Hello Pilots, For the past six years, Volo Airsport has been our lives. We’ve thought about it long into the night when we should’ve been sleeping, worked on it weekends and holidays… We love this game, and still find ourselves amazed by the number of players who have come to love it as well. When we released Volo Airsport on Steam Early Access in late 2014, we intended for its development to be a journey - and it certainly has been. We added features that allowed you to choose the way you fly, whether in our signature wingsuit, or the new, customizable parachute. We improved the game’s graphics and upgraded the engine several times over, adding day/night cycles, a weather system, and more. We started a semi-weekly show to catalogue improvements made, future plans, and discuss our approach to game development. And all the while, we were able to rely on you - our community - to guide and support us. Whether you ‘liked’ one of our videos, covered the game, or simply took the time to play it, we can’t thank you enough for your support of Volo Airsport, and our team. As we’ve continued to try bringing Volo Airsport to a point of completion, we’ve begun to hit one roadblock after another. Right now, we’re a team of three, and we simply can’t continue to work on this project we love so much with the revenue it currently generates. We’ve run out of money, and with it, the time we hoped we might have to bring this project to a fitting conclusion. As of today, development of Volo Airsport is on a permanent hiatus. Today’s new branch containing the seeds of the next steps we hoped to take with the game is the last addition Volo Airsport will see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_BTi0gWYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RafvK5j5VQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RadLN5A3ipg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88VvMFGpBck We thank you wholeheartedly for your support, encouragement, and feedback over the course of Volo's development. We’ve built a game that we’re still quite proud of, and we couldn’t have done any of it without you. We also hope to see you again in our next journey - whatever that might be. Goodbye, Pilots. Sincerely, Ramjet Anvil

[ 2017-06-02 09:57:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Pilots, For the past six years, Volo Airsport has been our lives. Weve thought about it long into the night when we shouldve been sleeping, worked on it weekends and holidays We love this game, and still find ourselves amazed by the number of players who have come to love it as well. When we released Volo Airsport on Steam Early Access in late 2014, we intended for its development to be a journey - and it certainly has been. We added features that allowed you to choose the way you fly, whether in our signature wingsuit, or the new, customizable parachute. We improved the games graphics and upgraded the engine several times over, adding day/night cycles, a weather system, and more. We started a semi-weekly show to catalogue improvements made, future plans, and discuss our approach to game development. And all the while, we were able to rely on you - our community - to guide and support us. Whether you liked one of our videos, covered the game, or simply took the time to play it, we cant thank you enough for your support of Volo Airsport, and our team. As weve continued to try bringing Volo Airsport to a point of completion, weve begun to hit one roadblock after another. Right now, were a team of three, and we simply cant continue to work on this project we love so much with the revenue it currently generates. Weve run out of money, and with it, the time we hoped we might have to bring this project to a fitting conclusion. As of today, development of Volo Airsport is on a permanent hiatus. Todays new branch containing the seeds of the next steps we hoped to take with the game is the last addition Volo Airsport will see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_BTi0gWYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RafvK5j5VQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RadLN5A3ipg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88VvMFGpBck We thank you wholeheartedly for your support, encouragement, and feedback over the course of Volo's development. Weve built a game that were still quite proud of, and we couldnt have done any of it without you. We also hope to see you again in our next journey - whatever that might be. Goodbye, Pilots. Sincerely, Ramjet Anvil

[ 2017-06-02 09:30:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week we show various gameplay experiments and reveal the flight contest winners! https://youtu.be/yAnsVSNK4Hc 01:19 Bullet Hell 07:45 Wind Effectors 12:19 Contest results! 13:11 Irate Earwig's entry 16:19 Skyfreak's entry 18:40 Teyno's entry

[ 2017-05-07 20:00:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week we show various gameplay experiments and reveal the flight contest winners! https://youtu.be/yAnsVSNK4Hc 01:19 Bullet Hell 07:45 Wind Effectors 12:19 Contest results! 13:11 Irate Earwig's entry 16:19 Skyfreak's entry 18:40 Teyno's entry

[ 2017-05-07 19:59:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello pilots! We're extending the contest deadline right up to (and including) this Thursday so you can get your entries in, and we'll announce the winners on Friday's episode. We're already seen some beauties, keep 'em coming! Record and send your best flights to info@volo-airsport.com by May 4th. Winners get a giftable Steam key!
Happy flying!

[ 2017-05-01 11:36:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello pilots! We're extending the contest deadline right up to (and including) this Thursday so you can get your entries in, and we'll announce the winners on Friday's episode. We're already seen some beauties, keep 'em coming! Record and send your best flights to info@volo-airsport.com by May 4th. Winners get a giftable Steam key!
Happy flying!

[ 2017-05-01 11:29:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello pilots! To celebrate Volo's new parachute release we're running a video contest. Record and send your best flights to info@volo-airsport.com by April 28th. Winners get a giftable Steam key!
Happy flying! We can't wait to see what y'all will come up with.

[ 2017-04-18 13:42:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello pilots! To celebrate Volo's new parachute release we're running a video contest. Record and send your best flights to info@volo-airsport.com by April 28th. Winners get a giftable Steam key!
Happy flying! We can't wait to see what y'all will come up with.

[ 2017-04-18 13:42:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

That means parachutes for everyone this Easter, happy flying pilots! Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NQVOPU1nU While you're at it, check out the Ramjet Anvil Show, where we demonstrate how to make the most out of the newly added parachutes and announce the first ever video constest. Video contest details: Record your best parachute and/or wingsuit lines, send 'em our way, and you can we a free Steam key for a friend (or enemy, your choice)! Bonus points for funky custom parachutes. Deadline: April 28th Send videos to: info@volo-airsport.com 00:58 What's in v3.7? 02:07 Editing parachutes 04:16 Flying forever in the secret garden of lift 06:33 How to use the parachute lines 12:23 VIDEO CONTEST! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3rlCVk66fI

[ 2017-04-15 19:48:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

That means parachutes for everyone this Easter, happy flying pilots! Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NQVOPU1nU While you're at it, check out the Ramjet Anvil Show, where we demonstrate how to make the most out of the newly added parachutes and announce the first ever video constest. Video contest details: Record your best parachute and/or wingsuit lines, send 'em our way, and you can we a free Steam key for a friend (or enemy, your choice)! Bonus points for funky custom parachutes. Deadline: April 28th Send videos to: info@volo-airsport.com 00:58 What's in v3.7? 02:07 Editing parachutes 04:16 Flying forever in the secret garden of lift 06:33 How to use the parachute lines 12:23 VIDEO CONTEST! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3rlCVk66fI

[ 2017-04-15 19:48:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

--- With the latest 3.7 beta we're bringing VR flying back to Volo! --- 00:00 Oh my god it's VR 04:12 About motion controls 05:54 The subtlety of brake lines and gamepad triggers 10:18 Parachute selection with gamepad 12:31 Performance improvements 14:52 Pilot now relaxes under canopy 16:02 Fixed tendency for all canopies to bank left without input https://youtu.be/VzJH5aV2GlQ

[ 2017-03-26 11:46:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

--- With the latest 3.7 beta we're bringing VR flying back to Volo! --- 00:00 Oh my god it's VR 04:12 About motion controls 05:54 The subtlety of brake lines and gamepad triggers 10:18 Parachute selection with gamepad 12:31 Performance improvements 14:52 Pilot now relaxes under canopy 16:02 Fixed tendency for all canopies to bank left without input https://youtu.be/VzJH5aV2GlQ

[ 2017-03-26 11:46:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

--- This week we look at the new beta, featuring pretty parametric 3d models for all your parachutes, new editor improvements, and we go over the polishing work still to be done for the proper v3.7 release. --- 00:00 Look at them! 02:41 Iterating on editor UI 06:06 New parachute visuals 08:01 What's on the todo list? 09:13 The state of VR support 12:57 Small additions 14:33 State of parachute physics consistency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CEDbTHH8y8

[ 2017-03-10 15:58:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

--- This week we look at the new beta, featuring pretty parametric 3d models for all your parachutes, new editor improvements, and we go over the polishing work still to be done for the proper v3.7 release. --- 00:00 Look at them! 02:41 Iterating on editor UI 06:06 New parachute visuals 08:01 What's on the todo list? 09:13 The state of VR support 12:57 Small additions 14:33 State of parachute physics consistency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CEDbTHH8y8

[ 2017-03-10 15:58:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

This episode we show off Pilot's new canopy controlling skills introduced in beta 3, and we tackle comments on last week's episode! Enjoy! 00:59 DaGhost141: Will tracking jumps be a feature? 03:23 DaGhost141: Can we control speedscaling? 04:56 Parachute-powered backflip fun 08:39 Skyfreak: Can we get that slowmotion? 11:58 Beta 3 Discussion Starts 17:53 Dealing with surging wings 21:19 A list of squashed issues 24:13 Beta installation instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOY5Ukjgito

[ 2017-02-10 18:03:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

This episode we show off Pilot's new canopy controlling skills introduced in beta 3, and we tackle comments on last week's episode! Enjoy! 00:59 DaGhost141: Will tracking jumps be a feature? 03:23 DaGhost141: Can we control speedscaling? 04:56 Parachute-powered backflip fun 08:39 Skyfread: Can we get that slowmotion? 11:58 Beta 3 Discussion Starts 17:53 Dealing with surging wings 21:19 A list of squashed issues 24:13 Beta installation instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOY5Ukjgito

[ 2017-02-10 18:03:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

While we're polish up v3.7 we thought we'd mess around with the game while it runs in the editor, leading to very important questions like: What happens if you remove the left leg? Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gM6wIebhQ

[ 2017-02-06 11:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

While we're polish up v3.7 we thought we'd mess around with the game while it runs in the editor, leading to very important questions like: What happens if you remove the left leg? Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gM6wIebhQ

[ 2017-02-06 11:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this episode we see Pilot's first flailing attempts at more directly flying his parachute, and discuss how he'll get better at it. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jliAk8RLp2E

[ 2017-01-28 15:10:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this episode we see Pilot's first flailing attempts at more directly flying his parachute, and discuss how he'll get better at it. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jliAk8RLp2E

[ 2017-01-28 15:10:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this episode we discuss the first v3.7 beta release, which brings the parachute system into the full game, detail how we'll polish this release up over the next weeks, and ask you to help us make it better! Watch it on YouTube!

[ 2017-01-16 09:25:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Pilots, The Volo Airsport parachute update test release is here! We just released a new test version of the upcoming parachutes update for Volo Airsport. This update is packed with awesome features:

• Parachute flight simulation with all the depth of the wingsuit flight model you know and love
• A rich editor for designing your very own parachutes
• In-flight deployment of your parachute, with the ability to switch back to wingsuiting at any moment
• Use 'T' or 'Right Shoulder button' to toggle
• Numerous performance tweaks and improvements

Go to game in your Steam library -> Select Volo Airsport -> Right click properties -> select Betas tab -> select 'test' to download the new update. If you haven't done so already check out our development diary on YouTube. In it you can see how the parachute release came to be, what considerations we made while building this update, and many more things. Please let us know what you think about this release on the forums. Also, if you find bugs, please report them there. Happy new year! The Volo Airsport team

[ 2017-01-04 19:52:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this episode we take a question from the comments about Volo's current and future art direction, looking at the space between the concepts of pure realism and pure fantasy, where the two are much alike, and where we think they can really help each other. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjf5sZ75omw

[ 2016-12-19 13:48:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Ramjet Anvil Show episode! This week we demonstrate the first results of duct-taping the parachute system to the full game, and tell a few things about what to expect next. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lP80YDMciM

[ 2016-12-10 14:46:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy Pilots! In this episode we talk about the game design and technical design challenges we deal with while merging the parachute system into Volo proper. Specifically the area where game design and technical design start looking like the same thing. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9DT7R5yjuE

[ 2016-12-03 14:38:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Pilots, Friday the 25th 1PM EST and 6PM GMT we'll be playing and discussing one of our favorite games Pilot Wings 64 on Twitch. Join us! https://www.twitch.tv/voloairsport

[ 2016-11-24 10:30:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this episode we talk about early access game development as a continuous growth process, and we take a quick look at Volo's evolution over the years and see how we slowly but steadily learned to make a better flying game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzFbuw3KwFg

[ 2016-11-19 00:23:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are joined by fellow gamedev Xalavier Nelson to talk about the new parachute experimental build! We discuss the current visual parachute editing system, our future plans for it, and the design principles underpinning it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzLQdo0iTiQ Download the parachutes experimental release on Itch.io, available for free!

[ 2016-11-07 20:01:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ramjet Anvil Show Ep.3: We discuss the new Parachutes build, and all the wonderful feedback you gave us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJxvEzCIICQ Download the parachutes experimental release on Itch.io, available for free! 00:00 Intro 00:35 Bugs and issues fixed in this build 04:53 New input mapping options 07:54 Community feedback on parachutes v1 09:08 Sean Dobbins shows: Swooping Video 14:05 Sean Dobbins asks: Regarding real world locations, what about Chamonix? 16:06 Fat Lobster asks: How much of this customization will remain in the full game? 17:57 Notes on more intuitive parachute design tools 19:04 Several pilots ask: When will parachutes be integrated into the full game? 21:04 Several pilots ask: Multiple spawnpoints? 22:27 Jens Hagen asks: Have you looked at the new Elite Dangerous input mapping system? 23:47 Mihawkler asks: More flexible line set designs 24:51 Mihawkler asks: Using chord-wise ram airfoil flex for aerodynamics modeling, like the current span-wise flex? 27:04 Mihawkler asks: Openings and cutaways? 27:42 William DiGiacomo sent us really elaborate and useful feedback 29:40 New website and other plans for improving communication 31:45 Outro

[ 2016-10-08 13:14:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Download on Itch.io, available for free! Construct your own parachutes and improve your flying and landing skills in this rich simulation toolkit. Volo Parachutes will become part of the game Volo Airsport in the future. For now it is available as standalone experimental release. This first experimental release has plenty of unfinished goofs and bugs, but here's what's already in: A playful and intuitive way to learn a lot about an incredibly exciting side of modern day skydiving A fully parametric canopy design system: Change the size, shape, and angles of the parts and your bad ass new canopy into flight immediately Detailed ram airfoil simulation model, modeling lift, drag, pressurisation, pendulum effects on a per-cell basis, each linked to the pilot with individually simulated lines and controlled lines. Control system that gives you direct and simultaneous interaction with weight shift, and the pull applied on individual control lines. A tool for generating funny physics glitch gifs to post on Twitter We think that's pretty cool, and we're anxious to see the things you'll make with it and the lines you'll fly with it. Show us some videos! Controls Control with gamepad (Xbox pad recommended) or play with keyboard. Keyboard: Weight shift - W,A,S,D Select lines - Q,E Pull lines - Left arrow, Right arrow Gamepad (press a button to activate): Weight shift - Left stick Select lines - X, A Pull lines - Left and right triggers Please let us know what you think about the game in the comments section below! Please support the development of Volo by buying Volo Airsport on itch.io or Steam. Or consider tipping us through itch.io!

[ 2016-09-23 19:18:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Pilots! We're doing something new: It's the Ramjet Anvil Show. This bi-weekly video series is where we keep you up to date on Volo Airsport, it's development, and the ideas behind all of it. Got questions? Leave them in a comment, and we'll get to them next episode. Check out Episode 1 on Youtube!

[ 2016-09-05 16:42:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dear Pilots, Last month we've been busy working on multiplayer and rendering performance. This blog post is all about the challenges we encountered so far while writing Volo's netcode. Martijn has been busy finding and fixing what seemed like the most terrifying bug in the history of Volo. Right after we ported the Pilot code to support multiplayer a super annoying bug pops up that made the whole simulation unstable under low frame rates. And we just couldn't find the source of this bug. So we went from blaming Unity, to blaming ourselves, to blaming Unity to almost settling on 'Okay, we have to make the performance of the game better otherwise no one can play it', to 'Oh, it's just this stupid little line in our code that breaks everything'. Right now, we're both working on the actual code that syncs the pilot between peers. Which means we have to try to make Unity behave like it should respect two separate physics worlds (one on the client and the other on the server) and try to reconcile them. Unfortunately, Unity doesn't really have any tools for doing that. In fact the whole physics engine basically assumes there is only one physics world, like you're building a singleplayer game. So, we have to work around that. And if the workarounds turn out not result in a satisfying playing experience we have to use another physics engine that does respect multiplayer environments. This is definitely one of those "if only I could go back in time to warn my past self about this" scenarios. Let me explain in more detail why Unity is ill-suited for fast-paced multiplayer physics-heavy games and why another physics-heavy game you might have heard of called Rocket League switched to Bullet physics for this exact reason. The way Unity physics work is that time always moves forward and time only passes when real time passes. The consequence is that we cannot run the physics engine to predict anything. Prediction and correction are important parts of multiplayer code where we extrapolate where Player A is based on the time that it took to send the information from Player A to Player B. This latency (the time between sending and receiving) is the duration you need to use to extrapolate from to visualize on Player B's screen where Player A is now. If we would just render Player A on the exact spot Player A told us that he was we would effectively be rendering him in the past, resulting in a poor multiplayer experience. So, if extrapolation is at the heart of a good multiplayer experience how do we fix that? There's two ways of doing this: Create our own limited physics extrapolation engine that effectively tries to mimick what Unity's physics do, but giving us the power to rewind time and simulate in non-realtime. The resulting code is usually hacky, and almost works in some circumstances but not in others. Flying straight forward works fine, but barrel rolling doesn't for example. Collisions are also a nightmare. You can imagine that making our own Volo specific extrapolation engine is complex and time consuming especially since each new use-case for Volo's physics model (barrel-rolling, parachutes, you name it) has to be modeled in this extrapolation engine as well. It's certainly not impossible to do this but the result of this approach will definitely be that Volo multiplayer is not gonna be as awesome as Volo singleplayer simply because some things are just too hard or time-consuming to do. We would have to make the Pilot physics simpler, take out barrel-rolling, significantly reduce the complexity of the parachutes and probably limit the Pilot/Parachute user customization that we had in mind. Another solution to this problem is to do the same as the Rocket League people did: switch to a physics engine you have more control over, like Bullet Physics. Once you use Bullet physics you get your extrapolation engine for free, simply because Bullet doesn't have a notion of real time. It just runs whenever you want it to run, for example: you can simulate 5 seconds of physics as fast as your processor can crunch the numbers (say, 1 millisecond realtime). The hard part of course is that we would need to port the entire Pilot and Parachute simulation to this new physics engine, and become responsible for maintaining this physics engine code during the game's lifespan. You can imagine that this is a lot of work, especially for a 2-person team with quite enough on their plates already. Whichever way it goes, there are still a few core battles to fight before Pilot is ready to fly together with friends. Furthermore, this month we open sourced our master server solution called Padrone. It's a unique master server solution that let's people on different platforms (itch.io, Steam etc.) play games with each other. Normally, games would just require you to use Steam for multiplayer, or would limit their multiplayer experience to the platform that it runs on. We think we can do better. That's it for this month! Watch out for next month's blog post for more info on multiplayer and why the new Unity 5.4 release is crucial for improving Volo's performance, both in VR and in general. Blue skies! Frank  

[ 2016-08-11 11:28:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Pilots, Here's a short update on what we're working on:

Parachutes

Martijn's been busy adding parachutes to the game and it's beginning to look quite awesome. Check out this video he made: https://twitter.com/m_zandvliet/status/743100432222978048 One of the most interesting features of these parachutes is that they're completely customizable. You can literaly change any aspect of it. By default we will ship three parachutes with the game:

• an easy parachute, one that makes it relatively hard to break your legs.
• an intermediate parachute, one that makes it not so hard to break your legs and is more interesting to fly with.
• an expert parachute, for everyone who knows what to do.

But it doesn't stop there. You can go and make your own parachute and share it with the community. All this stuff is still work in progress though and we'll be incrementally improving this feature just as we're doing with the rest of the game.

Multiplayer

I've been working mostly on the multiplayer technology which consists of two parts: Unity communication layer The first part is the communication layer that acts as intermediate between Unity and Lidgren (the networking library we're using). This layer is pretty much finished and we're now translating all the existing concepts (the Pilot, the Wind turbines, the Whisps/Ball buddies) to a multiplayer context. To simplify our code we decided that all games, even singleplayer, will be multiplayer games. The way this works is: when starting in singleplayer mode the game will silently start a server that other players won't be able to see and lets exactly one player (you) join it. This significantly reduced the complexity of our code since we don't need to distinguish between singleplayer and multiplayer games anymore. The Master Server The second part is the Master Server that tracks all live servers and facilitates hosting/joining of games. For the master server the most important bit was to get all players from different platforms (Steam, Itch, Oculus) to play together and I'm happy to say that this already works quite well. The master server, if it works well, you won't notice it exists. The game requests a list of hosts and shows them to you, allowing you to select and join one.

Performance optimizations

We're also working hard on getting better performance on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. We're actively profiling our graphics code and are trying to identify shaders/scripts that somehow suck the performance out of the game when playing in VR-mode.

ETA

All of this work is ongoing. I hope we can release a network test version of the game real soon. The parachute and VR update will probably arrive a bit later. Blue skies to all! Frank

[ 2016-07-11 13:15:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Check out the trailer! We just dropped a big new update! Some highlights are: - VR support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (Gamepad required) - Vastly improved graphics: grass, terrain, lighting and atmospherics. - Improved (and configurable) flight assists for easier flying - Linux 32-bit and 64-bit support

[ 2016-05-11 11:15:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Volo is currently on sale at 33% off! Go get some training in before we drop parachutes, multiplayer and other cool features! Buy Volo Airsport on Steam

[ 2015-11-25 22:59:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's high time to bring the Oculus build up to date, as the previous on was no longer able to run on new Oculus Runtimes. If you've been itching to fly v3.5 in VR, now's your chance! [img=https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.oculus.com/website/2014/03/dk2_front_small2.jpg][/img] Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog As always, let us know what you think about this new release! Leave a comment here, or better yet: discuss on the forums!

[ 2015-11-19 13:42:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Right after we released v3.5 we moved on to the last big subsystem we still have to build: multiplayer netcode. We don’t have anything playable for you yet, but we’ve done a huge amount of work and I’m going to tell you all about it. [img=http://blog.volo-airsport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/whats_happening_06.jpg][/img] Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog As always, let us know what you think about this new release! Leave a comment here, or better yet: discuss on the forums!

[ 2015-09-08 15:08:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello pilots! It took bloody forever, but here we are! v3.5 is finally out, you get to play it, and we get to move on to multiplayer. [img=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/348111/images/11206506_1050439978316974_1504703537794800222_o.jpg][/img] Lots has changed, lots has stayed the same. For all the details, check out the new featurette video. Major changes:

• Engine upgrade to Unity 5
• Linux support
• Physically based shading
• New, more stylized terrain shading
• Real-time day/night and weather cycles
• Long range shadows
• Completely revamped sound effects
• Significant performance optimizations
• More stability, more polish
• New logo art

As always, let us know what you think about this new release! Leave a comment here, or better yet: discuss on the forums!

[ 2015-07-15 20:29:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! [img=http://forum.volo-airsport.com/uploads/default/199/a2c4589b9b6764b4.png][/img] First off, Volo is currently on sale at 20% off during the Steam summer sale. This is a great time to get flying if you've had the game on your wishlist for a while, or if you've got a buddy you know would love it. Go get it! Second, here's your quick reminder to check out the near-final version of v3.5 on the Test branch. We've got a couple of small things left to tidy up, but the windows mac and linux distributions are almost ready for prime time. New: - Completely revamped Graphics - Completely new Sound Design - Day/Night Cycle - Dynamic Weather - Significant performance improvements - Lots of other things Blues skies!

[ 2015-06-11 18:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

This past week we made good progress on the Unity 5 upgrade, dove into the details of building mod support, and err.. ran into some health & safety warnings. [img=http://blog.volo-airsport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/volo_u5_shaders-1024x574.jpg][/img] Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog

[ 2015-03-18 18:44:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last week we continued work on the architecture rewrite and started upgrading to the newly released Unity 5. Here’s what Unity 5 did to Pilot’s flying ability: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9GCVdaDS6c Not very nice, is it? Read on to find out what all that was about! Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog

[ 2015-03-10 23:43:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog Frank was ill for most of last week, so the work on the architecture changes has been on hold. Meanwhile I worked with Michael on audio, and did some prototyping for a new terrain engine. Read on for the juicy technical stuff. You know you want to. Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog

[ 2015-03-02 11:55:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good news for all the would-be wingsuit pilots! Volo Airsport is 25% off at the Humble Store right now as part of their Simulator Weekend. Get it while it's hot! Get Volo Airsport on the Humble Store Of course, you also get a Steam key when you buy there, so you get both the DRM-free downloads and all the convenience of Steam combined.

[ 2015-02-27 18:14:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog This week's What's Happening is a tiny bit late because I was ill over the weekend, but here it is! This week we continued work on the Great Big Architecture Overhaul mentioned last time, and worked with Michael to choose audio technology. Last week I explained in some detail what the architecture work entails, so this post will mostly be about audio. Other than that I spent an abnormal amount of time fighting with hardware faults, plugin problems and Windows annoyances. Yay, computers! Right, welcome to What’s Happening, episode 2! Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog [img=http://i1-mac.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/FMOD-Studio_1.jpg][/img]

[ 2015-02-23 20:19:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Read the full post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog We're in Early Access now, and part of doing early access well is clearly communicating the state of development. If we don't show you what we're working on (and why), it might very well seem like nothing is happening! To date we have been pretty bad at this; it doesn't come naturally to us. Well, not yet anyway. As developers it is ever so tempting for us to just work on the game and release a new build when it's ready, leaving you none the wiser. Let's fix that! We should at least be able to do a weekly post summarizing our activities, right? Even if it's just a single sentence reading "nope, still didn't get to do parachutes this week", that's more information than nothing at all. With that said, welcome to the first edition of What's Happening. Lots has been happening after the release of v3.3, most of which was entirely parallel to work on v3.4. [...] Read the rest of this post on the Volo Airsport Development Blog [img=http://blog.volo-airsport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/characters_web-1024x834.jpg][/img]

[ 2015-02-15 13:07:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we’re releasing Volo Airsport v3.4, featuring the new Course Editor! With it, you can create your own time trials, exactly like the ones we introduced in v3.3. Check out the feature video and the detailed blog post.

[ 2015-02-06 00:41:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya! If you've previously purchased Volo Airsport through the Humble Store or through the widget on our webpage, you can now claim a Steam key. Get your key through your personal Humble Library page after logging in, or by using the original Humble Key link you received when making your purchase. (If you're logged into your Humble account and click on your unique Humble Key link, you'll have the option of claiming that page with your account. It's recommended, because from that point on the game will show up in your Humble Library page for easy access.) Lost your Humble Key? Use the Humble Order Resender to get it back.

[ 2014-12-17 15:49:55 CET ] [ Original post ]