[SirKnightly]

Please note: I'll clean this up in the next 24 hours. These changes need to be grouped (i.e. scripting, FRED, ...) to make this list less overwhelming. --ngld

Change log: (chronologically ordered)

• changed ship turnrate when following waypoints to fix a bug introduced in 20.2
• Ai_aims_from_center flag fixed (the flag didn't actually affect aiming)
• glowpoint depth removed (the depth made it possible to position the glowpoint above the hull which looked awkward)
• added $Homing Auto-Target Method: to weapons which changes heatseekers to targett a random enemy instead of the closest
• added the no collide flag for weapons which allows a modder to disable collision for specific weapons
• added Lua functions to control sounds assigned to objects (assignSound, removeSoundByIndex and removeSound)
• added ai_profiles.tbl flag $AI secondary range awareness: which can be set to aware to change AI behavior to only select secondary weapons that are in range of the AI's target
• fixed collision checks involving accelerating weapons (the check happened to late potentially missing collisions)
• fixed a bug where full shields were occasionally pierced (you'll have to enable $fixed ship-weapon collisions: in ai_profiles.tbl or set your target version to 21.4 to get the new behavior because this fix might break mission balance)
• fixed APNG misc mainhall animations (the engine only used one random animation per group instead of picking a new animation for each loop)
• implement $Substitute: for beams
• implemented type 5 beams
• added ai_profiles.tbl flag $no shield damage from ship collisions: which causes ship-ship collisions to cause hull damage instead of shield damage to the heavier ship
• added keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+S) for "Save As" in FRED
• fixed an assertion when exiting missions through scripting
• fixed scripting documentation to correctly display placeholders like <argument>
• added Lua function maybePlayCutscene to start cutscenes
• fixed shadows in briefing stages
• improved nebula poof rendering
• a negative $Hull Repair Rate can now kill the player if their health drops below 0 due to it
• fixed +Attenuation: for beams (the previous implementation didn't have the intended effect and often didn't change the damage at all)
• added +Weapon Optimum Range: for weapons which the AI will attempt to maintain while attacking (this makes it possible to tell the AI to stick close to their target or snipe from afar)
• added in-game options menu options for lightshafts and bloom
• fixed single missions in the tech room becoming invisible if their title was translated
• added time-to-goal SEXP which returns the seconds a ship will take to reach its goal
• added is-language SEXP which checks whether the game is currently running in the given language
• fixed memory leak in F3 lab
• added ballistic beams
• added new script options for sounds: OS_PLAY_ON_PLAYER (allows persistent sounds to play on the player's ship) and OS_LOOPING_DISABLED (sound plays only once even if you don't remove it later)
• fixed AI multilock aiming; the AI now has the same restrictions as the player
• added +Shield Regen Hit Delay: to ships.tbl which specifies the delay after a hit before which the shield starts regenerating
• fixed hang on debug launch if a quotation mark in a string list was missing
• fixed invalid memory access (possible crash) for model point shields with a single quadrant
• added num firepoints for burst shots burst flag for weapons which sets the amount of shots per burst to the number of firepoints used to fire the weapon
• added Lua function setVolume which allows scripts to change the volume of an audio stream
• added game_settings.tbl setting $Don't pre-empt training message voice: which forces the game to finish the training message before it plays further messages (before, new messages would interrupt training messages)
• added $Chase View Offset: and $Chase View Rigidity: to ships.tbl which allow modders to tweak the chase view for each ship
• added Draw outlines on selected ships option in FRED
• fixed handling arbitrary numbers of nebula poofs in FRED #3585 and #3584
• restricted briefing icon override to ships and added $Custom briefing icons always override standard icons: to game_settings.tbl which reverts this change #3565 and #3576
• fixed subsystem debris: the engine will no longer use the specified generic debris model for destroyed subsystems since the model is usually intended to be used for destroyed ships
• support user names that contain non-ASCII characters by forcing the engine in portable mode
• add turret info to FRED's 3D view
• fixed assert when the weapon None was selected as secondary weapon in FRED
• fixed variable replacement in briefings and debriefings for stages that modify variables in their conditions
• increased XSTR ID limit from 4 digits to 7 digits
• added option to disable reflect maps in the lab
• fixed the "add data" menu item in FRED's SEXP editor
• fixed crash caused by orphan weapons
• added weapon flag heals which will cause the weapon to heal its target instead of dealing damage
• added AmbientSnd for weapons which is emitted from the weapon itself as opposed to InFlightSnd which is played as a HUD sound
• added SEXP containers more details
• fixed culling for homing primaries (this used to break homing lasers)
• fixed AI targeting itself when hit by EMP
• added volume effect type for particle effects which spawns particles in a spherical volume (further tweaks possible through options)
• fixed $Max Missiles Locked on Player: to only apply to the player
• added self-shadows for cockpits
• added $Shadow Cascade Distances: to game_settings.tbl
• performance improvements (properly cull debris, improve matrix multiplication, reduce script overhead caused by unused script hooks, improve motion debris rendering)

Deprecations:

• script-eval has been deprecated in favor of script-eval-block
• renamed hud-set-retail-gauge-active to hud-set-builtin-gauge-active

Deprecations are a mechanism in FSO where a certain feature or aspect of the engine has changed or is no longer supported. Since this would normally break existing mods we have the mod table feature "$Target Version:" with which a mod can specify what version of FSO it was developed with. The features listed above will be removed or changed when the target version of a mod is at least the version released in this post.

Previous 21.2 Release Thread

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Cross-platform: wxLauncher 0.12.x Test Build (ongoing project for a unified launcher, you should upgrade to the latest RC/test build if you have not yet)
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Windows (32/64-bit)
Compiled using GitHub Actions on Windows Server 2019 (10.0.17763), Visual Studio Enterprise 2019

64-bit: fs2_open_21_4_0_RC1-builds-x64-SSE2.zip

32-bit: fs2_open_21_4_0_RC1-builds-Win32-SSE2.zip
This one is based on the SSE2 Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler.

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64-bit AVX: fs2_open_21_4_0_RC1-builds-x64-AVX.zip
This one is based on the AVX Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler (fastest build if your CPU supports AVX instructions).


32-bit AVX: fs2_open_21_4_0_RC1-builds-Win32-AVX.zip
This one is based on the AVX Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler.

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Linux 64-bit
Compiled with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit, GCC 5
fs2_open_21_4_0_RC1-builds-Linux.tar.gz

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Known issues:

• Github issues and pending pull requests
• See the list of Fix for next release bugs - mark a bug as an elevated priority (high, urgent, immediate) to get it included in that filter.

[Antares]

The nebula poof system overhaul on August 3 effectively turns nebulae "off." Is this something that would have to be adjusted on a per-mission basis, or can it be toggled from within FSO?

[Cyborg17]

Please post your fs2_open.log file.  Instructions on how to do this can be found in this post.

We want to take a look at your settings because we're having trouble reproducing the issue.

[Asteroth]

The lack of a proper "fogging" effect is almost certainly due to a lack of post processing, can you ensure the make sure you don't have the -no_post_proc flag on (this is a known issue, and it appears the push is to deprecate support for no post proc entirely). Regarding the poof bitmaps themselves, if that's what you were referring to, the MVP poofs have always been very wispy and subtle; the latter picture is largely what I expect to see, and more or less what you should've gotten before, although it doesn't look like there's any at all in your first picture...

I'd be interested to see a direct comparison before and after the change for you, I wasn't able to replicate anything unusual on my end.

[Antares]

I do play with post-processing turned off, as it makes the game too pretty for my integrated graphics to handle at a reasonable framerate. (For the record, I'm in the market for a newer computer with a better GPU; I'm just waiting for Black Friday to score a good deal.  )

However, that never stripped away nebular fog in the past. For comparison, here are the same missions running on the August 1 nightly:




August 1 build debug log
August 3 build debug log

[z64555]

If its the case of post-proc being turned off, it's probably related to this: https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/issues/2227

[Asteroth]

Blergh, no this is a real discrepancy. Gonna take another look at this

[Asteroth]

Antares, can you give this exe a try, and tell if you think it looks closer to the original? Hopefully Discord works well enough for hosting
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511391531827200/874436994397274173/fs2_open_21_3_0_x64_AVX-FASTDBG.7z
If you're not sure how to use a custom exe, simply save the exe wherever you like, click the dropdown on the MVPs (or whatever mod youd like to test with) go to FSO Settings, and for the build hit 'Browse' and select this exe, and don't forget to hit save at the bottom of the dialog, and then run it.

I found not 1, not 2, but 3 bugs with the old handling that were subtly "boosting" the look of poofs that were very not obvious, and result in very anemic poofs unless you specifically correct for them.

[Antares]

That still looks a little thin to me, if that's what you mean by 'wispy and subtle,' but it's definitely closer to the original than the August 3 nightlies and later (although I think Mystery of the Trinity wound up being kind of a crummy test case):

[Asteroth]

Also, just in case, ensure your nebula detail setting is at max. This value effects the total number of poofs you see where before it didn't. (it used to only make them smaller and closer at lower levels, which as far as I'm aware doesn't actually do anything to performance, but rendering less of them overall does)

[Antares]

Also, just in case, ensure your nebula detail setting is at max. This value effects the total number of poofs you see where before it didn't. (it used to only make them smaller and closer at lower levels, which as far as I'm aware doesn't actually do anything to performance, but rendering less of them overall does)

Nebula detail is already set to max.

For purposes of comparison, here's Return to Babel.

August 1:



August 3:



Your test build:

[Asteroth]

The opacity still isn't right, this might take some time to unpack wtf it was doing before. The apparent alpha you'd get out of the old system is different from what you put in, so I either need to get to bottom of why it was happening or just experimentally pick out the output values vs input values.

[Asteroth]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511391531827200/875845996976930866/fs2_open_21_3_0_x64_AVX2-FASTDBG.zip
This build has a few more adjustments, but I took another look at the flags and does appear to the case the rest of way is due to post processing. Could you turn it on at least for a little bit to confirm what poofs look like on your end with it on?

21.2 with post proc:


This build with post proc:


This build without post proc:

[Antares]

Fog of War.

Post-proc on:



Post-proc off:

[Asteroth]

Looks pretty similar to 21.2's poofs as well, so this is likely the best I can do for now. It's a shame that they are affected this way, but the fact you can still see ships through the nebula is a much bigger problem imo, but as mentioned it seems there's little appetite among the other coders for maintaining 'no post processing'.

[z64555]

So what's happening?  are the poofs not being rendered at all, different blend mode? different opacity?

If there's no way around making the poofs appear as they should, would making the distance fog thicker make up for it?

[Asteroth]

Well, as you can see, without post processing thick fog isn't going to make a difference either

[Antares]

I should note that out of all the missions I've tested, Masks (in Scroll of Antankharzim) has the best-looking nebulae. I don't know if there's any special FREDing involved, but I think it has partly to do with the contrast between the poofs and the background; Masks uses yellow poofs against a comparatively dark background, which really makes them stand out. I've noticed that most (if not all) of the canon FS2 missions use poofs that are the same color as the background, which makes them hard to see and results in the mission area looking very "empty." (Note that this does nothing to solve the problem of ship models being visible through the nebula, but oh well.)

These are from RC2: