingering after sale of ship (#2122 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2122), #2837 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2837))
Fix taking off with wrong number of crew (#2837 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2837))
Fix taking off with unpaid fines (#2359 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2359))
Fix zero duration and fuel display in sector view after load (#2847 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2847))
Fix water still sold in fuel club (#2852 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2852))
Fix duplicated HANG_UP button in crew bulletin boards (#2858 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2858))
Fix assertion in system info view when starport on planet with same name was selected (#2848 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2848))
Fix crash when Nerodia selected in shipyard (#2865 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2865), #2864 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2864))
Fix internal bug in multi-threading queue (#2874 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2874))
Fix crash due to ships spawning with default hyperdrive 0 (#2875 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2875),2877)

[Miggy4000]

Hi Folks
Updated Pioneer's ModDB page (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) again with the latest build for this month. It should be available for download shortly. More incremental improvements for May by the wonderful and ever busy Pioneer dev team. :up: Please check the changelog below and, as ever, Linux 32 and 64 bit (as well as Windows) builds are also available here (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download) from Pioneer's own site. Have fun folks! :yeah:

For May 2014. Full changelog.

Minor changes and tweaks
In ship repair, since printing reported hull damage with precision "%.1f", cap it at 99.9% instead of 100%
Fix Wave texture problems & missing ModelViewer pointer
Hoop station door collision

Script and UI API changes
Added onShipFiring

Internal changes
Update the 3rd party libraries to ones built with vs2013
Encapsulate custom systems, factions, caches in a Galaxy class
Fix ill-formed API documentation for Engine
No GLU dependency

Fixes
Fix cockpit glass opacity

And here is a little screen shot for you showing Roberson World in the Phigreho system. :rock:

http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/RobertsonworldByDraQ_zpsdd7d5492.jpg

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Sim fans!
Back again with another (belated) monthly update for you.
A bit late this month with the Pioneer update, apologies for that. :doh: This was due to issues with the code that caused stability issues in the main build. I am glad to say most have now been rectified by the ever busy Pioneer Dev team. :rock:

Also other news, Mac OSX builds are coming back! Check out this thread over on the SSC for more details (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3686-osx-builds-are-back/). These builds should be available soon from Pioneer's own site here (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download).

Anyways the windows build on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) should be live very soon or if you cant wait head over to the Pioneer site and grab it there.

Here is the extensive change log for this month, fly safe out there folks! :salute:

Changelog

For July 2014. Full changelog (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt).


New features

New ship AC33 (Military version of venturestar), and updated meshes for other ALBR ships, Deneb and Venturestar, and updated textures (#3008 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3008))
Attitude-hold flight modes, accessed from the in-flight F4 menu (#3014 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3014))


Minor changes and tweaks

Include the Lua stack top in the debug overlay.
Don't list lasers under "Equipment" in InfoView, since already listed under forward/read mounts (#3010 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3010))


Fixes

Fix potential Lua stack overflows when calling Lua methods (#3003 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3003))
Fix Lua stack leaks when triggering Lua UI templates from C++ (#3004 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3004), #2996 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2996), #2997 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2997), #2999 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2999), #3000 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3000), #3001 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3001))
Fix crash on game start on Mac OS X builds (#2995 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2995), #2993 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2993))
Fix hyperrange bug (#3007 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3007), #3017 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3017))
Fix invalid orbital plane for lone orbital stations (#3022 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3022), #3018 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3018), #3026 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3026))
Fix use of fuel when hyperjumping (#3024 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3024), #3019 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3019), #3028 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3028))
Fix directory enumeration on POSIX systems when built with a PIONEER_DATA_DIR value that contains a trailing slash (#3031 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3031), #2545 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/2545))
Fix hyperspace details shown in the Sector View (#3037 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3037), #3033 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3033))
Fix crash when the player collides with floating cargo (#3043 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3043), #3041 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3041))
Fix incorrect usedCargo values (#3036 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3036), #3035 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3035), #3020 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3020), #3044 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3044))
Fix incorrect cargo/free space values on game load (#3052 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3052), #3049 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3049))
Fix empty cargo lists (#3044 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3044), #3039 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3039), #3040 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3040))
Fix crash and skipped updates when firing missiles (#3044 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3044), #3038 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3038))
Fix internal tank refuelling from cargo (#3044 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3044), #3046 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3046))
Fix cargo scooping so it only works if you have the equipment (#3053 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3053), #3045 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3045))
Fix equipment remaining available after buying a new ship (#3052 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3052), #3027 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3027))
Fix missing ship total mass limit when adding equipment/cargo (#3052 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3052))
Fix Lua error in some circumstances when using Ship:SetEquip (#3052 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3052))



Also two off shoots of Pioneer called Genesia & Pioneer Scout Plus have both seen updates too this month. Both of these contain elements from the original Frontier Elite II game as well as features and code changes over and above those seen in the standard Pioneer build.

If your interested in these, drop by these threads over on the SSC:

Genesia (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/4304-total-mod-genesia/#entry49122)

Pioneer Scout Plus (http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3229-new-game-mod-pioneer-scout/page-21#entry49096)


:yeah:

[Miggy4000]

Hi Sub Simmers! Can I coax you warriors of the deep to take a little jaunt into space? :hmm2:

Here is another another progress build for you all to try out, the "August" build of Pioneer. For this month there is more changes to the cockpit amongst other things. Have a look at the change log below for the details. As usual, its now up on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) or ,if you prefer to try out the Linux build, head over to Pioneer's own site here (http://pioneerspacesim.net/download). Have fun!

For August 2014. Full changelog.

New features
Bring Luomu's game msg log over from the SSP fork
Display ships in system view
Display ship heading and pitch
Advanced radar mapper works in system orbital view
Draw periapsis/apoapsis as icons on system view orbits
Improved Joystick Binding

Minor changes and tweaks
Consistent set nav target on click in SystemView
Write opengl.txt earlier to help debugging
Bigger font for msg log

Script and UI API changes
Ship:UseECM() returns recharge time and success state.
Update COMPILING.txt, and add Doxygen support

Fixes
Fix trade ship without atmoshield causing crash in system with only stations on worlds with atmosphere
Fix crash when clicking a view change button (F1-F4) while a new-ui message box is being displayed
Zoom out button before zoom in in system,sector,galactic view
Fix an Exit Game widget crash.
Fix bad faction colour only being applied to uninhabited
Destroy Hyperspace clouds after 2 days of ingame time
Fix system view ship crash
Fix refreshing assertion in SystemInfoView
Fix unnecessary limit on ship base price
Fix crash from TradeShips trying to serialize dead ships
Fix Fuel club discount not being applied

Fly (and sail) safe commanders! :salute:

[Miggy4000]

I think it's high time for a Pioneer update! :ping: The "January" build has just been uploaded to ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) and Pioneer's own site too (http://pioneerspacesim.net/#&panel1-2). Mac OSX & Linux versions also available. Highlights for this month include more code tweaks and....new stations. Here have a peek.

http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/screenshot-20141230-234137_zps7764d6f8.png

http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/screenshot-20141229-200439_zps5d414306.png

http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/Gervfr/screenshot-20141229-123729_zps66542800.png

Also, here is the changelog for this month. Lots of good work by the dev team, do please try it out. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/images/smilies/vbsmileys/smile.png

Changelog

For January 2015. Full changelog (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt).



New Features

Many point stars on starless galaxy (#3321 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3321))


Fixes

Fix 3310 (#3312 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3312))
Fix 3313 (#3316 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3316))
Fix Ship: onShipEquipmentChanged (#3326 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3326))
Ship launch thrust timer fix (#3330 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3330))
Fix the UI strange rendering (#3332 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3332))
Update the ToolTip text layout (#3334 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3334))
Prevent issue #3340 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3340) assert (#3341 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3341))


Internal Chnages

Remove DrawPoints & DrawLines methods (#3303 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3303))
Dummy renderer for headless tools (#3306 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3306))
Fix scanner drawing post-load (#3309 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3309))
Faster text buffer rendering (#3304 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3304))
Ignore any sgm files in the repository (#3315 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3315))
Faster deduplication of collision data (#3319 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3319))
Stop vs2013 using the whole program optimisation (#3333 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3333))
Equipment strings moved to new translation module (#3295 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3295))
modelcompiler no GL, no SDL, build support for compiled models (#3339 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3339))


Optimisation

Animation interpolation optimisation (#3327 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3327))
Ship nearby optimise (#3328 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3328))



Fly (and sail) safe out there Commanders! :salute:

[Miggy4000]

Ahoy there Sub Simmers! :salute:
Back again with another monthly update for you. It should be live on ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer) shortly. Do please give it a go.
And here is the change list below for this month, good work by its every busy dev team. :up:

For March 2015. Full changelog.

Fixes

Fix modelcompiler
Attempt to avoid calling methods on a nil object
Fix missing specular highlights
Fix compilation of planetrings shader

New Features

Mouselook for internal camera
Migrating the save-game serialisation from a binary flat file to JSON

Internal Changes

Fix VS2013 profiling configuration
Rendering statistics
Instanced model rendering for cities
Update the sgm file version

[Miggy4000]

Hi there Subsim fans! :salute:
Another update for you, the "August" build. The dev team have once again outdone themselves in adding ever more content and the usual bug smashing. So have a look at the changlog below.

For August 2015. Full changelog (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/blob/master/Changelog.txt).



New Features

Orbital planner got some new features (#3426 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3426))


Fixes

Fix NAN for planned orbit (#3437 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3437))
Fix math typo (#3440 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3440))


Internal Changes

Changed/removed some non-portable C++11 usage (#3444 (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/3444))








Also a special appeal on behalf of the dev team: Pioneer needs someone out there to assist in the creation of a build for the Mac using the latest source code. Can you help? If so please contact the dev team via GitHub (https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer).



Finally here is a screenshot for a rare planet in the game with 3 moons in a tri-star system. Note you can see the shadow on one of it's moons displayed on the surface.


http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/14/13796/Aymi_ABc_Orbit_By_Arrakkh.png

Have fun out there folks! :up:

[Miggy4000]

And I just remembered about an Elite clone but made for Android devices. It's called Alite and is itself based on that other famous Elite clone Oolite. Its free and is available either on its own site here (http://alite.mobi/) or on the Google Play store here (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.phbouillon.android.games.alite). It's been recently updated too (1.1). It was a 400 meg download the last time I tried it so that could give you an idea of how much content it has.
And finally here is a screenshot to give you an idea what it looks like.
http://alite.mobi/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/coriolis_1.png?itok=x59MzIqt

Fly and sail safe out there Commanders! :salute: