The 0.8316.EA minor patch contains the following fixes:

• Gemini: Fixed the "Loading into a pad mission will some times spawn you in orbit" issue
  
• Gemini: Fixed the Gemini IVI freeze issue when performing rendezvous burns
  
• Gemini: Fixed a null reference exception bug that can happen (rare) just after tower/pad release
  
• Apollo: Fixed strange floating Lunar Module 3d model artifacts

The 0.8314.EA minor patch contains the following fixes:

• Apollo: Fixed the dual checklist loading bug. You should now only see one set of checklists loaded in the CSM and LM Mission Pad
  
• LM: Fixed DPS pressurization issues that prevented pressurization on activation (remember to open the pressure regulator(s))
  
• All: Flashlight offset if Gaze cursor was enabled but not in VR
  
• Apollo: Max time warp set to 250x for MOCR-enabled sessions to prevent accidents and telemetry instability
  
• CSM: Colored some of the circuit breakers yellow
  
• CSM: Fixed the bug that made Fuel Cells functional after SM separation
  
• LM: LGC render issues when not powered
  
• MOCR: Added AUX 1, AUX 2 and AUX 3 intercom loops that can be used to offload discussions on main channels (backrooms, "tiger team", and discussion channels)
  
• VR: Gaze cursor offset on X-axis
  
• VR Mission Pad visibility changes
  
• Some internal setup logic to prepare for update 0.84, you might see some strange data when monitoring the Lunar Module ECS indicators due to this.

The 0.8311.EA minor patch contains the following fixes:
- Added 2 "spectator spots" for MOCR.
- Corrected the logic on the RCS TRNFR switch on middle portion of MDC and made it spring loaded so it will return to center after setting it up or down.
- Minor changes to the Academy
- Fixed the CSM SUIT COMP panel textures from ON to OFF in center position
- Changed the label of the RCS TRNFR switch up position from ON to CM
- Fixed the Apollo Mission Editor so that the hour can be set to a 3 digit value instead of just two
- Removed the bug that allowed you to set the GLYCOL EVAP TEMP IN sw to center.
- Corrected the REPRESS PKG label typo in the CSM

VR
- Fixed the VR gaze cursor reference to easier reach things above you and your eye-level
- Fixed the VR subtitles always on issue
- Improved the VR laser pointer in Apollo to avoid it being invisible when not targeting a switch

Note:
The additional spectator seats in MOCR is to create a larger room for "MOCR Monday" and allow people who wants to learn how to be a Mission Controller to oversee the session, as well as those who wants to stream the session for those who want to watch.

Announcing MOCR Monday!
The Mercury Control Center (MCC) and the Apollo Mission Operation Control Room (MOCR) multiplayer modules are currently in alpha testing and will gain focus as Reentry passes the 1.0 milestone, and the journey towards 2.0 begins. Before this I want to get as much network-programming experience and testing of the multiplayer implementation, while at the same time I have noticed many of you are looking for scheduled Mission Control sessions to join.

I'm therefore happy to announce that we are planning on running official MOCR/MCC sessions on Mondays (as a start) at 19:30 UTC+1 / CET. We will take the learnings from these organized sessions to schedule more at different time zones and days. Maybe you want to help? See bottom for details.

What we wish to do is to create low key sessions for all who wants to get started learning about being a Mission Controller in Reentry for both the Mercury Control Center (MCC) and Apollo Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR), or those of you who have experience from previous sessions, wants a challenge, or wants to teach others to become a mission controller.

We will use the #mocr-monday channel on Discord for this, so check this channel for details (http://discord.gg/reentrygame). The flight plan, session planning and discussions for hosted session will take place there, as well as deciding if we run MCC or MOCR, or even both, based on interest.

The mission and goal will be designed by the MOCR Monday team. The intent is that we will set up a mission, and will need a crew to execute it. The level of difficulty and numbers of issues, if any, will be designed based on the level of experience of the players who have joined. Each session will be designed to last for about 1 - 2 hours.

We plan to execute this in an agile way. We do not need a full room to execute a session, but it would be great if we could decide in the channel on what role you want to have ahead of time. However, if someone wants to just drop in last minute or grab a role that is available when we start, feel free to. If we have enough to fill a room, great, if we are more than the capacity, we will set up multiple sessions or do them in queue.

The MOCR roles are:
- BOOSTER
- RETRO
- FDO
- GUIDANCE
- CAPCOM
- EECOM
- GNC
- TELMU
- CONTROL
- ASSISTANT FLIGHT
- FLIGHT

The MCC roles are:
- MISSILE TELEMETRY
- ENVIRONMENT
- SYSTEMS
- FDO
- RETRO
- CAPCOM
- FLIGHT

By joining multiplayer these sessions you will learn a lot on how to be a mission controller, follow a flight plan, lead a group, how to monitor data and react to anomality's. The astronaut will experience how it is to have a team behind the mission, and get help and guidance throughout the mission.

Want to help?
We are looking for volunteers who want to join the community who will help organize these sessions. Each week we will create a new mission or re-run a previous mission, all based on the availability of the volunteers. Also, based on availability on various time zones or days, we might even be able to set up sessions on other days and time zones. Please reach out on http://discord.gg/reentrygame if you want to help! :)

So, how can I prepare?
We want the sessions to be as easy as possible for anyone to join, and we are looking for first-timers to join this as well, so don't be afraid to join. You do not need much experience, but you should be familiar with the mechanics of Reentry - An Orbital Simulator, and have some experience with the spacecraft.

Other optional suggestions and sources of information are:
1) Watch the "A brief tour around the Apollo Mission Control Center aka. MOCR" video I created to get familiar with the multiplayer mechanics, and MOCR itself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYWSDPcai4w

2) Check the Mercury Control Center and Apollo MOCR Reentry manuals:
https://reentrygame.com/manuals

3) Join the discussions over at Discord!

The latest update primarily contains a lot of bug fixes for Gemini and Apollo, in addition to the CSM ECS and IMU Gyro Drift. The following post will cover the details of this build.

Gemini RCS Physics
One of the bigger fixes this upgrade has is the rewrite of the RCS logic and jet physics for the Gemini spacecraft. Previously, the RCS and LV gimbal systems has made it impossible for some to reach orbit, or use the RCS due to it being overpowered. This was because of an issue with the attitude control physics implementation. Most players on either powerful PCs or PCs below the minimum requirements especially saw this issue, but it has been present for all.

Public Issue Tracker
I have been working with the Test Pilots on setting up a public issue tracker that you can use to see what bugs has been reported, and what has been fixed or is waiting for release to EA.

This is a board that is started from scratch, so it does not yet contain all the issues. The Steam and Discord moderators will be adding tasks to this board as things are reported.

You can find the board here:
https://trello.com/b/PHdetNmC/public-issue-tracker

Apollo CSM Environmental Control System
The biggest new feature of this update is the complete rewrite of the CSM ECS. It is the first of many iterations of it, and the intention of this first release of it is to get the procedures in place, the major features, and see how it all works together. As you can imagine, a lot of things functions together here and needs to become solid both during normal operation, and while time scaling. Once stable, I will iterate and go deeper in more specific areas of it.


It's a beautifully complex system that interacts with a huge loop of equipment to function correctly. The Oxygen Supply System is responsible for providing oxygen to the pressurized suit circuit (PSC), pressurizing the cabin, the water and water-glycol tanks in the water and coolant subsystems, while the heat exchanger in the PSC provides temperature control and to work with the water accumulators to pick up humidity from the oxygen the crew has been breathing. This water is then supplied to the evaporators for thermal control in the glycol loops, and so on.

In short, the ECS does the following primary tasks:
- Spacecraft atmosphere control
- Water management
- Thermal control

Part of the atmosphere control is that in the PSC, the air will go through the CO2 absorbers. There are two if these in the CSM. These will need to be replaced every 12 hours to avoid the CO2 to reach high levels (>7.6 mm Hg).

A new setting allows this to be done automatically, if you don't want the extra work of doing that (however, it is fun and the procedures are simple).


By looking at this diagram, you can see the complexity of the ECS:


The Reentry CSM Flight Manual has been updated with a new chapter covering the ECS too. In the manual, I have created and colored diagrams to simplify the understanding of this. It can be found here: https://reentrygame.com/manuals


A word about the PTC roll (aka "BBQ roll"): The radiators will be affected by its orientation relative to the sun and a planet. An ECS radiator that is exposed to the sun will receive heating from it, while a radiator that is "looking" into deep space will be cooled. Some of this logic has been applied to systems too. However, since I have yet to implement the PTC-roll features the sun will not be able to fry equipment that is exposed to the "sun" over long durations. A PTC-roll could be done manually by orienting the spacecraft and applying a slow roll so that a specific side of the CSM is not exposed to the sun for too long.

CSM ECS Academy lessons & Checklists
4 new Academy lessons has been added to cover the basics of the CSM ECS, and how to operate it. In addition, multiple new checklists can be found in the CSM Checklists tab on the mission pad. This covers the procedures on monitoring the ECS, checking the redundant components, pressurizing the cabin, changing the CO2 filters, and so on.

CSM IMU Gyro Error Accumulation
The optics system was released a few patches ago and gave you the possibility to use it to align the IMU, and use the scopes onboard the CSM. This has now been iterated on. As you use the CSM gyros in the IMU, they will drift and accumulate errors over time. Program 52, option 3 (see the CSM OPTICS lesson or the video below) is used to correct this, and should be used frequently during an Apollo mission, usually ahead of critical burns if it has not been aligned for a while. The procedures are complicated, so I have provided a realism option (Main Menu) that disables gyro drift.

See this video for a guide on how to operate the optics of the CSM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGY7QH_F49c

New CSM Panels, COAS reticle and Caution & Warning panel
Most of this update covers fixes and systems that is only visible through instrumentation. But the ECS has required the addition of some new panels (the 600's). I also fixed the COAS reticle so it has degrees measurements and change the look and feel of the CnWS system. In addition, multiple panel texture label typos has been corrected in the CSM and some on the LM.

P600,601,602 & Forward Hatch logic:
These panels are used with the Oxygen Supply Subsystem to vent and pressurize the cabin. There are other procedures that can do this too and are covered in the Academy and the Flight Manual.




The CO2 ABSORBER PANEL cover needs to be opened to expose the CO2 Canisters assembly. It can be a bit hard to find the first time you look for it, but keep exploring the spacecraft you want to learn and it will all start to reveal itself for you :)


COAS Reticle:
The COAS reticle has been redesigned to better reflect its real design and functionality.


CnWS:
The labels, lights and model has been altered to better reflect the real CnWS as well.


Long duration Apollo Missions will no longer fail the EPS
One major issue that we have seen is that the CSM will go all dark after about 160 hours MET. This issue was a combination triggered by players who usually do not purge the Fuel Cells and some internal temperature mechanics that would trigger an undetected overheat that would completely disable the EPS. Thanks to the work by JFast, I was finally able to pinpoint this issue and solve it. What a relief!

Lunar Module Master Alarm and CnWS rewire
The Lunar Module Master Alarm logic has changed. It now has a continuous signal tone & light (should not flash as the CSM). Pressing the Master Alarm button will silence the tone and reset the MA light.

New Gemini Scenarios
The update has removed the old deprecated Gemini Missions that was not working. These has been replaced with scenarios that allows you to train on rendezvous & docking. No instructions or mission commands exists, just an open world set up for a specific purpose.

The two first missions are full missions (like Free Play) set up to rendezvous with another Gemini, or to rendezvous & dock with Agena. The two bottom ones will load you close to either the Rendezvous burn for Agena, so that you can only focus on the burn and see how close you will end up with the target, or load into a stage where you are placed above the Agena and will need to perform the final approach.

Mission info on load screen
When a mission loads you will see a summary of the current mission settings. You will see the name of the mission, where it should start (so if you then start on the pad but the mission says Orbit, try to reload the mission), and if failures are enabled or not.


Major CSM SCS and EMS tweaks
The EMS has had some issues with the direction it counts and how it behaves in certain situation when in orbit. It would also trigger unplanned burns, and pressing THRUST ON when the SCS is not yet programmed for a burn could trigger an unexpected burn later when it is properly set up (but you did not press THRSUT ON). This has been corrected.

EECOM Station in MOCR
The EECOM station has been updated with a new CSM ECS CRYO TAB channel to monitor the major aspects of the CSM ECS. If you are a Mission Controller with the focused role of EECOM, then your role just got a lot bigger (and more fun).


Other fixes and tweaks worth covering

• Opening a checklist will reset the scroll position to the top, so it no longer starts in the same position as the previous checklist you did.
  
  
• Gemini SFX on load in orbit fixes. You should not hear all the ascent SFX played at once when loading a Gemini mission
  
  
• Fuel gurgle sfx in Gemini before ignition
  
  
• With the new Gemini Jet Physics: Gemini RCS thruster and Roll Program/ascent guidance power and inconsistency fixed
  
  
• A new Gemini OBC checklist has also been added to list the OBC cores. Remember that the computer will need to run for it to function.
  
  
• Gemini: Timescale should not influence the rendezvous radar anymore
  
  
• Gemini: External LV thruster light should not illuminate and create artifacts in the cockpit interior
  
  
• Gemini: Sun Visibility Check in cockpit view (corrects dark side of the Earth visibility)
  
  
• Gemini: PULSE mode is more stable and triggers correctly each time you press instead of being inconsistent.
  
  
• Lunar Module: Corrected the possibility to use the TTCA to decrease throttle in automatic mode. It should only be possible to increase throttle manually when in TTCA and auto mode. Manual control will give full throttle control.
  
  
• Lunar Module: Prevents the LM descent engine to be throttled below 10%. Changes in thrusting mechanisms too.
  
  
• Lunar Module: LM Ascent Engine can be started with He regulators closed. Reworked some of the He circuit logic in the Descent and Ascent engines. The He from the DES and ASC sources meets and goes through the primary/secondary regulators. Only one needs to be active for it to be properly pressurized.
  
  
• Minor Mercury mission and system fixes by watching N9 Gaming videos on YT.
  
  
• Lots of improvements to the underlying logic of the CSM burn planner and LM burn calculations, but still a long way to go when it comes to consistency of units (km vs. nmi vs. meters vs. feet) and precision throughout these tools and the game.
  
  
• Mercury VR: Inverted the selector direction of some cockpit selectors
  
  
• Lunar Module: Descent Stage stairs are not part of the ascent stage during the initial ascent phase, same with the RCS covers.
  
  
• Lunar Module: Ambient He flow and consumption fixes as the DPS engine is ignited and the Supercritical He takes over the role of pressurizing it.

The next few patches will correct more reported issues, and add the first iteration of optics for the Lunar Module, a burn planner tool for the Lunar Module, and some other surprises, while I continue to add language support and prepare for the 0.9 era. :)

I would like to thank Johannes Kemppanen (AFJ, A13) & Paolo Mangili for their input and discussions around the CSM ECS, as well as robryk for the extensive and detailed reports of issues with various CSM and LM systems. In addition, I want to thank all the Test Pilots for their testing and input of this build, N9 Gaming for the Mercury and Gemini bug reports and the great videos he has made on Reentry on YouTube, and the Discord and Steam community for their great feedback, input, feature suggestions and bug reports. I also want to thank Kamparo (Виталий Кампаро) for his Russian video tutorials for Reentry. The game could not exist without all of this support I get from you. This makes it a joy to work on this project, so thank you again!

- Petri

The 0.8221 patch fixes the following issues:
- A critical issue related to the Gemini Save State. It should now be possible to save state in orbit, and load back into it again. A recent logical change prevented the orbital parameters to save & load correctly in recent updates.
- The Communication View in Apollo should hide when the S-IVB Burn Planner is opened. This will prevent them from blocking the EXECUTE button.

Note: You will need to create a new Gemini save state as the old logic was missing important information.

Update: The 0.8221 patch had a build pipeline issue. It has been corrected but will automatically trigger a very small update if you recently updated to 0.8221.

Reentry has been updated from version 0.81 to 0.82. This "minor" update improves a lot of systems and functionality in the CSM and the journey to the Moon. Some improvements on the TEI tool has been made but still seeing some reports of strange behavior as you enter Earth SOI.

You can always revert to a previous version by changing the branch in Steam in case you are having problems with this update, To do this, use the Steam Beta tab under properties.

Some of the features you will see in 0.82 are:
- Two new Lunar Module Crew Member features to aid in Rendezvous and Docking after Lunar Ascent
- New F2 external view camera with fixed attitude (not relative to spacecraft rotation) to aid in maneuvering, docking and so on. Only available in Apollo for now. A radio button selector lets you select between free camera and orbit
- Entry Monitor System improvements
- Long Press on the EMS increase and decrease, and for the Attitude Set Control panel added. Hold mouse button for >1 second to adjust instead of spamming the mouse buttons.
- New DSKY circuit logic and rendering has been added to the AGC and LGC.
-> Made the DSKY v2 relay clicking sfx optional so you can disable it if you wish
- Improved the Lunar Module Quad Heater logic and temperature methods
- Made the CSM Numbers Selector functional. You can now use it to change brightness of the DSKY rendering
- S-IC, S-II, S-IVB fuel calculation changes
- CSM: LV PRESS changes and updates to gauges
- DSKY Live Feed exports as strings and not integers. Blanks will now be "" and not 0.
- PGNS bug on Lunar Surface where jets would get stuck is fixed
- TrackIR sensitivity bug in the CSM and LM corrected
- Moon Tessellation Settings for increased performance on some computers (if you struggle with fps around the moon)
- File based camera tooling, you can now modify where default cameras are set
- Minor needle shake when engines are burning on the various analogue gauges in the cockpit.
- Fixed the Gemini Space Walk campaign mission
- Fixed the CSM SCS roll stutter issue and general SCS attitude logic
- Mercury has received some upgrades on the MA-6 mission, still work to be done but should not be a blocker anymore
- Faster camera transitions in cockpit views.
- Moved the default camera points for astronauts in the CSM and LM to their correct head positions.
- TEI Planner prevents the insertion of values below 1.1.
- Apollo Moon Map legend and coloring changes
- AGC Light Test changes
- AGC warning light bulb color corrections
- VR for Apollo
- VR: Gaze Cursor
- VR: Mission Pad menu
- VR: Mission Command Subtitles
- VR: Checklist Guide Panel
- VR: Change Camera view using the left thumbstick
- VR: Apollo - use motion controllers as joysticks for attitude and translation control
- VR: Added mission subtitles to Apollo, these can be disabled from the VR settings on the Main Menu.

As this update has been in testing, the code-base has had a two week feature lockdown. With the release out, I will work on some 0.82 patches that has been reported the last couple of days, and will start to focus on the 0.83 update that has its main intent, in addition of bug fixes, of adding the Apollo CSM ECS system, gyro drift error, cabin pressurization, and improvements around the Mercury ECS system.

If you need information about VR for Apollo, check this post:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/882140/view/2968417243128902620

If you are curious about the larger plan of this project, please check this post. You will also find the roadmap here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/882140/view/2963917519737693262

In this post I wish to share my thoughts on the journey ahead, and what to expect. Keep in mind that this is a plan, and it might change.

As some of you might know, this project has been going on for soon 7 years. When I started the project, I had a dream of letting players (myself included :D) experience Apollo and the Lunar Landing in full immersive 3D, with every switch functional in one way or another. It quickly became too much, and I decided to start smaller: Project Mercury.

And some of you might have been part of this journey since day 1. You might have seen things like a couple of total overhauls of the main menu, seen Mercury evolve into what it is today, the release of Gemini, Apollo, and landing on the Moon with the Lunar Module. Since the lunar touchdown, we have seen a lot happening with the product. Developer tools has emerged into what we see as the Mission Control Multiplayer modules, and the return journey from the Moon back to Earth with TEI has become a thing, optics in the CSM was made, and the entire physics engine got an overhaul named TSS. For those who only play simulators in VR, we have seen a preliminary release of VR for Mercury and Gemini, and Apollo is around the blocks.

So what's next?

Version 0.8X: Short term
During the summer, a lot of the features you have seen rolling out on the alpha-branch has been improvements and bug fixes to Apollo. Key features has been TEI-improvements, rendezvous and docking improvements and co-pilot features to aid during this maneuver, CSI/TPI burn length calculations, the introduction of CSI-2, a lot of changes on the S-IVB and CSM T&D logic and bug fixes.

Following the initial release of MOCR, a lot of general improvements in Apollo flights (for the astronaut) has been high priority so it can be possible to perform full Apollo missions from Pad to Splashdown. This has earlier not been possible at all. This has been a priority as both those playing single player and being astronauts in multiplayer sessions as well as mission controllers have a good experience.

We have also seen the addition of VR for Apollo, and general improvements on all spacecrafts when it comes to VR and how the VR implementation in Reentry works, and the latest iteration on the DSKY digits, and a new external docking camera (fixed orientation) accessible using F2.

So the next natural thing in the near-term pipeline is to roll a lot of these improvements to the public as version 0.82.

Some of the features you will see are:
- Two new Lunar Module Crew Member features to aid in Rendezvous and Docking after Lunar Ascent
- Moon Tessellation Settings for increased performance on some computers
- Improved the Lunar Module Quad Heater logic and temperature methods
- Entry Monitor System improvements
- New cloud rendering system to remove the black pixel artifacts seen earlier
- File based camera tooling, you can now modify where default cameras are set
- Minor needle shake when engines are burning on the various analogue gauges in the cockpit.
- Fixed the Gemini Space Walk campaign mission
- Fixed the CSM SCS roll stutter issue and general SCS attitude logic
- Mercury has received some upgrades on the MA-6 mission.
- Faster camera transitions in cockpit views.
- Moved the default camera points for astronauts in the CSM and LM to their correct head positions.
- Corrected the visibility of the Moon map and Mission pad on Apollo Mission load
- TEI Planner prevents the insertion of values below 1.1.
- DSKY digits 2.0 has been added to the AGC and LGC.
- Apollo Moon Map legend and minor coloring changes
- CSM VR Mission pad visible when not in VR has been corrected
- TrackIR sensitivity bug in the CSM and LM corrected
- Long Press on the EMS increase and decrease, and for the Attitude Set Control panel added. Hold mouse button to adjust instead of spamming the mouse buttons.
- AGC Light Test changes
- AGC warning light bulb color corrections
- Apollo VR: Use motion controllers as joysticks for attitude and translation control
- CSM: Possible to use the NUMBERS selector to change brightness of the DSKY rendering
- New F2 external view camera with fixed attitude (not relative to spacecraft rotation) to aid in maneuvering, docking and so on. Only available in Apollo for now, as I still need to test it before rolling it out.
- VR for Apollo
- VR: Gaze Cursor
- VR: Mission Pad menu
- VR: Mission Command Subtitles
- VR: Checklist Guide Panel
- VR: Change Camera view using the left thumbstick

You can find the full list here, and can test them in the alpha-floor branch today (if you want): https://steamcommunity.com/app/882140/discussions/0/3118160027737663624/

I hope to release 0.82 very soon as it has been out in alpha-testing for a few weeks now with good results from testing.

As I dive into the rest of version 0.8X towards 0.89, the focus will be on fixing bugs and issues, improving systems, adding the major missing things and solving blocking issue. I wish to invite you, the community of Reentry, to join me here. I will need your help on suggestions on things you would like to see, but still are missing, so I can compare it with my own list of priorities. I have a dedicated forum for this: https://steamcommunity.com/app/882140/discussions/1/

The following list contains the major focus on the 0.8-updates:
- 0.83: IMU drift errors (correct with P52), CSM ECS v1, Mercury ECS improvements
- 0.84: Lunar Module ECS
- 0.85: Lunar Module Optics and LM DPS Burn Planner
- 0.8X: ???
+ some surprises :)

You can find a roadmap here:
https://trello.com/b/ip2zVHUa/reentry-an-orbital-simulator-roadmap

While doing this, I will also focus on language support. I have completed the system needed to support multiple languages, and I need to now apply this on all elements in the game that should have language support, before being able to translate the game to different languages. I hope to bring the first official support for another language in Reentry in version 0.9.

Version 0.9: Language support, game mechanics and integration
In version 0.9, I will continue the work on language, improve the game mechanics, continue iterating on the most critical systems both you and I wish to see fixed as soon as possible. I wish to also look into Steam Cloud saving, update scenarios for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, integrate with Discord, GeForce Now, add the game over system and remove developer flags such as infinite fuel, and so on. Generally get the state of the simulator in shape for version 1.0.

Version 1.0: The End of the Beginning
The goal of version 1.0 is to provide a fun and immersive experience with realistic procedures, based on a strong foundation of systems. As you know, you can work on systems for a lifetime in Mercury alone and still not be 100% realistic, so the goal for 1.0 is to at least land the most important parts of a space flight mission, so that it's possible for players, through their own computers, to get a feel of how it was to be an astronaut, what systems a spacecraft had to have, be able to operate them, and learn how the technology evolved from Mercury to the Lunar Landing. 1.0 is just the end of the beginning, a strong foundation to iterate and expand the experience from.

Version 1.1 towards 2.0 and beyond: Systems improvements, continue to build on the foundation from 1.0, game improvements, historical missions
Post 1.0 will basically have a lot of focus on systems, improving procedures, and continuing to add new systems to each of the supported spacecrafts as we progress towards 2.0. I also wish to then give both the Mercury Control Center and the Apollo Mission Operations Control Room more attention as the systems in the spacecraft should have received their needed facelifts and improvements. And who knows, maybe other multiplayer modes?

From a visual perspective, I would also like to improve the Earth and Moon rendering models and textures at this stage, transitions, and the VR experience for those who use this.

DLCs, new spacecrafts, etc:
When it comes to new spacecrafts, you might have seen my Vostok implementation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V1DgbaPsQQ

I plan to expand the "Reentry Universe" with some additional modules, and Vostok will be one of them. I wish to release it some time after the 1.0 release (and I have another spacecraft waiting in-line as well, as the simulator progresses towards 2.0 ;) ).


I wish to thank each and every one of you for playing Reentry, providing feedback, being part of the community and helping others who are learning, sending me suggestions, contributions, and all the help you have provided in one way or another to improve the experience for all of us.

Thank you!


For those interested in some very old screenshots from the game:
One of the first versions of the Mercury Cockpit back in 2015. I had started to wire up some of its first systems, and was implementing my Cockpit Panel Building System (gauges, switches, etc)

The main difference with Gemini from Mercury was the requirement of maneuvering in space, modifying the orbit, rendezvous and docking. This was one of the first iterations of the math to perform a rendezvous. Agena was still just a gray cylinder.

A lot of excitement was going on as I started to model the panels of the CSM. Apollo had been a distant goal for a couple of years as I was working on Mercury and Gemini. Suddenly the time had come to start working on the CSM. This was in 2017/2018, and I'm still working on it's core systems.


And some more recent shots:





Thanks to General Kenobi for the nice cover screenshot. :)

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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