- Another progress update! - 13 March 2026
Another video to show progress - sorry it's a bit long! Feel free to skip along - forest ambience is at 1:30 ish and the ocean at 3:30 - the rest is me having a jolly around the island. It's also a VR capture so excuse me looking around. I'm now using the Crest ocean system. It looks amazing (especially at sunrise/sunset coupled with Enviro 3), but I have a few tweaks to make.Also I've added some ambient sounds, so you get some forest bird song within areas with trees, and the ocean has coastal wave sounds and an ocean roar when away from the coastline. There are also some small effects added, like occasional pollen/butterflies/birds particles.Anyway the to-do list is still pretty long! Thanks for looking. :)
- An overhaul on the way... - 18 February 2026
So it's been a long time coming, and after a prolonged silence. For that I apologise. I've dabbled with Unreal Engine, then come back to Unity with it's more evolved functionality with VR, and I've been working on an overhauled version of Aquila. There is still plenty to do, but with this video hopefully it gives you an idea of what I want to achieve with it. I'm not finished of course, and there is no Steam integration in this version yet, but it will be completed and uploaded as an update. I should add I expect the VR requirements will go up, but there is room for optimisation yet. I'd welcome any feedback of course. Feel free to get in touch, either here or on Discord. Thanks for watching. :)Graeme
- Welcome, to the real world... - 5 March 2022
Firstly I must apologise for the lack of much of anything on the Aquila front recently. Basically, as you may know, I was furloughed from my main job as a commercial pilot for nearly 2 years. They now want me, and a few hundred of my colleagues, back to work for what they expect will be a busy summer. The long and the short of it is I've been insanely busy studying a new aircraft, as well as trying to study and recall the more generic 'how' of the job. It's been a very rough ride. As usual the time they give you for the course is about 2/3's what you need. I had been working on a few ideas that were on Aquila's to-do list, but I can't continue that for now. It's that simple. Once April arrives, time will open up a little and work on the game can continue. It may be that this will be the opportunity to carry on my efforts with Unreal Engine. In a nutshell, my thinking is that version wil…
- A Fiery visitation! (update 1.042b) - 6 November 2021
The Great Haforn, overseer of all of the eagles, has been known to alight in Scotland. They'll accept an offering made in to their red fire, best made in the form of a tasty fish, and reward such subjects with a spectacular show of light and sound - along with an achievement! Rumour has it that Haforn can be found at *night* on the multiplayer server... So yes a bit of fun for November and December. Track down Haforn at night on the multiplayer server, offer them a fish by putting it in the fire, and enjoy the light show. There is now also an achievement for catching a fish too! Good luck! Graeme
- Update to version 1.041b! - 28 September 2021
Numerous things were wrong with the previous release, and hopefully some of this is addressed with this one also. Most notably the way things moved on the server deteriorated over time due to the version of Mirror I was using being buggy. The way I was controlling things was also inefficient, so the code to manage AI fish and birds has been overhauled. Changes are as follows: - Unity updated to 2019.4.30f1 to fix shader issues present on the previous release. - Fish code replaced to be more universal, to use for more animal types in the future. - Fish added to more locations in all three maps, and they can wonder freely within a distance from their 'home'. - Fish can be seen from a greater distance. - Mirror networking package updated to latest version. - Enviro weather system updated to latest version. Nothing ground-breaking I know, but hopefully it'll make the game more stable. Any q…
- Current state of the game - 3 May 2021
Unity is an amazing platform, and it has been really interesting to work with it after coming back to coding 6 years ago. However I've hit this wall where I really need a big terrain, want low level details, but don't want to destroy performance in VR. If I ignore VR, and was working on a normal desktop game, this would not be an issue. There are ways to stream terrain using products such as Gaia, overcome the limitations of Unity's scene size, and make awesome stuff. For mobile platforms in particular, you can make great stuff with it with relative ease. However it's apparent that the level of work required to convert and decorate three 14km x 14km terrains for streaming, and the re-code required to support streaming, versus the drop in performance just isn't worth fighting with. I shouldn't have to be reinventing the wheel to make up for something that I believe Unity should include,…
- Online Sunday at 9 pm UTC! - 9 April 2021
Important: Apologies. Nasty problem with dizzyness this evening. I can't resolve it and it's already half nine. I'll have to reschedule for tomorrow (Sunday). If there's one thing Aquila needs, it's definitely a clear head to play and enjoy! I'll be running another online session on Sunday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour... maybe 2... Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. It's just nice to give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) With the latest patch, if using VR you have the option of mapping your birds wings to your motion controllers. I'd love to see this working with more players. For non-VR play it's mostly been a case of improving rel…
- Update to version 1.03671! - 5 April 2021
I've updated the server to this new beta version as I wish to see if it's working, but quietly confident that even if it isn't, nothing else will be affected. However if you do encounter issues with this patch, please change your game properties to use the "previousversion" branch, and you'll roll back to the old version. However you won't be able to play on the server. Latest changes for 1.0371b: - Beta version for controller-mapped wings. This setting is available in the Settings page and works for the bald and golden eagles only at the moment. The harpy will simply be the default harpy eagle without wings mapped to controller positions. - If you try and join the official server, and it can't connect (if the server is off for example), a Discord server message will be sent from your pc that I'll see on my channel. I can then fire it up or fix it if something is wrong. - The server gen…
- Small update to version 1.03651! - 28 February 2021
A relatively small update this time, in relation to the Valentines achievement. If you've never played on the server, you wouldn't hit this bug. Latest changes for 1.03651: - The Valentines hearts were becoming confused about which map they were on, when you joined a network game after playing an offline game. This could lead to the 'stat' being saved to the wrong map after you find a heart. This has been fixed. If you never play as client on a multiplayer, or play on the official server, or only play offline, you'll never encounter this bug. Known issues: - I've been made aware of an issue in relation to SteamVR. If you start the game using VR and have no control, using a gamepad or motion controllers, click on the game window (not it's title bar in window mode) a couple of times or switch to full screen and click on the game window or any option with the mouse. That should sort it out…
- Online Saturday at 9 pm UTC! - 11 February 2021
I'll be running another online session on Saturday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour... maybe 2... Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. It's just nice to give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) With the latest version there is now weather synchronised between the players, and I can select any time and date. By default it's set to early Summer, so we could get anything except snow with that. I have a custom weather controller that gives weather patterns depending on the season and location... I did note that on the Canada map it started raining, and just rained and rained and rained, before turning to Heavy rain. Remarkably like the actual Gr…
- New update to version 1.0365! - 11 February 2021
A relatively small update this time, which still took a heap of time to do. Anyway progress is progress! Latest changes for 1.0365: - New settings page on the title screen, allowing you to set: * custom date/time options including day length. Day length can be between 12 and 1440 minutes (a real time day). It can also be frozen at a particular time, so you can make a sunset that never ends for example. Weather still cycles no matter the time option. * Volume can be set for music, the wind sound, and ambience. All under an all-encompassing master volume. * Death can be disabled, and is disabled by default. This is handy if you're learning to fly. :) * Control axes can be reversed, if you need to. Bare in mind the tutorial assumes default settings. * You can set MSAA level specifically, as well as overall graphics quality level. - Weather controller tweaks to deal with wind strength vs da…
- New update to version 1.036! - 1 February 2021
Here's some of the patch notes for a number of frequent little updates, and not so little updates, that have been going on. The big change is that trueSky is gone for the Sky system, and is replaced by Enviro. It now has a full custom weather system controller, to give you (hopefully) realistic weather patterns. Patterns are defined per season, so I'll be adding a means to select your time and date in the future. Colombia is more stormy, being a hot tropical location. If you have issues with this new version, you can switch to a 'previous version' branch on your Steam games properties. However the previous version is *not* compatible with the server due to the weather changes and it will likely go wrong. Latest changes for 1.036: - More realistic weather pattern with a custom weather controller for Enviro. Works over network games, although there are small differences in the look of the…
- Online Saturday in Scotland at 9pm UTC! - 22 January 2021
I'll be running another online session on Saturday evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays, certainly for an hour... maybe 2... *not* 3 like last time. My arms did *not* forgive me for a couple of days... Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) With the current version there is now weather synchronised between the players. The server is set to early Summer, so we could get anything except snow. It's random, at the moment, but the next work I'm doing is to bring some structure to how the weather behaves... Come and say Hi in our Discord channel here: https://dis…
- Online later in Scotland at 9pm UTC! - 16 January 2021
I'll be running another online session this evening at 9pm UTC/UK time. I will be generally targeting this time most Saturdays. Previous events have worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished (mostly ... I'm sure more will appear!), I'm ready to do it again. I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) Come and say Hi in our Discord channel here: https://discord.com/invite/cmeNm4r9bQ Feel free to take video, screenshots, share them here... I’d love to see all of it. Even the bugs. Although Steam can be unreliable with it's broadcasting, I will be broadcasting if it'll do it. Last time I managed to crash in to a lake the first time I tried to fish... very embarrassing! Please check out the Tutorial Videos ( HERE ) for a control guide, pa…
- Version 1.0 arrives! Ok well it's 1.03... - 27 December 2020
So around five years of trying to pull this project together around a full time job, finally it was Covid-19, then catching Covid-19, and then being furloughed that gave me the time this project deserved. I'll say now it's not finished, but I feel it has the base features that I'd hoped for, which was to get a little bit of the real feeling of flying into virtual reality, and this is most apparent with motion controllers. At the moment you get that most when higher above the satellite photography, but lots of landable trees are on the maps now, as are fish to catch. These are the ground work of adding more. Multiplayer seems to be working well, although the odd bug will still come along! I originally wasn't sure about adding it, but I'm glad I took the time to overhaul the code to support it. Please use the official server button on the Network page (remember to pick your name or you'll…
- We're doing it again! Come and join us for a group flight in Scotland! - 4 October 2020
Following on from the event on the 26th September, I'll be running another online session this coming Saturday. The first event really worked out well, I got loads of feedback and a little bug list to fix. Now those bugs are squished, I'm ready to do it again. I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) Therefore I will be online and in-game from 9 pm UK time (8 pm UTC), certainly for a couple of hours with the odd break or two. I’ll set up for a maximum of 32 players, and see how we go... the system running as dedicated server is an older Falcon Northwest i7 4770, 16 gb ram, SSD and a GTX 1070 ... on a 500Mbps internet connection. It should cope! Feel free to take video, screenshots, share them here... I’d love to see all of it. Even the bugs. More events will definitely follow, using what…
- Come and join us for a group flight in Scotland! - 24 September 2020
I need to get an idea of how Aquila will cope with more players, and just give everyone a chance to fly together and see how it works out. :) Therefore I will be online and ingame from 9pm uk time (8pm UTC), certainly for a couple of hours with the odd break or two. I’ll set up for a maximum of 32 players, and see how we go... the system running as dedicated server is an older Falcon Northwest i7 4770, 16gb ram, ssd and a GTX 1070 ... on a 500Mbps internet connection. It should cope! Feel free to take video, screenshots, share them here... I’d love to see all of it. Even the bugs. Down the line more such events will follow, using whatever features are added. Still early days yet, but simply flying in a group could be awesome? Team speak is next on my hit list, if it can be done... Please check out the Tutorial Videos for a control guide, particularly for motion controllers in VR. The in…
- Version 0.9963 available - with Multiplayer! - 24 September 2020
This update brings something I've wanted for a long time to Aquila... Multiplayer! BUT ... please please please... if you're new to Aquila and playing in VR, check out these tutorial videos. It is a *must* particularly if you're using motion controllers. You'll find them here: YouTube Tutorial Playlist Other notes: - If playing in Multiplayer, *please* change your birds name. :) Cuillin is the default. - "Join Official Server" button will join my server here. To start, I'll keep it online as much as I can. If it won't connect, that's because it's off. It will be off when I'm working on it... we're not at a version 1.0 yet! - You can host your own server, and others can join yours. Servers are capped at 16 players at the moment, until stability can be proven. I'm using Mirror for multiplayer, which is capable of more players in theory. Demo users can join the official server, or others,…
- Possible multiplayer testing... - 18 August 2020
I have been working on bringing multiplayer to Aquila, and put together a relatively short video showing it in action. It can be seen below. I'm 'flying' both birds, so controlling one while the other is on autopilot, and then editing the videos afterwards. If you are interested in giving it a try, when it is ready, please comment below. I anticipate setting up a server here at home, with appropriate port forwarding, perhaps with an associated chat server, at an appropriate time and we'll see how we go! I believe Aquila's traffic requirements to be low, as prey items are not implemented yet. Mirror, the networking extension I am using for Unity, is MMO capable ... so you'd think a high number of players would be possible in theory? I've set a limit of 16 on my development version. Anyway, if you are interested please reply back here. I have no ETA for such a test at this time, but not t…
- Version 0.9915 available! - 6 August 2020
This small update fixes a couple of annoying bugs that were revealed in non-vr gameplay with no gamepad connected. Hopefully this will resolve those issues discovered. Latest changes for 0.9915: - Bug fix for keyboard controls not working when no vr setup is detected. - Bug fix for start position being ignored and starting with a non-moving levitating bird, when no gamepad is detected and running in a non-vr mode. This was caused by a little confusion within the game between flags for "no vr detected" and "vr disabled by launch option". Thank you for your patience. :) Graeme
