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Did you happen to catch what recently got dropped on Steam? Why our old friend, Descent: Freespace. But where is FreeSpace 2 you ask? Worry not, it's on its way.
So what did we get done with last month in anticipation of all of this.
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A campaign release! At long last! BlackWolf and his swarthy team have released their first episode of Frontlines! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87519.0) Anyone who loved the FreeSpace 1 feel of things, this is a must play.
And a campaign re-release! Droid803 and his minions have put out an update to Dimensional Eclipse. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87664.0) It includes lots of bug fixes, balance changes and support for the 2014 Mediavps!
And Lepanto's got another mission of his Blue Planet: Battle Captains (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86706.msg1732713#msg1732713) experience out. Enjoy the lumbering might of the Orion as you tear apart the Shivan hordes with its many large beams.
If the bright outside isn't your thing, then why not go re-enjoy the classic Shrouding the Light (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87553.0), originally by Blaise Russel, brought back to perfection by Macfie!
And also by Lepanto is a preview for his own campaign, After Capella (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87648.0), which I am guessing… takes place after Capella goes kablooey. (Spoilers!)
BTA's also got a new campaign announcement for his Dusk Wars series, Side Arcs. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87512.0) It's got pretty screenies and everything!
And finally Rheyah's got some more updates and fluffy text for your to enjoy for his Shetland mod. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85125.msg1747092#msg1747092) You're killing us here with all this temptation!
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by niffiwan
The 3.7.2 Release Candidate (RC) phase has now started! Both RC1 and RC2 were released during the month, go grab RC2 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87656.0) and road test your favourite campaign. I should also note that nightly builds will continue through this RC phase, the main difference to normal is that feature requests are much less likely to be added to the RC branches, especially large features or features that don't directly relate to a hosted mod.
Anyway, on with the normal spiel; here's a list the new features which have been committed to trunk in the last month. These will all be in the latest Nightly Builds (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=173.0). Check them out if you're feeling brave or are developing mods, or if you just want to help with testing. Just remember that the nightlies also have the latest bugs as well as the latest features (but hey, it's better to find bugs in a nightly build than in the next release!)
New features! (should be less of these, and more squashed bugs)
- Add support for countermeasures that will pull aspect seekers away from their previous targets - m!m (apart from the obvious, it allows capship mounted countermeasures to effectively decoy bombs)
- z64555's debug console (heaps of ways to tweak / inspect the engine state while its running. May have some sharp edges... :)
Here's the current bugs scoreboard. The bugs on mantis have... gone up slightly (boo!). And there's more Coverity issue outstanding as well... hrmmm... well there's always next month! Right, coders?!? :D (to be fair, there were a lot of new bugs found at the end of the month)
| | fixed | new | delta | outstanding |
| Coverity (this month) | 10 | 14 | 4 | 439 |
| Mantis (last 30 days) | 10 | 17 | 7 | 192 |
In other news, the new FreeSpaceInstaller has been officially released (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87537.0)! This should make it much easier for everyone (newcomers and veterans alike) to install FSO mods, and even Freespace2 retail from a GOG installation .exe. Kudos to Goober5000 for seeing this over the finish line. If there's a particular mod that you'd like to see added to the installer, either post in the linked thread or have a friendly word with the mods author.
Arising from a discussion about Occulus Rift support, m!m implemented FSO support for the Freetrack API (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87442.msg1746958#msg1746958). Now, I just need to get around to buying a webcam (etc) for my PC... and integrating LinuxTrack... (ok, so it may be a while before I'm using it :))
Swifty has updated his deferred lighting and shadow builds (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87121.msg1749095#msg1749095), now 132% less likely to drive your framerate into the nearest supernova. Go marvel at the poisson sampled shadowy goodness (and provide feedback about any issue encountered).
And that's about it for this month. It's been quiet... :nervous:
Axem would just like to pop in and put a shout out to himself for this preview of a Visual Novel style conversation script! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=74794.msg1749089#msg1749089) Coming eventually to a anime-themed mod near you!
Also that FreeSpace RTS Script (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81590.msg1750152#msg1750152) isn't quite dead yet! Admiral MS just found a way to reduce that nasty not-so-friendly fire.
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Fightermedic gives us another intense preview of his corvette with 200(!) destroyable sub-objects (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85236.msg1747961#msg1747961) plus capital ship turning thrusters. INSANE. He's also got a science ship in the works for you nerdy times.
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/fightermedic_ship2.png)
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/fightermedic_science.jpg)
Betrayal is helping out Bryan See with his SC Raguel HTL, (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87298.msg1748530#msg1748530) and its coming out pretty nicely. I especially like the scary instruments of pain coming out of that thing's back side!
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/raguel2.jpg)
Bryan See meanwhile has started another new Shivan ship, The SuperRavana-esque SBs Sariel (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87562.msg1748409#msg1748409). I can already see it eating Terran and Vasudan ships up for breakfast.
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/superravana.jpg)
Lepanto's a busy guy! He's doing all that FRED-work and he still has time to do some work on his creepy crawly Geryon Shivan freighter! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85835.msg1749289#msg1749289) It looks full of NOPE.
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/geryon.jpg)
A long time ago, in a forum far far away, BrandX started the near impossible task of building the greatest Imperial Star Destroyer for FreeSpace ever. Well he's been real busy lately, so zookeeper has continued work on it (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=60266.msg1749296#msg1749296) and man, does it look amazing.
(http://swc.fs2downloads.com/media/screenshots/Capships/Star_Destroyers/ISD/zoo/wip2.jpg)
And while we're on the topic of Star Wars, Rhettro's got some more updates on his Assault Gunboat! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85097.msg1747218#msg1747218) Definitely looking nice.
http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/assaultgunboat.jpg[/img]
And meanwhile, in Scooby's workshop, he's gone mad with science as he's merging animals to give you the Bearcat. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82639.msg1749775#msg1749775) Or maybe it's actually a space fighter. Either way, crazy work as always!
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/bearcat.jpg)
And the adventures of Cahdoge's space galleon continues! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86863.msg1748541#new)
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/cahdogegalleon.jpg)
Over in MediaVP-land, DahBlount's got some nice looking polygons of the explosive Zephyrus (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87188.msg1747985#msg1747985) going. Dat gas.
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/zeph.jpg)
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Nothing this month I'm afraid! I had stuff planned, but had to put it off. Next month I'll have something cool. So let's highlight a pretty cool tutorial post by The Dagger about using the Cycles renderer in Blender to make nice looking baked glowmaps.
Cycle Baking Tutorial! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87535.0)
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by mjn.mixael
Last month's theme was Desolation. This really brought out some creative shots.
tnathan475 submitted three fantastic images.. But in the end, I really loved this one.
(http://hard-light.net/wiki/images/RScreen0130.jpg)
First runner up was MPez's cool shot near the sun. (http://oi59.tinypic.com/27ymyj6.jpg)
Screencap Scoreboard:
Ckid - 1
Mpez - 2
AndrewofDoom - 1
tnathan475 - 1
As a reminder, we're going to do things slightly differently this year. Our many campaigns are filled with emotional ups, downs, and/or lackthereof. So we'll highlight that with a whole year's worth of emotional themes. I don't care what's in the image as long as it portrays the particular feeling for the month.
The new theme for June is Anticipation.
Watch those HUD gauges (especially that sneaky FPS gauge) and check out the Screencam Script (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82173.0) to help you win a badge and bragging rights. You can see the rules and the previous winners here on the Wiki (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Screencap_Contest).
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Let's have a moment to look at the original FRED and all the sexps they used to make that first game.
(http://lazymodders.fsmods.net/hlpnewsletter/2014/06Jun/fs1sexps.jpg)