Version 1.0 Released!

We’re officially out of early access!

VTOL VR version 1.0 is now available, exactly 3 years after the early access release! With the support of the wonderful community that has grown around it, the game has totally exceeded what I had initially envisioned. I am so grateful to all of you who’ve joined me on this journey, with an open mind and enthusiasm to try a totally new way of playing a flight sim. I hope you are as excited as I am to see how far this game has come, and where it will go in the future.

The incremental changes in the 1.0 update are mostly polish, bug fixes, and final touches to help bring the game to a state worthy of “full release”. I can’t give enough thanks to everyone participating in the public_testing branch, providing feedback and helping to smooth out the rough spots in each test build. As a solo developer, there’s really no way I could have brought the game to this level without you.

I’d also like to give a shout out to those of you of who have been pushing custom missions and maps to the workshop. I’ve been having a ton of fun trying them out, and you’ve done a superb job!

Here are some highlights of the major visible changes since the last update:

Missile Warning System

The system that detects missile launches now also detects heat signatures that are approaching at high speed, and gives you warning and a bearing to the threat. This greatly helps you to be aware of short range heat seeking missile threats that are not detected by the RWR.

Carrier LSO

When you request landing on a carrier, the landing signal officer (LSO) will tell you to “call the ball”. If you have voice communication enabled, you can respond with your callsign and/or vehicle type and “ball” (meaning you can see the landing guidance signals) or “clara” (meaning you can’t). Calling “clara” will signal the LSO to immediately begin giving you landing guidance, but either way (or if you don’t say anything), you’ll be given verbal guidance as you come closer to landing. They’ll wave you off if your approach is unsafe, tell you which wire you caught, or call “bolter” if your hook misses.

Lighting at Night

Previously, the night environment was mostly pitch black. Now, as you may have noticed in the new trailer, custom maps have window and street lights in cities, and airbases have runway lights.

Symmetry Mode

In the equipment configurator, you can enable symmetry mode to attach or remove the same weapon on both sides of the vehicle. This greatly speeds up the setup process.

Open Canopy on Cold Start

Due to popular demand, the F-45 and F/A-26 canopy will start open on missions with a cold start. Don’t forget to close it before take off! The roaring jet engine and intake noise should be enough to remind you.

Bobble Head Collision

Long ago, during the pre-alpha phase of development, the bobble head could be knocked around by your hands, and private testers found that you could lift the front of the vehicle off the ground by pushing up on the bobble head. This was because the bobble head was attached to the vehicle with a physical joint, and when you interact with it, there aren’t any opposite forces pressing against your hand. As a “temporary solution”, I disabled collisions with the bobble head, and since then, I’ve seen a lot of people reach out to interact with it, only to see their hand disappointingly pass through the model. Now, just in time for release, I have written an independent physics simulation for the bobble head, so that it will give you a satisfying reaction when you reach out to boop it, without messing with the aircraft physics.

By the way, if the little guy bothers you, there’s now an option to hide it.

Countless Bug Fixes

This is where the meat of the update is. All kinds of issues, including quicksave bugs, misbehaving AI, highly specific mission editor edge cases, visual glitches, nitpicky interface problems, and more get reported daily on the public_testing branch. I did my best to solve as many of these as I could, to bring the most seamless and bug free experience possible to the full release update.

A full list of changes are below.

What’s next?

I will continue to fix bugs as they arise, as well as work on expanding the tutorials to help limit the need to search for external help to learn how to use various systems and tactics. I’d also like to add more missions, editor assets, weapons, and other content in small periodic updates. At the same time, I will switch gears slightly to focus on developing the more community-oriented features. I’ve been working on a few things on the side that have been kept under wraps, so I hope you continue to follow along and see what’s coming! Version 1.0 is just the beginning!

Version 1.0 (changes since v0.0.17)

General

• Fixed: Black screen when starting mission if game was started with no game settings file or no wingmen voices enabled by default
• Fixed: BGM did not transition smoothly when fading from one track to another
• Added credits scene to main menu
• Changed interaction zone of hardpoints in loadout configurator to use entire rectangle
• Show Wing Fold warning when locked into catapult with wings folded
• Carrier catapult won’t launch when wings are folded
• Fixed gun director sight twitching when target is a surface target and is accelerating or turning
• Fixed: ATC voice recognition didn’t work until MFD comms menu was opened
• Fixed: CAGM-6 submunitions wouldn’t lock on targets
• Fixed: “Rearming ready” radio message played when taxiing from parking space across rearming zones on carrier
• Changed waypoint HUD to be less cluttered when facing the waypoint
• Changed ground crew to only greet the player when moving below a certain surface speed
• Fixed: Gun director sight jittered when TGP locked on an aircraft parked on a moving ship
• Added option to disable bobblehead
• Display correct location in flight log when taking off or landing
• Fixed: framerate limiter setting did not get applied at startup
• Updated RTB and Fuel waypoints in some quickflight missions
• Added “Spread Medium” voice recognition
• Fixed: Couldn’t command wingmen to RTB, Rearm or Refuel without calling other commands first
• Fixed: player could rearm at a station where an AI unit was already parked
• Fixed: Wing fold worked without battery
• Canopy will start open when in cold start mode
• Added error label when voice mic switch is enabled but game window is not in focus (recognition won’t work)
• Fixed: waypoints set to AI aircraft that were destroyed would jump around (now will not show)
• Fixed: Map loading scene did not properly rotate to player orientation
• Display player’s callsign in the briefing for a mission
• Fixed: engine tilt continues to move when letting go of throttle while tilting engine
• Fixed: landing gear warning remained suppressed after taking off if dismissed while landing
• Fixed: Loading a saved equipment loadout would override mission-locked hardpoints
• Fixed: Equipment preview showed wrong equipment in loadout configurator if a hardpoint was mission-locked to an equip that is not one of the available equipment in the mission or campaign
• Fixed: Fuel dump audio plays and a bit if fuel is dumped when switching fuel dump on while battery is off
• Changed tree distribution to be deterministic so they don’t randomly spawn inside units placed in forests
• Fixed: pilot arms clip through body when reaching across chest
• Fixed: engine audio effects were not smooth when idling after starting up
• Fixed: Carrier OLS lights continued to operate after player landed
• Fixed: light flares were not visible in TGP
• Added option to disable tap-to-toggle grip
• Added option to not reset seated position at game startup (recall last setting)
• Fixed some HUD icon masking
• Increased nozzle tilt input deadzone when at full tilt or full locked
• Set nozzle tilt to automatically continue to 0 if left at less than 5deg
• Fixed: end of ATC name was cut off at end of scrolling label in Comms MFD page
• Adjusted interaction trigger for equipment list in loadout configurator
• Adjusted interaction trigger for “Launch” button in loadout configurator
• Fixed: Wingmen/Equipment title did not fit properly in MFD Comms page
• Fixed: description for “Toggle Grip” setting did not fit space
• Fixed: Vehicle continues to slide when brake locked on slight slope
• Fixed: End mission panel did not accomodate many results entries (added scrollbar)
• Updated props in vehicle configurator scene
• Added option to enable arrestor hook collisions
• Added runway lights to airbases
• Added collider to Akutan airbase seawall
• Added street lights to custom map cities at night
• Added city building lights and street-level illumination in custom maps
• Fixed: APU switch did not switch to off when entering rearming station
• Fixed: parts of crashed AV-42C prop did not illuminate properly
• Fixed city building textures UVs at low LOD
• Added colored runway threshold lights with landing/takeoff direction
• Added lighting when using rearming station at night
• Added joystick sensitivity setting in Options MFD page
• Increased minimum autopilot altitude from 0 to 15m
• Fixed: aircraft pitch oscillated with altitude autopilot in some circumstances
• Fixed: hand pose was slightly offset on certain knobs
• Changed redout to darken view instead of turning white when using NVG
• Fixed: Game settings category would have an empty page if the previous page was full
• Adjusted game settings layout to allow slightly longer descriptions
• Increased TGP visibility and locking distance
• Clear taxiway navigation path if player is airborne or cancelled request
• Changed “Closest” ATC option in comms MFD page to “Last Contact” since ATCs are already sorted by distance
• Fixed: AI pilots got stuck on taxi after quickload
• Quickload ATC landing request
• Fixed: city streets in custom maps were a rough surface for landing gear
• Fixed: RWR could detect radar through terrain when radar source is outside of terrain LOD area
• Fixed invisible sign collider in Airbase 1
• Fixed: Unable to repair when canopy is broken
• Fixed: Spectator camera 4k screenshots had a smaller FOV than preview
• Fixed quickload error when AI pilot is evading
• Fixed: sequenced event actions got fired again after quickload if an exit condition was not met or it was the last node
• Fixed: minimum altitude on autopilot altitude adjustment knob
• Added audio to canopy
• Added objectives to refuel and carrier landing quick flight missions
• Reduced color banding in night sky
• Fixed some button tooltips in main menu
• Added mission completion time to end mission panel
• Updated splash image
• Fixed: seat position moves incorrectly after ejecting with “body physics” disabled
• Fixed: attempting to click on the recenter button in the main menu could click on a menu button instead if finger was also pointing at menu
• Fixed: changing measurement units doesn’t work after quickloading with the units options window open
• Added symmetry mode to loadout configurator
• Show stationary, surface-altitude TWR next to atmosphere/airspeed affected TWR for F-45A and A/V-42C
• Fixed: weapons possibly did not deal damage if they detonated inside a hitbox
• Fixed: Could start engine without APU by quicksave/loading during startup
• Fixed inconsistency between engine warning indicator and master caution engine warning
• Fixed strange electrical behavior when engine startup causes battery depletion
• Fixed: sonic boom sound sometimes gets repeated rapidly
• Fixed: joystick adjustment position did not get saved/loaded precisely
• Fixed: pressing Fuel waypoint button when designated tanker was destroyed would set waypoint to arbitrary point
• Fixed: In some cases, explosion did no damage to a hitbox because it was occluded by another collider, even though that collider was also a hitbox
• Changed SaveData to live in “AppDataRoamingBoundless Dynamics, LLCVTOLVRSaveData” (existing files will be copied over) to prevent save data loss from game updates/reinstalls
• Fixed: dynamic lights washed out terrain color at night
• Fixed error when commanding wingmen to RTB but one was dead or not yet spawned
• Fixed: fuel jumps to previous level when touching fuel knob in loadout configurator after loading a saved setup
• Fixed wrist movement when curling thumb with skeletal hand animation
• Set thumb to more natural default position with skeletal hand animation
• Fixed interaction hand poses with skeletal hand animation
• Fixed: some weapon mounts weighed too much

F-45A

• Adjusted enemy bomber path in Bay Assault mission
• Hid unused radar cursor on radar MFD page
• Rearranged MFD homepage buttons
• Changed AIM-9X to AIM-9+
• Added bobblehead
• Added Visor and NVG buttons to F-45A for inside-out tracking HMDs
• Added carrier landing practice mission to quick-flight
• Fixed: reaction control still had control authority when engine was locked and roll airduct doors were closed
• Set canopy to open when rearming
• Flipped canopy switch so “Close” is down
• Fixed equipment title and description for GBU-53 and AIM-120D
• Fixed: LIM button was visible in minimized EOTS page
• Fixed: Cruisers crossed each other in Counter-Bomber
• Fixed: instrument lighting switch also switched formation lights
• Fixed TSD quickload error that caused TSD to stop working properly
• Increased VCAP descent rate
• Fixed various MFD tooltip labels
• Fixed: external pylons disappear after rearming then repairing
• Fixed: error when attempting to rapidly fire missiles while bay doors are still opening
• Fixed: TSD HUD settings were not loaded properly
• Fixed: MFD center minimized tab label does not get cleared when opening its page elsewhere
• Fixed: SMS mode button starts with wrong color

A/V-42C

• Fixed vertical flight tutorial
• Fixed missing briefing note in basic flight tutorial
• Fixed: spawned units did not get cleared when restarting Basic Weapons tutorial
• Fixed: player could give orders to wingmen in The Island mission 1
• Fixed: arrestor hook goes through ground at deployed angle
• Fixed: brake lock did not enable at rearming station
• Fixed: throttle lever was not lit by interior light
• Fixed: HUD and HMCS power switch bases were not illuminated by interior light
• Updated interior light models
• Fixed Recenter button tooltip in MFD Game menu
• Reduced glideslope in landing tutorial
• Added audio to passenger doors
• Fixed: loaded soldiers did not add weight to aircraft
• Removed annoying afterburner toggle sound

F/A-26B

• Fixed: shader did not light properly with additive lights
• Fixed: left wing damaged model was visible in equipment config scene
• Fixed: arrestor hook goes through ground and 4200L tank at deployed angle
• Adjusted 4200L external tank shape to allow optimal arrestor hook position and not interfere with front gear
• Fixed: brake locks did not enable at rearming station
• Set canopy to open when rearming
• Fixed: landing light was attached to wrong model, causing it to turn with wheel steer
• Fixed inconsistent materials between engine switches
• Fixed: certain cockpit parts were not lit by interior light
• Fixed: HUD and HMCS power switch bases were not illuminated by interior light
• Improved catapult take off trim
• Fixed briefing and objective descriptions in Op. Desert Cobra 8
• Updated interior light model
• Fixed strobe light switch base material
• Fixed recenter seat button tooltip in game menu MFD page
• Added flaps audio
• Small tweaks to Op. Desert Cobra 3

ATC

• Fixed: last contacted tower was forgotten when selecting a tower from the MFD
• Added LSO interactivity to player carrier landing
• Added “clara ball” player voice response for “call the ball” which will begin LSO interaction further out
• Fixed: player was given runway clearance before other in line if an AI was in line on the opposite end of the runway in Airbase 1
• Carrier OLS wave-off lights will flash if LSO waves off
• Carrier ATC will restart the landing request after LSO waves off player or player bolters
• Added voice command for “waving off/aborting landing/going around” when you want to abort carrier landing and stop LSO from giving directions
• ATC will give player the heading to airbase if requesting vertical landing from far away
• Fixed: Contacting ATC with a different request sometimes did not cancel previous request
• Fixed: ATC did not respond if you cancel vertical landing or take off requests
• Clear player waypoints which were automatically set when task is complete (catapult, landing)
• Set waypoint to airbase when requesting landing from far away
• Fixed: last contacted airport was not quicksaved

Units

• Fixed: AI pilots sometimes parked on the runway and would not take off
• Fixed: bomber units would fly below their formation position
• Automatically add hull number to ship unit names so they can be distinguished in comms menu
• Added a smaller rearming/refuel point that fit on the small rooftop helipads
• Fixed AV-42C AI wobble during taxi
• Improved KC-49 and E-4 taxi behaviour
• Fixed: aircraft with no refuel port would not RTB to refuel
• Fixed: ground units set to move to a waypoint sometimes did not move at desired speed or at all
• Fixed: AI pilot did airbase pathfinding synchronously upon landing, causing a frame spike
• Fixed: Sometimes AI pilots got stuck on taxi to runway if there was another pilot in front of it
• Fixed: AI pilots did not resume air refueling after quickload
• Added refuel ports to E-4 AWACS and KC-49 tanker units
• Changed runway lights on allied carrier
• Fixed: AI Pilots would attack units with no combat role, such as rearming points
• Fixed: IRAPC’s 8th missile tube had an inverted rail, causing missile to be loaded backwards
• Fixed: Downed AI pilot still called missile result (splash/shack/miss)
• Fixed: Large AI aircraft would swerve on touch down during landing
• Fixed: AI pilots would take the closest exit from a runway after landing regardless of which side, causing large aircraft to navigate an improper path to the large hangars
• Fixed: AI aircraft with no equipment system could not refuel at airbase (tanker, AWACS)
• Tanker aircraft will enable nav-lights when a pilot is approaching for refuel
• Fixed: tanker would still operate boom to refuel when inappropriate (landing, evading, crashing, etc)
• Fixed: AI pilots in player group but not in formation with player would fly off track after quickload (possibly caused pilots crashing when quickloading in Op. Desert Cobra 8)
• Fixed: ground unit on path still sometimes sunk below road surface
• Fixed: VTOL AI pilots sometimes clipped through the ground when about to take off from a temporary landing zone on terrain
• Fixed: soldiers dropped off by AV-42C glitched if they were spawned in the passenger bay while parked on ship
• Fixed: Unarmed aircraft such as AWACS could enter combat state, causing errors
• Fixed error when AI pilot is using laser guided bomb but target dies before pickling
• Fixed: ships in formation always moved slower than their leader
• Fixed: subunits on allied assault carrier did not get destroyed when ship sinks
• Fixed: inner most AI pilot formation followers sometimes fly erratically
• Fixed errors when player gives RTB or Refuel commands to AI pilots when player is not in an air group
• Improved AI pilot rejoin behavior from far distance
• Fixed: Drone subunits on Drone Carrier did not get quickloaded properly
• Fixed: AI pilot that triggered an auto-refuel while landing vertically caused physics errors
• Fixed: AI pilots would taxi into assault carrier runway while others were landing on it
• AI Pilots take off more smoothly
• Fixed: AI pilot did not reserve its take off runway if it spawned on it
• Fixed: E-4 and KC-49 lost significant altitude while making u-turns
• Fixed: AI unit would fly erratically when trying to fly straight towards a target in certain situations
• Fixed: AI pilots quickloaded while ascending from catapult takeoff would flip and crash
• Improved stabilty of AI pilots after quickload
• Fixed: debug log spam when AI pilot is low fuel or attempting to rearm but no tanker or bases are available
• Fixed: air units did not perform default behavior if spawned after a quickload
• Fixed ASF-33 and ASF-58 aborted gun surface attack before firing
• Fixed: When AI pilot’s nontargets are set, they will still attack if they were already attacking the target
• Fixed: When AI pilot’s designated targets are set, they won’t attack immediately if they were already attacking something else
• Fixed: soldiers set to move before being picked up would try to move back to the old waypoint after being dropped off
• Fixed: soldiers snap then stop before continuing when boarding AV-42C
• Fixed: When a soldier unit group boards the vehicle, the second unit walks away when the leader boards
• Fixed: failed to quickload taxi navigation on AI pilot that had landed
• Fixed: improperly quickloaded AI pilot that had landed then was taking off again
• Fixed: ground unit movement event actions sometimes don’t get executed if they are interrupting another behavior
• Fixed: ground unit’s speed doesn’t change with Set Movement Speed event action if it’s in a unit group
• Fixed: soldiers don’t move to the rally waypoint if quicksaved/loaded after being dropped off
• Fixed: AI F-45 afterburner would light on short take off when framerate is low
• Fixed: AI VTOLs sometimes flip over when trying to take off and head in the opposite direction
• Fixed: AI pilots sometimes flew erratically when climbing from a low altitude
• Fixed: Error when overweight AI pilot tries to take off vertically from Allied Cruiser

AWACS

• Added voice profile by Shamebird(Chieh)
• Added voice profile by Shadow
• Added voice profile by Mercy404
• Added voice profile by Nodoka
• Fixed: AWACS reported units that were already shot down but had not exploded

GroundCrew

• Added voice profile by chinny
• Added voice profile by Dr White

Mission Editor

• Fixed: cursor starts underneath terrain
• Changed allied AWACS to have voice enabled by default
• Added unit option for AWACS voice
• Added repair for campaign that has duplicates or gaps in mission indices
• Fixed: tooltip remained if the object that spawned it was disabled before the tooltip was hidden
• Fixed error when using “AllAirborne” conditional on a unit group with a unit that wasn’t spawned yet
• Added option for non-combat units such as storage tents to be “Combat Targets” so units automatically attack them on sight
• Fixed: E-4 and MQ-31 had low default initial airspeed
• Fixed: AI pilots with auto-refuel disabled still auto-refueled
• Fixed: Error when trying to delete a carrier unit after first deleting units attached to the carrier
• Fixed: capitalization in ship unit group event action parameters
• Prevent filenames from containing leading/trailing spaces, which would cause errors

Map Editor

• Fixed: map and filename displayed on right side of toolbar
• Fixed: could unintentionally move camera when double clicking on menus