v805

v805 is live now, a couple of days later than planned so I'm blaming 'Brexit' and the England football team. Two major shocks in a few days ain't good :(

Updates in v805 include:

• Rearward roll without brakes fixed
• Control and Shift added to keyboard inputs
• MFD button positions improved
• Cockpit clickable items added (animated switches to follow in a later update)
• Flaps
• Water
• Gear
• Autopilot
• Upfront display keypad (functionality to follow)
• Cockpit fuel panel info drum digits added
• Fuel burn enabled
• Water injection doubles fuel burn
• Cockpit engine panel info drum digits added
• MFD display of waypoints
• HUD display of waypoints
• WP Heading bug/marker
• WP position display
• WP range and index
• New control input, WINC (waypoint increment)
• New control input AG Bomb Pickle (functionality enabled in 806)
• HUD AoA using alpha symbol (instead of infinity)
• Assignment of WPs in mission planner to wingmen
• wingmen will follow route (improved functionality in 806)

Plans for v806

• Bug fixes/feature requests
• Commands to wingmen will be completed for 806, almost made it in for 805
• Mission Planner
• individual aircraft Payloads, Fuel, Water
• Waypoint node altitude, speed
• Waypoint node type
• transit, patrol, attack, refuel, RTB
• Wingmen AI for formation, ground attack. Improved waypoint transit
• Assignment of WPs in mission planner to CH46 rotorcraft
• MFD navigation chart for Hawaii

Happy Flying!

Ed

v804

The latest update, v804 is available now. Features and bugfixes include:

• Mouselook
• in Options->Controls->View map mouselook toggle. Wheel button works well
• mouse wheel adjusts FOV
• you can now map mouse buttons other than left and right mouse button
• Analogue throttle nullzone fix
• HUD improvements
• sampling rate
• target box lag
• AOA graphic fix
• Unintentional control mapping triggered fix
• Pilot model head angle limits with TrackIR
• Missing cockpit ODU panel text, warning lights fixed

Current work is focused on mission waypoint assignment, HUD/MFD navigation displays and wingman control together with bug fixes and feature requests from the forums.

v803

v803, with a main focus on stability is available now, major updates/fixes are:

• mission crashes
• runway black textures fixed
• autopilot roll oscillation fixed
• water injection input mapping fixed
• missing terrain tile after switching regions fixed 
• gamma setting added
• larger terrain cache

Next update should be available in a couple of days and will focus on missions/training and further bug fixes. Following that, focus will shift to campaign issues.

v802

Version 802 should be available now, updates include:

• Control axis null zones
• Control axis non linear setting
• Digital nozzle angle control settings
• Xbox gamepad default settings include view controls, unmap analogue throttle and nozzles
• nVidia Optimus graphics fix
• HUD velocity vector fixed
• Low speed handling improvement
• Menu option sub titles

Next updates will begin tackling gameplay and campaign issues/bug fixes/missing texture issues. Depending on progress, 803 may arrive Saturday. As noted previously, expect frequent updates to the main build till we're happy with stability. At that point we'll switch to a beta option which anyone can opt into with the usual caveats regarding bugs.

v801

Version 801 should be winging (steaming?) it's way to you now. It should have arrived yesterday but we encountered issues with the Steam update sticking/pausing and not completing. Deleting the build and re-uploading it has corrected the issue.

Features/fixes of this update are

• Fix crash on payload option
• Contrast/Brightness values are now used in post processing
• Both values were previously set to 100% so you may need to adjust down
• I'm considering adding a gamma display to help with calibrating game colour levels, it's pretty obvious there's a massive range of screen levels out there.
• Vignette effect is disabled, will add a UI option to toggle it later
• Mapping a control axis is easier
• XBox gamepad buttons are labelled
• TrackIR has angle and position limits
• 'Eject Confirm' option removed as 'Eject' must now be held for 1sec instead

Next update (802) should include:

• Result of looking into nVidia Optimus graphics crash on startup. In some cases this is temporarily fixed by selecting nVidia GPU as preferred GPU in global settings in the nVidia control panel
• Adjusting control axes linearity
• Adjusting control axes null zone
• General bug fixes as reported in the forum

After 802 we should be able to transition to gameplay features/bug fixes.

Note:
The controls settings file was accidentally included as part of the initial build. This would be an issue as each update would reset your controls to default. It has been removed from build 801. If you want to avoid remapping your controls with this update then take a copy of <YourSteamLibrary>\steamapps\common\Combat Air Patrol 2\StoragePath\Sim155\CAP2\Controls\Default.ctrl and replace it after updating. Sorry for the inconvenience.

OK, Released!

After a last minute fix for an issue with a particular controller config we finally released!

Thanks to everyone for the comments on the Steam forum (good and bad!), we're reading them all and have logged any issues. Build 801 is due tomorrow with some bug fixes and extra graphics settings including vignette, brightness and contrast.

Expect a lot of updates this week for features that missed the cut for release.

 

Like a Phoenix....

...the blog is back! Now, I could have completed an around the world yacht race since the last post (I haven't, I'm scared of sharks) so either accept my apologies or stop reading now :-)

Well, this is early access launch day so I thought it'd be good to explain what to expect over the coming days, weeks and months. I have to admit its been a scramble to get ready for the launch though without a deadline I'd probably never get around to releasing CAP2. I'm looking forward to getting feedback, both good and bad. Bear in mind this is an Early Access title. For instance, the main strategic feature of CAP2, the dynamic campaign, is approximately 75% complete. There are lots of minor items on my release list which won't make the 6pm (UK) release build so expect a stream of updates over the next few days. All elements will likely evolve with your feedback.

After the initial flurry of updates this week, we'll run a general beta build for those of you who want to try new features/bug fixes as soon as they are available. Based on feedback we'll then transition them to the main build. There may be several beta builds per week so only subscribe to those if you are OK with that. I'll be primarily using this blog to keep you up to date with development.

Here are our main areas of upcoming development

• Dynamic Campaign. We'll be improving the dynamic campaign by adding more targets, enemy capabilities such as mine laying, offensive capabilities such as integrating Tomahawk strikes into a mission package.
• VR. Its been difficult to hold off starting on this, especially with all the recent buzz around the official launches but we managed to show some restraint. We've got the Rift kit, Vive is on the way so we should start on this next week. We'll create a VR build which anyone can opt into. Initial builds will be a simple implementation followed by UI upgrades.
• Multiplayer. As described in previous posts. 
• Rendering. Expect to see graphical improvements such as SSAO, DOF, self shadowing terrain, shadow casting vegetation.
• Carrier. We'll create a fully populated deck and also have animated lifts, defenses and radars.
• Aircraft. Expect graphical updates to the AV8B cockpit together with increased control functionality.
• In Flight refueling. We have the animated refuel probe in game already, just waiting for drogue logic/physics implemented.  
• Scenery. A high priority feature to be added is OSM (Open Street Map) data for accurate road and building generation.
• 3D Models. In addition to generated OSM scenery models we'll be adding custom models not adequately described in OSM,
• Map Areas. We plan to add Yuma and well known training areas such as the 'Mach Loop' and the 'Jedi Transition'.
• Satellite Imagery. We'll begin sourcing satellite imagery to apply to the terrain.
• 32/64 bit build. We have both builds running now though as they are functionally identical only the 32bit is published. We'll make the 64bit build available together with larger terrain cache sizes.

Thanks for your support!

Ed