Revised: 03-03-08

v2.10.00 RTM (03-03-08)

Its GONE GOLD!! The game will then appear for digital distribution via Digital River, Direct2Drive, Gamers Gate etc on Friday March 7th.

v2.00.00 RC28 (03-02-08)

Minor revisions/corrections to game manual (pages: 39..42) Added final voice over assets for tutorial, mission directives etc from Somatone Multiplayer: The server browser will now display the game type. DM = deathmatch, BW = Base Wars Revised Base Wars script (MP0001) and made all launch platforms (stations and carriers) destructible. In deathmatch, they are indestructible. In Base Wars (MP0001), stations will now launch intercept/strike fighters in order to support multiplayer co-op play mode for those who roll like that. In deathmatch (MP0000), stations will no longer launch intercept/strike fighters in order to not upset the player balancing on the server. However, if NPC auto-generation is enabled on the server, then carriers will still launch fighters (against threats) as normal. Prediction is now more robust and shouldn't return wrong values. Added basic prediction when an object is in transition to smooth it out. Added prediction to objects while in orbit or hyper jump to make them smooth out. FIXED: server wasn't accepting the delegated dynamic objects properly. FIXED: advertise browser was sometimes returning the wrong server port. uh, yeah. FIXED: planetary objects weren't being properly positioned due to prediction. Also, static (e.g. buildings) objects no longer have their positions predicted. FIXED: number of logic updates limited to 5 per frame to prevent infinite loop. FIXED: some server variables were not being transmitted (and thus displayed) correctly when retrieved from a remote server. Worked fine on LAN servers. Quite odd that. FIXED: crash on server browser when you exit and no session (i.e. connected to a server) had been created. FIXED: positions are no longer predicted when the ship is in a transition. FIXED: server scenario was sometimes not being properly read from the game_setupMP.ini file.

v2.00.00 RC27 (03-01-08)

Minor revisions/corrections to game manual (pages: 8,9,11,12,13,15,18,31,37,47) Added final version of the multiplayer setup docs Added charge digits for shield (R) / armor (L) to the left fighter icon, and gun charge (L) to the right fighter icon. FIXED: spurious crash on exit when trying to release the D3D device after it had been released already. FIXED: tacops zooming back with right mouse button now works again. Previously conflicted with the Select Target menu Multiplayer: Replaced dynamic object position prediction. New system now predicts position and orientation using spherical quaternion interpolation. Results in even smoother updates. Reduced the delay between multiplayer position update messages. Added "ms" text to the end of the ping on server list. Removed decimal part of the ping. FIXED: gun lasers moving faster than intended. FIXED: at certain resolutions, the mp server type icons weren't properly placed in the server browser FIXED: when a client or NPC was destroyed the server wasn't broadcasting any message. FIXED: collision detection no longer checks objects that are docked.

v2.00.00 RC26 (02-28-08)

FIXED: Issues with hotspots in Save/Restore screen Multiplayer: FIXED: client name/race/caste/etc... weren't being updated on other clients when it was changed without disconnecting first. Server now broadcasts the client information when they log on.

v2.00.00 RC25 (02-27-08)

Boosted ambient and direct lights for cards (e.g. ATI X800 series) that don't support HDR. FIXED: tutorial was displaying only 12 of 22 pages due to recent formatting to landscape FIXED: list menus in Frontend GUI corners were being drawn with color keying enabled FIXED: precaching thread was being created before the critical section used in it was being initialized, resulting sometimes in a crash. FIXED: random crash due to light being deleted after graphics kernel object was deleted. Multiplayer: FIXED: mission zone text wasn't being cleared properly in the multiplayer player profile FIXED: the inner game loop would become an infinite loop when the frame ms was 0 FIXED: crash when adding messages from an NPC pilot FIXED: player fighter asset image was being displayed incorrectly in Frontend asset selection screen FIXED: revised several Frontend GUI multiplayer menu numbers to display properly with the new Frontend GUI

v2.00.00 RC24 (02-26-08)

Some ATI cards (e.g. X850) do not support blending while using floating point render targets. This results in Black artifacts in various effects. Now if the card driver does not support this, then all effects (e.g. blooming, tone mapping and other cool effects) are disabled. The scenery would be a bit dark without HDR.

v2.00.00 RC23 (02-25-08)

Added native support for 1440x900 widescreen resolution Disabled and badly damaged crafts will now self-destruct after a random period of time (two to five mins) in order to reduce the clutter in the game world. Various key command revisions/corrections: There was an error with the screen cap key in the misc section. That key should be colored Blue (instead of Grey) because the command is CTRL+V, not V. Changed "Autopilot" (A) to ALT+A due to conflict with keyboard flight controls Changed "Designate Current Target" (D) to ALT+D due to conflict with keyboard flight controls Mouse button #2 will no longer launch missiles due to conflict with the HUD pop-up target menu when the mouse is set as the flight controller. Changed "Clear Current Target" description to "Clear Current Target / Waypoint" FIXED: The leak damageFX played when a craft is damaged was not being played in some instances.

v2.00.00 RC22 (02-22-08)

The fighter's tactical description is no longer in the WSD in order to reduce the length of each entry and keep the data compact so it doesn't take up too much HUD real estate. FIXED: the current radar target was being automatically added to the priority list

v2.00.00 RC21 (02-21-08)

Added extra spacing to Wingmen Status Display (WSD) listing. Also reduced font size. The wingman data is now automatically added to Priority List Viewer (PLV) as well. Only the player's own wing (ECHO 01..04) data is added to the WSD FIXED: widescreen issues in VDD/SSR icon display

v2.00.00 RC20 (02-20-08)

Images of acquired ranks and medals are now displayed in the ROSTER/STATS screen Added final VO files for the in-game tutorial. Now you have Mother audibly guiding you through the tutorial. Not included in demo/preview build.

v2.00.00 RC19 (02-18-08)

Updated from v4.10.06 to latest FMOD v4.12.03 audio SDK Added /use_sw_audio command line option which forces the use of software sound mixing in the sound driver. This is primarily for boards with buggy on-board sound devices and which may have problems with hardware mixing in the driver. Mother will now issue a warning if you have missile lock on a non-hostile target Adjusted Wingman Status Display font size to make it smaller so that it takes up less screen real estate. Increased the Frontend GUI font size from 11 to 14. For compatibility reasons, frontend GUI uses the OS standard Courier New font; which - hopefully - everyone has on their machines or the OS will use a less than desirable substitute monospaced font. Revised GAME OPTIONS section of the manual to reflect recent revisions. Added the ability to toggle NPC gun sounds in Config. For those purists who want minimal audio in space, this is it. Added sound events to Frontend AI pilot messages will no longer be generated when Mother is in control of the fighter Added a new active duty combat scenario to the demo/preview. This scenario contains the same two combat scenarios which are playable upon completion of the three phase tutorial. FIXED: Minor Frontend GUI text and highlighting issues in restore game screen

v2.00.00 RC18 (02-16-08)

Enabled the main menu (RESUME GAME / RESTORE GAME) in the demo. The hotkeys (S and R) worked fine before but were undocumented.

v2.00.00 RC17 (02-15-08)

FIXED: Removed dead zone clamping on joysticks. Much zippier now!

v2.00.00 RC16 (02-14-08)

Added transition sequence to docking. FIXED: Sometimes your fighters gun shots would not be rendered if you fired while an explosion was being played. FIXED: A rare alpha blending issue on the planet when missiles explode at a certain distance and when within the volumetric cloud layer. FIXED: minor Frontend GUI tweaks FIXED: Joystick X axis was reversed on some joysticks (e.g. Saitek AV8R-01) FIXED: External planetary cloud map is only rendered for planet Earth and planets with an atmosphere FIXED: Fixed timed step was not enabled correctly with /fts FIXED: Widescreen support issue in Config FIXED: Screen corruption occurring on *any* graphics mode on the ATI Radeon HD 3870 w/ widescreen FIXED: Orders not closing on mouse click

v2.00.00 RC15 (02-11-08)

Revised handling of ejected pilots Revised some HUD fonts Revised orders box text formatting. Scenario stats now appear at the top instead of bottom. Also increased the on-screen delay. The galaxy map, manual and tutorial are now accessible via the COMMS menu as well Page navigation hint now displayed when viewing the manual and tutorial docs Several analog gamepad and Xbox 360 controller revisions Added auto-pilot options (NAV/COMBAT ASSIST) to the COMMAND menu so that it is accessible to controller users. Tweaked the planetfal ingress/egress specialFX because I thought they were too "weak" compared to the others. Since there isn't much planetary combat action (and none in Episode One), this FX (which doesn't last very long) kinda didn't get as much attention as the other in-your-face ones. Added final Frontend GUI bitmaps. Also set GUI resolution to 1024x768. Background on higher screen res is blurred.

v2.00.00 RC14 (02-08-08)

Added [final] music track 08/08 from Soundrama. I sat in shocked silence as I listened to this one. Daniel truly is a maestro. To the point that I simply can't imagaine how he's going to top this for our other two GALCOM games. Minor tweaks to in-game commands, manual and tutorial text. All are now accessible via a single key (H, ALT+H, CTRL+H). FIXED: The specialFX for the jump anomalies (jump gate, flux fields, wormhole) were not working due to missing (heh!) assets not be put in the resource file. Nobody noticed it....until I was reviewing (and timing) the game tutorial.

v2.00.00 RC13 (02-07-08)

Added new pilots voice over (VO) voice fx from Somatone to assets dB. Removed legacy placeholders. Added new Mother (ship's computer) voice over (VO) voice fx from Somatone to assets dB. Removed legacy placeholders. Added commander's VO dialog for mission briefing and Episode One scenarios. No more reading your orders at briefing or during combat. Listen to a dude with a bad haircut bark orders instead. Sweet. Added VO narration to game's intro movie Series of final revisions to game manual and tutorial documents. The game galaxy (G) image is now loaded by the new doc viewer. The game commands (H) image, manual and tutorial are now loaded by the new doc viewer. Replaced PDF document viewer with our own developed document viewer. MUCH faster, no exit from game, no bloat! Just had to print the source files to a landscape image print driver. Then did some post-processing (resolution, DPI etc) to get them into the game in the correct format. Looks sweet!! Some minor bluriness though, due to graphics card Bi-linear filtering, but its not noticeable. Added new explosion fx debris models and added particle fire fx to them

v2.00.00 RC12 (02-04-08)

Created a 1280x720, 720x480 and 320x240 space combat gameplay movie. They don't do the game much justice, given the nature of video compression. Oh well, the IGN tech preview and public demo are coming out soon anyway. [STE] Tweaked external planet glow and planet clouds rendering. [STE]Added a noise texture to the planets to add some more detail when up close. This compensates for the granularity of the low res (1024x512) nature of those textures.

v2.00.00 RC11 (02-03-08)

[STE] Tweaked skybox rendering to render in HDR values range. Whoa!!! [STE] Revised dynamic star effect. Looks tons better now! Added music tracks 07/08 from Soundrama Added x18 new explosion and gun shot sound fx from Somatone to assets dB. Removed legacy placeholders. Added new Mother message cues says a warning message when shields are less than 25% or totally breached says a warning message when armor integrity is severely compromised. Advises immediate evac of craft. says a warning message if a friendly ship is targeted in the TRS with weapons hot says a message when you jump to a planet without establishing planetfall Added the following Config options which were previously command line options High Dynamic Range Lighting (default: ON) High Level Enemy Combat Tactics (default: OFF) Ground Avoidance Assist (default: OFF) Enable Joystick Rudder Axis (default: ON) Added /fts (Fixed Time Slice) command line option. This forces the game to run in a more aggressive timeslice. Not an official option (hence not in Config) because the game runs fine at the standard resolution (with all settings at defaults) under the minimum and recommended hardware requirements. This FTS setting is for those on the bleeding edge who are running at 1080p with everything on and want more of a consistent frame rate. e.g. at 1920x1080 (1080p), all Config graphics setttings on HIGH (and FSAA at 4X), you'd be lucky to see the bright side of 30fps without FTS. Because once a massive battle ensues and the turrets (e.g. GALCOMHQ has 18, while a type 11 station has 24!) starts firing, while employing collision detect, collision advoidance; then you add the combatants own ships, shots, missiles, turrets etc, well, thats a recipe for bleeding your CPU dry due mostly to AI processing. This may be a combat shooter, but my underlying AI is still very much alive and taking up most all the processing cycles when it can. Added in-game commands and new key [H] to activate it. WIP version over here Awaiting final version which has the analog gamepad and XBOX360 controller options in it. Updated game manual, tutorial, keyboard commands sheet and config option docs Game is now auto-saved (for resume) when you quit with ALT+Q. This allows you to quickly resume the last game even if you didn't manually save it. Removed remaining legacy placeholder sound/voice fx Keyboard command revisions Autopilot Nav (toggle) - A Autopilot Combat Assist (toggle) - CTRL+A Dock with current target - CTRL+D FIXED: console mode would crash due to preloading not being implemented for it.

v2.00.00 RC10 (01-30-08)

The missiles object filter in VDD/RTM is now disabled by default [STE]Added a glow effect around the leak damage fx [STE]Increased number of vertices for the shield impact fx [STE]Revised turret beam size. Were too small for large units like stations FIXED: new cockpit icons distorted 16:10 in widescreen mode FIXED: incorrect hotspots in 16:10 widescreen main menu FIXED: problem with start new game options when attempting to resume with no valid saved game FIXED: 3D cockpit shaking (hyperjump/collision) stopped working due to recent cockpit related revision

v2.00.00 RC9 (01-29-08)

Implemented the all new asset streaming resource manager. Game is now as smooth a buttar. Words can't describe how good this is. No more stalls, lengthy load times etc. Implemented new resource manager file system using PhysFS. Legacy resource mgr module removed. Added the completed 2D personnel (pilots, mother etc) comms images. Legacy placeholders removed. Minor tweak to explosion leak damage fx Volume textures now load into Default pool instead of Managed in order to reduce the memory footprint. Also cards that don't support DXT2 Volume Textures, have the textures quality reduced to save VRAM. Guess which cards don't support DXT2 volume textures. Thats right. The brain trust at nVidia did it again, causing my game to chew upwards of 180MB+ of memory just to load a bunch of special fx textures because the nVidia driver loads them as standard managed textures. ATI cards have supported DXT2 Volume Textures since the Radeon 7000. Yay for quality.

v2.00.00 RC8 (01-27-08)

Revised game manual to reflect cockpit HUD revisions Added music tracks 05,06 from Soundrama Implemented the final version of the new cockpit HUD interface Implemented Wingman Status Display (WSD) for the four wingmen (ECHO 01..04) to give player an instant at-a-glance look at their current state, AI orders etc without having to locate them on radar manually and calling up their stats (HUD and VDD/VID). The fighter's shield and armor boxes have been replaced with a graphic of the fighter. The outer ring of the left icon represents the shields, while the inner ring represents the armor. These are still color coded based on damage condition. The fighter's gun and missile boxes have been replaced with a graphic of the fighter. The outer ring of the right icon represents the gun charge. The number at the center of the icon shows the number of missiles loaded. When the launch delivery system is armed, the name of the current missile is displayed underneath. The hyperdrive jump engine indicator box has been removed and the bar graph relocated to the right of the fighter graphic. The player stats and the current date/time have been relocated to the right side of the HUD The info boxes (command/location/comms) have been replaced with multi-function icons The COMMS/ORDERS display now also shows the status of the current campaign. This is the same info displayed in the ACM mode of the Visual Data Display MFD but is now also conveniently located in the orders display box. You can also now remove the box with any mouse click or pressing a key. No longer have to wait for the timer delay. Revised several gamepad related controls/commands and made major revisions to the gamepad controls interface, making it possible to play the combat aspects of the game entirely using a gamepad controller.

v2.00.00 RC7 (01-19-08)

Added music tracks 02,03,04 from Soundrama Added a fifth pilot to the Echo Squad team. Player is now ECHO 00. The other eight pilots (ECHO05 to ECHO12) remain on-station aboard the GCV-EXCALIBUR and GCV-MERLIN carriers. Minor Frontend related cleanup Added newly AI tagged stations to assets dB. Can now fire and launch fighters. [PTE]Disabled the generation of grass/tree folliage. Not required for this game since there are no vehicles nor first person gameplay modes. [PTE]Added new 3D buildings to scene asset dB. [PTE]Added final city/base scenes to Earth planet. Removed all placeholders. NOTE: All scenes are mission specific and serve a purpose. This game is not about exploration, trading, diplomacy or any of that nonsens. Since the Gammulans have pretty much decimated the Terran homeworlds, there's not much to see on planets, other than the few starbases and cities that are still standing. Unlike our previous games which literally had thousands of places to visit, explore and conquer. If you want a game like that, go pick up any of the Battlecruiser or Universal Combat game series. The game missions are theatre specific. This means that a mission which takes place in space, does not require you to go down to Earth planet to explore. If you go exploring while playing a campaign scenario, you will be taken off active duty and the game will END. Several missions in a scenario have planetary targets as the objective. That will give you the ability to go look around. To explore fully, you have to complete the campaign first, at which point the game will revert to free form for a period of time before it exits. Like it or not, unlike our previous games, there is no perpetual free-form gameplay mode in the GALCOM series. The incentive to fallback to free-form gameplay, is to complete the campaign scenario. Several graphics related revisions: [STE]Addressed several minor graphics rendering engine related to graphics engine port [STE]Final performance/visual tweaks to explosion fx [STE]Final performance/visual tweaks to damage fx [PTE]Implemented final high res planetary terrain textures. Removed placeholders. [PTE]Final visual tweaks to planetary [volumetric] missile contrail fx. Now there are two fx types to make it easier to visually identify an inbound thread.   ATA (Air-To-Air) ATS (Air-To-Surface)  : White/Grey   ATS (Air-To-Surface) STO (Surface-To-Orbit) APN (All-Purpose-Naval) etc  : Brownish [PTE]Various minor terrain rendering fixes and tweaks (e.g. distance shading, site texture rendering etc). [PTE]improved terrain mesh normals generation. Terrain looks lots better! FIXED:[PTE]issue with terrain tile rendering in "flattened" (where bases/cities are) areas FIXED:[PTE]issue with site (on which bases/cities are placed) texture rendering FIXED:[PTE]Water rendering on planet was being overwritten. FIXED:Console server crash due to recent graphics revisions. FIXED:Returning to the main menu and starting a new scenario without first quitting to the OS would cause a crash due to previously unfreed 3D assets. FIXED:Going to TACOPS and returning to cockpit would cause HDR lighting anomalies

v2.00.00 RC6 (01-09-08)

Performance tweaks to special FX asset loading. The delay during asset loading when large objects are destroyed has been greatly improved and will be eliminated soon. See below. NOTE: Still working on the final streaming version Added two space and two planetary heavy combat stress test scenarios Added player controlled Interceptor MK1 heavy fighter class and 3D cockpit. The "practice" scenario now uses this fighter. NOTE: Only one fighter class is available per scenario. NOTE: Echo Squad SE now has two player controlled fighters. A heavy fighter (Interceptor MK1) and and medium fighter (Starlance). Two additional fighters will be added in future episodes. Revised and finalized all scenarios. Also completed [public] demo scenario Removed all previous music tracks which were used as placeholders. Will be replaced with eight new tracks being worked on by award winning music composer Daniel Sadowski of www.soundrama.com Added the game's new title track, "Trial By Fire" (01/08) from Daniel. Its totally wicked and five minutes of pure high energy octane. It'll make your audio card wheeze and your speakers weep. Added support for native 1152x864 display resolution Added final main menu image to assets dB; removed previous placeholder art Added resume game function to main menu. Can now resume the current game without having to have first saved it. This is the data used when you quit a game without first manually saving it. Revised game manual and tutorial to reflect game control/commands revisions. Also revised appendix section with new material on fighters and missiles. Revised several game controls and commands. The "combat assist" (CTRL+SHIFT+A toggle) aspect of the fighter's autopilot system has been enabled. Refer to the game manual for revised notes. This basically allows the fighters AI to go into combat mode and engage targets based on direct orders given. Sample usage:   Select a target from the COMMAND/ATTACK menu   Press CTRL+SHIFT+A to activate "combat assist" AI mode. The fighter will engage that target until (a) it is destroyed (b) it leaves the region (c) you give it a different order/target (d) you disable the AP (CTRL+A) Several graphics related revisions: [STE]Tweaked explosion fx. Looks better now and detached model parts now have particle fx too [STE]Tweaked combat damage fx. Looks better (and more volumetric) now [STE]Tweaked electricity fx. Also uses revised texture assets [STE]Tweaked explosion fx. Looks better now and detached model parts now have particle fx too [PTE]Increased quality of terrain data. NOTE: A newly discovered bug causes the water to be rendered incorrectly. [PTE]Increased rendering distance of the terrain ground mesh FIXED:[PTE]terrain rendering anomalies (e.g. tile blending). Also now renders to texture for blending FIXED:[PTE]NID map (same texture used in ground plane) would be rendered in grayscale. The new textures were in DXT1 format, and couldn't be read by PTE4.

v2.00.00 RC5 (12-20-07)

Added new (and AI tagged) planetary threat units to assets dB Several graphics related revisions: [STE]Volumetric missile contrails fx are now rendered correctly [STE]Electricity fx is now rendered correctly [STE]Planetfall fire fx now rendered correctly [PTE]terrain engine now supports HDR [PTE]weather fx now works correctly with HDR

v2.00.00 RC4 (12-19-07)

In the free-form scenario, the Wildstar fleet will now remain in the Earth space region and supporting GALCOMHQ, instead of taking off on a patrol of the entire SOL system. When that happens, since GALCOMHQ's weapon and launch systems are down (due to the stations not yet having their AI tag information), the station will eventually be destroyed when the region is overwhelmed by hostile forces jumping in and finding little or no resistance from friendly forces. [STE]Added new high-res space skybox assets Minor keyboard command revisions (PDF file updated) K ("Nearest Enemy Target") will now only select a valid target if any. If L ("Nearest Attacker To My Current Target") does not find a valid target, the nearest enemy target is now selected. If O ("Nearest Enemy Attacker" with lock) does not find a valid target, the nearest enemy attacker (with track) is now selected, otherwise the nearest enemy target is selected. "Designate Current Target" changed from CTRL+P to D FIXED: Tacops designators were being filtered out by the 3D cockpit settings FIXED: Minor Frontend GUI rendering issues FIXED:[STE] Some graphics rendering issues. NOTE: Several graphics engine related issues remain as a result of the WIP graphics engine port: The new resource asset streaming for 3D assets and textures is not yet ported over. This results in a noticeable pause during explosions and specialFX (e.g. blur, heat filter etc) processing. Especially noticeable during heavy combat situations as the assets are loaded directly instead of going through the asset management streamed loading. [STE]Volumetric missile contrails fx are not rendered [STE]Electricity fx is sometimes rendered (displaced from object) incorrectly [STE]Planetfall fire fx not rendered [PTE]Terrain engine does not yet support HDR. So going to the planet results in a completely dark display. Disable HDR (/no_hdr commandline) until resolved.

v2.00.00 RC3 (12-18-07)

Revised config options PDF file to reflect new graphics engine options FIXED:[STE] Damaged ships in space were using smoke (used for planets) instead of sparks FIXED:[STE] Shield fx was being played fullscreen instead of only on shields FIXED:[STE] Electricity fx was being displayed incorrectly due to incorrect viewport being set FIXED:[STE] HDR blooming offset was slightly incorrect

v2.00.00 RC2 (12-17-07)

Integrated new cloaking specialFX and shaders. This is the last specialFX to be ported over Added all new Second Edition themed main menu graphics, icons etc FIXED:[STE] Stalling during weapons impact damage due to missing specialFX explosion asset FIXED:[STE] Problem with main menu rendering (blurry) due to graphics port FIXED: Several Frontend GUI related rendering issues

v2.00.00 RC1 (12-16-07)

[STE]Integrated all new specialFX entities and shaders Integrated several new 3D assets to the object dB; including stations (which don't yet fire due to them requiring AI tagging), crafts etc, all with normal mapped assets. Removed several legacy 2D/3D assets Ported player's Starlance fighter 3D cockpit asset over. FIXED:[STE] Changing the graphics resolution in Config would sometimes cause a crash due to missing PTE4 data

v2.00.00 RC0 (12-14-07)

First official Second Edition branded RC (Release Candidate) build. Completed graphics engine replacement. Features include: All shaders upgraded to improved SM 2.0 versions. Game will no longer run on SM 1.x hardware All new shader based effects including, shield/armor impact, hyperspace, hyperjump, explosions, particle filters, cloaking, contrails, gun fire, damage etc High Dynamic Range lighting with blooming and tone mapping. Can be disabled using /no_hdr command line on cards with problematic drivers. Motion blur Multiple dynamic light sources (e.g. from planets, explosions, other scene objects etc) New space skybox rendering with ambient cube maps Normal mapping Completed Planetary Traversal Engine Spec 4 revisions which include: All shaders upgraded to improved SM 2.0 versions. Game will no longer run on SM 1.x hardware All new terrain and environment lighting All new water rendering Volumetric clouds Revised Sun (and sunlight) rendering Increased terrain data resolution Revised weather (rain, snow, heatwave etc) rendering and handling Replaced Frontend GUI rendering engine and assets First pass integration of new 3D assets; removed legacy (and obsolete) assets Added multiplayer client/server docs and non-GameTap executables Ported all four (E1..E4) campaign scenarios (E1 ships with initial game release) Added new free form scenario (for release with full game as bonus on Episode 1 completion) Added new demo scenario (for release with demo and full game) Built new program installer Revised game's product info to reflect Second Edition entries/revisions New system requirements (due to the newer graphics engine, normal map assets etc) Minimum: Windows XP SP2, Vista (with all service packs) DirectX 9.0c or later Pentium IV 3.0 GHz or equivalent 1GB system RAM 256MB video card with pixel and vertex shader 2.0     nVidia chipsets: GeForce 6800 or better     ATI chipsets: ATI X800 or better DirectX 9 compatible sound card CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Multiplayer requires LAN or broadband connection Recommended: Windows XP SP2, Vista (with all service packs) Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD X2 6000+ 3.0GHz 2GB system RAM 256MB PCIe video card with pixel and vertex shader 2.0 or 3.0     nVidia chipsets: GeForce 7800 or better     ATI chipsets: ATI X1600 or better

v1.00.05 (11-22-07)

Initial version for Second Edition branch based on previous GameTap exclusive v1.x edition. Goals for this effort: Replace the older Space Traversal Graphics (STE) engine with the newer STE Spec V developed for our newer games Revise the upgraded Planetary Terrain Engine (PTE Spec IV) to work with the new STE5 version.   NOTE: Cannot port to use PTE Spec V due to its drastic architectural and asset differences. Revise the Frontend GUI subsystem to work with the new STE5 version. Replace all shaders, effect files etc (required for STE5 port) Replace all legacy 2D assets with STE5 compliant versions Replace all legacy 3D assets with STE5 compliant (and normal mapped) versions Port all four scenario episodes (E1..E4) to the newer scripting system Build a demo based on SE or release the original [single player] Echo Squad game (with two new single mission scenarios) as-is for FREE