So it's been a long time coming, and after a prolonged silence. For that I apologise. I've dabbled with Unreal Engine, then come back to Unity with it's more evolved functionality with VR, and I've been working on an overhauled version of Aquila. There is still plenty to do, but with this video hopefully it gives you an idea of what I want to achieve with it. I'm not finished of course, and the…
The Great Haforn, overseer of all of the eagles, has been known to alight in Scotland. They'll accept an offering made in to their red fire, best made in the form of a tasty fish, and reward such subjects with a spectacular show of light and sound - along with an achievement! Rumour has it that Haforn can be found at *night* on the multiplayer server... So yes a bit of fun for November and Dece…
Numerous things were wrong with the previous release, and hopefully some of this is addressed with this one also. Most notably the way things moved on the server deteriorated over time due to the version of Mirror I was using being buggy. The way I was controlling things was also inefficient, so the code to manage AI fish and birds has been overhauled. Changes are as follows: - Unity updated to…
Unity is an amazing platform, and it has been really interesting to work with it after coming back to coding 6 years ago. However I've hit this wall where I really need a big terrain, want low level details, but don't want to destroy performance in VR. If I ignore VR, and was working on a normal desktop game, this would not be an issue. There are ways to stream terrain using products such as Ga…
Important: Apologies. Nasty problem with dizzyness this evening. I can't resolve it and it's already half nine. I'll have to reschedule for tomorrow (Sunday). If there's one thing Aquila needs, it's definitely a clear head to play and enjoy! I'll be running another online session on Sunday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour.…
I've updated the server to this new beta version as I wish to see if it's working, but quietly confident that even if it isn't, nothing else will be affected. However if you do encounter issues with this patch, please change your game properties to use the "previousversion" branch, and you'll roll back to the old version. However you won't be able to play on the server. Latest changes for 1.037…
A relatively small update this time, in relation to the Valentines achievement. If you've never played on the server, you wouldn't hit this bug. Latest changes for 1.03651: - The Valentines hearts were becoming confused about which map they were on, when you joined a network game after playing an offline game. This could lead to the 'stat' being saved to the wrong map after you find a heart. Th…
I'll be running another online session on Saturday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour... maybe 2... Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. It's just nice to give everyone a chanc…
A relatively small update this time, which still took a heap of time to do. Anyway progress is progress! Latest changes for 1.0365: - New settings page on the title screen, allowing you to set: * custom date/time options including day length. Day length can be between 12 and 1440 minutes (a real time day). It can also be frozen at a particular time, so you can make a sunset that never ends for…
Here's some of the patch notes for a number of frequent little updates, and not so little updates, that have been going on. The big change is that trueSky is gone for the Sky system, and is replaced by Enviro. It now has a full custom weather system controller, to give you (hopefully) realistic weather patterns. Patterns are defined per season, so I'll be adding a means to select your time and…
I'll be running another online session on Saturday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour... maybe 2... *not* 3 like last time. My arms did *not* forgive me for a couple of days... Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more wil…
I'll be running another online session this evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays. Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give eve…
So around five years of trying to pull this project together around a full time job, finally it was Covid-19, then catching Covid-19, and then being furloughed that gave me the time this project deserved. I'll say now it's not finished, but I feel it has the base features that I'd hoped for, which was to get a little bit of the real feeling of flying into virtual reality, and this is most appar…
Following on from the event on the 26th September, I'll be running another online session this coming Saturday. The first event really worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished, I'm ready to do it again. I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works ou…
I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) Therefore I will be online and ingame from 9pm uk time (8pm UTC), certainly for a couple of hours with the odd break or two. I’ll set up for a maximum of 32 players, and see how we go... the system running as dedicated server is an older Falcon Northwest…
This update brings something I've wanted for a long time to Aquila... Multiplayer! BUT ... please please please... if you're new to Aquila and playing in VR, check out these tutorial videos. It is a *must* particularly if you're using motion controllers. You'll find them here: YouTube Tutorial Playlist Other notes: - If playing in Multiplayer, *please* change your birds name. :) Cuillin is the…
I have been working on bringing multiplayer to Aquila, and put together a relatively short video showing it in action. It can be seen below. I'm 'flying' both birds, so controlling one while the other is on autopilot, and then editing the videos afterwards. If you are interested in giving it a try, when it is ready, please comment below. I anticipate setting up a server here at home, with appro…
This small update fixes a couple of annoying bugs that were revealed in non-vr gameplay with no gamepad connected. Hopefully this will resolve those issues discovered. Latest changes for 0.9915: - Bug fix for keyboard controls not working when no vr setup is detected. - Bug fix for start position being ignored and starting with a non-moving levitating bird, when no gamepad is detected and runni…
I've been working hard on getting non-VR support fully working again, and this version moves in that direction. In the process, I introduced more bugs into vr gameplay which I then had to fix! #facepalm Anyway this version, 0.991, fixes all that and should work ok for both VR and non-VR gameplay. If, by chance, this version does not work for you ... please get in touch either by commenting here…
If you're feeling brave, I've added the beta of version 0.990 of Aquila to Steam. You'll need to select the 'beta' channel on your Steam library settings for Aquila to opt in and receive this version. What has changed: - New eagle models added for the bald eagle, and a golden eagle model replaces the white tailed sea eagle. All models have a full suite of animations for on the ground and in the…
I have updated Aquila to version 0.981. This brings in numerous bug fixes and little changes. trueSKY is one important change. For VR use trueSKY seems to require single-pass rendering, so I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone with a non-Nvidia card, or certainly a card that doesn't support it. I'd like to see what it does, and how I can resolve any issues. Additionally, if you run the…
A quick update for you. I wanted to say a big Merry Christmas to you! Thank you for your support over the last year, whether you have purchased Aquila or helped me with testing new stuff. Work is still ongoing on the SteamVR/OpenVR version. The good news is that visually it now matches the new Oculus version. The bad is that the way SteamVR now handles controllers has completely changed, and I'…
Firstly, apologies. I know it has been a very long time for any progress with Aquila. Both work and health conspired against me with regards to coding, and as Aquila is just me it has been difficult. However the new Oculus version is nearly there, and I'll then be able to bring these changes over to SteamVR. The main thing is the flight physics. I could never get the flexibility out of the flig…
I wanted to take this opportunity to say a Massive Thank You to all of you who have supported Aquila Bird Flight Simulator. Supporting the game has allowed me to raise money for the Hawk Conservancy Trust near Andover, where I have volunteered for nearly ten years, and I was able to present them with a great donation. Thank you once again! This does not mean the end of development... far from i…
This is a relatively straightforward patch to fix a few bugs reported to me. I am working on new features of course, but they're not within this for now. - Fixed an issue where the ridge lift code could produce a divide by zero with relatively flat ground. The result had been that you would unceremoniously be sent hurtling groundwards, as the error would upset the flight model. This should be f…
Here's a little bit of Valentines Day fun ... hidden on each map is a heart as shown below. Collect all three to unlock a Steam achievement! I hope to make this achievement the key to a few extra's down the way. Once you've collected the heart on a map, it won't appear again on successive games. This bit of fun runs throughout February. This patch also brings all the changes from 0.975 to the c…
These notes are for 0.975 beta, for which you can opt-in on Steam by editing the game properties for Aquila. They will apply to the live version once I can test on motion controllers. Mine are 90 miles away! :( Also I’ve not yet tested non-vr play with this beta. Notes are as follows: - New music added, and credited on the title screen. - New in-game wind sound effects, and neater transitions t…
Just a quick update to let you know what I'm working on at the moment, but this is not uploaded yet. I'll do a proper patch notes when I upload a new update. - Scotland terrain is now a bit bigger to add a couple of nice looking ridges that you couldn't reach before. The terrain mesh is still the same resolution, and I do plan to improve it, but I dropped the satellite photography one level on…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.