Outerra development news

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Update of the update! 

 

Version 0.8.4.5197

• spot lights now also light up the reflector, making the lights visible better
• full lights on SM11 bus and T817 truck
• vehicle turn signals - manual (shift+A/D for left right, shift+W emergency, shift+S all off)
• light_mask and light_toggle_mask methods to manipulate multiple lights at once
• fixed glow rendering in stereo
• fixed deformed reflections on objects
• vertical mouse working in TPS with Oculus, aiming working with Oculus
• fixed location manager to exit vehicle when changing location
• fix for Nv 2xx water path shader compilation error
• lights removed when aircraft is deleted
• fixed crash if maximum number of mesh instances is reached

 

[Acetone 34]

List of the upcoming aircraft commands for keyboard control (limited for the moment).

[scotchegg 4,159]

 

 

I have a full album here

 

Incredible shots. Those clouds look gorgeous.

 

But they don't seem to be drawing shadows...?

[tonywob 4,768]

@HiFlyer

 

Any idea how much progress is being made on getting a version running on Mac OS X.

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Incredible shots. Those clouds look gorgeous.

 

But they don't seem to be drawing shadows...?

 

Nope. Still alpha with lots of work still to be done. Like god rays! I suspect when ground shadows come, it will be as an extension of the already existing shadow rendering path. (which was also noticeably refined in the recent update)

 

 

@HiFlyer

 

Any idea how much progress is being made on getting a version running on Mac OS X.

 

Not really. I suspect the jump to 64 Bit will come first.  :unsure:

[Acetone 34]

Incredible shots. Those clouds look gorgeous.

 

But they don't seem to be drawing shadows...?

 

To quote Cameni just before the release of the cloud update:

 

Anyway, even though the thing is still not finished and it's not unlikely that it will be redone differently yet, I think there will be a testable ugly version soon

 

The current version is pretty much a placeholder, they want something more detailed. Clouds distance is limited (100km), there is only one layer and no close range detail (when close to the clouds, you can clearly see the dynamic mesh generated.

I think they will focus on improving these elements before starting to work on shadows. They will probably make auto-adjusting lightning first (less ground light depending of the overcast).

 

That being said, clouds are generated from a single noise texture, so it may be more simple to create accurate shadows based on sun position

Like Hiflyer said, it's in the pipeline, like the sunshafts they announced without any ETA.

[scotchegg 4,159]

Interesting. And they've got enough paying customers to fund the future development?

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Interesting. And they've got enough paying customers to fund the future development?

 

I'm going to suspect from that question, that your eye was on other things when the TitanIm announcement was made. (And that is only one of the projects they are involved in)

 

Read up! 

 

http://outerra.blogspot.com/2014/12/titanim-outerra-based-military.html

[Acetone 34]

Interesting. And they've got enough paying customers to fund the future development?

 

From Outerra/Anteworld itself? I don't think so.

Sometimes the engine is re-discovered and there is a peak of new users. But I think the first few years were not exactly fantastic for them. I think Outerra/Anteworld sales are probably just enough to pay the servers.

 

However, TitanIM (new and only competitor to Bohemia's VBS) have licensed the engine, probably since one year of two (see the link posted by HiFlyer). We have seen the result in terms of developpement pace (the last year was really slow because they had to help the TitanIM team), but it's for the best since most of their work for this project will be integrated in Outerra later.

More importantly, it has apparently brought more financial stability to the studio, wich is proved by the fact they have been able to hire two new developpers (one working on UI, the other one on tools).

 

 

And the future? Well, they have always been cautious with the civilian simulation market, and more specifically the aviation sim one (too much competitors in a relatively small market), but they seem to slowly change their plans (and go back to their roots, Ladislav Hrabcak was a lead dev on cockpit simulators before working on Outerra). There is a really interesting sentence at the end of the TitanIM blog post:

 

 

With Outerra engine powering TitanIM, a global integrated simulation platform is possible for the first time, connecting all simulation areas - space, air, ground and water, into a single limitless world.

 

They are also talking more and more of a kickstarter dedicated to a sim platform, to gather enough funds to create a specialised team for this project. Brano has listed a number of minimum goals to reach before they launch the project:

 

Generally, for successful campaign we will need a prototype showcasing the potential and addressing the main concerns. The prototype is also needed for other developers that would want to prepare and develop early for the simulator. That means enhanced scenery tools, stuff like basic weather support, plugin support for simulation cores, 3D cockpits and instrument rendering, support for other simulator types (mainly the rails for the prototype) and more.

 

I hope they will be able to hire more people before, to accelerate at least a bit the engine progress

[scotchegg 4,159]

Thanks gents, some interesting reading. I do hope the devs can get the resources they need and it's encouraging to see the pace picking up recently/ If they do do a kickstarter and flightsim is a definite goal I'll chuck in some cash.

[HiFlyer 9,343]

I hope they will be able to hire more people before, to accelerate at least a bit the engine progress

 

Don't forget the other talented people devoting significant time, effort and talent to push things forward as well. What would the Outerra scene look like without Levis conversions, and without Bomber to help with the accuracy of his FDM's? What about Python Pagos tireless interest in creating ultra-detailed trucks? Uriah509's sudden explosion onto the scene and racing forward on just about every front?

 

Then there are Awac9's promotional efforts, (with what I swear has to be a new video every hour)

 

And AnimatedSyn's Outerra model website, plus the one from Theshanergy as well? Then there's Tonywobs generous donation of hundreds of building models.........

 

Finally, what would we fly over without your Talkeetna scenery (and your other upcoming projects?)

 

It takes a village, and that village is growing! 

[Acetone 34]

Don't forget the other talented people devoting significant time, effort and talent to push things forward as well. What would the Outerra scene look like without Levis conversions, and without Bomber to help with the accuracy of his FDM's? What about Python Pagos tireless interest in creating ultra-detailed trucks? Uriah509's sudden explosion onto the scene and racing forward on just about every front?

 

Then there are Awac9's promotional efforts, (with what I swear has to be a new video every hour)

 

And AnimatedSyn's Outerra model website, plus the one from Theshanergy as well? Then there's Tonywobs generous donation of hundreds of building models.........

 

Finally, what would we fly over without your Talkeetna scenery (and your other upcoming projects?)

 

It takes a village, and that village is growing! 

 

Yep, and the dev team seems completly aware of that

They have already proved that community content was important for them.

 

A quick anecdote: Do you noticed there was a new concrete white/grey material+yellow marking for roads since the last update?

 

I'm working on something with Uriah, and we needed this specific type of road, but to do that the only way was to replace an existing road material, wich was a problem since I needed all of these (and it would be a global modification, not good for other sceneries).

Uriah asked Cameni if there was a way to add a new road material and he kindly did it himself. He even managed to integrate yellow markings for us, wich wasn't apparently easy with the current road system

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Yes, I saw.........  :smile:

 

Right now, I'm thinking a lot about emissive textures. Cameni says support is coming, and I'm suspecting sooner rather than later. Fortunately the vast majority of Tonywobs buildings apparently reuse a lot of the same basic textures, and I'm hoping it won't be too horrible a task to retrofit them for night lighting.

 

It would be nice if Outerra cities get fully illuminated from the earliest opportunity. (and stay that way!)

 

I wanna go night flying over some fully lit areas!!

[HiFlyer 9,343]

UPDATE  B) 

 

Version 0.8.4.5323

• workaround for purple terrain driver bug on old ati cards and newer catalyst drivers
• updated MiG - lights, simple engine glow, additional skins (CZ, RU) - many thanks to Uriah for providing these
• added open "location from image" into F2 location dialog, to load GPS info from photos
• fixed spotlight orientation vector (was unable to point in Z direction)
• fixed crash on v (change seat) key
• missing texture mipmaps replaced with pink textures + warning

[HiFlyer 9,343]

OK people, we gave a bit of a situation in Outerra-land!!     

 

As some of you may know, the ease of importing models into Outerra caused a surge of contributed content from enthusiastic 3d parties. The influx has been very welcome, and garnered some welcome attention for the Outerra universe.

 

There are now at least three dedicated sites for Outterra model contributions.

 

Unfortunately, there was a problem brewing just beneath the surface, as many of these models lacked texture components that the Outerra engine expected, and this was causing performance issues that the developers needed to gave nipped in the bud.

 

Accordingly, in the last update, missing texture mipmaps were replaced with pink "Warning textures"

 

And much lamentation was heard as the world of the pink panther raged across Outerra.

 

As the situation stands at the moment, several contributors are scrambling as we speak to add the required texture components. If you are having issues, please check the various sites to see if an updated model has been released yet.

 

John514's textures for Levi' Cires Basler Turbo BT-67 have already been updated, and only require that they be re-downloaded. The links are the same. http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2539.0

 

There are many issues with content included with Acetones Talkeetna Alaska demo area and he is working to correct them as we speak. Expect to hear from him soon.

 

In the meantime, the latest updates included lights and additional liveries/features for the Mig-29! Enjoy, and stay tuned!