august_050_build

Release Notes 0.5.0

Summary

This release significantly expands gameplay systems and visual fidelity while fixing critical mission-flow, scoring, and UI issues. Major additions include pilot ejection/crash flow, aircraft subsystem damage and warnings, chaff/flare mechanics, cloud and skydome rendering improvements, text/midgame animation tooling, and game-over/balance logic updates.

Highlights

• Added full ejection and crash-related gameplay flow with animations and camera behavior updates.
• Introduced aircraft subsystem health/damage handling with improved cockpit feedback.
• Added defensive countermeasures (chaff/flare) and associated timing/render logic.
• Expanded rendering features: skydome, cloud rendering, LOD controls, view-distance tuning, FXAA, fog toggle, and widescreen ambilight.
• Improved mission/economy/game-flow logic (balance checks, game-over conditions, cost and replacement accounting).
• Fixed multiple killboard/end-mission scoring and display issues.
• Added macOS x86 CMake preset and compatibility improvements.

New Features

• Gameplay systems

  • Implemented ejection functionality and related animations across cockpit/strike/state/simulated object systems.
  • Added crash animation rendering and camera mode handling for crash scenarios.
  • Added chaff/flare mechanics with timers and rendering updates.
  • Added lost-aircraft tracking and updated replacement logic.
  • Added balance-check game flow effect and game-over logic tied to cash/scene conditions.
  • Added scene-specific asset loading/animation handling for scene 107.

• Combat/AI/physics

  • Added tracer drawing.
  • Improved pilot/autopilot dynamics (turning, pitch control, heading error handling, PID/autopilot refactors).
  • Enhanced collision and lift calculation behavior in simulated objects.
  • Refined trajectory and speed-based computations.

• Rendering/visuals

  • Implemented skydome rendering with progressive quality/depth/gradient improvements.
  • Added cloud rendering support, generation improvements, dynamic cloud placement, and distance culling.
  • Added/expanded LOD and view-distance controls, including stitching/triangulation improvements.
  • Added FXAA support and fog visibility toggle.
  • Added widescreen ambilight feature and configuration options.
  • Added master warning rendering and cockpit data structure updates.

• UI/text/tooling

  • Introduced MIDGAME text-line parsing/writing/integration in animation archive/player.
  • Added text width calculation, centering, grouping/formatting improvements.
  • Added label prefix utility in main.
  • Improved debug animation player text/talking handling.

• Build/config

  • Added macOS x86 CMake preset.
  • Added compatibility update using Boost.

Fixes

• Game flow and mission state

  • Stop game when player is dead during frame execution.
  • Fixed cash/project cost accounting updates.
  • Initialized player_dead state reset path.
  • Updated thrust initialization to use dynamic limits in debug/mission flows.
  • Prevented camera mode changes during ejection.

• Scoring/killboard/end mission

  • Corrected score calculation and kill buffer assignments.
  • Corrected ground/air kill assignment during load.
  • Fixed killboard/end-mission display bugs and reverted problematic intermediate killboard changes.
  • Added scoring sprite sequence index validation.

• Rendering and cockpit

  • Corrected LOD references/handling and simplified/adjusted related rendering paths.
  • Adjusted texture dimensions and removed unnecessary resizing.
  • Adjusted MFD blit positioning.
  • Corrected health handling when applying damage.
  • Disabled color clamping for intended dithering effect.
  • Updated widescreen ambilight configuration handling.

• Text/animation

  • Restored wingman text replacement in DrawText.
  • Updated small-font handling for character A.
  • Fixed music_id static lifetime issue in debug animation player shot editing.

• Timing/performance

  • Updated VRTimer target FPS for improved consistency.

Refactors and Internal Improvements

• Math utilities: angle normalization refactor and InvSqrt improvement.
• Renderer internals: skirt building/triangulation optimization for LOD.
• Animation/text pipeline cleanup and integration improvements.
• Randomization improvements for cloud generation (rand() replacement with uniform distribution).

Build and Toolchain

• Added macOS x86 preset.
• Version bump fix in CMake (0.5.0).
• Compatibility adjustments with Boost.

Breaking Changes / Behavior Changes

• Game-over behavior now depends on cash/balance flow conditions introduced in SCGameFlow updates.
• Camera and death/ejection flow behavior changed in strike/cockpit pipelines.
• Visual defaults/options may differ due to added LOD/view-distance/AA/fog/cloud/ambilight controls.