Star Map
Star map draws slowly.

Recreated the star map display widget using OpenGL.

Removed star map density control.

Fixed various minor bugs with the star map.

Increased size of explored sprite in empty sectors, so they stand out a bit better.

Seamless Sky Box
The corners and edges of the sky box are distracting. Sometimes they are very visible.

The sky box is now seamless. The fix resulted from changes to the way the cloudy background of the galaxy is rendered.

Currently it seems that too much crit damage can roll a system over to around 4.2 billion HP.  The system is then nonfunctional until disconnected and reconnected in the power distribution panel.

Rolled over systems cannot be repaired by hand, until said work around is performed.

Empty Sectors
Every sector has at least one solar system. That means you can go on forever outside the galaxy.

The number of solar systems in a sector is now allowed to reach zero when the star density of the galaxy reaches zero. Star density reaches zero outside the galaxy and it can reach zero in thin areas within the galaxy, creating starless voids.

You can travel through empty sectors. The star map will show a single "explored" dot at the center. That is where the ships present and energy emissions appear.

Star density is not allowed to reach zero at the core. There is always at least one solar system at the core.

Existing sectors and solar systems are not affected.

Organ Models
Some organs still do not have 3D models.

All organs now have models to represent them in the game environment.

The organs dropped by creatures are now determined by their DNA. 

Videos Link Broken
The Videos link on the screen in the game does not work.

Fixed videos link.

Asteroid Impact Inconvenient
Some players cannot defend against the asteroid because the impact happens at an inconvenient time in their real lives.

When starting a new avatar, the impact time of the asteroid can be adjusted up to a full day before or after its scheduled time, which is one week from creation of the avatar.

Field of View Angle
The field of view angles are shown on the screen when resizing the window. They are wrong, by a factor of two. The numbers shown are twice the size of the actual field of view angles.

Field of view angles fixed when reported on the screen.

Field of view angle adjustment added to Settings|Scene window.

Default field of view angle changed from 45 degrees to 60 degrees.

Sky Box Resolution
A request was made to increase the resolution of the sky box texture.

Sky box resolution control added to Settings|Scene window. Default is 1024.

Sky box mipmap control added to Settings|Scene window. Default is on.

I find the picture quality to be the best when this is set to about 1/2 the width of the view window. Field of view angle determines how much of the sky box will be stretched across your screen at any given moment. Each 90 degrees of field of view width equates to one pane of the sky box; at 90 degrees, the number of pixels of sky box across the width of the scene equals the sky box resolution; at 120 degrees, the number is about 1.33x the sky box resolution. If the window is less than that width, the sky box texture is too big; pixels will be lost; that is where mipmapping can help. Using a skybox resolution that is 1/2 the size needed insures ample color data is available to paint each pixel of the scene, providing a richer deeper star field.

My view screen is 1600 pixels wide. At 800 pixels, my sky box looks fantastic.

Observed System Contents
The star map should show the contents of systems that are explored but not scanned.

Star map will now show contents of explored systems. Right-click now offers an "Observatory Report" for systems that are explored but not scanned.

Manufacturing Processes for Hull Modules
Why are there manufacturing processes for hull modules?

Manufacturing processes for hull modules should no longer appear anywhere.

Biodome in Deep Crater Has No Plants
A biodome in a deep crater on a moon did not have any plants inside.

Fixed plants in biodome.

I spacewalked out of my ship to visually inspect some hull damage and check my exterior collision model. Ship was moving at the time. Instead of floating alongside me, it zoomed away as if I'd just finished hopping freight and jumped off the railcar.

This is highly unexpected, unrealistic and, when in a vehicle with collision damage, potentially deadly. Say you have a ship the shape of a Star Destroyer. You open a hatch on top of the nose and float out, but, instead of gently coasting along in the serene ballet "2001" has taught us to desire, the superstructure slams into you from behind like a stagecoach and six panicking horses.

It's also the source of the classic newbie (and not-so-newbie) complaint "I accidentally pressed E trying to steer my rocket and it dumped me".

When a ship is not in an atmosphere, can objects transiting from a hull void into space just inherit the ship's velocity (add it to their own velocity at the point of exit)? That way it's all intuitive and a bit safer. Doesn't need to apply to transporters, the most common method of travel, but should apply to launch tubes.

Just getting back into the game and I know there have been a lot of changes. The more recent changes seem to have removed all of my buildings. I managed to build a basic mine to gather stone but the city is not showing on the city list. I still have a flag standing where the town square used to be but there is no square? I used the build window and tried to demolish it to place a new flag but there is nothing to destroy. I then tried to use a new flag but nothing happens. I have 4 flags in my inventory and none can be used/placed. All I have left of the cities are the roads. The only city that shows up on the F12 window is the one I had in the Babylon system. 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Shield textures for the bubble around milliatry shield bases are glitchy, flashy, and headache inducing.
bubble textures appear to be zfighting everywhere.

Image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhryr4d4qjzh2m...h.png?dl=0

Both shield base and weapon base consoles do nothing in buildings, no buttons can be clicked.

Troops also do not spawn at troop berths in buildings, and will not man stations.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohwbev8t9yes3m...g.png?dl=0

You can remove more modules than the system has installed, and it causes that system to roll over backwards.
I have yet to test the implications of this on craft performance.

It is possible to clip buildings into each other in the new building system. This is kinda of a feature, even if I think it is silly. But it has a big issue when it comes to blocking line of sight or projectiles.

For example, if you place a military building so it is surrounded by civilian buildings, or even inside civilian buildings. You can make it impossible for weapons to hit the target unless you are at that possible one exact angle to hit it, if there even is such an angle.

On that note I have even seen one farm building blueprint that seems to just block all missiles fired at buildings around it.

Installing the client is proving to be tricky on my new Windows 10 (home) version.     Specifically, the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 is failing while indicating a newer version is already installed.     I have also been unable to independently add it to my system as I get the same error (looking for work arounds now).   Is there a reason why the client can't use the latest MS Visual C++ distributions?.      Seems to me this could be a barrier to play for many if work arounds are required for client operation.

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