SimplePlanes | New Beta - Version 1.11.103

We've released an update to the beta: v.1.11.103

It is live now on Steam, and will be going out to mobile in the coming hours (could be tomorrow before it is available).

Important
Per the fix listed below: Previous beta craft that were created in a version prior to the beta and had XML-added additional colors may possibly be in an incorrect state that may need manual tweaking of the XML to correct.

Below is our changelog for v1.11.103 as well as v1.11.102

Features:
- Added ability to add special craft instructions which can be viewed in flight scene by those who download the craft. Our current guidance is to only add instructions where they would differ from a "normal" craft. We do not think it's necessary to include instructions such as "Use throttle to increase engine RPM, and aileron/elevator/rudder to control the craft." A craft such as our stock Gator 2 could use such instructions because the throttle input doesn't control engine RPM (it controls collective). Not all craft will need special instructions.
- Added ability to restore all stock craft from the initial screen's settings menu
- New "Blocked Canopy" part added.
Tweaks:
- Brightened up the smoke trails of the missiles
- Hide concealment type button when device height is too small to accommodate it.
- Switches and Buttons now work with the variable system via XML.
- Added a scroll view to the large input dialog so text could be edited if it extended beyond the screen.
Beta Fixes:
- Fixed a bug that would cause the theme upgrade code to result in incorrect colors being assigned to some parts in specific circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where tankers spawned facing south would be upside down.
- Fixed an issue with the Spawn Tanker Dialog where the Cancel button was off the bottom of the screen on mobile.
- Fixed blurriness of the Edit icon in the designer. Increased padding of Common atlas to fix blending on some sprites.
- Add RotorRPM as a default variable name so it's zero instead of undefined if there is no rotor.
- Fixed bug where a craft which has a cockpit w/no camera (like the Flight Computer), using the Previous View key-binding would get stuck in a cycle between two cameras.
- Gauges, labels, switches and buttons now orient correctly when attaching to the side of a part.
- Labels no longer get scrambled when moving them after changing the font.
- Fixed ControlBase control spinner VTOL axis.
- Fixed bug where fuselage cones would lose their collider when connected to a fuselage.
- Removed label, button, and switch from drag calculation.
- Fix controlbase throwing nullreference on AI despawn
- Fix bug where buttons and switches would not declare variables properly
- Fix variable system failing on empty strings, add better error handling.
- Fix glass fuselages becoming opaque when show damage is toggled off.
- Tweaked the bush plane to prevent the left front wheel from falling through the carrier decks.
- Fixed bug where XML scaling propeller blade sizes would be incorrect.
- Fixed bug where spawning an AI aircraft would often result in the craft not being targetable.
- Fixed a bug where label text turned into squares when exiting x-ray with DesignerSuite mod enabled.
- Fixed an issue where the Blueprints image picker would not open on macOS.
- Fixed a bug causing the game to not load properly on new Mac M1 devices.
- Fixed issue where using a new cockpit seat would cause the wind audio to rapidly switch between L/R stereo channels.
- Fixed some issues auto-upgrading custom themes. Reserved theme colors now reside at the top of the list in XML with the 'hidden' attribute. Hopefully it will be more straightforward now. Previous beta craft that were created in a version prior to the beta and had XML-added additional colors may possibly be in an incorrect state that may need manual tweaking of the XML to correct.
Non-beta Fixes:
- Fixed long-standing bug where AI would occasionally spawn below the water.
- Fixed bug which would allow an AI craft to spawn below the "MinAltitude" (although not below the water)
- Fixed bug where despawning a craft could result in null-refs if that craft was being targeted when it was despawned.
Performance:
- Reduced memory allocations done by dynamic Labels.

Quick explanation of switches and buttons with the variables system:

Switches and buttons for this purpose are basically functionally identical

When inputId is set to anything that isn't a default input, they will take both input and output from a variable of that name.

The value written to the variable is in outputValue, this is constant per-part.

You can change the way it interacts with the variable by the interactionType field:

Once - When the switch/button is clicked, it will assign outputValue to the variable for one frame, and then do nothing until it is released and clicked again.

Continuous - The variable will be written to with outputValue for every frame the switch/button is clicked. This is 1 by default.

Toggle - Similar to Once (only acts instantaneously when clicked) except if the variable is greater than zero when clicked, it will be set to zero. This provides simple toggling behaviour between 0 and outputValue.

Things to be aware of:

Using Continuous or Once, if you press the button once it will assign it's value to that variable. If nothing else is assigning to that variable, it will hold that value forever and won't return to zero.

To make it return to zero, you can add a line in the aircraft's variables list that writes a value of zero to the target variable with a lower priority (the number on the right of the row) than the button. This means that variable will always be set to zero except when the button or switch is overriding it with it's higher priority value.

The priority value of the button is zero by default (so to go lower you can have negative integers). However you can change this by putting a colon after the variable name, ex inputId = VariableName:5 writes with a priority of 5, which means that if there is another source (such as a line in the variables list), writing with a priority of less than 5, the button's value will prevail over the other value. This trick with the colon also works for ControlBase parts.

Dev WNP78

Switches and buttons for this purpose are basically functionally identical
When inputId is set to anything that isn't a default input, they will take both input and output from a variable of that name.
The value written to the variable is in outputValue, this is constant per-part.
You can change the way it interacts with the variable by the interactionType field:
- Once - When the switch/button is clicked, it will assign outputValue to the variable for one frame, and then do nothing until it is released and clicked again.
- Continuous - The variable will be written to with outputValue for every frame the switch/button is clicked. This is 1 by default.
- Toggle - Similar to Once (only acts instantaneously when clicked) except if the variable is greater than zero when clicked, it will be set to zero. This provides simple toggling behaviour between 0 and outputValue.
Things to be aware of:
- Using Continuous or Once, if you press the button once it will assign it's value to that variable. If nothing else is assigning to that variable, it will hold that value forever and won't return to zero.
- To make it return to zero, you can add a line in the aircraft's variables list that writes a value of zero to the target variable with a lower priority (the number on the right of the row) than the button. This means that variable will always be set to zero except when the button or switch is overriding it with it's higher priority value.
- The priority value of the button is zero by default (so to go lower you can have negative integers). However you can change this by putting a colon after the variable name, ex inputId = VariableName:5 writes with a priority of 5, which means that if there is another source (such as a line in the variables list), writing with a priority of less than 5, the button's value will prevail over the other value. This trick with the colon also works for ControlBase parts.

Pinned 3.1 years ago

17.7k MrShenanigansSP

@WNP78 I tried that and it doesn't work for some reason

3.0 years ago

@MrShenanigans just use overload to put any name you like into the switch inputId, and then put the same name into the rotator input.

@WNP78 now do you make a switch that you can activate without any Ag's ex you have a switch you flick it and a hinge rotator starts moving 90 degrees but it doesn't have a activation group

13.8k vonhubert

Guys, another request for help... Does anybody know how to make a variable that changes and holds value with each button click? For example, lets say we have a + and - button and a variable =0 at the start. And each + click should add 0.1 to the variable, each - click should decrease it by 0.1...

3.1 years ago

26.2k Default4

Can you please switch it around with the slow mo button? I can’t tell you how many times I instinctively hit that button thinking it would be slow motion and crashed because of it.

107k Alisuchanka

@Tetrodotoxin I agree with you. we need text to curve parallel to their
width

2,903 FaLLin1

i can't update my simpleplanes the play store show that the update dropped off on October 5th but it's doesn't show the updated button

50.1k Noname918181818181818181

minor suggestion: make it so that exiting the share craft screen does not delete any existing screenshots that were taken before. thanks

+3 3.1 years ago

1,733 xiaofootball

In 1.11.101, the propeller looked ugly, but at least the off-centered visual glitch was fixed for the Blade T2000 engine. That change seems to have been reverted and the visual glitch is back. Is this only a temporary thing while the new propeller is being refined?

1,372 ForPolarRegions

@PhilipTarpley

Hi.
I uninstalled SImplePlanes once, installed it again and put in the beta version, and was able to successfully update to version 1.11.103. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to help me fix my problem!

49.9k Destroyerz117

nice
now let us recolour attitude indicators.
.
.
.
please!

+5 3.1 years ago

11.9k derlurje

° Fixed bug where fuselage cones would lose their collider when connected to a fuselage.

Thank God. That bug was getting on my nerves

26.8k MadeUpHimself

can we please curve the labels in all dimensions? I really want to put the text on something like gun barrel

@PhilipTarpley
Yes, I have restarted Steam and my computer many times to re-install the beta, but every time it installs version 1.11.101...

Dev PhilipTarpley

@Kyokutyo Try restarting Steam. It can sometimes take Steam a while to update otherwise.

Speaking of AI spawning, is there some ways to control how the AI chooses which vehicle to automatically spawn as traffic?

234k jamesPLANESii

Study level aircraft omg

@WNP78 @AndrewGarrison
Hi. I'm playing SimplePlanes for Steam on Windows. I heard that a new beta (version 1.11.103) is out and I wanted to try to get it in, but no matter how many times I try, it installs version 1.11.101 and I can't update to version 1.11.103. Is there some kind of problem and has the release been stopped?

15.8k Suica

@WNP78
Label doesn't seem to be able to reflect the brightness of the "○" symbol correctly. Is this a specification or a bug?

9,320 Yoshimi

Are there still intentions to fix the lighting and colours? As I addressed in a bug report already the colours are quite a bit off and the lighting became overall a lot worse. Tons of builds that are uploaded to this site now have outdated colours and look worse than they were before the beta. It just seems very backwards to downgrade the graphics with an update.

+1 3.1 years ago

54.2k CoolPeach

Big fan of the new variables. Out of interest though, if we assign a variable to a control base with a cylinder grip on it, will the game take inputs from the VR grip? If so, how will this effect the variable, especially when there are other variables in it as well, will the game simply add or subtract the VR input?

51.4k JoshuaW

Is there anyway to make guns and weapons fired by FT codes? I was thinking of pushing a joystick by a piston but it didn't work.

+2 3.1 years ago

7,225 CenturyAerospace

@goboygo1 that likely explained when I would spawn multiple ai planes but like half of them wouldn’t be there

71.3k MintLynx

Never mind I figured it out! just put 'collider' as a variable (Left side) and pick either Auto, Basic, ConvexMesh, or NonConvexMesh for the input (right side)

New Beta - Version 1.11.103

Comments

Quick explanation of switches and buttons with the variables system:

80 Upvotes