- Deimos Games shutting, making Helium Rain and Astral Shipwright free to play - 28 August 2023
Deimos Games announced they're shutting down but their games code is already open source, and now both Helium Rain and Astral Shipwright will be going free to play. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/08/deimos-games-shutting-making-helium-rain-and-astral-shipwright-free-to-play
- Astral Shipwright to go free-to-play on September 1st - 23 August 2023
It's been about a decade since I first started prototyping a space game - one where you'd start off with a small ship and trade resources. Two games, three game engines and 15,000 copies sold later, here am I with a new life where I don't quite have the time for such work anymore. Deimos Games will be shutting down this year. Both Helium Rain and Astral Shipwright will be going free-to-play, so that new players can still experience them in the future. As a reminder, both are also open-source, so if you were going to build anything based on these projects, you now have access to free content too. It's been refreshing to see game developers reuse code for their own projects, and I hope that will continue. I want to thank all players who supported me on this endeavour. I'm truly happy that I was able to share my work with you. Stranger
- 1.13 - DLSS support for Windows - 27 December 2022
Add DLSS support to Windows using the resolution scale setting
- 1.12 - Hotfix - 29 November 2022
Rename smelting resource to *Metallurgical coke* to clarify its role as a resource
- 1.11 - Hotfix - 23 November 2022
Fix fast-forward exiting when more fast-forward time would be helpful Fix mining system locking up after fast-forward Fix various UI inconsistencies with resource processing
- Astral Shipwright 1.10 - The processing update - 21 November 2022
The new 1.10 update is now live! As a highlight, it brings a complete rewrite of the resource processing system, designed for accurate processing times and fast-forward operation. It also introduces Aracca Station, a new area that will act as a high orbit destination. Changelog New Add new Aracca station Add specific impulse display to the engine selection Erebus engine now weights 5 T, Fuji engine 20 T Improved module group panel Bugs Fix processing interrupted for every stack of produced resources Fix mining rigs/processing modules interrupting fast forward immediately when used concurrently Fix centrifuge compartment unable to support mining rigs Fix some trading operations picking the wrong cargo slot See you soon for more! Stranger
- Astral Shipwright 1.9 - 17 November 2022
Astral Shipwright 1.9 is live. Along with some minor changes, it brings a few new spacecraft equipment. A new main drive, new RCS thruster and larger solar array are bringing some more options for your ship! More updates are coming, with additional content and hopefully more play style options. Changelog New New Fuji engine New Advanced thruster New Large solar array Updated Unreal Engine version with higher stability Add option to disable motion blur Bugs Fix anchoring while orbiting an asteroid Fix crash in the module groups window Known issues DLSS support is currently unavailable and will be added to the game later this month. In the meantime, screen percentage controls upscaling using TSR (default high quality upscaling) or TAAU. The game may crash on some integrated Intel GPUs. Make sure to update your GPU drivers, and try adding "-D3D11" to the command line parameter on Steam. So…
- 1.8 - Hotfix - 14 November 2022
Balance power equipment to make batteries more meaningful Fix crash in the module groups window Fix ghost resources after some trades Tentative fix for crash on bulk trading
- 1.7 - Hotfix - 13 November 2022
Fix crash on opening module or equipment lists Fix crash in operations
- Astral Shipwright 1.6 & Future updates - 13 November 2022
Hi everyone! It's been less than two days since Astral Shipwright came out, and we're already on the 6th update. After a few hotfixes, this one is big enough to warrant some more details. Changelog No longer prevent fast-forward while processing resources Fix ghost resources clogging cargo slots Fix crash when modifying spacecraft with an active processing system Fix crash when opening the module groups panel Fix spacecraft parts unlockable without money Fix compartments that could be added on top of a mining rig Fix centrifuge compartment not allowing mining rigs Fix centrifuge compartments that showed pipes through the soft hull Fix centrifuge module rotating a different compartment after swapping Fix sensor showing up density with no sensor mast installed You can find the game's full history, including the previous hotfixes, right here. Coming soon As many of you have reported, the g…
- 1.5 - Hotfix - 12 November 2022
Clarify crew hints Clarify flight plan widget Fix home menu clipping in 1080p and below Fix various crashes
- 1.4 - Hotfix - 12 November 2022
Fix ships not appearing on startup Fix crash
- 1.03 - Hotfix - 12 November 2022
Increase the variation range and detail of prices Set the price update frequency to a fixed 15 days period Add missing superfreighter AI ship template Fix inverted A/Q keys in default bindings Fix mouse drag breaking down below 20fps Fix rare crash on click
- 1.2 - Hotfix - 12 November 2022
Set the trading slider step to five tons (previously ten) Fix crash while the module group panel is active
- 1.01 - Hotfix - 11 November 2022
Fix various crashes
- Astral Shipwright is now available! - 11 November 2022
Release notes Performance Astral Shipwright is an Unreal Engine 5 title that comes with all the bells and whistles. From the millions of triangles rendered through Nanite, to the new Lumen lighting technology, to the new TSR upscaling anti-aliasing... There are many new things to try here. The following settings are known to have a drastic impact on performance: Screen Percentage is a very powerful and easy way to increase performance at a minor quality cost by setting it to values between 50% and 100%. It can also be set to values above 100%, though performance will largely suffer. Lumen is an expensive lighting technology that should be toggled off if you are experimenting performance problems. Virtual Shadow Maps allow much better shadow detail, but also cost a lot of frame time. As usual, the main quality sliders are also an easy way to control quality. On the other hand, Nanite sho…
- Astral Shipwright Roadmap - 18 June 2022
After a week in demo (did you try it?), here's an update on everything that's coming to the game. But first, as you may know, Astral Shipwright was targeting September 2 for an Early Access launch, and that's awfully close. If you've been playing the demo, you probably noticed the game is quite empty at the moment - and with the amount of work left, the game is now set to release on October 14 2022. This small delay will make development a lot more confortable. Systems Astral Shipwright is fundamentally about building a very personal ship, and flying it to fund your next upgrade. Currently, the game only offers basic trading and mining, neither a particularly fascinating experience. This is where systems come in. The first system that's going to enter development, as soon as next week, is mining. After you've managed to get to an esteroid, you will be able to scan this asteroid to detec…
- The Astral Shipwright Demo is now available! - 9 June 2022
The first public release of the game is now available. Try it to get a first look at what the game will feel like, and don't forget to wishlist it if you enjoy the experience! Early days This first build should be seen as a very early version of the game - Early Access is still a ways off. In fact, this demo doesn't feature more than basic shipbuilding, travel and trading. It also runs on the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5, with the limited stability and support that comes with early technology. In short, this is a vertical slice of the game masquerading as a demo! Known issues include the following items: The game may randomly crash to desktop. There is no need to report the crash as the operation is done automatically, but feel free to report the conditions of the crash if you were doing something in particular at the time. The game map may display in a corner of the screen as opposed t…
- Visual quality & performance in Astral Shipwright - 30 March 2022
Getting a game to look good is hard, but getting a good-looking game to perform well is even harder. And here is why Astral Shipwright was moved to Unreal Engine 5 six months ago, using a development branch of the engine's sources: new features of the engine bring both great quality and new ways to get the game running well. The previous devblog entry focused on planets, and we'll move on today with the rendering of the stations featured in the game. Real-time reflections If you've played Helium Rain before, you might have noticed that reflective surfaces are somewhat absent. Windows or mirrors aren't to be seen, solar panels are fairly rough, metals are painted. This is because reflections are a very difficult topic in game development: realistic reflections normally require a prohibitive amount of computation, essentially simulating thousands of light bounces per pixel. This is what r…
