▼ List of changes

Major updates:

Many improvements with space ships - new functions and capabilities

New physically accurate rendering of black holes, neutron stars and white dwarves with accretion disks

Planemo (rogue planets)

Massive catalogs of binary and multiple star systems, black holes, brown dwarves

Chemical composition of planetary atmospheres

Dithering to fix banding artifacts

Reversed fp32 z-buffer: no more z-fighting, camera can approach objects up to a distance of a few centimeters

New addon installation procedure - just drop a single .pak file to the "addons" folder

Space ships:

Space ships are now rendered in interstellar space and in the Wiki preview

Implemented docking of ships with each other

Engines exhaust rendering and sound effects

Landing on planets: ships become fixed on the surface

Alcubierre warp drive physics, with HUD, controls and autopilot

Autopilot:

Flying to target using main engines (acceleration-deceleration scheme)
Flying to target using warp drive
Synchronization of the velocity with target
Holding altitude (hovering above a planet)
Target can be any celestial body or another ship
Physically-based autopilot turns
Autopilot commands in the right-click context menu (ability to give orders to remote ships)

Ability to bind warp drive power control to mouse, keyboard and joystick

Ship's warp state, autopilot state, reference body and target are saved to the config

Smooth third-person camera for the ship which is currently controlled

Newly built ship spawns with the same speed as the currently selected one

Simple ship editor: changing global parameters, adding/removing effects and modules, saving to the script

Button "Teleport here" in the Ships manager is available only in cheat mode

Buttons for "Fly here" and "Hyperjump here" commands are added to the Ships manager

Restored possibility of selecting the reference body

Ship is destroyed if reentry or landing speed is too high, or if tidal forces are too high

Hyperbolic orbits of ships are now displayed

Updated default ships

Procedural planets and stars:

New physically accurate rendering of black holes, neutron stars and white dwarves with accretion disks

Chemical composition of planetary atmospheres

Updated palettes for titans and iceworlds

Alien vegetation on titans with terrestrial life

Reduced too-common impact basins on titans and iceworlds

Suppressed mountain generation in impact basins

Random global tint of planets in shades of brown

Polar caps on cold selenas and iceworlds (Ganymede-like and Pluto-like thin frost deposit)

Animated surface of neutron stars and white dwarves

Improved rendering of late M-dwarves and brown dwarves

Smoother solar spots

Integrated Klud's mods for selenas and asteroids

Improved asteroid surface textures

Improved giant stars surface textures

Improved craters shape

New atmosphere models by HarbingerDawn

New volcanos

New cyclones on terrestral planets

New cyclones and textures on gas giants

Detail-less gas giants like Uranus

Haze-like cloud layer on cold and hot gas giants

Faint Jupiter-like rings

Fixed unrealistic rings in binary planet systems

Binary planets can have outer moons

Option to change hue and saturation of atmosphere for each planet, integrated to scripts and editor

Fixed seams in terrain textures and meshes on procedural planets

Detail specular bump mapping on planets

Astronomy:

Massive catalog of binary and multiple star systems by Cirax

Massive catalog of systems with relativistic objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarves) by Cirax

Massive catalog of systems with brown dwarves by Cirax

Integrated community catalog of binary and multiple asteroids

Added moon of Makemake

Completed Messier catalog

Updated exoplanets catalog (27 July 2016)

Added exoplanet names approved by International Astronomical Union

New textures of Mercury, Ceres, Vesta, Titan, Pluto, Charon, and Saturn rings

Milky Way's supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* and stars orbiting it

Integrated nebulae models by Bambusman, Astroniki, and Voekoevaka

Reduced brightness of some Solar System bodies

Added ability to replace procedural supermassive black hole with a catalog entry

Added ability to specify star mass, radius and temperature in the star script

Implemented planemo (rogue planets)

Implemented Y spectral class for brown dwarfs

Implemented procedural Wolf-Rayet, Carbon and Circonium stars

Implemented correct orientation of extrasolar systems (RefPlane "Extrasolar" for inclination and ascending node)

Added ability to specify locked position of a body relative to parent body with simplified script syntax (RefPlane "Static" and "Fixed")

Reduced luminosity of procedural star clusters

Updated open clusters size and star statistics

Some planets and moons can be in spin-orbital resonance (not only 1:1)

Added limit to mass of a catalog exoplanets to fix absurdly high densities

Added alternate designations for some nebulae and clusters, removed duplicates

Added rotational parameters of the Sun

Interface:

Improved ship manager with "Pack" and "Faction" filters for ships

Smooth switching of many display options and objects (labels, orbits, eclipse shadows, clouds etc)

Smooth lighting animation in the Chart mode

Updated Solar system browser:

Fictional barycenter of planetary system is not displayed
Ability to display a barycenters of binary planets
Active navigation buttons with number of satellites counter
Added ambient lighting for a rogue planet or solitary black hole systems

Updated Star browser:

New options in spectral class drop-down lists for new star classes provided
Option to hide planemo from the search result
Option to show only systems with 100% match with the filter in the search result

Updated Wiki:

Finished description editor, supported standard shortcuts like Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Shift-PgDn etc, text selection and copy/paste
Increased length of the first column in the data tables
User and default descriptions are saved to separate files
Added information about exosphere temperature, chemical composition of atmosphere, etc
Updated articles

Updated Player settings menu:

Added option to display full and abbreviated names of constellations
Added option to display radius instead of diameter for the selected object
Added option to choose pressure unit

Updated Graphics settings menu:

VSync switch is moved here from the Display menu
Added quality switch for MSAA
Added quality switches for aurora, black holes and ship warp field effect
Added "Loading speed" slider to control planet loading speed vs framerate
Maximum planet LOD is limited to +1, with the ability to set +2 in the console
Removed "Atmo from sea level" and "Atmo extinction" switches

Updated Export skybox menu:

Added image format selection
Swapped pos_z and neg_z faces
After pressing "Save", engine wait for loading/generation completeness before saving files

Updated Planet editor:

Localized interface of the Planet editor
On click for edit, too large/too small values are converted to the scientific notation (like 1.23e4)

Blinking cursor in the text edit boxes

Hints allows viewing of table cell contents if the cell is too small

Planet shine is disabled on previews in Solar System browser and Wiki

Displaying of spin-orbital resonance and solar day length of a planet

Button "Start" on Video capture dialog changes to "Stop" when video capture is in process

Planet SurfStyle can be updated in the Planet editor

Right side toolbar do not overlap the selected object's info table

Localized parent names in the Search menu

Changed colors of orbits, labels and markers of barycenters, suns and comets

Customizable colors of GUI and fonts (via skins system)

New GUI skins

Added Norwegian localization (by username6)

Updated localizations

Controls:

Swapped default rotate CW/CCW keys

Camera motion mode or controlled ship is restored after closing of the Map Mode

Added ability to cancel autopilot "Warp to" and "Fly to" commands

Smooth camera rotations in Free mode, adjustable in user.cfg

Camera in spacecraft/aircraft mode is stopped after using "Go to" autopilot

Catalogs and file system:

Accelerated pak files loading

Changed directory structure - "data" and "addons" folders are provided, which have identical internal structure (textures, models etc subfolders) and work in parallel

"addons" folder can have custom subfolders inside, which also work in parallel to "data" and "addons" folders

New addons/mods installation procedure - just drop a single .pak file to the "addons" folder or to the any custom subfolder inside it

Duplicate entry of any object in a catalog file updates/patches the older entry (entry in older file) - no need to edit default catalog files to install a patch or mod

Automatic search for catalog files through default directories - no need to edit the universe.cfg to install a catalog patch, mod or addon

Automatic search for galaxy/nebula model scripts through default directories - no need to edit the models.cfg to install a model patch, mod or addon

Automatic search for atmosphere model scripts through default directories - no need to edit the atmospheres.cfg to install a model patch, mod or addon

Shaders, music and sounds are moved into the "data" folder; overriding by corresponding file in the "addons" folder is possible

csv file format for galaxy catalog

Local group galaxies are moved into separate catalog file, others are converted to csv

Added Lum and Luminosity parameters for the nebulae, clusters and galaxies script

Added AlbedoBond and AlbedoGeom parameters for planet scripts

Advanced catalog error logging: typing file name and line number where error was detected, ability to change behaviour globally or per catalog file

Improved star solver: calculating missing parameters for catalog star using the provided ones, now works for multiple stars

Automatic creation of directories to save config/script file if they don't exist

Changed config file structure and behavior: user settings are not overwritten by new patches

Engine:

All shaders are moved to OpenGL 3.3+ core profile

Implemented multi-sampling anti-aliasing (MSAA)

Rendering in equirectangular spherical projection

Optimized and updated GUI rendering and skins system

Optimized labels and markers rendering

Label rendering for selected object is independent of distance and brightness

Markers rendering in correct order: markers of closer objects can be visible in front of farther objects

Labels and markers for ships

Implemented custom defines for glsl shaders, some similar shaders are merged into a single file

Separate shader cache folders for each driver version

Separate files for saving default and user locations

Changed format of locations config

Added cvars for planets lighting dimming magnitude and secondary lighting limit magnitude

Added StereoIPD parameter to the config

Stars and planets does not disappear when galaxies are switch off

Exposure doesn't affect labels

Exposure doesn't affect GUI in Oculus Rift mode

New object selection method for Oculus Rift

Updated to Oculus 0.8 runtime

Separate buffers for left and right pass in stereo modes

Improved quality of elliptical galaxies rendering

Internal time representation is changed to 64.64 fixed point type

Improved quality and performance of the logarithmic z-buffer

Implemented reversed floating point z-buffer:

Rendering orbital paths with proper order with planets and ships
Fixed z-fighting issues on water and clouds
Allows placing the camera up to few centimeters from a planetary surface or space ship
Support via GL_ARB_clip_control for OpenGL 4.5+ drivers (including Intel HD 4600+)

ClipHeight is moved to main.cfg and changed automatically based on reversed depth buffer support at first launch

Improved stability at 4k+ screen resolution

Atmosphere models are managed by the memory manager

Music player working in a separate thread

Faster reloading of terrain generator shaders by Ctrl-F5 (only for selected planet's class)

Improved terrain tiles culling algorithm - slightly less VRAM is needed to load a planet

Added limit for size of a non-loaded planetary systems (optimization for Sun neighbourhood)

Fixed colorizing of the stars lens flares by orbital path lines (only in reversed/logarithmic depth buffer mode)

Switch between impostor and fullscreen FBO is occurred at matched resolution

Bugfixes:

Fixed planetary rings brightness in the "real planet brightness" mode

Fixed holes in planetary surface where lava flows should be

Fixed wrong terrain LOD calculation on small screens

Fixed Pluto system orientation

Fixed some bugs in planet script exporting

Fixed black stain artifact on a planet surface

Reduced cyclone cutting probability

Fixed lags when changing FOV

Fixed changing of a planet particle size when changing FOV

Fixed climate smoothing on planets with a thick atmosphere

Fixed clouds lighting in thin atmospheres

Fixed too many cloud layers on planets with thin atmosphere

Fixed bug with sun shining through the ocean

Fixed change of the display mode and refresh rate at SE startup

Fixed a lot of stars with wrong/error stellar class in the star catalogs

Fixed over 400 duplicated galaxy names in the galaxy catalogs

Fixed camera velocity indicator

Fixed star motion blur when changing distance with left + right mouse drag

Fixed star motion blur for ships in hyperspace

Fixed some bugs with automatic ships hyperjump

Wiki descriptions now correctly display tabulations

Fixed specular spot on ships

Fixed specular spot on Oceanias

Fixed visual artifacts with atmosphere and water on Oceanias

Fixed atmosphere height on tidally heated worlds

Fixed too small atmospheres height on gas giants

Fixed sudden stopping of ship rotation when changing orbital orientation mode

Fixed blinking LOD of a planet when Wiki is opened

Fixed Overbright slider initialization in the Magnitude/brightness settings menu

Fixed blurring of slider handle texture

Fixed bug with invisible velocity pointer text

Fixed crash on opening Chart mode for the not currently visible system

Fixed wrong animation of the currently followed planet in the Chart mode

Fixed localization change in the Chart Mode

Fixed camera offset in the Chart mode while animation is in progress

Fixed camera collision detection with moons in Chart mode

Fixed incorrect saving of rendering options when exit program while Chart Mode is opened

Fixed continuous execution of ship's autopilot command "Retrograde"

Fixed render of orbits in the Map mode

Fixed bug with infinite radius of black holes, neutron stars and white dwarves

Fixed artifacts with black hole and ship warp effect in stereo modes

Fixed wrong camera positioning at program startup

Fixed pushing camera up while loading location on a planetary surface

Fixed camera pushing when landing on planet with Left+Right mouse drag

Fixed wrong calculation of orbital period of catalog binary stars

Fixed crash on building a ship in interstellar space

Fixed sprites rendering order in nebulae

Fixed extreme apparent magnitude of a comet nucleus if camera or ship is close to it

Fixed throttle and correction engines controls by joystick

Fixed switching ship's behind camera when planet is selected

Fixed smooth fade in of the selection pointer

Fixed orientation of the ship's orbit relative to moons

Fixed ship's orbital position calculation

Fixed ship's "Horizon" orientation command

Fixed bug with phase calculation for planets and ships

Fixed inability to change ship's hyperfactor if engines are off

Fixed autopilot warp to star systems

Fixed ship's gravity acceleration display

Fixed procedural stars generation in dwarf galaxies

Fixed rings blending with clouds and atmosphere

Fixed seam artifact in rings

Fixed star sprite in barycenters

Fixed star density in Milky Way

Fixed various rendering bugs in the Map Mode

Fixed planet particles rendering in front of water/clouds

Fixed foreground labels rendering in front of planets

Fixed instability in orbit solver for hyperbolic orbits

Fixed bug with sudden camera rotation when collide with terrain

Fixed star counter in galaxies

Fixed always off VSync in main menu

Fixed bug with clouds height of catalog stars

Fixed bug with broken Milky Way model

Fixed bug with wrong ships positions after program start

Fixed brown dwarf illumination by other stars in a system

Fixed comet tail cutoff

Fixed object name text goes outside preview area in Wiki

Fixed bug with wrong generation of a star rotation period in multiple catalog systems

Fixed bug with catalog stars not being properly overwritten by new entries

Fixed bug with wrong galaxy sysmodel loading after cache cleaning

Fixed bug with no procedural nebulae generated in Irr galaxies

Fixed sudden appear/disappear of nebula model when distance changed

Fixed camera motion direction after using of tracking

Fixed offset between terrain texture and mesh, gaps in terrain on small bodies

Completely fixed seams in the terrain textures and mesh

Fixed transparency of the interface in Fish eye mode

Fixed bug with name of barycenter of binary planet

Fixed bug with ability to select "invisible" stars and planets in the star clusters

Fixed comet tail and star corona brightness in the autoexposure mode

Fixed bug with not loading of some planet's shaders (missing previews in the Solar System Browser, transparent planets etc)

Fixes some ship models

Fixed asteroids terrain

Fixed rayed craters

Restored narrow features on gas giant's clouds

Fixed missing procedural red giant stars

Fixed behaviour of the engines thrust sliders when time flow is reversed

Fixed bug with ship's real speed in interstellar flight is 2 times faster than expected

Fixed ships flight state (interstellar/interplanetary) in catalog star clusters

Fixed too big oblateness of some supergiant stars

Fixed bug with rendering of galaxies with ModelBright different from 1

Fixed crashes on AMD/ATI cards at startup

Fixed broken textures/mipmaps on AMD/ATI cards

Fixed ship models non-loading in Interleaved mode

Fixed non-loading of textures of rings, lens flares, ships and galaxies at program startup or at high load

Fixed inability to select a procedural planet if catalog planets are disabled

Fixed freezes on Earth and other real planets with huge texture packs

Fixed flipped saving of png images

Fixed incorrect shader code generation for warm and hot oceania

Fixed bug in atmosphere scattering precomputing code (broken atmosphere models)

Fixed bug with reading coordinates of Mintaka and other stars in DMS format with D between -1 and 0

Fixed ' character typed in the console when it opened

Fixed changing of the camera velocity then typing + or - character into any edit box

Fixed bug with solar eclipses not affecting planet brightness in "Super" Planet shine

Fixed bug with loading/generating of incorrect galaxy sprite model

Fixed seams in nebula skybox

Fixed a bug with rendering of a black squares instead of star sprites on Intel HD in stars style mode "points"

Fixed blinking of ship star-like particles

Fixed bug with Map mode if camera tracked some object before entering the Map Mode

Fixed disappearing of the value labels near sliders in the Planet editor

Fixed a bug with incorrect star/planet counter in the Star browser table

Fixed scorched asteroid moon bug

Fixed missing OpenGL version check and crash on initialization on systems with no graphics driver (generic Windows driver)

Fixed artifacts (precision issues) with zero-phase glare, detail textures and water specular then camera is close to the planet surface

Fixed brightening of the planet surface then camera is close to it

Fixed autoexposure then sun is occluded by a planet

Fixed star spectral class initialization in the Planet editor

Fixed crash on entering Planetarium if no catalogs was loaded

Fixed object filter checkboxes if no catalogs were loaded (fully procedural Universe is possible)

Fixed precision issues with eclipse shadows

Fixed too high mass of procedural brown dwarves and supergiant stars

Fixed colliding binary stars

Fixed a bug with not showing a planet if system's center wasn't in the field of view at least once

Fixed a bug with file system data not being updated when a pak file is renamed, deleted, or added

Fixed swapped palettes of cool, cold and frozen gas giants

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