We are sorry for the prolonged silence, but we are here today to thank YOU for all the support during the SteamFest! We’ve got an overwhelming amount of feedback that we are implementing right now to improve Green Hell VR tremendously. It is really humbling to our team that so many have downloaded and tried our demo - it means A LOT! We appreciate each and every comment and we strive to become better and better everyday with your support of course.
As for the demo, the performance side has been our utmost priority throughout the month and we have improved already on many aspects. So, don’t worry about the full release - Green Hell VR will be fully baked and ready when the time comes :)
Anyway, we don’t have anything else to share yet, BUT there will be something coming soon… We can’t say for certain, this THING may start with R and end in H :)
Every video game has its main character, its hero, its legend. These...these are not those characters.
These failed heroes, these undeveloped avatars, never saw their own games come to fruition. But now they have one last hope!
Choose your team of Sprite Fighters, enter the arena, and win them the only chance at pixelated glory they will ever know. Will you defeat your enemies, or will you succumb to the ultimate terror of the video game world...
Hello, Engineers! ːseː Let's take a look at the workshop highlights from another month full of your creations, mods, stories, and visions. These are our favorites from the month of February - give them a try!
New progress system; Devices needed to research new technologies. Now survival mod can be really difficult. You can't build what you wont. Use what you have and improve your technologies.
Supercomputer produce new type of components - blueprints. Use blueprint for building blueprint desk what unlock access to new blocks. High grade blueprints require more time for research. But you can build computing cores for decrease time.
Add depth to your power generation with geothermal, light up your world with concentrated solar, and harness the true power of the atom with new types of nuclear reactor.
Standalone version of the steam power system developed for Industrial Overhaul, tweaked slightly for vanilla use.
The Azimuth Remastered Mod is a complete overhaul of the original Azimuth mod with new and updated models with LODs and proper construction models and straight up new additions - like the gatling turrets and new designs for large ship variants.
Ganymede Technologies introduces The Programmable Holo LCD!
These LCD's are programmable blocks but ALSO Transparent Holo LCD's. This 2 in 1 Block is excellent for placement in cramped builds where you do not want to build an LCD and a programmable block.
This mod turns Vanilla npcs Wolves and Spiders into Ai enabled npcs. This makes them perform better compared to vanilla npcs and their broken Ai and they're more optimized so you can have way more ingame.
There is also a threat system so the more armed you are the stronger the bigger waves become. Spiders will now spawn into various biomes of their homeworld making them a bit more camouflage. Wolves won't harm players but Cyberhounds will.
This mod adds modified lifted suspension to the game to significantly increase ground clearance.
With wheels as big as 15x15, rovers can now be built that dwarf the likes of rovers that use 5x5s. Build robust mobile bases that benefit from a significant yet balanced increase in propulsion power.
Did you know that in vanilla Space Engineers, the height and density of the atmospheres of Earth and Mars are exactly the same?
That's a little boring (and unrealistic), so I've changed all of the vanilla planets' atmospheres, to add more variety and realism to the game. This also comes with some visual changes to the atmospheres.
Hello there fellow engineers! I present to you: More Lighting Options!
With this pack you will get 10 small grid and 20 large grid Lighting and companion blocks. They have full build states, LODs, and are recolorable. Modular Street light parts, ceiling lights, Alert Condition blocks, Multispectral sensor that currently functions as a searchlight turret - and more!
This small mod adds homing capabilities to vanilla 200mm missiles and makes them follow the locked target.
The specific block that is targeted on the locked grid is a random systems block (no armor) for now, with an increased priority for thrusters. Specific subsystem selection will come at a later date.
The Alkurah System is intended as an alternative to the vanilla starsystem. It's not a full scenario with an actual story, but rather something flexible that can be whatever you want.
The main difference to the vanilla starsystem is of course that instead of the vanilla planets this world uses modded planets that I made over the past two years.
Commissioned by the Inari Empire to fill the holes left by the mainline Oshika Class Cruiser, the Kochi Class is a fast missile attack craft with capability for extended border patrol and reconnaissance operations.
Compared to its older and larger cruiser counterpart, however, it lacks the same level of crew comfort which displeased some pilots who had been transferred from Oshika Class vessels.
We want to thank you for your continued work and inspiration. We will be searching, every month, for more great community additions, mods, blocks, builds. scripts, and stories. ːcozyspaceengineerscː
Have ideas on how to improve Space Engineers? Leave feedback or cast your vote on the most pressing Space Engineers topics! :desktop: https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers
Alpha 3.1 Patch Notes Playtester Note: If you are planning on finishing your current game from an earlier version, I would suggest NOT upgrading until you finish your current game, just in case anything breaks compatibility
Anima cost for leveling is now exponential. You will level up faster at the beginning, but slower later on.
Metamorphosis levels and species' Maximum levels have been adjusted to compensate for the change in Anima costs
Fixed several bugs and crashes reported by playtesters. Thanks to everyone who has submitted reports!
Along with special and unique quests for each class!
New Locations
CONTROLLER SUPPORT - The game now truly supports controllers, making proper use of each and every button.
2 New General Spells
Reverse Spell - Defensive skill-based maneuver, not applicable on EVERY SPELL and is mostly there as prep for future PVP content.
Lend Energy - Supportive Skill - Allows you to provide allies with some of your energy, boosting them while weakening you, this is buff stackable!
Details about buffs effects/stats in the hover tooltip.
Game Clock - You may now know how long is it gonna be until the next time phase (Day / Night) updates every minute.
Loot Need / Greed / Pass button - tooltip descriptions
More obvious selection in the main menu for keyboard/joystick
Players who don't respond to a match (Due to inactivity, in most cases) will no longer remain in the queue.
AFK now stops searching for a match.
Character creation now shows how classes fork to second classes.
Hotkeys on abilities now seem more like buttons
Changes
Mastery Spells have been replaced and now the level cap is back at 20.
Earthquake Radius Nerfed
Tower Lord XP Increased.
Fixes
Bug that movement is ice-like and slides when a controller is plugged in.
Issues with typing while the controller is plugged in.
Rock Spell Size
Portals in some locations were missing.
"Press E To Skip" hiding UI and blocking interaction.
Quick Dialog skipping ends up activating an old dialog decision instead of the relevant one.
"What's Up Doc?" achievement now works. (Note that old characters from EQ may not be able to complete some achievements due to migration, for example, Edgeworld Experience Connoisseur)
Halo behind characters in the main menu now looks less odd.
Bugs with crabs falling under some rocks.
Collect quests should no longer consume more than the necessary amount.
The fifth preview build of the new in-development Desktop+ version is now available.
These builds are supposed to give a glimpse into the ongoing development process. The NewUI branch should be fine for daily use if you can live with the missing features. Don't treat it as stable, however, as it just isn't. While bugs are to be expected and there are a few known issues already, feel free to report anything you find in the NewUI Preview Build bug report thread.
What is Desktop+ NewUI?
Desktop+ NewUI is what eventually will become Desktop+ 3.0. See the announcement post for the NewUI Preview Build 1 for more details.
What's new in Desktop+ NewUI Preview 5?
More Control over UI Windows ...maybe even too much control? The new Persistent UI settings allow direct control over the state of Desktop+'s UI windows and reset them if desired. Ideally, you don't really need to use this much, but in VR's 3D space there's always that one time when things just hang out in that one corner you can't see at the moment.
The Persistent UI settings also allow choosing which window's state gets restored between Desktop+ launches. By default, only the keyboard window restores its state now, but the previous behavior can be toggled right back on.
On a related note, the keyboard size found in the main Settings window page now applies changes to all window states to avoid confusion. The Persistent UI settings can be used to fine-tune them individually.
Also, keep in mind that use of these settings can usually be avoided entirely. You can adjust the size of the windows while dragging them with a VR controller (horizontal scroll or right-click gesture drag) and reset the position by holding down the UI button that brings the window up for three seconds.
Performance Settings are Back Limit overlay updates as you wish again. Slimmed up a bit for the non-advanced view. New is the option to view the overlay's update frame rate directly in the Floating UI. This also means the update rate of individual Graphics Capture overlays can be viewed.
Things to keep in mind when looking at those numbers: Overlays share a texture when using the same capture target, so the update limiter uses the maximum set limit value of the overlays of each texture. Desktop Duplication is a single shared texture, Graphics Capture is per capture target.
Desktop Duplication updates the cursor separately, independent of your display's refresh rate. If you're using a mouse with 1000 Hz refresh you may see high update rates when moving the cursor around with that. Unconstrained captures past display refresh rate are also possible with the right settings. See the User Guide for that.
On Graphics Capture overlays, the displayed frame rate will be locked at the display's refresh rate in most circumstances unless updates are limited on it. This capture method always submits a constant stream of updates, regardless of display changes.
None of the above are recent changes. I just thought they might be worth pointing at again as the displayed fps numbers may surprise some.
Other Settings Too Like the Environment Settings. Nothing too special here, though. They work the same as in the stable branch. The color picker got slight adjustments to fit the new window layout better.
Actions on the Overlay Bar It's debatable whether they belong there or not, but Desktop+ is not going to stop you. Action buttons can be enabled on the Overlay Bar in the Action Editor interface for now (proper Action settings are still missing after all). There are no actions enabled by default and I recommend not putting too many on there to avoid clutter with the actual overlay buttons. One or two don't really hurt, though.
Minor performance improvements for Desktop Duplication capture in certain configurations
Floating UI target switching can now be canceled by pointing at one of the Floating UI windows
The primary dashboard overlay is no longer used as Floating UI fallback target if the Desktop+ dashboard tab isn't visible
Fixed smooth scrolling setting not being saved/loaded
Fixed keyboard assigned overlay not adjusting when reordering or removing overlays
Fixed keyboard window close button not working when the keyboard is assigned to an overlay
Fixed UI lockup when shortening Overlay Properties window title strings in certain cases
Fixed clipped overlay updates resetting update limiter starting time
Fixed overlay intersection mask not being reset when reordering or removing overlays
Fixed "On Capture Loss: Remove Overlay" not removing all affected overlays if there are multiple of the same target
Various other minor UI fixes and adjustments
The NewUI Preview branch also includes all changes of the beta branch up until now (v.2.6.2).
The (not so anymore) new year has kept me fairly busy so far. No new fancy big features this time, sorry. Maybe next time. On the other hand, the NewUI branch is getting close to feature parity with the stable branch. Though the Action related settings very much still need to be properly implemented instead of being taped-on like they are right now. There are also some other areas where I still wanted to improve on what was previously there and not just put the same options in as-is (cropping and overlay groups for example).
We'll get there eventually. I'm not stopping at least.
And Another Thing... If you're using Desktop+ to play flatscreen games in VR, this might be of interest: Beginning of this month I released a small tool improving performance over an empty SteamVR space in this use-case, SteamVR-VoidScene. It's very specific, but it can be fairly helpful if you need a bit more GPU headroom (doesn't do much if you're not GPU-bound though). It basically serves as a totally blank environment to use SteamVR overlays in. It's nothing else... but it's good at that.
