We've just deployed a new update to our beta branch (check out "opting into beta" instructions at bottom of post)! We've added our first "Flight School" scenario, which takes you through basic controls, take-off, and landing. We'd love your thoughts and feedback, please try this out. Note that the voice recordings are from one of our devs to feel out the dialog, we'll be replacing them with professional voice acting shortly. The scenario is named: "Tutorial 1 - Intro to Flying"
General Changes Since 0.5.3.0 (last beta branch):
- Adds "Intro to Flight" scenario (please test this!)
- Adds VR keyboard which appears when you tap into a textbox in VR
- Adds wind sound, several sound fixes
- Fixes several issues with loading stutter
- Greatly improves simulator startup speed
- Improves speed of terrain loading. Not done yet, but it's harder to outpace the terrain loader when flying fast
- Fixed several aircraft systems bugs
- Sim no longer hangs when audio devices are unplugged
- Helicopters are now properly affected by wind/gusts
- Several fixes to Steam installation process
Changes since 0.5.0.0 (last public release):
- Adds internal night-lighting to all aircraft
- Positional yoke now supports all settings/features that rotational yoke does (under Settings -> VR)
- Default is now hold-trigger-to-hold-yoke, as we found "Tap on" / "Tap off" could be a little confusing for new users. Still easy to turn on from Settings -> VR
- Some performance improvements
- Some improvements to stutter during scenery loading
- Fixes memory leak which occurs after opening moving map
- Fixes CPU usage bug which occurred after opening and closing moving map
- Fixes crashes caused by corrupt texture files
- Yoke/collective are now grabbable via "Tap on" / "tap off". Hold your controller close to the yoke, press and release the trigger once. The yoke will stay highlighted and you can control it. Press and release trigger a second time to let go! You can change this to the hold behavior from "Settings -> VR" and unchecking "Use Tap-On/Tap-Off Yoke Hold"
- You can now grab the yoke using a "grip" gesture. On Vive controllers press one of the grip buttons, on Oculus Touch squeeze both the trigger button and the grip button below it simultaneously. This will hold the yoke from the palm of the hand rather than the finger-tip.
- Fixes MD530F collective grabbability
- Adds a setting to turn off rudder control from vr yoke/collective grab. Settings -> VR -> VR Yoke Controls Rudder
- Adds a setting to leave the yoke where it is when you let go, rather than snapping back to center (Settings ->VR -> Retain VR Yoke Position)
- Adds sensitivity sliders for yoke control to Settings -> VR.
- Hands are no longer blindingly bright at night
- Tooltips/interaction bubble are now visible at night
- Propeller and mixture levers now "multi-grabbable"
- File -> Record Video now records to MP4, and you can include audio or menus to your videos
- Engine sounds now go away when engines are shut off
- Fixed friction bug, helicopters can now get "light on their skids"
- Fixes turn-coordinator ball bug
- Improves 717 VR interaction and switch coverage
- Adds UDP socket capabilities to scripting. Contact me if you're interested
- Fixes B55 Fuel Flow gauge
- Adds SDK APIs to parse XML from strings, create strings from XML
Opting into beta
By default, the Updater will revert you to the latest public release! To opt into closed-beta updates (newest features, less stable):
1. Turn on Debugging Tools from "Help -> About -> Usage Options"
2. Open "Debugging Tools -> Debug Diagnostics"
3. Expand "Debug Options"
4. For "Updates URL" specify "https://cdn.flyinside-fsx.com/SimLatest.ClosedBeta/" (the final slash is important)
5. Restart your sim
6. Use "Sim -> Check for Updates" - It should show a prompt for version 0.5.3.5 currently
Thanks!
Dan