The time has come for the Neovox update to hit Experimental as build 21w21a!
It will stay there for a few bugfixes update and a starting zone reboot and then will hit the default branch.
This build is one of the biggest the game has seen!
Starship Evo started its life as a voxel building game like many other building games.
Over time it has morphed to a hybrid tech with voxels and the re-scalable bricks that you all love and that gives some much freedom.
Since the latest physics improvements and refactors we are now able to completely unplug the voxel tech and embrace the true nature of the game building system.
The Neovox update (previously novox) represent a set of new features:
Optimizations across the board:
AS the memory intensive voxels were removed the memory usage is massively reduced, especially for large builds.
The only impact now is how many bricks a given blueprint has, no longer its size.
Furthermore memory usage for brick is really tiny (10mb for some of the biggest ship of the workshop).
FPS and loading times are also improved.
Dynamic Grid:
There is now a new grid-scaling mode for a wide selection of bricks. (Default toggle is T).
The codex is now a lot smaller as 0.25m bricks and 1m blocks where merged.
This is a big change to how you build!
You can switch between a global grid lock or local grid lock by pressing G:
- Global Mode: the bricks will lock to the grid defined by the origin (itself defined by the original starter block). Similar to how hull block used to work. Perfect for large structural work.
- Local Mode (the unlock icon...): the new brick will locks its position to the grid defined by the targeted brick. Hence any offset will be carried into a smooth building experience, just like bricks used to work. Perfect for detail work.
Massive scale builds:
The two previous point means that now truly massive scale builds are possible. For now there is still a few things to sort for such massive build to be displayed from afar but it is definitely on the roadmap as we plan to replace the Space Habitat by a brick based entity.
Custom color:
For now you can edit the file called "PaintPalettes.xml" on the save folder. An UI will come soon.
Material and Armor type:
This update also introduces various materials. You can replace a hull with another material like with paint.
Each material will have various armor / weight properties (still wip)
Better light:
The new tech is much lighter in memory requirement and has a more realistic look.
New border look: borders are now looking dimmer.
New Armor and damage system using damaged decals. Once a decal is fully damaged they will allow armor piercing.
Heat tweak: hull now dissipate only half the heat. Please use larger system inside your large build to compensate for this!
Voxel Paints are now gone as they where using the voxel tech.
That's it! There is actually a lot more change and simplification behind the scene, it was quite an undertaking to migrate your blueprint to the new format but it is worth it.
Francois