We've finally released 1.18.0!!!

As we had promised in our roadmap, this release is mostly about some serious performance improvements. We've drilled to the core - again - of the entire simulation, namely the spring relaxation algorithm, and we've managed to optimize and parallelize the simulation, improving frame rates for larger ships. And we have re-invested some of the gained CPU time achieving a 33% increase in rigidity.

On top of the performance work we have also spiced up some parts of the rendering subsystem, as you might have noticed from the revamped GameJolt page!

With no further ado, let's skip to the official changelist for this release:

• Significant performance improvements, especially on multi-core CPU's - where frame rates have improved by at least 2x

  • Parallelized integration, spring relaxation, and ocean floor collision detection

  • Vectorized spring relaxation

  • Used a small part of the performance gains to improve rigidity by 33%

  • Note: remember that Floating Sandbox is capped at 64FPS, so do not expect to get more than that. These performance improvements benefit large ships which in previous versions would run at less than 64FPS

• Re-designed wave interactions - user-spawned waves are now more natural and smooth

• Revamped rendering of ocean

  • Added lighting effects of clouds onto ocean

    • Thanks to Denis Nesterenco for the fantastic idea!

    • Note: disabled by default on lower-end computers

  • Changed some defaults for a more moving experience

  • Fixed depth gradients (which were suffering from color banding)

• Re-designed night ambient

  • Added moon lighting

    • Thanks to Joadix for the fantastic idea!

    • Note: can be controlled in the "Rendering" section of the Settings window

  • Added crepuscular gradient

    • Note: can be controlled in the "Rendering" section of the Settings window

    • Note: disabled by default on lower-end computers

• Added menu entry to suddenly switch to full day or full night

• Small improvements to various tools (among which Thanos Snap, Anti-Matter Bomb, and Blast)

  • Check out the new SHIFT mode with the Thanos Snap!

• Fixed: loading flipped or rotated ships now flips and rotates engines accordingly

• Fixed: resizing view now resizes physics probe panel accordingly (very ancient bug)

• Added black glass material

• Added 12 new ships

• ...and a few more small improvements here and there!

• Musical theme for this release: Random Forest, Ascension

Enjoy the new release, and stay tuned for new updates as we keep following the roadmap!