Hey everyone, just letting you know that we've just pushed the hotfix for the Linux issue mentioned in the release announcement. This also includes a small patch for the Mac version to address an issue with Surge.

If you're running the Windows version of the game you don't need to worry about the changelog listed below.

• [Linux] Your chosen screen resolution is no longer handled by Unity and is instead managed by the game, this fixes the games resolution needing to be reset on every startup after the first one.
  
• [Linux] Fixed the retro/modern visuals prompt always being presented on every startup
  
• [Mac, Linux] Fixed the track meshes on Surge using the wrong shader

Thank you for your patience, enjoy the game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn-tQSCXamQ
BallisticNG has left Early Access and 1.0 is now released! It's been a crazy few years and we're finally at the point where BallisticNG can be considered finished. With that said though, this doesn't mean the end of development and there's still plenty to come in the future so be sure to stay tuned for new content to come.

Leaderboards have been reset for the release, this is the last leaderboard reset that we will be doing.

We hope you enjoy the new release, there's a lot of new content for you to dive into and with the updated multiplayer you can now have a lot more fun with friends!

We're now going to take a short break and will be back after the holidays to setup modding tools documentation and a demo.

A bug in Unity is currently forcing the game to run at a resolution of 0x0 when fullscreened, we have a potential full workaround but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to get it implemented for release. For the time being Steam has been setup to run a bash script which forces the game to run in a window with your primary monitor’s resolution, we’re looking to get a hotfix out for the issue ASAP.

If you’d prefer to stay on 0.9.4 in the meantime a legacy branch has been setup. You can jump onto it by right clicking the game in your Steam library, navigating to Properties -> Betas and selecting the legacy branch from the dropdown. This will be taken down when the issues are resolved.

Here is the massive 1.0 changelog. Not every single change and fix has been marked below because it would be even larger than it already is!

Gamemodes

• Removed Target
  
• The layout creator (both versions) now use its own gamemode with infinite afterburner, turbos every lap and a timer so you can get a feel for how long your track is
  
• Survivals pause menu now ends the session instead of instantly quitting
  
• You now begin with a start boost in Survival
  
• Being eliminated on the last race of a tournament now displays the results as normal instead of disqualifying you
  
• Added respawn enabled option for Race
  
• Weapon warnings no longer play in Eliminator
  
• Respawning in Eliminator now makes you invincible for 3 seconds
  
• Respawning in Survival now drains 5% of your shield energy
  
• Perfect Zone is no longer called out in Survival
  
• All ships now have weapons in Eliminator
  
• The ships grip no longer increases as you progress in Survival

User Interface

• Added a screen to manage C# mods
  
• Added quick page navigation to the custom race menu
  
• Added a weapons toggle option to the tournament options screen
  
• Added a first startup graphics configuration screen
  
• Added a soundpacks testing menu, you can use this to play the built in and custom soundpack sounds back to back for testing
  
• Removed the redundant XP counters from all result screens
  
• Fixed play tab contents not closing when first navigating the menu
  
• Fixed medals not rendering on the survival result screens
  
• Fixed options disappearing on the in-game options menu if you cancel out before the animation finishes playing
  
• Ship stats are now out of 10 and have been re-balanced
  
• Removed the v character from the version string shown on the menu
  
• Gamemodes not playable in splitscreen no longer show up in the custom race menus gamemode list
  
• Countdown displays now show the correct gamemode name
  
• The ship turntable now correctly accepts player 2's inputs
  
• The tournament results screen now shows you the next track in the tournament
  
• The shield bar now flashes green as shield energy is replenished
  
• Result screens in splitscreen now use their own interfaces
  
• Result screens now use a select track option instead of next track, this allows you to select whatever track you want from the track turntable

Audio

• Added custom music playlists. Sub-directories of Custom Music define the playlists and you can then select either the specific folder you want to play music from or keep the 0.9 behaviour and have the game play music from all
  
• Added sequential music playback (enabled by default)
  
• Added a third mix option to the custom music setting, when enabled the game will mix the built in and custom songs
  
• Fixed weapon warnings playing once the player has finished
  
• All voices have been re-recoded by WipeoutZone's HellfireWZ (system voices) and BNGL maintainer Radracer (warning voices). The old voices have been moved into an updated default soundpack!
  
• Weapon warnings now operate on 2 second cooldown
  
• Removed old track intercom voices on a select few tracks that still had them present
  
• Custom menu music can now be added
  
• Custom explosion sounds now apply to mines
  
• Player ships now use 3D audio during the new animated track overview sequences
  
• Reduced the number of sounds that AI ships play and increased the maximum audio voice count to 64
  
• Rain can now only be heared when close to the track floor
  
• Hitting the floor on a magnetic track section no longer plays a collision sound
  
• Ship-ship collisions now use their own sounds (see the new soundpack testing menu for file names)
  
• Added variations of the wall hit sound
  
• The drag ships now have a new engine sound

Ships

• Added stealth liveries, these are unlocked alongside the clean liveries
  
• Added navigation lights
  
• Fixed airbrake scrape hooking
  
• Fixed releasing the airbrake snapping you back to full speed
  
• Fixed an issue with how analogue inputs are managed, before this fix it was possible to quickly move the left analogue stick to stop steering instantly
  
• A ships nose is now pushed up if it's scraping against the track floor below 54 degrees, when the nose is pushed up it also induces slowdown
  
• Increased Scorpios turn gain from 0.98 to 1.1
  
• M-TechP1's steering is no longer total trash
  
• Perfecting all precision runs now unlocks the precision delta for use in custom races. To go with this it now has alternative liveries and its own cockpit
  
• Ships now deal different amounts of damage
  
• Ships now use box colliders to handle collisions between each other
  
• General ship-ship bumping has been replaced with scraping and a speed transfer when you bump into the back of other ships
  
• Plasma impacts now trigger the ships engine to catch fire
  
• Improved handling in 2280 and re-added the invisible wall simulation that 2159 uses

Engine

• Added an intro cinematic
  
• Added -nomods launch switch, useful for launching a multiplayer session without having to manually disable mods and restarting first
  
• Added a legacy reverse camera option, restored from 0.7 with some tweaks to accommodate custom ships
  
• Added an anti-skip system to prevent you from cutting more then a second of the track (disabled by default in existing custom tracks)
  
• Added a new achievement and stats backend, this is entirely local and new achievements/stats can be added through C# mods
  
• Added an attract mode (like older builds). Leave the game on the root of the menu for 30 seconds
  
• Fixed the track introduction option not doing anything
  
• Fixed ships with post-import scaling having blown up shield meshes
  
• Removed the fake 240p option
  
• 3D track pads now apply in 2159 physics. If a track doesn't have pad tiles but has 3d pads the game will now enable the 3d pads for the missing tille types regardless of physics mode.
  
• Projectile explosion particles now have their transform scale reset upon being attached to an object
  
• Speed Pads now also increase the engine thrust
  
• Added realtime player ship reflections
  
• Removed texture filtering option
  
• Weather is no longer interrupted by trigger colliders
  
• Revamped the collision effects, recharge particle effects and weapon effects
  
• Checkpoint time offset calculations can now take into account alternative routes
  
• Engine fires are now loaded ahead of time to save on loading hitches when they are triggered
  
• Ships no longer trigger events from track lasers when eliminated
  
• Ai engine flares are no longer double sided
  
• added uberplasma and horizontal typed cheats, type them on the menu to see what they do in-game

Tracks

• Added illumination lights to Nova Split to improved track visibility
  
• Added a track overview stage before the race begins, tracks that support this feature will show you select locations
  
• Added start grid droids, tracks that support this feature will have the rescue droids fly off from above the ships as the race starts
  
• Added clouds to tracks with rain
  
• Added Surge
  
• Fixed broken UVs on Hydrome Bed
  
• Removed the 2280 pitlane force fields
  
• Removed old track intercom voices on those that still had them present
  
• Remade Arrivon Peak from scratch
  
• Zephyr Ridge; added extrusions to the entrance/exits of each tunnel, replaced the first tunnels crowd stands with a exit looking out into terrain, fixed advertisement billboards z-fighting when retro vertices is enabled
  
• Omega Harbour; updated the aquarium to be real 3d space, the black floor and black building bottoms are now textured, added more builds on the final straight
  
• Aciknovae; updated several upper buildings to have unique designs, fixed uvs in the reactor
  
• Overhauled Utah Projects scenery
  
• All drag tracks now span an additional 10 laps
  
• Virtual environments now have neon windows, advertisement billboards replaced with music visualizers and fog

Pickups

• Fixed mines slowing down ships that are holding a shield which auto-deploys
  
• Fixed the shield being picked up when an autopilot is engaged and vice versa
  
• Removed the transfer beam, it has instead been replaced by the emergency pack
  
• Pickups now use a weighting table to determine pickup balances
  
• The emergency pack now works again and is dropped for all ships with critical shield energy, you can now only pickup one per lap
  
• Projectiles can now handle vertical/upside track sections and scenery floors
  
• The turbo now maxes out the ships acceleration
  
• The energy wall bolt now follows a generated spline along the track
  
• The plasma shot is now affected by gravity
  
• Nerfed plasma so it's no longer a one-shot kill weapon for balancing in multiplayer. It continues to deal large amounts of damage and depending on the ship you're using can still instant kill (Diavolt hitting a Tenrai for instance)
  
• Reduced plasma chargeup time from 1 second to half a second
  
• Plasma now slow ships down
  
• The hunter now uses an animation when it's attacking the ship in first place
  
• Reduced mine slowdown
  
• The distance that energy walls deploy and speed of tremors are now determined by the speed class
  
• Tremors and plasma can now destroy energy walls
  
• The hellstorm now uses reticles to provide visual feedback on what's being targeted
  
• Projectiles are now tinted to the track tile below them
  
• The autopilot shield is now a much fainter blue
  
• Ships no longer take damage from their own tremors

AI

• AI now pull away from other ships with a much lower force
  
• AI navigation has been rewritten, they are now much more capable of navigating tracks and are a lot less prone to scraping their noses
  
• Balanced AI stats. AI in the harder difficulties will now provide a lot more challenge. Their performance always remains the same through the entire race, you'll no longer find the AI giving up on the last lap
  
• Ai now only hold onto the cannon for 15 - 25 seconds and the tremor for 8-12 seconds
  
• AI no longer aim for pitlanes when they're disabled

Campaign

• Added custom campaigns support through the use of XML files
  
• Added practice mode. This puts you on an easy Cassandra race and provides a guide on the game's mechanics in the pause menu
  
• Fixed the Ballistic64 cheat not being disabled when playing a campaign event
  
• Fixed campaign progress being saved when in debug mode
  
• Removed the tutorial events, they have been replaced by the new practice mode
  
• Unlocking content now plays an animation
  
• All campaign events have been rebalanced

Multiplayer

• Added support for custom ships. Custom ships are resolved using their file names, so make sure everybody is using the same names for their ships! (shouldn't be an issue for workshop downloads)
  
• Added UPNP support. If the router supports and has UPNP enabled then the port you set in the host menu will be automatically forwarded for your play session
  
• Added new settings to the lobby settings
  
• Added a kick menu for the host, this can only be used in the lobby for people who are also currently in the lobby
  
• Added tournament support, you can select up to 12 tracks and play them back to back without needing to go back to the lobby
  
• Added an in-game player position list
  
• Fixed the code mods check factoring in disabled mods
  
• Fixed ships resetting to world origin when they have finished a race
  
• Fixed players sat in the lobby counting towards the wait timer when a player has finished the race
  
• Fixed an issue where a coroutine left running after the 30 second wait timer would leave the game in a state where it thought the race was over when starting the next track
  
• Your name can now be changed before joining. If running Steam this will default to your Steam username, otherwise it defaults to Player
  
• Errors preventing online functionality are now shown in an overlay
  
• Server hosts can now define what ship classes can be selected before hosting the lobby
  
• Server hosts can now define which port they want to host on
  
• A connecting overlay is now shown while the game waits for a host to respond, this will time out after 30 seconds
  
• When a client searches for a track sent by the server it will now check the supplied workshop ID before trying to match the scene name
  
• The ship/track turntable screens are now in-lobby overlays
  
• Client countdown delegates are now invoked when the server sends countdown triggers
  
• Networked ships no longer take damage on the client-side, this information is already passed to each client each server tick
  
• The shield activation state for ships are now sent to clients
  
• Reduced the size of nametags by 30% and moved the name above the diamond marker, the text is now also hidden when further away
  
• Optimized netcode so less data is sent per tick (roughly 6.4kbps for the host when running an 8 player lobby)
  
• Ship collisions are now disabled for 5 seconds once the race has begun
  
• Projectile are now synced more accurately
  
• Pausing now activates a slow autopilot

VR

• Added a cockpit visibility rating when selecting ships (non mod content only for the time being)
  
• Fixed the missile reticule not facing the player
  
• Fixed the camera on custom tracks not using a bloom prefab being offset
  
• A separate settings.ini file is now used for VR
  
• UI tooltips are now correctly curved when displayed
  
• Some options that can't be changed are now marked so in the options

Modding Tools

• Newly installed C# mods are no longer compiled and enabled by default, they must first be activated in the manage mods menu. On first launch with no mods activated a warning is now displayed
  
• Added Layout Creator 2.0, a new spline based and much more user friendly layout creator. The old one can still be accessed from the same option!

Unity Tools

• Custom tracks are now exported to a single .trk file that contains shaders for DX9, DX11 and OGL. Please use the updated track uploader tool when uploading tracks exported with the new multi-shader files.
  
• Added support for reflective tile maps, you can assign these in the textures tab with the other tile textures
  
• Updated the light sponge to use proper attenuation for their darkening. The old mode is still available, if you want to maintain the older behaviour in your tracksc then you'll want to manually disable this new option in the inspector per sponge
  
• Added a sphere handle that lets you set the radius of light sponges in the scene view
  
• Added Reverse TRM tools:
  BallisticNG -> Utilities -> Export Reversed Trm
  BallisticNG -> Utilities -> Reverse Trm Transfer Tool
  
• Added Track Atlas Exporter
  BallisticNG -> Utilities -> Export Track Diffuse/Illum Atlas
  
• Updated scene references options
  
  • Added AI Look Ahead, this controls how many sections the AI will look forward when navigating the track
    
  • Added hide checkpoint visuals, enabling this will disable the checkpoint meshes and effects so you can make your own
    
  • Skybox Material, drag a Unity Sky compatible material into this field to use Unity's sky instead of setting up your own sky mesh
    
  • Added Welcome To Intercom field, you can use an audioclip here and it will play when the track launches
    
  • Added a new event sections for countdown triggers, you can use these to build your own countdown visuals
    
  • Added disable anti-skip option, this will completely disable the anti-skip on your track
• Updated the Trm Editor
  
  • Gave the editor UI a facelift
    
  • Added a menu item to access it (BallisticNG -> Utilities -> Trm Editor)
    
  • Individual clicks when defining a track segment are now undoable
    
  • Lines are now drawn between placed vertex nodes
    
  • The output track mesh wireframe is no longer drawn, instead being replaced by a quad wireframe
    
  • Added a new drag mode where you can just drag your mouse across a mesh to draw out the section (this implies you're tracing over a BNG shaped track mesh)
    
  • Removed automatic tool (functionally useless)
    
  • Removed junction tools (functionally useless)
    
  • Heavily optimized the wireframe drawing
• Updated the Track Editor
  
  • Added section move mode
    
  • Updated the section dimension discovery code to the game's version. This is only visual, the game re-calculates these when the track is launched
    
  • Optimized the atlas painter, you should experience less hiccups while painting
    
  • Most edits are now undoable
    
  • You can now control magnetic track sections on a per-tile basis
    
  • Magnetic track tiles are now drawn with a purple tint
• Added new assets
  
  • Replaced the old Arrivon XI based example scene, the startup wizard now also offers you to open the new example scene first
    
  • Added new tiles
    
    • Final Luna
      
    • Arrivon Peak
      
    • Omega Harbour
      
    • Atlantica
      
    • Unused Start Grids
      
    • Maglock
      
    • Virtual (layout creator)
      
    • Laser Panels
      
    • Black Illum (use for any tile not using illum textures if there are some tiles that are)
  • Added Reverse Light Bridge Assets (BallisticNGTools/BallisticNG Assets/Reverse Bridge)
    
  • Added Light Bridge sound (BallisticNG Assets/Audio)
    
  • Added new shaders
    
    • BallisticNG/Survival
      
    • BallisticNG/Survival (Double Sided)
      
    • BallisticNG/Survival Transparent
      
    • BallisticNG/Display
      
    • BallisticNG/Display (Double Sided)
      
    • BallisticNG/Building (Cubemap)
      
    • BallisticNG/Building
      
    • BallisticNG/Building (Reflection Probe)
      
    • BallisticNG/Survival Skybox
      
    • BallisticNG/Cloud
      
    • BallisticNG/Laser
      
    • BallisticNG/Survival Environment Detail
  • Added (BallisticNG Assets/Skies/Clouds/Cloud Cover) mesh and (BallisticNG Assets/Skies/Clouds/Cloud) textures folder and an example clouds material
    
  • Added (BallisticNGTools/SharedAssets/DisplayScanLines.png) and (BallisticNGTools/SharedAssets/SurvivalCube.tga)
    
  • Added (BallisticNGTools/SharedAssets/Laser Emitters) folder, full of laser emitter assets
    
  • Added (BallisticNGTools/BallisticNGAssets/Audio/IntercomVoices.flp). This is the FL Studio project file that's used for the in-game intercom voices
    
  • Updated the billboard texture atlases to the latest versions
• Added new scripts
  
  • Added BallisticNG -> Pre-Race -> Rescue Droids and BallisticNG -> Pre-Race -> Intro Overview components
    
  • Added BallisticNG -> Rendering -> Survival EQ Visualizer component, to aid in the creation of these BallisticNGTools/SharedAssets/SurvivalVisHelperTexture.png has also been added
    
  • Added NasVolume, this can be used to define areas where the anti-skip should be disabled and can be attached to any type of object that has a 3D collider
    
  • Added SurvivalEnabled. Using this will make an object only appear when the virtual environment is being used
    
  • Added SurvivalEnvironmentDetail, use this with the shader of the same name to create neon survival elements like the vanilla neon windows
• Added fast play, this lets you quickly launch the game to playtest your track. You can access it from BallisticNG -> Fast Play

Only a week to go until BallisticNG releases out of Early Access! 1.0 will be dropping on December 15th at 12am GMT, be sure to come swing by the game’s discord to celebrate with the community!

There's one final track that's being shown today. We also have a special addition for the release that no 90s inspired game should be without, you're going to have to wait to see that one though!

BallisticNG is getting its price increase to $8 this week. If you haven’t already picked the game up be sure to do so this weekend as it will be your last chance to get it at the early access price!

This will also be covering the new AUD pricing that Valve has introduced, so if you live in Australia you'll be able to grab the game in a few days.

Can’t wait for the release? Here’s a piece of it while you wait! A mix of the new soundtrack songs has been uploaded for you to listen. If you’ve purchased the soundtrack on Steam these songs will be part of a free update also releasing on the 15th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhfMRyLeapg

Steams hardware survey page shows that out of everybody using Steam, only 1.98% of Windows users are running a 32-bit version. This is low enough that supporting 32-bit is redundant so there will be no 32-bit version of 1.0.

Update to answer some questions:
While 32-bit players won't be able to play 1.0, BallisticNG doesn't use any kind of DRM. If you backup your current 0.9.4 install you'll be able to continue playing that. 32-bit builds are going to be removed from Steam when the game releases so people don't end up buying the game and recieving 0.9.4, so if you're backing up then make sure to do it before then.

1.0 uses new leaderboards so there’s going to be a reset. This is going to be the last leaderboard reset, once the game is released they won’t be reset again.

Also note that due to Steam only providing a finite number of leaderboards, support for custom track leaderboards will be removed in 1.0.

With time trialing in mind, the anti-skip that's being introduced can be turned off in the cheats menu. You won't be able to set times with the cheat enabled but if you like skip hunting then you'll be able to continue doing so!

Surge is the final pre-release track that’s been added to the game, it’s a stormy track set in a never ending electrical storm. With Atlantica being a hard track and Zephyr Climb being an intermediate track, that makes Surge the new beginner entry to 1.0

It’s now just under 2 months until the game’s release, every little detail is currently being refined in preparation for the big day!

We’re pulling the release date back ever so slightly to better align the release with other events that have cropped up around the same time. The game is now releasing on December 15th instead of the 20th!

Survival has had some visual upgrades to continue building on its design. Buildings now have their windows glowing, fog has been added to add some fade and the entire color pallete system has been rewritten so each zone can have all of its colors manually defined. The virtual mode that you can activate outside of Survival now applies a different pallete on a per speedclass basis too!









BallisticNG has all new voices coming from the one and only HellfireWZ! New warning voices have also been recorded by community moderator and BNGL maintainer Radracer. It’s better if you just listen to them instead of me trying to describe them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP56viCBAVo

A new stats and achievements system has been implemented and is ready for release! This new system is completely moddable so code mods can add their own. It also doesn’t rely on any external services, you can run the game off of Steam and still unlock achievements and have stats tracked.
Here’s some shots of the menus, icons for Achievements still pending.





Support for reflective track tiles have been added! These allow track creators to spice up their track floors a bit with extra detail. Here's some shots of how these are used in the vanilla tracks:





A long standing exploit in analoge input has been fixed, the exploit allowed you to move the analoge stick back to its resting position to quickly stop your ship from turning. This also affects the airbrakes, this change has fixed the long known bug of a ship springing back to full speed after releasing them.

With the airbrakes fixed the opertunity was also taken to rewrite the airbrakes air resistance. Instead of being based on a timer that reduce the ships speed by a set amount, the resistance is now based on how much the ship is drifting so you now slow down much more naturallly.

Shiftdelete has been hard at work making more songs for the game, as with the other songs these will be available in the seperate soundtrack at no extra cost when the game launches.

https://soundcloud.com/shiftdelete/swerve-xtended
https://soundcloud.com/shiftdelete/in-the-zone
https://soundcloud.com/shiftdelete/tranceblaster

https://soundcloud.com/vonsnake/ballisticngbullet-time-vip

It’s that time again! As the release date draws closer there’s less substantial stuff to show and while there’s not a large list of changes and additions this month, there are two new major additions to look at:

Zephyr Climb is the final track to be added to the game pre-release. This new track winds around the peak of the Alps, has you drop off a cliff face to get back round to the start grid and is the first track to feature alternative routes for the reverse varient.









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mLsyAWiAtk

A new, much easier to use, layout creator is coming! This new version is written from the ground up and uses splines to make it very easy for you to layout your track and then edit it however you see fit during and after its creation. Layout Creator 2.0 has been built on the concept of doing a lot with a little and gives you a small and easy to learn set of tools to work with.

Layout Creator 2.0 will also be coming in the game’s demo alongside release but with its TRM and OBJ exporting functionality disabled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ-5hBHHfDk&feature=youtu.be

Hey everyone! It's been a good 2 months since the last devlog and this one comes a bit later then expected due to some hardware issues. Now that's sorted let's dive in:

You can now listen to some more of the songs coming for release! Check them out here:

https://soundcloud.com/shiftdelete/by-any-means
https://soundcloud.com/vonsnake/ballisticng-rightside-down
https://soundcloud.com/vonsnake/taurus

The campaign rebalance that had started a couple months ago is now coming to a close. Time Trial and Survival events have had their criteria updated and the only thing left to do now is balance the rate at which new events are unlocked.

A huge thanks to the internal testers who spent a whole bunch of their time providing data for this, your hard work is much appreciated!

AI have been updated with better difficulties and navigation. Over all the AI is now much more consistent, especially with extreme lap counts and on the higher difficulty levels. As all AI difficulty levels are used in the campaign it's been important to make sure that even Hardcore is beatable.

With the navigation improvements the AI are now much better at avoiding wall collisions that a player can easily avoid, most importantly with ships like the Caliburn. AI can now also enter alternative routes much easier now too, the autopilot has also been updated to use this new navigation and will now much more consistently make it into the pitlane when it detects you need the energy or if you direct it to.

Back when Arrivon Peak was introduced in 0.9.3 it was trying too much with several gimmicks that ultimately led to the track being more frustrating then fun. Introducing the new Arrivon Peak - just as tight and challenging but without any of the gimmicks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqq0yXO4h8Y

Arrivon XI and the speed/weapon pad textures have been given a facelift. Arrivon's track surface is now much more clearly made of wood and has a metal frame, some portions of the track are now made entirely of metal too.

The speed/weapon pad textures have been given more detail, they're now plates bolted onto the track. The shapes have also been given an update to make them a little bit more interesting.



The anti-skip system announced in a previous devlog has been under heavy overhauls these past few weeks and as a result became much more refined. The anti-skip now calculates how much time you shaved instead of using a geometrical approach, this makes the system much more adaptable to all sorts of tracks at different speeds.

Upon release all custom tracks will have anti-skip disabled as there are some layouts (such as bngl-0x002 6 on the workshop) which can cause some issues. Track creators will be able to simply recompile their track scenes to enable the anti-skip. The anti-skip can also be disabled using trigger volumes or globally on a per-track basis. Documentation for modders on how exactly the system works and how you can work with or without it will be coming for release.

Multiplayer has seen major improvements this past month with all of the major known issues from 0.9.4 fixed and many new features and other improvements.

More Settings
Before a host starts a lobby they can now select which ship classes can be chosen by a player. The ship classes available are Standard, Prototype, High-End and Custom.

Once in a lobby the host now has access to more race settings including double damage, no damage and afterburner. More settings will be coming for release. Both the host and players joining can now also decide which port they want to host on!



In-lobby ship/track selections
Thanks to the integration of a new ship/track selection and rendering backend you can now select content inside of the lobby without ever having to go to another screen. More game interfaces are going to be seeing this for release too, most notably the pause menu which currently doesn't rendering track and ship selections.



Tournaments
It is now possible to configure tournaments! You can mix and match vanilla and modded tracks to create a tournament with up to 12 races. With this the message informing people that you don't have a track installed now displays all of the tracks and the name of all of the tracks that you don't have that the host has selected.



Custom Ships
Custom ships can now be used in multiplayer! Ships are chosen by their file name so make sure everybody you're playing with has their ship files named exactly the same. Custom ships are disabled by default and must be enabled by the host before they start the lobby. If you don't have a ship installed that somebody else does then you will see a placeholder ship and you won't be able to collide with them in the race.


The ship shown in this image belongs to KyraTech, you can grab it here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1494036765&searchtext=

Weapons have seen some rebalancing, especially the Plasma.

The plasma is no longer a one hit kill weapon, it still deals huge amounts of damage but now deals a massive slowdown to the ship it hits. The charge time has also been halved to accommodate for it no longer one hitting. With the new damage in place a Diavolt can hit a Tenrai and still one hit kill, however vice versa the Tenrai will deal significantly less damage due to its lower firepower and Diavolts superior shielding.

Tremors and Energy Walls are now speed class dependent with the class affecting the Tremors speed and the Energy Walls deploy distance.

The hellstorm now has lockon reticles to show you who you're about to hit instead of it being guesswork.



Single TRK for all platforms
Tracks for different graphics apis are now compiled under one file, no more seperate DirectX and OpenGL builds! These options will remain available for legacy support but for the release version of the Unity Tools building a track will compile shaders for DX9, DX11 and OGL all into the same file. The track uploader tool has also been updated to reflect this change, you now only need to give the workshop track file a single TRK file.

Fast Play
Fast play is a new feature that allows you to quickly test out your track in-game, perfect for rapidly prototyping new ideas in your scene. All you need to do it point Unity to where the game is installed, select the speed class and team you want to use and start! The game will open in a testing environment. All of your save data with the game in this state will be stored with your Unity project so you can configure settings separately from the game itself.

And that's the bulk of it for the past 2 months, hope you enjoyed reading. Now to get back to it, got a lot to do for the release!

It's with great excitement that I bring you this news, BallisticNG now has a release date of December 20th! To celebrate this announcement a new trailer has been made and we’ll be giving away 10 free copies of the game, for details see below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tEJNBmmJvU
While December is still a while away it has been chosen as it provides more than enough time to get the game ready for release. There is still plenty of balancing and polish to come so having this time is very important to ensure that 1.0 is as good as it can be.

At first the game will be launching here on Steam and on Itch.IO for those who want a direct download, we’ll also be looking at other PC storefronts after release. Quite a few people are wondering about a console release too. Console releases are not on the roadmap, we’ll be looking at potential opportunities after release but there are no promises for it right now.

On August 11th we’re going to pick 10 people at random to receive a free copy of BallisticNG, for a chance to win a copy all you need to do is head over to the game’s Discord server and leave a message in the #giveaway channel. We’ll choose 10 people on the day and send out keys via PM.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/ballisticng

With the extra time the game’s soundtrack is also being extended! There are currently 4 new songs added to the game and that list is still growing. These new songs will be a free update to the soundtrack as the game releases, new purchases will also be getting these new songs at no extra cost. The soundtrack will also be releasing on Bandcamp and will be streamable on Soundcloud. One of the new songs is currently streamable right now, go check it out:
https://soundcloud.com/user-116019374/vonsnake-outer-reaches

Finally we have the return of a track removed in 0.8.2 – Atlantica! The track has been re-imagined with the game’s current standards for the 1.0 release. It remains a difficult circuit but is nowhere near as tight or unforgiving as its original counterpart introduced in 0.3. Here’s some screenshots:

Just a quickie: A small hotfix for 0.9.4 on MacOS has gone out to address an issue with Steam Controllers not being recognised.

Hey everyone, it's about time for another devlog! The past month has seen quite a few changes and new additions. Campaign balancing is underway but in the meantime here's what's been going on:

The explosion effects have been given a small facelift, an additive shader is now used which removes saturation artifacts that the previous multiplicative shader caused. Because they're now additive it also means they're brighter!



Before the race begins you will now be treated to an overview of what you're about to race on. Every track has also had a major ambient sound overhaul to compliment this update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rircss7iFHA

The rescue droids that help keep you on the track are now present on the start grid during the countdown! They keep your ship suspended and then fly off when the race starts.

These and the track overviews are implemented with a new spline backend that more parts of the game are starting to utilize. Other utilizations include a new hunter attack animation, the energy wall bolt now following the track and soon the transfer beam.



The collision effects have been updated for improved visual feedback. The repair effect when flying through pitlanes has also been updated to be arcs of electricity that trail slightly behind the ship.





The game now has more graphics settings to tweak! These new options are important for scaling back the game for lower end hardware. In particular the Video Billboards option has a big impact on low-end CPUs and other settings like Environment Projectors and Light Flares have a large impact low-end GPUs.



The ship - ship collision model has been completely overhauled. Ships now use box colliders to resolve collisions with other ships and now scrape along each other instead of bouncing off. Ramming into the back of another ship will now transfer your momentum to them so care must be taken when approaching other ships from behind.

The game now has an anti-skip mechanism in place. It's still in early phases and there's still plenty of fine tuning to do but all of the game's major skips have now been stopped in one sweep.

The system works by keeping track of where you exit and enter the track and uses the distance travelled, angle between where you exited and entered and side of the track to figure out if you have potentially skipped.

If the game believes you have skipped then it will respawn you where you left the track initially. Custom tracks can take advantage of the allow out of bounds section flag to disable this on a per-section basis.

Practice Mode is a new option in the campaign where you're loaded into a race on Cassandra with unlimited laps, Toxic class with respawns enabled. A guide on mechanics is also available from the pause menu. This is designed for new players to have an easily accessible sandbox environment where they can experiment until they're comfortable to jump into the campaign for real.

The Unity Tools have had major updates with a vastly improved TRM editor, optimized track editor, more assets from the game included, per-tile maglock control, new shaders and support for several new game features. The TRM reverse and atlas transfer tool used to create the game's reverse tracks has also been added.

Next months devlog is going to be skipped in place for something else ;)
Stay tuned for more news!

It's time for another devlog! This one is a short one as development the past week has been focused on finishing up with content updates and preparing for gameplay balancing.

Omega Harbour has seen the final straight populated with more buildings and the Aquarium reworked to be a real space and not just a boring texture.





Aciknovae has had some building changes, most of the buildings have been updated from simple cubes and made a bit more interesting. There have also been some other extra additions to improve the use of vertical space.





Advertisement display boards are now replaced with music visualizers in Survival mode! Like the track visualizer these also respond to custom music. For track creators, everything you need to get these setup will be available in the release version of the unity tools.





There is now a menu in-game which lets you browse and subscribe/unsubscribe from workshop items! It's planned for there to be a featured mod section exclusive to this menu so we can help the best mod creators showcase their work.



This is the end of the content portion of pre-1.0 development and the focus will now be shifting onto campaign and gameplay balancing. Stay tuned for the upcoming devlogs showing these changes!