A new beta is live on Steam and Google Play, and iOS. The primary focus of this release is providing proper support for downloading custom planetary systems. We have also started work on Planet Studio, though we still have a long way to go. This release should provide a little extra help to the people creating custom planets via XML modding. There are also a handful of bug fixes and tweaks included in this release.

https://www.simplerockets.com/PlanetarySystems/
https://www.simplerockets.com/CelestialBodies/

Features

• Major updates to the way the game manages planetary systems. This is primarily behind the scenes changes in support of Planet Studio, which is currently under development. The game and website now support the uploading and downloading of celestial bodies and planetary systems. Downloading sandboxes with custom planetary systems should now work properly. The 'New Game' dialog now has a planetary system selector.
• Planet Studio development has begun. It has received some changes in this update, but it is still very much just a tool to assist XML modders in developing custom planetary systems and celestial bodies for now. No in-game planet modification can be done yet. Uploading of planetary systems and celestial bodies is now supported in Planet Studio.

Tweaks

• Various improvements to error handling
• Loading screen feedback when planet cubemaps need to be generated
• Added a dev console command for generating equirectangular maps for the celestial bodies.
• Small improvement in flight scene loading performance
• Update our input library
• User interface XML and images can now be overridden by copying files into the "SimpleRockets 2\UserInterface\Overrides\" directory and subdirectories. The directory structure and filenames determine the UI resource path of the resource being added or overridden.
• For modders: Added a generic game loop that runs in the main menu. Supports IStart, IPostStart, IFixedUpdate, IUpdate, ILateUpdate, IEndOfFrameUpdate. These interfaces are also supported in the flight and designer game loops.
• Several file save dialogs now allow periods in the file names.
• Several drag calculation optimizations. Should help reduce lag during stage separations and breaking parts off of crafts.
• Added a mobile file logger (for errors and debug logs) and a game setting to control its behavior.
• Added a dev console command to refresh the UI resource database (RefreshUIResourceDatabase). This can be helpful to those trying to mod the user interface. This will also reload the current scene.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a small memory leak with planet atmospheres
• Fixed a small memory leak related to UI XML
• Fixed a bug with planet texturing producing strange colors in some situations.
• Fixed the rotation of the drone ship
• Fixed a few bugs with terrain culling, particularly for extreme terrain heights and when below sea level.
• Fixed the issue with the Steam overlay and input keys getting stuck.
• Unpinned inspector panels will disappear now when clicking away from the craft.
• Fixed a null-ref exception in the part inspector window for debris.
• Fixed a Vizzy bug that could cause custom expressions to return a cached result in some cases.
• Fixed autopilot output spikes due to derivative term.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if unloading a celestial body while it is still loading.
• Fixed a few minor memory leaks
• Fixed a rendering issue with large planets viewed from great distances not being visible.
• Fixed a bug that caused the water to show the above ground reflections while under the water.

The previous Android beta included support for Vulkan. We have currently rolled that back for now, as it was causing problems for some users.

Full release notes and more info on using Planet Studio here: https://www.simplerockets.com/Releases/View/58569