Features Introduced in Oolite 1.88

Welcome to Oolite 1.88. Features introduced in this latest stable version:

• Much improved lighting system and graphics enhancements
• New look for planets and atmospheres
• Support for up to four joysticks and flight control improvements
• Scripting and AI improvements, optimizations, quality of life improvements and bug fixes

Much improved lighting system and graphics enhancements

The entire lighting system has been reworked for this version. Oolite now has physically accurate specular lighting for all ship entities. Furthermore, the materials system has been upgraded to enable creation of materials utilizing the capabilities of the new GGX lighting system and generate materials previously not possible.

But that's not all. Effect entities can now make use of opacity and this opens a whole new world of possibilities when designing visual effects. The screens below show examples of the new graphics system in action and make use of expansion packs for demonstration purposes.

New look for planets and atmospheres

Planets and atmospheres have received a visual upgrade and look better than ever in version 1.88. The planets are also subject to the new lighting system improvements and atmospheres utilize completely new and revised shaders.

Support for up to four joysticks and flight control improvements

In v1.88 we have responded to requests for a higher number of joysticks in the game. Users wanting to play with a HOTAS and pedals can now do so. Oolite will support up to four joysticks instead of the two we had up to now. Mouse wheel support is another part of the control system that has received notable improvements in this version.

Scripting and AI improvements, optimizations, quality of life improvements and bug fixes

In this version combat has become just a little bit more challenging with AI that deploy more complex defence patterns and can even decide to make desperate attacks when fleeing. Scripting additions have concentrated mostly on mission screens for this version, while at the same time new scripting properties have been introduced for the chart screens and the ship's scanner. For the Windows port, multiple monitor support is now considered complete and DPI scaling is fully supported also for multiple screens.

Read the Oolite Bulletins announcement and get the complete log of Oolite 1.88 changes from the GitHub repository.