Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
This update rolls out the Pre-testing 3 (PT-3) version of the new VR implementation. This fixes multiple issues with Mercury, and rolls out the first iteration of Gemini VR.
Note: If you are experiencing issues with this build you can roll back to the previous using the Steam Betas Tab accessible from the Steam client (games properties). The previous version can be found under the Reentry Version 0.99.RC10 branch.
When enabling VR from the main menu, please read the Important Notes section that pops up, this will explain the current state of VR and its roadmap.
Keep in mind that VR support is still a post-1.0 feature where the pre-1.0 bits is the preliminary support and testing phase of the upcoming VR release. The implementation will be rough around the edges as the current development stage is mainly functionality and feasibility.
Gemini VR support This is the first implementation of Gemini VR, where all reported learnings and feedback/issues will be used to further improve the VR support of Gemini. It contains most of the basic bits needed to complete the Gemini Academy and Campaing.
VR Attitude Hand Controller The VR Attitude Hand Controllers makes the actual attitude control joystick visible in the cockpit functional. Move the VR hand on the Mercury or Gemini attitude hand controller, press and hold the Grab button on the controller and pitch/yaw/roll the hand controller. You will need to spend some time training the motion to get a good feel of the craft. The stick will follow the actual movement of your hand.
VR Translation Hand Controller Gemini is the first of the in-game crafts that was able to translate in orbit. To enable the translation control, press the Toggle TTCA bubble button on the commanders translation stick to deploy it. When it is deployed, grab and hold the stick as with the attitude stick to move it. Drag it in the direction you wish to translate. The stick will snap into the position (Up, Down, Left, Right, Forward, Aft) once you have moved your hand firmly in the direction you wish to translate. When the stick is out of detent and snapped, the in-game joystick will reflect the direction you are translating.
Gemini translation force adjusted The Gemini has been very sensitive in translation. The forces has been reduced to give you better control of translation, making Gemini less overpowered. This means that you will need to translate longer than before to achieve desired delta-V. Keep this in mind for burns and maneuvers.
Training VR attitude and translation I recommend spending some time in the Mercury In-Orbit and the Gemini docking training scenario to practice how to maneuver and control the crafts in VR.
VR Mission Pad I have changed how to set camera perspectives and how to set time scale. This is now done through a new VR section of the VR Mission Pad. Click the VR tab to see the current mission time and date, time scale, and multiple buttons to set time scale and change the view. This tab also contains a section where you can rebind the controllers.
A word about recentering the VR view OpenXR, the standard used to render VR, is used to render the VR implementation in Reentry. They have decided to offload the camera centering routine to the manufacturers. This means that the recentering has to be done through the built-in methods. For Quest 2 for example, you need to hold the Oculus button on the right controller to recenter the view. The downside to this is that I can no longer recenter the view programmatically when I detect this is needed. So if you notice things are out of sync and requires a recenter, you will need to follow the built-in procedures to do this.
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
This patch is a better and more correct implementation of yesterdays hotfix (0.99.3). The Gemini bubble buttons and interacting with the panels should work again after breaking during 0.99.2.
Let me know if you still are having issues interacting with the Gemini switches or bubble buttons.
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
Reentry has been patched to 0.99.2, with the main focus on fixing the issues and content pull requests contributed by the community at the games GitHub.
Almost 100 issues and Pull Requests have been addressed and merged into the game and the flight manuals. This means that multiple missions has been patched to correct bugs, typos, structure and logic.
I have exported the latest versions of the manuals, all available in-game (Academy, or SHIFT+M in cockpit) or on the games web page.
I have corrected issues related to the Mercury save state logic, and applied a patch that saves the notes you have made in the Mission Pad in all programs (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo).
This patch rolls out the new VR enabled attitude control stick in Mercury. To use it, move the controller on it, press the Grab button and hold it in, while you tilt the controller forward/back for pitch, left/right for yaw and twist it for roll. A later iteration will also take into account the hand movement to ease the work on the wrist, but this is a start. In addition, I have started to implement grabbable objects. You can test this by moving your hand into the Audio Recorder (toggle using bubble buttons) and pressing+holding the grab button. Releasing the grab button will release the player as well.
Fixed community reported typos in all flight manuals
Fixed community reported typos in academy
Fixed community reported typos in campaigns
Fixed typos in Apollo CSM panels
Fixed reported typos in player.log
Updated all flight manuals in-game and on web page
Mercury Load State logic fixes
Mission Pad Notes stored in save states
Mercury VR: Attitude Control Stick VR enabled
Mercury VR: First grabbable object implemented (Audio Player)
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
This patch will update the versioning system of the game.
The new versioning system will move away from the sequential numbering system to something that follows this pattern: [MAJOR].[MINOR].[PATCH].[BUILD]
The current build will be: 0.99.1.EA
This means that the games major version is still 0, the minor version is 99 and the patch version is 001. The build is EA, while future alpha builds will use alpha.
The game has been in a code-freeze since the last patch that contained a major engine update. As this was a significant change that required me to rewire a lot of the logic and make changes to support the latest LTS version of Unity, I wanted to leave the version live to ensure it worked well and gather your feedback/experience reports.
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
I just released a new patch where I have updated the Unity rendering engine version from the previous 2021 LTS (Long Term Support) version to the latest released 2022 LTS that was recently released. This update also includes patch fixes.
Note: If you are experiencing issues with this build you can roll back to the previous using the Steam Betas Tab accessible from the Steam client (games properties). The previous version can be found under the Reentry Version 0.99.RC10 branch.
Versioning The current version of the game (0.9999.EA - zero point niner niner niner niner point echo alpha) has mostly been a joke with the community. However, I'm happy to announce that this is the final version of the game that will be using this versioning system. The next patch will roll out a new system that will follow a MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.REL pattern, for example 0.99.1234.EA
Major Rendering Engine Update: 2021.3 to 2022.3 This is a major update as the main version of the Unity rendering engine used in the game is updated. Testing has been good so far but due to the big change, undetected issues might arise. I have spend a lot of time testing the sim, and it has been public on the alpha floor branch for the last two weeks. However, this is a massive project so please let me know if you experience something strange that used to work but no longer does.
Blocking fixes: Some of you have reported issues with the game not launching. The update to the latest LTS version of Unity might fix this for some, but I made some good progress on finding the source based on a couple of the logs I have received. This has been related to corrupt or blank game storage files. I wrote a fix and hopefully it will fix the launch issues that some of you are experiencing.
This patch also fixes an issue where players are unable to complete the CSM Optics Academy lesson due to a problematic switch after the change of the Optics panels in the Lower Equipment Bay (LEB). This has been fixed.
Patch Notes
Major unity rendering engine update: 2021.3 to 2022.3
MOCR: SPS burn planner shows plan with nmi alt
Reentry crashing on start (CTD when launching from Steam) fixes
Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator - wilhelmsenstudios
On June 18th I will have a presentation where I will talk about the future of Reentry - An Orbital Simulator. I will talk about the current state of the game and what to expect for version 1.0, and announce some new features coming to the game as part of the journey to version 2.0.