Starship Simulator - Change Log

--- Helm ---
• Fixed the button sizes/layout on the Helm console.
• Fixed the text colour on the Helm console.
• Stopped the Helm screens from stealing the keyboard focus. They only capture focus when the mouse is on the actual input boxes now.

--- Sensors ---
• Fixed the button sizes/layout on the Sensors console.
• Capped the target list on the Sensors panel to 100 entries for performance. I'll later add filters so distant objects of interest are not lost.
• Sped up the UI navigation between sector ranges.
• Fixed the sensors staying on "Scanning..." when no targets are in range. Added "No Targets In Range" text instead to make that more obvious.

--- Holo-Display ---
• Fixed the Local Sector holo-display from crashing the engine. The stars will temporarily all be the same colour until I can convert the system to Niagara.
• Updated the Holo-Display so that it now uses the actual density map when rendering the galaxy.
• Fixed the displayed location of the ship on the galaxy map, because it wasn't quite right. It's now pixel-accurate and also includes the z-axis.
• Solved an issue causing stars to not be rendered when the ship is located in the corner of a sector. Turns out I failed to think diagonally.

--- Galaxy Gen ---
• Updated the galaxy-gen code to be more efficient and to generate a 150ly sphere around the ship instead of only 8 sectors. This is for "real stars out the window" later.
• Fixed a long running bug that stops sectors generating properly when crossing from + to - coordinates.
• Updated the galaxy density map to be more detailed. This will create more variety in stellar density as you move around the galaxy.
• Sector density now takes the Z-axis into account, with less stars being generated the higher/lower you go. The galactic disk is 10 sectors (1000ly) thick.

--- Ship Flight ---
• Increased the base speed of the ship to 10,000,000C. Maybe too fast? Play testing needed.

--- Misc ---
• Moved a number of critical functions to a new event-driven system to reduce cross-dependencies and modularise the code more effectively.
• Enabled Vulkan support on the UE5 build.

• Fixed bug 249 - Engineering lower deck stair case Issue
• Fixed bug 244 - Ship position on galaxy map depends on previous mode
• Fixed the bridge controls no longer working when very far from the surface of a gas giant.
• Fixed the atmospheric worlds not having visible atmospheres sometimes.
• Fixed the planet-gen so water worlds can only appear when the planet temperature is compatible with liquid water. Some previously frozen water worlds are now ice planets, and some very hot water worlds are now rocky planets with atmospheres.
• The settings menu has been updated.
• The multiplayer menu now immediately scans for sessions when clicked.
• Began the great Bridge overhaul of 2022. Still very much WIP at the moment.
• Reworked the temporary Helm controls so it all makes a bit more sense.
• Added a debug control that allows testers to instantly teleport to the current nav target.
• Added the ability to manually target any spatial location in the galaxy. The input box will automatically start accepting an input when your crosshair is over it, which is slightly annoying, but only a temporary solution until the Helm controls are modelled properly.
• Added basic descriptions to all of the exoplanets for when you scan them.
• Improved the lava-planet generation so they have more surface lava the hotter they are.

• Fixed the warp-entry code so that the current environment is now properly unloaded for all players.
• Updated the warp-exit code so that it now properly calculates the correct scale and brightness for the local star no matter where you are within a system.
• Updated the planetary atmosphere code so that it now takes the current star's light temperature into account.
• Updated the planetary procedural generation code so that it now applies more realistic colouration to surface water.
• Updated the planetary procedural generation code so that the clouds now take the local star's light temperature into account.
• Updated the planetary procedural generation code so that a planet's atmospheric density now properly adds to its overall temperature due to greenhouse effects. All planets with an atmosphere will now be slightly warmer, with the main affect being that a lot of frozen water worlds are no longer frozen.
• Adjusted the collision response on the bridge consoles to stop NPCs walking through them.
• Various tweaks and fixes to the warp code.

• Fixed the format of the Current Target text so that it's consistent with all other coordinate displays.
• Optimised the ship's autopilot code, which should stop the ship "flapping around" when the FPS is low.
• Changed the way warp slowdown works by having it be relative to your targeted destination instead of distance to the central star. This means flying through a system no longer feels like dragging the ship through treacle, and you'll only slow down when you approach your actual target. It also now eases into the slowdown more smoothly, and makes it far more practical to fly the ship manually at warp.
• Fixed the ship Pitch/Roll/Yaw controls becoming sluggish after exiting warp.
• Tweaked the autopilot so it faces the current target more smoothly both in and out of warp.
• Added a vertical-limit on star location generation to make the display fit the bridge better (Sometimes targeted stars would be in the ceiling or under the floor).

• Cleared off about 50% of the existing bug tickets because they mostly related to unfinished content. I was losing sight of the genuine bugs.
• Fixed the Resume Game button on the pause/escape menu.
• Definitely fixed player names in multiplayer.
• Added the ability for all players to use the helm console, with the ship movement now replicating smoothly to everyone.
• Added two additional Magellan Classes to crash into (for science). Left one is static, right one is movable.
(The movable one's location loses sync with clients after ramming it. Working on a fix.)
• Updated the Main Menu a bit to try out a different layout. Still seeking the sweet spot.

• Built a new Generic Prop parent actor, which will provide all the required functionality to prop items on the ship.
• Added a few Pumpkin props to the ship to celebrate Halloween. They are the only props using the new parent actor so far.
• Built a new system for replicating button presses on the UI screens to all players in multiplayer. I still need to add it to all buttons.
• The server host's electrical-system wattage should replicate to all players. (Only the wattage, not the button states yet)
• Fixed players being able to see their own names.
• Potentially fixed the wrong player names showing in multiplayer.
• Potentially fixed player names not facing the camera properly.
• MinerSkills has been working on a new Main Menu for the game, which is now live on this build. (Still WIP)

• Optimised the rendering of interface panels around the ship.
• Tweaked a few additional render settings to improve performance.

• Added new raised walkways and railing around the Reactor Room
• Added new stairs to the Reactor Room
• Added new wall panels to the Reactor Room
• Added new lighting panels to the Reactor Room (still WIP)
• Replaced the temporary deck-distributor mesh with a proper one.
• Replaced the temporary main-distributor mesh with a proper one.
• Added the main vertical HVAC conduit in the reactor room.
• Updated the Reactor Room structural framework.
• Repositioned all of the Reactor Room electrical cabling.
• Tweaked a few things for performance.

- Completely overhauled the Reactor Room and built what is now much closer to the final vision for the room.
- Made various performance improvements

• Wrote a custom tool for building HVAC conduit.
• Added new lighting to the maintenance tunnels and wired it all up.
• Wired up all corridor lighting on the ship.
• We're now up to 6.8km of electrical cabling and 5.2km of HVAC conduit.

• Updated the cable sparks to appear randomly anywhere along the length of the cable.
• Updated the older electrical devices so that they report their connected state properly.
• Optimised the repair location of all the cabling in the reactor room to stop NPC's getting stuck.
• Added some NPC debug text above their name so we know what they're trying to do.
• Adjusted the electrical buzz volume and falloff range on a number of devices.
• Updated the electrical equipment so the UI screens now turn off when the device has no power.
• Fixed the weapon projectiles not hitting the stair lights properly.

- Improved the location of the wire sparks and generally optimised how it works.
- Added NPC repair locations to all the wiring on the ship, so the Engineers will fix them now.
(The wiring in the upper maintenance tunnels still needs the repair points fine tuning)
- Modelled several more connector types for the electrical cables.
- Cabled up the main stairwell and added repair points for the NPC Engineers. This now brings the cabling total to 4.39km.
- As a point of interest, the ship now has 291 live LED panels drawing 5.82kw of energy.

- Updated the lights so they properly respond to the available wattage.
- Fixed some issues with the weapon projectile.
- Enabled projectile collision and damage on the cables.
- The cable lighting will change colour based on amount of damage. Green > Amber > Red > Off.
- Cable damage will now affect the performance of the cable (cutting out, etc)
- Cables will now spark when damaged.

- Added a further 64m of live cabling, bringing the total up to almost exactly 400m.
- Made a number of new connectors for the cabling, along with some junction boxes.
- Added LOD's to all of the cabling and connectors.
- Added new wall screens in the Ring 1 corridor that show your current location. The F Deck map is duplicated on all decks right now, but I'll update that soon.
- Added the corridor light switch functionality to the new wall screens (disabled at the moment - will fix for next build).
- Updated the Ring 1 spaceframe sections to incorporate both the new screens and the attachment points for the cable boxes.
- Wired up all of the Ring 1 corridors on decks B through G.

- The ship now has 322m of live cabling.
- Experimented with various wiring routes for the lights before deciding on the most efficient one.
- Wired up all of the lights on G Deck
- Ran into, and then fixed various logic issues with the lighting circuits.
- Optimised the logic surrounding "link down" detection for the various pieces of hardware.
- Largely re-wrote most of the electrical transmission code. It's much smoother now.
- Cleared all but two warnings that are cropping up during the project build.
- Fixed a lot of the labelling on various devices.

- Finished off the code for the main distribution panel (aside from the load balancer)
- Built a new Distributior for the individual decks. This is the last one!
- Made a new interface screen for the new Distributor.
- Replaced the scratches on the interface glass with fingerprint smudges, which makes more sense and looks nicer.
- Made a test light for checking that the voltage is reaching the end-devices.
- Checked electrical flow end-to-end... it works!
- Added the first few lights on G Deck to the new infrastructure via a little switch box in the wall.
- Started the looong job of adding all the wiring for the corridor lighting.

- Re-made the first distributor panel to keep it consistent with all the other panels.
- Designed and then re-designed a panel for the Main Distribution Frame.
- Finished most of the coding for the Main Distribution Frame, which is now happily accepting
the live feed from the Battery Aggregators.
- Started experimenting with how and where to run the per-deck cable risers.
- There's now just one final device to be implemented (per-deck isolators) before we can start hooking up the lighting to the batteries! Well, that and running miles of cable.

- Built 8 Battery Charge Controllers and installed them in the maintenance tunnels.
(They still need a proper UI, the current one is a WIP)
- Laid temporary cabling to connect the chargers to the 4 battery busses.
- Added temporary lighting to all of the maintenance tunnel sections.
- Tweaked the framework cull distances in the maintenance tunnels.
- Cleaned up various parts of the electrical system code.
- Added the ability to press Alt+E to enable visual debugging of the electrical circuitry.
- Fixed the "Teleport to Bug" feature so that you are facing the bug properly (it was backwards).