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 air, although some are not used at the moment as they're not required.
- Tree's are placed around the landscape, and you can land on the top of all of them. You can also begin the game starting in a random tree-top.
- I've used LuxWater to add realistic water to the game. It is used in the Scotland map for lakes (I have to add a few more), and an ocean to the Canada map. There's no water in the Columbia map (yet).
- Please note that the water has no collisions added at the moment. You'll go straight through it and land on the ground beneath. Well I have to keep some things back for a V1.0. :)
- New title screen. Completely overhauled, and works within VR or using the mouse on your main pc screen. If you use the mouse, it locks out selecting options with the VR headset for a few seconds.
- Within the title screen, you'll find configurable options to optimise performance. You'll also find an achievements screen where: your total flight time is tracked, and various achievements. The only two linked to Steam, at the moment, are the Valentines challenge and Santa's Gift.
- Again on the title screen, there is a help (?) button giving a basic guide and descriptions of the achievements. More information is given in YouTube tutorials to be found here https://www.aquila-bfs.com/tutorials/ . Bare in mind these were recorded with the old menu system, so skip through as appropriate. :) Lots of useful background info though...
- You can bring your wings in to dive, and it's proportional to the amount you bring your wings in giving you fine control over your glide. This works with both motion controllers and gamepads. With motion controllers, just bring your wings towards your body a little. With a gamepad, move the right stick down to bring your wings in, while moving it up flaps your wings.
- Countless bugs swatted...
Apologies for the delay with this update. A major issue was the complete change of how SteamVR uses controllers, and my previous code was rendered completely useless. It was a large job to overhaul it, then add the features from the Oculus version as well. I hope this improves your enjoyment of the game, and thank you for your patience.
There are a couple of issues you should be aware of though:
- At the moment, with this 0.990 Beta, I have not tested non-VR game play in any capacity. It might work, or it might completely break. I'll find out soon...
- EDIT: Non-VR game-play is very buggy, and the in-game menu isn't working. I recommend waiting for a patch to fix this. Playing with VR is fine. :)
- If you launch the game with motion controllers, and get to the title screen, but then decide to play with a Gamepad (why would you do that????) ... it will not work. You'll need to go to your SteamVR controller bindings, specify Gamepad as your controller, then select My official profile to map the gamepad correctly. It will then work. If you launch the game without motion controllers powered on, this profile is automatically loaded and used by SteamVR. If you have issues, please ask. :)
Thank you for reading. As always, feedback is welcomed and encouraged. :)
Graeme