The Oolite Dev Team is pleased to announce the release of the new stable version of Oolite, tagged v1.86. The game can be downloaded from the Oolite website, with versions for 32/64-bit Windows and Linux and 64-bit OS X being available.
In this version we have improved significantly the look of planets by adding shader-based atmosphere scattering effects, deploying a new terrain generation algorithm for more realistic looking land sections, bringing back the cloud layers and adjusting ambient lighting for an overall more aesthetically pleasing result. This is the main feature in this release but certainly not the only one. The maximum resolution the game can support has been increased to 8K UHD levels. We improved heavily on the HUD and UI customization options to enable HUD designs previously not achievable. Furthermore, following player feedback about the difficulty of the game in its early stages, we added an Easy Start scenario which can be a preferred option for those commanders who struggled to get their Lave based MkIII combat-ready.
As always with a new release, there has been a number of stability and gameplay fixes and various other features for further enhancing the gameplay experience. Those include but are not limited to, high-DPI support on Windows, ability to load expansion packs over HTTPS, ability to use the mouse wheel for speed control when piloting your ship using a mouse (Windows / Linux), ability to launch the game in silent mode and more. If you would like to get more detailed information about the new feature set, please refer to our What's New page in the Oolite website and the full changelog listing all the changes since the last stable version.
This particular release has received significant input for its features from the Oolite community, both in form of suggestions and code submissions. We are grateful for your support and thrilled by the drive and dedication of this community. We hope and expect that Oolite v1.86 will offer an equally thrilling gaming experience in return.
Thank you and enjoy the game!